I wasn't prepared for this.....

[Carfax83]

I had heard many accounts of how massive the RTX 4090 was, but when mine came yesterday and I took it out of its box and held it in my hands, it truly was ludicrous. I took a picture of it next to my old Titan Xp and it absolutely dwarfed it in length weight and thickness. In fact, I would say it's easily around 5--6lbs or so.

Which takes me to my next point. I know that GPU support brackets are all the rage these days, but as heavy as this card is, I don't see how it could sag or warp. It has a sturdy backplate and the overall design seems very stiff. I have it attached to the rear end of my case with 3 big thumb screws.

Perhaps the cards that are vulnerable to sagging don't have backplates? That said, I still ordered one of the telescopic GPU support braces from Amazon just in case as it's cheap.

Also the 16 pin adapter that came with my Amp Extreme seems to be well made and designed. Doesn't look cheap or flimsy at all. I made sure it's well seated to be sure.

 

[In2Photos]

If you look at the mounting bracket for most 4090s you will see that it attaches to the cooler in several different plains. So the cooler is providing the rigidity, not the backplate. A lot of previous generations only had a single plain of attachment.

3090 Gigabyte card

4090 Asus card

 

[igor_kavinski]

How do the fans sound when playing games? How are the temps on the GPU / RAM chips and maybe VRMs (if you can measure that)?

 

[Carfax83]

If you look at the mounting bracket for most 4090s you will see that it attaches to the cooler in several different plains. So the cooler is providing the rigidity, not the backplate. A lot of previous generations only had a single plain of attachment.

Yes, the entire assembly seems to be well designed and constructed with the weight evenly distributed for my RTX 4090. I sincerely doubt that it would ever sag but I bought one of the telescopic GPU support arms just in case as I mentioned earlier.

 

[Carfax83]

How do the fans sound when playing games? How are the temps on the GPU / RAM chips and maybe VRMs (if you can measure that)?

I can't hear a thing over the sound of my case fans, which would probably be considered loud by most people. As for temps, it stays in the low to mid 60s. Haven't seen it hit more than 65 yet, but I've only been playing Doom Eternal with maxed out graphics at 1440p + RT. I still haven't set up my 4K monitor yet but I will probably do so today.

When I play the next time I will check MSI afterburner to see if those other temps can be reported.

 

[alcoholbob]

If you look at the TPU review, for some reason the Zotac HSF is the tallest (due to gigantic triple 110mm fans) meaning you have the least cushion in terms of 16 pin cable bend radius. At the same time, it seems to barely outperform the worst cooler (the founders edition) on a noise adjusted basis. But these cards seem to be in stock the most often, so I might just spring for one.

My plan is to remove the shroud and strap 3 x Noctua A12x25s to it. I'm not sure but it looks like based on TPU reviews, minimum fan speed is up on the RTX 40 series from 800 rpm on the RTX 30 cards to around 1000 RPM on the RTX 40 cards, along with larger fans, both of which contribute to higher noise floor. Since I play a lot of e-sports games that don't have much load, I'd rather be able to achieve a lower noise floor while gaming most of the time. So the best way this gen seems to be to deshroud and strap on some Noctuas to get the noise level down. All of my case fans are already A12x25s running at around 300-400rpm so a stock 40 series card would easily be the loudest thing in my case. In the "old days" (aka RTX 20 series and earlier) you could get fan hysteresis to start at pretty low rpms for some cards (400-500 rpm). But nowadays the fan curves are all pretty similar and you have to mod the cards with aftermarket fans to get back to that kind of fine noise control.

On r/ SFF there's been some deshrouding of various 4090s and some have even managed to fit them into SFF cases with just the heatsink, sitting directly on top of some Noctua intake fans, so there's the benefit of a smaller card and lower noise.

 

[Carfax83]

If you look at the TPU review, for some reason the Zotac HSF is the tallest (due to gigantic triple 110mm fans) meaning you have the least cushion in terms of 16 pin cable bend radius. At the same time, it seems to barely outperform the worst cooler (the founders edition) on a noise adjusted basis. But these cards seem to be in stock the most often, so I might just spring for one.

The Zotac Amp Extreme Airo (and probably the other versions) turn the fans off when not gaming, and when they are on, I can't hear them over my system fans of which I have six so to me they are dead quiet.

My plan is to remove the shroud and strap 3 x Noctua A12x25s to it. I'm not sure but it looks like based on TPU reviews, minimum fan speed is up on the RTX 40 series from 800 rpm on the RTX 30 cards to around 1000 RPM on the RTX 40 cards, along with larger fans, both of which contribute to higher noise floor. Since I play a lot of e-sports games that don't have much load, I'd rather be able to achieve a lower noise floor while gaming most of the time. So the best way this gen seems to be to deshroud and strap on some Noctuas to get the noise level down. All of my case fans are already A12x25s running at around 300-400rpm so a stock 40 series card would easily be the loudest thing in my case. In the "old days" (aka RTX 20 series and earlier) you could get fan hysteresis to start at pretty low rpms for some cards (400-500 rpm). But nowadays the fan curves are all pretty similar and you have to mod the cards with aftermarket fans to get back to that kind of fine noise control.

You have to be very careful with that sort of thing as it will void your warranty. They may have some way of checking to see if the shroud was removed.

 

[alcoholbob]

The Zotac Amp Extreme Airo (and probably the other versions) turn the fans off when not gaming, and when they are on, I can't hear them over my system fans of which I have six so to me they are dead quiet.



You have to be very careful with that sort of thing as it will void your warranty. They may have some way of checking to see if the shroud was removed.

Yeah I might not deshroud after all, I did a test with a friend's TUF 4090, we put 3 Noctua A12x25s on a PCIE fan bracket I got off etsy running as intake fans directly below the GPU, running at around 400 rpm. With a 50% power target (around 225W) the GPU fans doesn't even turn on and the GPU stays under 60C during gaming. So we were able to passively cool the 4090 entirely with basically intake fans which I thought was hilarious. These 4 slot heatsinks are insane in terms of how much heat it can soak up.

 

[angelpunk18]

Yeah I might not deshroud after all, I did a test with a friend's TUF 4090, we put 3 Noctua A12x25s on a PCIE fan bracket I got off etsy running as intake fans directly below the GPU, running at around 400 rpm. With a 50% power target (around 225W) the GPU fans doesn't even turn on and the GPU stays under 60C during gaming. So we were able to passively cool the 4090 entirely with basically intake fans which I thought was hilarious. These 4 slot heatsinks are insane in terms of how much heat it can soak up.

This might be a long shot since this post is quite old, but could you give me a link to those brackets you bought off of Etsy for the TUF4090? I've been searching everywhere and I can't find that specific model

 

[Pohemi]

...as heavy as this card is, I don't see how it could sag or warp. It has a sturdy backplate and the overall design seems very stiff....

...Perhaps the cards that are vulnerable to sagging don't have backplates?

It isn't (primarily) the GPU that is vulnerable to sag/warping. It's the motherboard it's plugged into. If your motherboard mounts vertically (does not lay flat), cards like this definitely can bend the mobo. PCI-e slots are not designed or meant to support 5lbs of GPU.

If you have a cube type case or something that the mobo lies flat in, then it's no concern.

 

[iamgenius]

It isn't (primarily) the GPU that is vulnerable to sag/warping. It's the motherboard it's plugged into. If your motherboard mounts vertically (does not lay flat), cards like this definitely can bend the mobo. PCI-e slots are not designed or meant to support 5lbs of GPU.

If you have a cube type case or something that the mobo lies flat in, then it's no concern.

Interesting. So, with a 4090 you are better off with a case that lets you mount the motherboard vertically. They should put a note somewhere regarding sagging when it comes to new large GPU's.

 

[Pohemi]

Interesting. So, with a 4090 you are better off with a case that lets you mount the motherboard vertically. They should put a note somewhere regarding sagging when it comes to new large GPU's.

Just to be clear, mounting vertically means standing up, parallel to the side of the case instead of the bottom of the case. Horizontal mounting is where it lies flat, facing the bottom (optimal with a heavy GPU).

With the vertical mounting, the GPU braces definitely help. I started using one even with smaller GPUs because it takes tension off that motherboard/slot, and can't hurt.

 

[iamgenius]

Just to be clear, mounting vertically means standing up, parallel to the side of the case instead of the bottom of the case. Horizontal mounting is where it lies flat, facing the bottom (optimal with a heavy GPU).

With the vertical mounting, the GPU braces definitely help. I started using one even with smaller GPUs because it takes tension off that motherboard/slot, and can't hurt.

Yeah sorry. I actually meant horizontally.