News Nvidia RTX 3080, 3090 Share Reference Board Design, EKWB Confirms

[Admin]

EKWB's RTX 3080/3090 waterblocks show that reference boards are not equal to Founders Edition boards.

Nvidia RTX 3080, 3090 Share Reference Board Design, EKWB Confirms : Read more

 

[wr3zzz]

I don't understand. Why would Nvidia want to use a different board for FE? Are both 3080 and 3090 FE boards differ from reference board or just the monstrous 3090?

 

[AnimeMania]

Any mention of how long or how many slots wide the the cards with water blocks will be. Current air cooled RTX 30XX cards appear to be ginormous, incapable of fitting into anyone's case.

 

[nofanneeded]

This makes no sense , because it means that people who want to watercool their FE cards will be out of luck ?

I will give you an advice : dont make your own Judgement before looking at the products and see if they fit on the FE cards or not.

and dont make fast conclusions that the FE PCB is different Just by looking at watercooling block.

 

[RojoNinja]

Seems like Aqua Computer plans to have blocks for the FE cards.

 

[cryoburner]

I don't understand. Why would Nvidia want to use a different board for FE? Are both 3080 and 3090 FE boards differ from reference board or just the monstrous 3090?

Most likely so they can use their unique cooler. The FE board features a triangular cutout at the end to allow the fan on the top side of the board to draw air through the fins on the underside. If they went with a traditional rectangular board, the fan would need to completely hang off the end, making the card longer, and more likely to run into case compatibility issues. On cards with more traditional cooler designs, that triangular cutout would just be wasted space though.

 

[wr3zzz]

Most likely so they can use their unique cooler. The FE board features a triangular cutout at the end to allow the fan on the top side of the board to draw air through the fins on the underside. If they went with a traditional rectangular board, the fan would need to completely hang off the end, making the card longer, and more likely to run into case compatibility issues. On cards with more traditional cooler designs, that triangular cutout would just be wasted space though.

That explains the what but not why. Nvidia is not in the business to compete with its AIB partners and the point of FE is basically reference boards as a sellable product. Separate FE from reference board could give the impression that FE "might" be better because Nvidia knows something that its AIB partners don't.

 

[cryoburner]

That explains the what but not why. Nvidia is not in the business to compete with its AIB partners and the point of FE is basically reference boards as a sellable product. Separate FE from reference board could give the impression that FE "might" be better because Nvidia knows something that its AIB partners don't.

That's not really the case if you look at the 20-series cards though. The FE models were factory overclocked above reference specs, and featured dual-fan coolers more like those found on partner cards, not the traditional blower-style coolers of previous generations. Nvidia undoubtedly wants their FE models to be viewed positively, and with AMD also moving away from blower coolers on their reference models, they likely wanted something that would make their FE cards stand out a bit more.

 

[spongiemaster]

Any mention of how long or how many slots wide the the cards with water blocks will be. Current air cooled RTX 30XX cards appear to be ginormous, incapable of fitting into anyone's case.

Spec page:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-vector-rtx-3080-3090-d-rgb-nickel-plexi

230x124x16.5mm

It's a single slot cooler. But their blocks never come with replacement end brackets. So if it's a triple slot card, it's still going to take up 3 slots at the back of your case.

 

[nofanneeded]

But their blocks never come with replacement end brackets. So if it's a triple slot card, it's still going to take up 3 slots at the back of your case.

Not a big deal , we always cut the brackets of three slots into two slots cards when we changed to water cooling ... one of the easiest mods. Three to one slot is also possible to cut in case all the ports are on the first slot.

 

[spongiemaster]

Not a big deal , we always cut the brackets of three slots into two slots cards when we changed to water cooling ... one of the easiest mods. Three to one slot is also possible to cut in case all the ports are on the first slot.

That's not a reversible mod, and not one I would do as a result. I have an EK block on a 2080 now. When I replace it with a 3000 series card, I may reuse the 2080 in a system that isn't water cooled which would require me to put the stock cooler back on.

 

[AnimeMania]

I don't understand. Why would Nvidia want to use a different board for FE? Are both 3080 and 3090 FE boards differ from reference board or just the monstrous 3090?

Could it have something to do with using that "new" PSU connector cable, the 12-pin PCIe Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 connector? I don't think the reference boards use it.

 

[nofanneeded]

That's not a reversible mod, and not one I would do as a result. I have an EK block on a 2080 now. When I replace it with a 3000 series card, I may reuse the 2080 in a system that isn't water cooled which would require me to put the stock cooler back on.

Thats your issue and your choices .. does not mean people dont cut it .. it has been done since day one of water cooling.

And you dont need to cut yours anyways? it is an RTX 2080 two slots only and working fine ..

people who cut their three slots bracket have a reason for that , mostly ITX cases OR SLI where Dual triple slots GPU is impossible in their case.

and most people sell their old card with the waterblock on it and dont waste an expensive water block and put back Air cooling on it .. no one wastes $150 ...

 

[spongiemaster]

Thats your issue and your choices .. does not mean people dont cut it .. it has been done since day one of water cooling.

People have been driving drunk since day one of the automobile. Doesn't make it a good idea.

I do enjoy how you speak in such absolutes like you have talked to everyone and know what they all do and you believe everyone thinks like you do.

 

[nofanneeded]

People have been driving drunk since day one of the automobile. Doesn't make it a good idea.

I do enjoy how you speak in such absolutes like you have talked to everyone and know what they all do and you believe everyone thinks like you do.

And I enjoy ignoring flaming posts like yours and move on ... I am glad forums have ignore option see ya

 

[NinjAsylum]

This makes no sense , because it means that people who want to watercool their FE cards will be out of luck ?

I will give you an advice : dont make your own Judgement before looking at the products and see if they fit on the FE cards or not.

and dont make fast conclusions that the FE PCB is different Just by looking at watercooling block.

Anyone that buys a FE card is doing it 100% solely for the unique cooler design. No one that buys a FE card is buying one to remove that unique cooler to replace it with a waterblock. If you do, you're an idiot. Just buy a standard EVGA, MSI, Acer or Gigabyte card if you want to watercool.

 

[nofanneeded]

Anyone that buys a FE card is doing it 100% solely for the unique cooler design. No one that buys a FE card is buying one to remove that unique cooler to replace it with a waterblock. If you do, you're an idiot. Just buy a standard EVGA, MSI, Acer or Gigabyte card if you want to watercool.

What unique cooler ? Water cooling is allways better than any unique cooler , and actually many people I know bought FE Cards and later moved to water cooling it. and they are not idiots , the got it first and did not wait.