YouTuber JayzTwoCents simply launched a video showcasing what would have been EVGA’s RTX 4090 FTW3 graphics card, that includes an early prototype mannequin that was delivered to him by EVGA straight. The cardboard’s existence completely demonstrates how abrupt EVGA’s determination to go away the GPU market was, with its engineers engaged on future RTX 4090 fashions on the very second EVGA broke ties with Nvidia.
To rapidly recap, EVGA left the GPU marketplace for good two months in the past, which was introduced by JayzTwoCents and Avid gamers Nexus on YouTube. The corporate reportedly left as a result of an unsatisfactory partnership with Nvidia — and the transfer was abrupt, with solely a few EVGA’s higher-up leaders understanding in regards to the determination earlier than the information formally went public through the YouTubers.
Jay says he was truly proven a prototype RTX 4090 identical to the one he has now, throughout his and Steve’s (Avid gamers Nexus) speak with EVGA. This was proven to each of them to exhibit (once more) how really abrupt and severe EVGA’s determination was to go away the GPU market.
The cardboard itself is a really early prototype mannequin with the GeForce RTX 4090 badging changed with “Subsequent gen Graphics” as a result of licensing points that may happen if the cardboard was proven in public since EVGA not is in partnership with Nvidia.
The cardboard proven has the FTW3 badge on it, so we all know that this could have been one among EVGA’s flagship 4090 variants. The cardboard itself is surprisingly compact for an RTX 4090 associate card, with three huge followers on the entrance, and a chic (for a high-end GPU) matte black-on-silver aesthetic.
In comparison with the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti FTW3 fashions, this prototype FTW3 contains a noticeably greater type issue and considerably bigger followers. From a visible perspective, the silver accents on the highest and backside of the shroud are a big departure from the earlier technology’s pure black end. General, the cardboard is a little more subdued, quite than a pure aggressive gaming theme like we’re used to seeing on different playing cards.
In line with Jay, the cardboard’s structural rigidity was significantly spectacular to see, with the rear I/O backplate screwed straight into the GPU shroud to forestall GPU sagging. Jay demonstrated this by placing the GPU right into a case and the cardboard confirmed zero sag, regardless of the cardboard’s roughly 4 PCIe slot-wide thickness.
The very last thing to say in regards to the card’s design is the 16-pin energy connector, which is on the rear of the cardboard, forcing the ability cable to the rear as properly, as an alternative of the entrance. FThis design alternative will make the cardboard look rather a lot cleaner when put in, in comparison with different 4090 fashions. Nevertheless, customers would have wanted extra clearance on the entrance of their chassis, to accommodate the additional cable size.
Surprisingly the cardboard is useful, with Jay demoing their working Unigine Heaven in a system. However in line with Jay, the cardboard is seemingly working a “handmade” vBIOS since that is, once more, a really early prototype card. In consequence, the cardboard doesn’t characteristic a higher-than 100% energy restrict in GPU overclocking software program, so GPU core overclocking is proscribed on the cardboard.
Nonetheless, Jay overclocked the cardboard, and was shocked by the GDDR6X reminiscence high quality, which hit a 1900MHz optimistic offset. In line with Jay, this reminiscence frequency is without doubt one of the highest he is ever seen, solely matched by MSI’s RTX 4090 Suprim X AIB associate card. It is a disgrace the ability restrict is locked, or else he doubtless might have used this card to hit some extremely excessive benchmark scores.
Whereas it is unhappy to see EVGA depart the GPU marketplace for good, not less than this card provides us one final likelihood to see what EVGA was engaged on, proper up till the very finish.