If you thought the prices of Nvidia’s new RTX 40-series cards were ridiculous, wait to see all the third-party RTX 4090 designs. Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to describe the RTX 4090 Serious Gaming (yes, that’s the name) of Galax.
Let’s start with the packaging. Exhibition A:
Image: Galax
Why is there a hacker on the box of this RTX 4090? Is this a member of Anonymous? Will I lose all my secret data if I install this GPU? Is my boss trying to test my cybersecurity skills so I don’t get phishing? I really don’t know, but it gets better.
The RTX 4090 Serious Gaming includes triple 102mm fans that have increased by 5mm over the previous RTX 3090 models. That alone tells you this will be thick, and eight heat pipes and a large vapor chamber cooling base certainly support that. It’s a “3.5 slot” design, which means it’s actually going to take up 4 slots in your system. There’s even an extra 102mm clip-on “booster fan” if you want to make this card even bigger.
Image: Galax
Considering how big this particular card looks, Galax has the ultimate tool to keep the GPU from sagging when a graphics card is just too heavy to hold the PCIe bracket and slot. The RGB Dark Obelisk support stick (yes, a stick!) will save the day, thanks to its magical RGB powers and ability to hold this massive RTX 4090 in place. It’s not uncommon to find support brackets for advanced modern GPUs, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen one called a dark obelisk, as if discovered in a tomb in Egypt.
You might think I’m being too strict with Galax, but they’re not the only ones with absurd RTX 4090 cards. In fact, almost every third-party card is absolutely huge, which could explain why Nvidia barely mentioned its partners during the RTX 40 series livestream, preferring to show off its streamlined Founders Edition cards.
Asus decided to show off its latest RTX 4090 card in a kind of Star Wars-inspired shot of it attached to what appears to be the world’s smallest motherboard in comparison.
Image: Asus
“The RTX 4090 AORUS Master from Gigabyte fits FOUR Mini-ITX cards”, says VideoCardz. It’s big enough that it has an anti-sagging bracket that supports up to a massive 5kg (11lb). “As the heatsink expands to dissipate more heat generated by an even more powerful GPU, so does the effect of gravity,” explains Gigabyte. With the special ability to influence gravity, it’s no wonder this GPU has a bracket.
There are plenty more massive RTX 4090 cards ready for when these next-gen GPUs launch on October 12, priced from $1,599. “They’re all huge,” says Steve at Gamers Nexus, who has done a great roundup of all the ridiculousness going on with the RTX 4090 cards. Check it out below.