It has been two years since Nvidia final dropped a flagship GeForce graphics card, and its “xx90”-class fashions seize all the eyeballs once they debut. At present, the extremely anticipated GeForce RTX 5090 made a grand entrance at PC Labs. Naturally, we could not resist tearing into the packaging the second it landed. (Notice: The RTX 5090 and its 5080 sibling, the primary two RTX 50-series playing cards to roll out, received’t hit retailer cabinets till January 30.)
Able to geek out? Let’s dive into the RTX 5090’s glossy design, and take a look at Nvidia’s contemporary tackle packaging—sure, the field. For as soon as, the “field” in an unboxing could also be nearly as attention-grabbing because the contents.
Staff Inexperienced’s Newly Inexperienced Packaging
The RTX 5090 is packaged with eco-conscious supplies, incorporating them into the packaging design in a pretty method. Thoughts you, the outer field is nondescript brown cardboard…
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Foxconn manufacturing labels and different inner identifiers pepper the field.
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To get inside, it’s essential seize certainly one of two pull tabs and peel a safety strip off three sides of the field…
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The lengthy edge reveals a tagline, “Impressed by Players. Enhanced by AI. Constructed by Nvidia” beneath the tear strip.
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That slogan can be a touch for the place to carry. The field hinges open from the entrance, like so…
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On opening it up, you possibly can see an inside service for the cardboard itself, plus some extra pointers. (Notice the arrows.)
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To get the precise card service out, you flip open the 2 field “wings” on both aspect to provide the area to seize the slim ends.
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(Credit score: John Burek)
As soon as you’re employed free the cardboard service, you may see an adjunct field can be included, in a distinct segment beneath the service.
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We’ll take that out and put it apart for now…
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Let’s take a look at the cardboard service. The field itself is generally made from layered corrugated cardboard with hardboard at high and backside…
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The lid’s high hardboard layer has GEFORCE RTX 5090 minimize into it. Nvidia is eager to level out that no ink is concerned on this portion of the boxing.
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In concept, you possibly can use the field as a show piece as soon as you put in your GPU.
Sufficient of the Field…How About That 5090 Card?
To get contained in the service, it’s a must to slide off two hardboard “brackets” to free the 2 halves. It is a intelligent design, and notably, no plastic is concerned.
(Credit score: John Burek)
(Credit score: John Burek)
Lifting off the lid, there’s the cardboard of the hour.
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(Credit score: John Burek)
(Credit score: John Burek)
The cardboard’s heft is profound, with a cool, all-metal-body design that is machined to the same old elite high quality requirements of the Founders Version playing cards. The chassis of the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Version measures precisely 12 inches (304mm) lengthy, 5.3 inches (137mm) excessive, and has a two-slot (40mm) width. Notice: That is the Nvidia Founders Version of the 5090, and these are typically trimmer than most. Different RTX 5090 fashions will differ in measurement, and lots of, as we noticed at CES 2025, will probably be a lot bigger.
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The Founders Version design makes it appropriate with many small-form-factor (SFF) PC instances, interesting to customers with compact builds. That is in step with Nvidia’s SFF-Prepared initiative introduced final 12 months at Computex.
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The cardboard’s cooling resolution options what Nvidia calls a “Double Circulation By” design, with two followers pushing air by means of the GPU. It is much like what we have seen on earlier Founders Version playing cards. However the precise PCB association and format beneath the metallic shell has been revamped, in accordance with Nvidia.
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(Credit score: John Burek)
The multi-part PCB format separates key parts onto totally different bodily boards inside the card. A central PCB homes the GPU, reminiscence, and energy subsystem, whereas the PCI Categorical connector (a PCIe 5.0 connection, Nvidia notes) and the I/O-port block are on separate boards linked by a versatile high-speed signaling board and inside cables. This modular strategy goals to boost airflow and thermal effectivity, in addition to (theoretically) make guarantee repairs simpler.
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Nvidia describes the interior cooling as a “unified 3D vapor chamber,” with the chamber design permitting heated vapor to journey straight into the cardboard’s inside warmth pipes for dissipation. Warmth is then directed upward and outward by way of outlet slits on the cardboard edges to cut back the recirculation of heated air. The mix of straight and curved fins within the heatsink is designed to ease the passage of this air.
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(Credit score: John Burek)
(Credit score: John Burek)
As for the I/O panel, you possibly can see the same old array of three DisplayPort and one HDMI. On this case, they’re DisplayPort 2.1b (supporting UHBR20) and HDMI 2.1b. These ports assist the most recent high-resolution, high-refresh-rate shows.
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Now, this is an attention-grabbing element: The cardboard’s energy connector is nestled in a distinct segment at a tough 45-degree angle on the highest edge.
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We like this; it would not stick straight up and is not precarious- and fragile-feeling like in earlier implementations on Founders Version playing cards. (Hopefully, the cable will get some bracing from the cardboard physique on this association.) It additionally means no extra 12VHPWR cables mashed up in opposition to the case aspect panel or glass, which is each unappealing to take a look at and distressing from the perspective of bending the cable.
A New Strategy to Energy
Talking of which, what’s within the accent field?
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A small getting-started pamphlet, and a converter cable. The adapter goes from the 12VHPWR connector on the cardboard to 4 8-pin PCI Categorical energy connectors out of your PSU…
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These 4 connectors mirror the excessive energy calls for of this GPU. (Nvidia suggests a 1,000-watt energy provide; you may want one thing high-end, certainly, to even acquire you 4 8-pin leads within the first place.) We now have to say: No less than at first impression, this adapter is an unlimited enchancment over the inventory ones equipped with the RTX 40-series and earlier Founders Version playing cards. The cables are lighter, and so they really feel very tender and versatile, which should make routing and easing them round curves a lot much less fraught.
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The design additionally means placing rather a lot much less stress on the 12VHPWR connector on the card finish. (We all know how badly bending these cables turned out in some earlier implementations.)
A Fast Spec Recap, With Nearer Appears to be like Coming
As reported earlier, the RTX 5090 is constructed on Nvidia’s “Blackwell” structure, which proposes a number of developments in efficiency, AI processing skills, and effectivity. It options 92 billion transistors and 21,760 CUDA cores, complemented by fifth-generation Tensor cores and fourth-generation Ray Tracing (RT) cores. These specs point out a major step ahead in computational functionality.
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The GPU consists of 32GB of GDDR7 reminiscence, rated by Nvidia for 1.8TB per second of bandwidth—an unlimited enhance over its RTX 4090 predecessor. Certainly, between the boosted specs and the veritable bushel of AI-related capabilities fleshed out by the corporate a few weeks in the past throughout CES 2025, the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Version appears to be a bundle of innovation.
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Assist for DLSS 4 and all the remaining recommend a game-changing card. However its real-world efficiency and worth will solely reveal themselves on the take a look at bench. (We are able to solely hope the engineering matches as much as the considerate packaging and design.) Keep tuned for efficiency benchmarks and comparisons that may make clear how the $1,999 RTX 5090 fares in the true world.
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About John Burek
Govt Editor and PC Labs Director
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