A mammoth-sized graphics card: The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 unboxed
Quite possibly the best-looking graphics card of this generation.
The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC has arrived in our lab, and just like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition, we aren't allowed to talk about the card's performance. But just based on looks alone, this ROG card is already a head-turner.
You must have heard of its crazy powerful potential, which you can learn more about the Ada GPU here. For more photo angles of this new card, slide/scroll to the next image!
For the first time, ASUS has gone full metal with an ROG graphics card. The Strix GeForce RTX 4090's 3.5-slot 357mm long design consists of a die-cast metal frame, shroud, and backplate. According to ASUS, this ultra-rigid structure uses frames with extremely tight tolerances to prevent the PCB from sagging or warping.
ASUS also upgraded the Axial-tech fans, with a thicker design featuring seven blades and full barrier rings that the company claims "provide 23.8% more airflow and 19.3% more pressure" than the previous generation fans used on the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090.
The Strix GeForce RTX 4090 features a new heatsink that was designed from the ground up, with a new vapor chamber design with milled channels underneath the heatpipes. Instead of the pipes lying flat against the surface, they sink into the vapor chamber, allowing more heat to efficiently transfer to the four 8mm and three 6mm heatpipes and travel to the heatsink fins.
There's still the Dual BIOS switch that allows you to choose between maximum performance mode and a quieter mode.
The Strix GeForce RTX 4090 brackets may only use two slots, but due to the card's mammoth thickness will effectively occupy four PCI slots on your motherboard and PC casing. The card comes with three DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1 ports.
ASUS has included a 12+4 phase system comprising 70A power stages on the card. With two power stages per phase fueling the GPU, that’s a total count of 24+4. There's a digital controller on board that offers higher precision when detecting power, as well as better power conversion and balancing for less noise and signal interference.
An ARGB tail-light works with Aura Sync to offer customised lighting across your build, while two FanConnect II headers allow you to control your case fans with your GPU temperature through our ASUS' new GPU Tweak III software. Very impressive stuff.
And here comes proof of this article's headline: The Strix GeForce RTX 4090 is HUGE and LONG (I still can't believe I could type this here), even when compared to the GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition.
Here's another take of both RTX 4090 cards. I used to think the RTX Founders Edition are some of the best-looking cards around - and I still do - but I rank this Strix GeForce RTX 4090 right up there as well.
ASUS has also included a very cool-looking, height-adjustable, card holder. It's not so much about preventing the card from warping or bending, but to ease some of the card's weight off the motherboard.
The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 card will be available from 12 October. Pricing will be announced later.
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