NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 Graphics Cards To Debut At CES 2025: 14-Layer PCB, Single 12V-2x6 Power, PCIe 5.0 & DP 2.1a Support

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 graphics cards are set for a CES 2025 introduction with brand-new features for gamers.

Yesterday, we got our taste of the first specifications of the upcoming high-end options with the RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPU lineup, the GeForce RTX 5090, and the GeForce RTX 5080. These two cards will be the top of the line for gamers around the world when they debut and it looks like Benchlife has some more information giving us an idea of what to expect from the next-generation offerings.

Starting with the launch, it looks like Benchlife states that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 are going to debut at CES 2025. This is a follow-up to our previous report and also aligns with what Kopite7kimi had stated earlier. But we also know that NVIDIA plans to launch a China-specific GPU variation of the RTX 5090 known as the RTX 5090D.

If there are no surprises, GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 will be officially released at CES 2025; at the same time, we may also see the GeForce RTX 50 series for notebook computers.

via Benchlife

The Verge's senior editor, Tom Warren, has also received word from their sources that the cards are most likely going to launch at CES 2025:

I understand from one source familiar with Nvidia’s plans that we might hear more about the RTX 50-series at the Consumer Electronics Show in early 2025.

via The Verge

Since the Chinese New Year takes place on the 29th of January, that would be the most ideal timeframe to introduce/launch the graphics card. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 "Laptop" GPUs are also said to make a showcase at CES 2025 with the OEM market anxiously anticipating the availability of new GPUs to power their latest AMD & Intel-powered PCs for gamers and enthusiasts.

Considering that NVIDIA has reportedly finalized the design, it will take a few months before the products are ready to be shipped for retail and it makes sense to introduce the card at January's CES 2025. The current generation RTX 40 series was announced in September and launched in October with the RTX 4090 hitting retail shelves first followed by the RTX 4080 in November. The green team is also reportedly preparing the discontinuation process of its RTX 4090 & RTX 4090D GPUs next month to make room for the newer flagships.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs are also going to feature a brand new design which will encompass the PCB, Cooling solution, and power delivery. The GeForce RTX 5090 in particular is expected to utilize three individual PCBs, each housing different components of the chip. We've previously detailed what the PCB might look like and from what we know, the primary PCB that houses the GPU will consist of 16 GDDR7 memory modules, each with 3 GB of VRAM capacity & running at speeds ranging between 28-32 Gbps. This will provide the highest VRAM solution ever on a consumer-tier graphics card, totaling 32 GB across a 512-bit interface and reaching up to 2.0 TB/s of bandwidth.

Other changes will include the new Founders Edition design which is said to utilize a compact dual-slot cooling solution for the RTX 5090. It is not clear if the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 would share the same Founders Edition cooling as that was the case with the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. But overall looks and presentation will be different from the RTX 30 and RTX 40 series.

GeForce RTX 5090 PCB / Cooler Configuration #1:

GeForce RTX 5090 PCB / Cooler Configuration #2:

GeForce RTX 5090 PCB / Cooler Configuration #3:

Also, there have been recent rumors that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 might end up with dual 12V-2x6 power connectors but that's not going to be the case. Talking to a few AIB partners ourselves, we were told that there might be certain enthusiast designs made for LN2 overclocking that come with dual 16-pin connectors but the Founders Edition and majority of AIB models will feature a single connector. There are already dual 16-pin RTX 4090 cards on the market and those are again geared towards enthusiast overclockers so it won't be much of a surprise as being made out.

On the other hand, whether it is the 400W GeForce RTX 5080 or the 600W GeForce RTX 5090, they can only use a single 12V-2×6 connector. There are no two sets of 12v on the GeForce RTX 5090 as reported by some media. -2×6 connector.

via Benchlife

With that said, the 600W/400W TBP figures don't represent actual power consumption which will be lower than we have seen in previous generations. The RTX 4090 was rated at a much higher TBP of 450W than the RTX 3090 but it ended up consuming less power in games than the RTX 3090 Ti & the RTX 3090.

Besides the launch and design of the next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series, NVIDIA is also planning to introduce new features within its Blackwell Gaming GPU lineup. Some of the features highlighted are support for PCIe 5.0 specifications. The current iteration of AMD, Intel, & NVIDIA GPUs are all PCIe 4.0 compliant with RTX 40 only featuring PCIe 5.0/5.1 CEM support through their power port interfaces. The only GPU that has PCIe 5.0 support through the slot is the Moore Threads MTT line which is confined to Chinese marketplaces and has very poor gaming performance.

Our news mentioned that the GeForce RTX 5090 will use a 14-layer PCB and will also introduce the PCIe 5.0 specification and HBR20’s DisplayPort 2.1a.

via Benchlife

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards will end up being the first to support the new standard, offering double the bandwidth and transfer speeds versus PCIe 4.0 and taking advantage of the latest motherboards from Intel and AMD which are housing PCIe 5.0 slots for a while now. We don't expect the next-gen lineup to fully saturate the PCIe 5.0 bandwidth or even PCIe 4.0 x16 but there can be certain workloads and applications, such as AI, that may take advantage of the extra BW.

Lastly, the next-gen lineup is also expected to feature support for DisplayPort 2.1a (UHBR20). This will allow the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards to be certified for compatibility with the latest DP80 displays, providing up to 80 Gbps of bandwidth or double that of HDMI 2.1 interfaces. With UHBR20, the GPUs will be able to support up to 16K displays at 60Hz with HDR and 10-bit color while offering insane refresh rates at lower resolutions.

The launch of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards including the GeForce RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 will mark a new beginning for the PC gaming segment. While the competition has moved to compete in the mainstream and entry-level segments, NVIDIA will be seen as the one that caters to all segments from enthusiasts to budget users. Expect more information to roll out in the coming weeks.

News Source: The Verge