MSI raises eyebrows with its GeForce RTX 3090 Aero 24G

[HEXUS]

The blower shroud with "mini wind tunnel" looks like a Fermi throwback.

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[spolsh]

Firstly, MSI's shroud is very retro in design, taking strong visual cues from Nvidia's GeForce RTX 480 reference card from 2010

They've been at this ray tracing malarkey quite a while then with the RTX480

[Tabbykatze]

Definitely looks focused on high compute density chassis like workstations where airflow will be good but not good enough for a passive card like the A100 and current 3090 designs will reduce the overall capacity.

For instance, technically the Gigabyte SRU 8 (WRX80) Mobo could theoreticall fit 4 of these whereas the founders and many of the 2.5 slot designs would only be able to fit 3 at a push.

[scaryjim]

Another oddity of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Aero 24G design is that the "reinforcing backplate" only appears to extend half the length of this graphics card (see below).

If this is a lower-cost non-premium card that's not very odd at all - the heatsink's only half the length of the card, so why reinforce the bit that's not going to be under any stress?

If the heatsink's dense enough and the fan can generate enough static pressure the cooling shouldn't be a problem. Presumably it'll be loud, but that's a fairly small compromise for a gaming PC, IMNSHO...

[LSG501]

Got to be honest, it doesn't exactly look great for cooling in the 2 slot config, at least on the top card, there just doesn't look enough of a gap.

I just don't understand why no one seems to be doing a design like this which pulls air in from the end opposite the IO shield (bit closest front of case and similar principle to how the server cards will work) where most cases have fans blowing into it... ie front to back airflow

[edmundhonda]

I just don't understand why no one seems to be doing a design like this which pulls air in from the end opposite the IO shield (bit closest front of case and similar principle to how the server cards will work) where most cases have fans blowing into it... ie front to back airflow

Radial fans small enough to work in that kind of setup would have noise, performance or packaging issues depending on how it's put together. Blower fans by design push air perpendicular to intake and aren't applicable.

It's not impossible, but it would be a compromise. The stubby nVidia FE boards would be a decent starting point if someone wanted to make one.

[Quartz]

This style of cooler will be well-suited to vertical cases like the Silverstone FT series. But I would prefer a three-slot design to further reduce the noise.

[Iota]

Presumably it'll be loud, but that's a fairly small compromise for a gaming PC, IMNSHO...

I recall blower fans on many an AMD card, the additional noise when using a Crossfire setup due to airflow constraints was pretty awful. Compared to the quiet I get from my 3090 FE when gaming, why would people want to compromise, especially at the price point for the 3090?

[philehidiot]

I currently have a Vega64 non-blow-jobby thing. It's awfully loud. Seriously off-puttingly loud and hard to concentrate on your game. Often-times enough to make you give up and go elsewhere to finish off.

I remember proper blow-jobbies which were way quieter and didn't get overly hot and sweaty. Also, the hot air was blasting out of the back and not causing problems with other components.

EDIT: This is not punny at all. *smirk*

[Xlucine]

The half length backplate is for cooling - it's an extra few mm of clearance for the fan intake when there's more than one card.

Going by the power connector location, this is intended for servers (normally they need to mess around with special top panels with a bump to fit the power cables on consumer GPUs)

[markzero]

I wonder if the air flow for a multiple card configuration would be better if the right side of the raised circle around the fan, that is, the part furthest from the back of the case, were removed entirely or at least lower? Doesn't look like it would be any less safe to modify that design.

[hb904460]

Arctic cooling with their silencer range made their reputation from this type of GPU cooling 20+ years ago.

[souper]

Got to be honest, it doesn't exactly look great for cooling in the 2 slot config, at least on the top card, there just doesn't look enough of a gap.

I just don't understand why no one seems to be doing a design like this which pulls air in from the end opposite the IO shield (bit closest front of case and similar principle to how the server cards will work) where most cases have fans blowing into it... ie front to back airflow

Know what you mean, one card will be rather toasty !!!

[ultrasbm]

Is this gonna be £1700 then? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Essexboy]

looks nice to me especially the power connections

[retsil]

I looks good, lets hope it don't blow, or may be we should hope it does!