Challenging NVIDIA's 4090 FE: Liquid Cooled RTX 4090 Neptune Tear-Down & Review
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Date: 2022-11-30
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Comments and reviews: 14
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The way I look at it is the Founder's Editions are a result of Anti-Consumer AIB practices.
You had higher end lower tier models costing more than entry level higher tier models, which is obviously absurd, particularly since coolers aren't exactly engineering marvels that cost a fortune to make. You also had higher than MSRP entry level cards with crappy coolers.
We're talking about an EK block that only costs 250, which has a massive hunk of copper in it & they're probably making 125 on each of those at least.
I'll probably never buy an AIB card again and be better for it. I'm OK with that. They've offered nothing to consumers for some time now. But they sponsor tech reviewers and influence their opinions, so that's another anti-consumer move!
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The way I look at it is the Founder's Editions are a result of Anti-Consumer AIB practices.
You had higher end lower tier models costing more than entry level higher tier models, which is obviously absurd, particularly since coolers aren't exactly engineering marvels that cost a fortune to make. You also had higher than MSRP entry level cards with crappy coolers.
We're talking about an EK block that only costs 250, which has a massive hunk of copper in it & they're probably making 125 on each of those at least.
I'll probably never buy an AIB card again and be better for it. I'm OK with that. They've offered nothing to consumers for some time now. But they sponsor tech reviewers and influence their opinions, so that's another anti-consumer move!
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Endofeons
This question of 'quiet' is a bit funny. I mean, my aircooled card has 3 fans(110mm) on it. Now this watercooled AIO has 3 fans on it. 3 fans....and a pump. lol.
Are the 3 fans 110mm? Cuz if not, they are probably louder than my aircooled card.....right? :P
I suppose it might take longer to get hot with water, but meh. The air coolers on the 40 series are so over-engineered, aio's are basically worthless, maybe even worse than that if you consider what you're going to do if the pump fails. Meanwhile, it's not a big deal to slap new fans on an aircooler if they fail. I prefer the long game, especially considering the cost of these monsters.
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This question of 'quiet' is a bit funny. I mean, my aircooled card has 3 fans(110mm) on it. Now this watercooled AIO has 3 fans on it. 3 fans....and a pump. lol.
Are the 3 fans 110mm? Cuz if not, they are probably louder than my aircooled card.....right? :P
I suppose it might take longer to get hot with water, but meh. The air coolers on the 40 series are so over-engineered, aio's are basically worthless, maybe even worse than that if you consider what you're going to do if the pump fails. Meanwhile, it's not a big deal to slap new fans on an aircooler if they fail. I prefer the long game, especially considering the cost of these monsters.
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mindwreckRC
video cards are getting power intensive. Ive been watercooling since 2002.. but only cpu and it was fine with a 360 with silent levels or even full passive with just a 3900x. then i upgraded to a 5900x and i added a 6900xt and the gpu cooler noise it made was insane with the 90C temps to go with it. I couldn't take it. finally added gpu into loop and it dumped so much heat i had to upgrade to 2 420 rads to keep temps below 50c at silent noise levels.
i like the turbo button. hearkens back to the old 286 386 days.
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video cards are getting power intensive. Ive been watercooling since 2002.. but only cpu and it was fine with a 360 with silent levels or even full passive with just a 3900x. then i upgraded to a 5900x and i added a 6900xt and the gpu cooler noise it made was insane with the 90C temps to go with it. I couldn't take it. finally added gpu into loop and it dumped so much heat i had to upgrade to 2 420 rads to keep temps below 50c at silent noise levels.
i like the turbo button. hearkens back to the old 286 386 days.
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bliglum
Currently running a liquid cooled 3080Ti (EVGA Hybrid), and after several gens of air-cooled, I must say... THIS is what liquid-cooling was meant for!!!
It's so nice to be able to ramp up 100% GPU utilization, with a VRR display / VR loads.. And not hear a choir of loud ass fans ramping up in the background! Stays below 60c, with quiet fans, all the time.. Love liquid cooled GPU's...
CPU, on the other hand, air-cooled still seems fine... A big, heat pipe setup is still plenty cool and silent.
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Currently running a liquid cooled 3080Ti (EVGA Hybrid), and after several gens of air-cooled, I must say... THIS is what liquid-cooling was meant for!!!
It's so nice to be able to ramp up 100% GPU utilization, with a VRR display / VR loads.. And not hear a choir of loud ass fans ramping up in the background! Stays below 60c, with quiet fans, all the time.. Love liquid cooled GPU's...
CPU, on the other hand, air-cooled still seems fine... A big, heat pipe setup is still plenty cool and silent.
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Adam's
I was thinking of buying an air cooled one to heat my house. My gas bills are already 4x higher than last year, to combat the cold i normally game in bed using the TV connected to my PC. Perhaps if i get a 4090 i can heat my home enough to sit at the desk and game during the colder months of the year. They need to start making watercooled GPU's with a quick disconnect on the card end and selling the radiator/fans/tube as optional extras. This way its easy to just hook them up to existing loop.
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I was thinking of buying an air cooled one to heat my house. My gas bills are already 4x higher than last year, to combat the cold i normally game in bed using the TV connected to my PC. Perhaps if i get a 4090 i can heat my home enough to sit at the desk and game during the colder months of the year. They need to start making watercooled GPU's with a quick disconnect on the card end and selling the radiator/fans/tube as optional extras. This way its easy to just hook them up to existing loop.
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CyClode
I havnt encounter any issue using this card for a week now, temps are in 50s or sometimes below 50s in GPU, memory and hot spot is just around mid 50's degrees. Im using a lian li sl120 controlled by the hub so my fan is running fix all the time. Im thinking if im gonna flash the vbios to increase power which i dont usually use. Im using curve .960mV at 2.8Ghz plus 1000mhz on memory. The performamce increase slightly, reduced the temps and consuming around 280 to 320w when gaming
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I havnt encounter any issue using this card for a week now, temps are in 50s or sometimes below 50s in GPU, memory and hot spot is just around mid 50's degrees. Im using a lian li sl120 controlled by the hub so my fan is running fix all the time. Im thinking if im gonna flash the vbios to increase power which i dont usually use. Im using curve .960mV at 2.8Ghz plus 1000mhz on memory. The performamce increase slightly, reduced the temps and consuming around 280 to 320w when gaming
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Ledoutofshadow
I have an older system with a 1080ti and 8086K, overclocked. Cooled with 2 280mm AIO's. One for cpu and one for gpu, both set to exhaust out of the case, GPU front and CPU top. I supply cold air from the rear of the case. No gpu or cpu heat enters the PC and i get great temps. The radiators/pumps are positioned correctly, and are still running great after more than 5 years. It is a viable option if closed loop cooling is too expensive, which it is here in Australia.
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I have an older system with a 1080ti and 8086K, overclocked. Cooled with 2 280mm AIO's. One for cpu and one for gpu, both set to exhaust out of the case, GPU front and CPU top. I supply cold air from the rear of the case. No gpu or cpu heat enters the PC and i get great temps. The radiators/pumps are positioned correctly, and are still running great after more than 5 years. It is a viable option if closed loop cooling is too expensive, which it is here in Australia.
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Raf
18 degree less gpu chip temp. will prolong the gpu chip life extra 3 to 5 years more , experienced long term gpu repairer personally , heavy gamers gpus have their grey sealer between the gpu silicon and substrate have high rate discoloration to brown color which lead to fail gpu chip after couple months which I notify the customers about and mostly cause (1.8 volt or 1 volt pcie, or the 1.35 volt rail of memory controller inside the gpu chip to die/short.
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18 degree less gpu chip temp. will prolong the gpu chip life extra 3 to 5 years more , experienced long term gpu repairer personally , heavy gamers gpus have their grey sealer between the gpu silicon and substrate have high rate discoloration to brown color which lead to fail gpu chip after couple months which I notify the customers about and mostly cause (1.8 volt or 1 volt pcie, or the 1.35 volt rail of memory controller inside the gpu chip to die/short.
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LaSqueesha
Wow they have done a really crappy job with the braided sleeving on the tubing. It is so loose and flappy. It would look better without it. To be honest, they have managed to make an expensive part look quite cheap and nasty in a lot of ways. The paintwork looks cheap. The graphics and lettering (avec typos) look very cheap. The fan header PCB looks cheap. It would look ten times better with a simple black paintjob and less obnoxious graphics.
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Wow they have done a really crappy job with the braided sleeving on the tubing. It is so loose and flappy. It would look better without it. To be honest, they have managed to make an expensive part look quite cheap and nasty in a lot of ways. The paintwork looks cheap. The graphics and lettering (avec typos) look very cheap. The fan header PCB looks cheap. It would look ten times better with a simple black paintjob and less obnoxious graphics.
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CorporateZombie
So where are you supposed to put the radiator? At the top of the case? Does that limit what CPU cooler you could use if you were thinking of using a closed loop CPU cooler? Would you stack both CPU and GPU radiators at the top rather than put the GPU radiator at the front of the case with tubes at the top?
Or can you recommend a case wide enough to put the closed loop radiators next to each other at the top of the case?
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So where are you supposed to put the radiator? At the top of the case? Does that limit what CPU cooler you could use if you were thinking of using a closed loop CPU cooler? Would you stack both CPU and GPU radiators at the top rather than put the GPU radiator at the front of the case with tubes at the top?
Or can you recommend a case wide enough to put the closed loop radiators next to each other at the top of the case?
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CS2,
So.. I have my 4090 FE running at 2950 MHz - 2970 MHz stable in long sessions of Asseto Corsa Competizione and iRacing on triple monitors in 4K. 85-200 FPS. Running it using GPU Tweak III at 133% and it pulls 425-455 watts in those games. Running furmark and other stress testing, it pulls 600+ watts.
I'm thinking I hit the GPU lottery with this one. I paid through the nose for it, but I am ok with it considering the performance.
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So.. I have my 4090 FE running at 2950 MHz - 2970 MHz stable in long sessions of Asseto Corsa Competizione and iRacing on triple monitors in 4K. 85-200 FPS. Running it using GPU Tweak III at 133% and it pulls 425-455 watts in those games. Running furmark and other stress testing, it pulls 600+ watts.
I'm thinking I hit the GPU lottery with this one. I paid through the nose for it, but I am ok with it considering the performance.
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jakiao
Been watching videos like these for years warning about liquid cooling systems dying. And every time I side eye at this computer to my left that has been pumping coolant 24x7 since 2013. Whose reservoir I've only topped off four times. Loop connecting GTX 780, i7 4770k, and 16GB of RAM. Seven years ago or so I stuffed markers into the radiator fans to stop them from making clicking noises. And yet it survives. Kinda sus.
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Been watching videos like these for years warning about liquid cooling systems dying. And every time I side eye at this computer to my left that has been pumping coolant 24x7 since 2013. Whose reservoir I've only topped off four times. Loop connecting GTX 780, i7 4770k, and 16GB of RAM. Seven years ago or so I stuffed markers into the radiator fans to stop them from making clicking noises. And yet it survives. Kinda sus.
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Zixxth
Fantastic in depth work as usual steve, we really appreciate your level of detail in your reviews. Would love to see this compared to the AORUS 360mm radiator in thermals of the GPU and the memory and MOSFETs and other and performance as well. Also, with AIO cards like that, the best case scenario would be a front mount with the tubes at the bottom, correct? Or am I misunderstanding something?
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Fantastic in depth work as usual steve, we really appreciate your level of detail in your reviews. Would love to see this compared to the AORUS 360mm radiator in thermals of the GPU and the memory and MOSFETs and other and performance as well. Also, with AIO cards like that, the best case scenario would be a front mount with the tubes at the bottom, correct? Or am I misunderstanding something?
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DoObs
It must also be mentioned that those AIO coolers the FAN/RGB cables run coiled up both tubes to the Radiator from the GPU block. So people get the wrong impression that their tubing ID is going to be wider when in reality its actually not. Those inner ID of those tubes are like 4.5mm/5mm. Thickness of the tubing is maybe just under 2mm thick. Giving your overall tubing OD being just under 10mm.
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It must also be mentioned that those AIO coolers the FAN/RGB cables run coiled up both tubes to the Radiator from the GPU block. So people get the wrong impression that their tubing ID is going to be wider when in reality its actually not. Those inner ID of those tubes are like 4.5mm/5mm. Thickness of the tubing is maybe just under 2mm thick. Giving your overall tubing OD being just under 10mm.
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