Nvidia RTX 4090 Skateboard Touted as Gnarliest Status Symbol
Thankfully, it was just a spare shroud after a water-cooling upgrade.
A video of a skateboard fashioned from a set of wheels and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, one of the best graphics cards, has been shared on social media. This extremely odd mash-up is touted by Twitterer VX-Underground as the ultimate status symbol, throwing shade on brands like Lamborghini and Balenciaga. From the short clip, which you can watch if you expand the tweet below, it also looks like the triple-fan skateboard rides pretty well.
A skateboard deck has to be resilient yet offer some flexibility and spring. When we first saw the behemoths that Nvidia and partners were lining up for would-be RTX 4090 customers, little did we know that these graphics cards would work so well in place of the usual rugged plywood plank. Many RTX 4090 users enjoy ultra-smooth AAA PC grind-fests on the Ada Lovelace flagship, but it would be a surprise to see one of these cards survive a skateboard grinding session.
Nerds think having Lamborghinis, 'Iced out' watches, and wearing Balenciaga makes them look wealthy.Wrong.Real wealth and power is skating on GPUs. pic.twitter.com/RIS1uRnjUUNovember 10, 2023
Of course, the video embedded above has been the subject of much mirth. People are joking about the frame rate of the RTX 4090 skateboarding experience or whether DLSS 3.5 could make it run faster. Others joked about whether the fans could be turned face down for a hoverboard, or if it could be powered up for RGB effects.
However, water-cooling aficionado and Redditor Ashley Said What, the original uploader of the video, was quick to counter accusations of entitlement or extravagance. No RTX 4090 was harmed to create this rad skateboard. The Redditor explained that the cooling shroud was just one salvaged “from the e-waste recycling pile at work.” The donor card got a nice new water block before being fitted to a customer PC system.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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bit_user I'm quite surprised the shroud is that strong. Even if it's aluminum, I'd expect it would quickly get bent out of shape. That's why I have a hard time believing they didn't make a look-alike with greater thickness and just transfer the decals, but then who would go to so much trouble?Reply -
bit_user
Read the article.Geezer760 said:Ridiculous, greed and gluttony at it's finest.
Even right in the subtitle, it says:
"Thankfully, it was just a spare shroud after a water-cooling upgrade."
They say it was taken from a pile of e-waste. -
BlackHarold
Usually what I found are the people who have to make such claims are lying, it's the internet people do everything for a reason or clout.bit_user said:Read the article.
Even right in the subtitle, it says:
"Thankfully, it was just a spare shroud after a water-cooling upgrade."
They say it was taken from a pile of e-waste. -
USAFRet
They make statements like that, due to the rabid derision from random people on the interwebs, that accuse them of greed and ridiculousness.BlackHarold said:Usually what I found are the people who have to make such claims are lying, it's the internet people do everything for a reason or clout. -
Papusan
Good luck send in the card for repair if something happens without an proper condition cooler/shroud. Stupid is the new normal nowadays.bit_user said:"Thankfully, it was just a spare shroud after a water-cooling upgrade." -
bit_user
If the manufacturer can determine the shroud was removed, they won't honor the warranty. So, it's pointless just to keep the shroud around for that reason.Papusan said:Good luck send in the card for repair if something happens without an proper condition cooler/shroud. Stupid is the new normal nowadays.
If I were buying a water-cooled GPU from a system builder or someone reselling them with the waterblock pre-installed (one of which seems to be the case, here), I'd expect them to provide a warranty of their own to substitute for the manufacturer's warranty they voided. -
funguseater
LOL someone didn't read the articleGeezer760 said:Ridiculous, greed and gluttony at it's finest. -
georgebaker437 Things to do with your 2000 dollar GPU when the power connector "coasters" it and the manufacturer says it's not their fault.Reply -
sitehostplus
Or maybe he epoxied the shroud onto an actual skateboard? 😉bit_user said:I'm quite surprised the shroud is that strong. Even if it's aluminum, I'd expect it would quickly get bent out of shape. That's why I have a hard time believing they didn't make a look-alike with greater thickness and just transfer the decals, but then who would go to so much trouble?