Nvidia is projected to release three high-end GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards based on the Ada Lovelace architecture later this year targeting demanding gamers. But apparently Team Green is also prepping a rather monstrous graphics board based on its top-of-the-range AD102 GPU that will carry 48GB of memory with a typical board power of 800W, clearly gunning for the top of the GPU benchmarks hierarchy and the fastest of the best graphics cards.
Hardware leaker @Kopite7kimi dubbed Nvidia's flagship GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card 'The Beast' without attributing a model name to it, but normally Nvidia would call it GeForce RTX 4090 Ti or Titan. This board is said to carry a GPU with 18,176 CUDA cores (up from 16,384 CUDA cores in case of the GeForce RTX 4090) as well as 48GB of GDDR6X memory featuring a 24 GT/s data transfer rate (up from 24GB of memory at 21 GT/s in case of the RTX 4090).
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GPU | FP32 CUDA Cores | Memory Configuration | TBP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 4090 Ti (aka, The Beast) | AD102-450 | 18176 | 48GB 384-bit 24GT/s GDDR6X | 800W |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | AD102-300 | 16384 | 24GB 384-bit 21GT/s GDDR6X | 450W |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | AD103-300 | 10240 | 16GB 256-bit 18GT/s GDDR6? | 420W |
| GeForce RTX 4070 | AD104-275 | 7168 | 10GB 160-bit 18GT/s GDDR5 | 300W |
Considering the higher number of CUDA cores, additional memory, and substantially higher TBP, the alleged GeForce RTX 4090 Ti should be significantly faster than the alleged non-Ti variant, particularly in high resolutions with high detail settings. Meanwhile, the beasty card is said to feature a TBP of 800W and will need an extremely capable power supply unit as well as a sophisticated cooling system.
The rather extreme thermals of the monstrous Ada Lovelace card might cause consternation among ProViz professionals that work with highly detailed 3D models that can actually benefit from 48GB of GDDR6X memory onboard. Cooling an 800W card would inevitably mean more fans and higher fan speeds, neither of which are pleasant in a professional environment (outside of the data center).
What remains to be seen is how much will Nvidia charge for its 'Beast' graphics board with 48GB of memory. A fully-fledged AD102 chip is projected to cost a lot, and 48GB of GDDR6X memory should carry an extreme price tag too. Given the rumored specs, we expect Nvidia's alleged GeForce RTX 4090 Ti board will feature an MSRP above $2000, the price of the outgoing GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
By way of comparison, even if Nvidia keeps clock speeds relatively consistent between generations, RTX 4090 Ti could have over 70% more computational power than the RTX 3090 Ti. Memory bandwidth meanwhile may only be 14% higher, so Nvidia would need improved caching or memory compression technologies to scale performance. Regardless, it looks like a massive bump in performance — and power use.
Nvidia has not yet formally announced its GeForce RTX 40-series graphics boards, so consider everything detailed here as rumors and speculation. This is certainly not the first nor the last time we'll hear some juicy rumors about Nvidia's upcoming Ada Lovelace solutions. The real question: What will it punish more, your wallet or your home circuits?
