Rumors of a monstrous AD102-based graphics card by Nvidia are high in the air. The developer plans to bring out three Ada Lovelace architecture-based high-end GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards later this year. The new release will definitely quench the thirst of demanding gamers. However, the news says that Team Green is also working on a monstrous AD102 GPU-based graphics board. AD102 GPU is Team Green’s top-of-the-range unit, carrying 48GB memory with an 800 W typical board power. With the fastest and best graphic cards, the developing companies are clearly gunning for the highest position in the GPU benchmarks.
On the other hand, Hardware leaker @Kopite7kimi has titled Nvidia’s flagship GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card ‘The Beast.’ Nvidia, however, sticks to calling it GeForce RTX 4090 Ti or Titan. The board projects to carry an 18,176 CUDA cores GPU, along with 48GB GDDR6X memory with a 24 GT/s data transfer rate.
The higher number of CUDA cores, substantially higher TBP, and additional memory indicate a significantly faster GeForce RTX 4090 Ti. The speed would be much faster compared to the alleged non-Ti variant, especially in terms of high resolutions with high-end detail settings. Moreover, this monstrous card will most likely feature an 800W TBP. In that case, it will require an extremely robust power supply unit and a sophisticated cooling system.
On the downside, the rather extreme thermals of the beasty Ada Lovelace card can cause alarm among ProViz professionals working with highly-detailed 3D models. These 3D models can actually benefit from 48GB GDDR6X memory onboard. Meanwhile, cooling an 800W card would obviously require more fans with higher speeds. We all know that such fans are unpleasant in a professional environment.
Looking at the graphic card specs, we can expect that it would be equally costly. It is yet not confirmed what Nvidia would charge for its ‘Beast.’. A complete AD102 chip and 48GB of GDDR6X memory can cost a lot. If the rumored specs are truly on the horizon, we can expect the GeForce RTX 4090 Ti board to feature an MSRP of over $2000, the rate of an outgoing GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
From a comparative viewpoint, even if Nvidia keeps a relatively consistent clock speed between generations, RTX 4090 Ti might have 70% or more computational power than RTX 3090 Ti. Meanwhile, the memory bandwidth may only be 14% or so higher. Therefore, Nvidia would have to use improved memory compression technologies or caching to scale performance. Nonetheless, it seems like a massive hike in performance and power use.
Since Nvidia has not yet made a formal announcement for its GeForce RTX 40-series graphics boards, we can consider every detail to be rumor and speculation. After all, this is not the first time we have encountered juicy rumors about Nvidia’s plans for Ada Lovelace solutions. Although such graphic cards are a dream come true for big gamers, the question remains whether they will burn a hole in your home circuits or your wallets.
