RTX 5090 prototype allegedly has 24,576 CUDA cores and 800W TDP — two 16-pin connectors present

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, announced earlier this year and coming January 30, is poised to be one of the best graphics cards. However, hardware sleuth HXL has unearthed what appears to be an early prototype. Still, given the rumored specifications, it could very well become a GeForce RTX 5090 Ti or RTX Titan Blackwell.

The Chiphell forum user claims the graphics card is a GeForce RTX 5090 engineering card manufactured from July 15 to 21, 2024. Apparently, it’s a prototype Nvidia’s AIC partners used to design their custom offerings in the early days. The user didn’t state how he got his hands on the prototype but was willing to pay good money if someone could supply him with the Nvidia GeForce 570.12 driver, which seems like the only driver that supports the prototype.

According to the specifications, the Blackwell graphics card utilizes fully functional GB202 silicon with 24,576 CUDA cores, compared to the RTX 5090’s 21,760 CUDA cores—13% more. The mysterious prototype also has slightly higher clock speeds (2,100 MHz base clock and 2,514 MHz boost clock) than the RTX 5090 (2,017 MHz base clock and 2,407 MHz boost clock).

The memory configuration reportedly remains unchanged between the two graphics cards, with 32GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit memory interface. However, the prototype seemingly has 32 Gbps chips, pushing the memory bandwidth to 2 TB/s. For comparison, the RTX 5090 leverages 28 Gbps chips, capping the bandwidth at 1.79 TB/s.

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

However, the most eye-popping specification from the GeForce RTX 5090 prototype is the alleged 800W TDP claims, 39% higher than the RTX 5090. The owner stated that it utilizes two 12V-2×6 power connectors, which makes sense given the higher TDP. It’s doubtful that Nvidia (or anyone else, for that matter) will release a consumer-grade GPU that will demand more than 600W of power. The RTX 5090 is already pushing it with its 575W TDP.

Even with the RTX 40 series, there were rumors of an RTX 4090 Ti or RTX Titan Ada. An RTX 4090 prototype has been discovered and disassembled, sporting a massive blow-through heat sink and unique PCB configuration. There has been talk that it could have been a testbed to see how Nvidia could cool an RTX 4090 Ti, but that hasn’t been proven. While it is indeed possible that the company is thinking about producing an RTX 5090 Ti, it could also be just an experiment, and the company is waiting to see if there will be enough demand for a more powerful GPU than the RTX 5090 before going forward with production.

If this prototype hits the retail market, it will be the most powerful consumer-grade GPU Nvidia releases for the RTX 50-series generation and will likely be priced accordingly. The RTX 5090 is already very expensive, at $1,999 MSRP, so something better will likely start at $2,500.

The geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China means Nvidia cannot sell its most powerful GPUs in the Chinese market. This will likely dampen Nvidia’s hopes for an RTX 5090 Ti or RTX Titan Blackwell, if there is one, as China is one of its biggest markets for these expensive GPUs. These rumored specifications are just that; unless we see a massive demand for a more powerful GPU, we won’t likely see something better than an RTX 5090.