NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Pictured With PCIe Gen 5 Connector, May Launch March 29
It seems increasingly likely NVIDIA will launch its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti on March 29, some two and a half months after teasing the new flagship consumer graphics card at the Consumer Electronics Show. We don't have any first-hand knowledge of a March 29 launch, but there's plenty of smoke, and you know they say about that (where there's smoke, there's usually fire).
The supposed launch date was thrown around earlier this week on the Chiphell forum, where a user pointed to March 29 as the big day. They also claimed that NVIDIA has ditched its plans to launch an upgraded GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with 16GB of memory, which is twice as much as the current GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
Adding credibility to the rumor, an embargo document that NVIDIA supposedly sent out to its add-in board (AIB) partners is making the rounds. Have a look...
Source: Videocardz
Certain details are blurred out, but what it clearly shows is the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti being both announced and released to retail on March 29 at 6:00 am PT (9:00am ET). The document also points to embargoes on reviews being lifted on the same day at the same time, suggesting that review samples are in the wild.
It's not clear why this card didn't launch sooner. At CES, NVIDIA said it would provide more information at the end of the month. That didn't happen, and it was rumored that NVIDIA instructed its AIB partners to pause production on custom models, possibly to tweak the BIOS and/or rework the hardware requirements for custom PCBs.
The silence continued through the middle of February, at which point NVIDIA said it had nothing to share at the time and "we'll be in touch when we do." It seems like it soon will.
Meanwhile, Twitter user @wxnod posted a close-up shot of the power connector on what they suggest is the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card...
The logo that is visible clearly indicates this is a Galax-brand graphics card. What's more interesting, however, is the power connector. Assuming this is legitimate, you're looking at the new 12+4 pin 12VHPWR PCIe Gen5 power connector for next-generation graphics cards (or this case, a new flagship within the current generation).
Previous leaks and rumors point to the upcoming connector supporting power deliveries from 150W all the way up to 600W. It remains to be seen how much the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti sips from the PSU and outlet. It will also be interesting to see how prevalent the new connector is, versus AIBs using dual 8-pin power plugs.
