Remember that peculiar quad-slot Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti cooler prototype that was seen a few months back? Well, it’s back again but this time with a PCIe slot attached, suggesting this prototype got further than just a cooler concept.
The original quad-slot Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti leak showcased an ingenious but seemingly abandoned Nvidia graphics card design that had the cooler sit on top of a horizontal card (rather than hang off the side of a vertical card) and occupy four PCIe expansion slots, complete with the card’s video outputs being spread out with one each for each expansion slot.
It was an interesting concept but given that it has been over a year since the RTX 4090 release date, it was seemingly clear that the card was just a concept and nothing more, never to see the light of day. That only seems to be even more the case with so many rumors about RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4070 Super cards flying around, with no mention of an RTX 4090 Ti.
However, leaks regarding the quad-slot card have continued to spread, with the cooler appearing for sale at one point, and even a job lot of the RTX 4090 Ti IO brackets from the card appearing on eBay too.
The latest RTX 4090 Ti leak, then, which comes from a since-deleted Reddit post, seems to be the first to show not just the cooler but the card itself, as there’s also a visible PCIe bracket on the bottom of the cooler. The card is shown alongside an RTX 2000-era RTX Titan showing the sheer size that the card would’ve been. The RTX 4090 is no featherweight but the the RTX 4090 Ti was set to be a monster!
Interestingly, though, to my eyes, the PCIe bracket that’s suspiciously hidden in the shadows of the leaked image looks like it could’ve been digitally added or that it’s a mockup of a PCIe bracket, not the real deal. It looks too uniform and untextured, without the glint of real gold connections.
This is all the more suspicious as the leak also contains a closeup image of the IO bracket of the card. Why not take a photo of the card itself too? Even if the card isn’t complete – maybe the GPU isn’t attached – we could still see the rest of the PCB.
Regardless of the authenticity of the leak, it still seems unlikely that any RTX 4090 Ti will see the light of day, let alone this version. And, heck, even if it did, current RTX 4090 price trends suggest it wouldn’t exactly be a bargain.
So, instead, take a look at our best graphics card guide for recommendations on which GPUs you should be thinking of buying right now.