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Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti may have featured an unusual fan design

New pictures of the prototype RTX 40 series cooler reveal that Nvidia may have planned the GeForce GPU to feature a fan built into the middle of its heatsink.

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti mock up, using a base 4090 GPU Founders Edition, against an orange background

While the awesome power of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti is unlikely to ever see the light of day, its prototype cooler at least provides some insight into how monstrous this graphics card may have been. Now, new pictures of the quad-slot cooler show Nvidia may have been toying with an unorthodox design to keep this gargantuan GPU cool.

For those out of the loop, a supposed RTX 4090 Ti cooler appeared on the scene earlier this year, complete with an unusually placed 12VHPWR connector and thoroughly thicc heatsink. Shortly after this, it was placed on sale, for just a little over $120,000 (enough to buy 75 RTX 4090s and change.)

Taking to Goofish once more, the person in possession of the prototype, Hayaka, shared more photos of the cooler (via harukaze5719) and revealed the cooler isn’t just absurdly large but strange in its design too. In addition to the two fans on either side of the GPU, Nvidia may have been toying with the idea of placing another fan between the fins of the heatsink too.

I’m not entirely sure how useful this internal fan would be, but I certainly am curious as to what the logic behind it is. However, as I mentioned earlier, the latest from the grapevine is that Nvidia has likely axed the RTX 4090 Ti, leaving the performance crown firmly resting on the RTX 4090‘s metaphorical head (at least, for now).

Rumblings of the RTX 5090 are already beginning to stir, even if we’re still a while away from a plausible RTX 5000 series release date. So, while the RTX 4090 Ti may be consigned to history, we may see its influence materialize in its successors.