NVIDIA prototype PCBs for RTX 4090, RTX 5090 had 4 x 16-pin connectors: up to 2400W of power

NVIDIA's new super-enthusiast GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card is one of the most power-hungry graphics cards on the planet, but the company had some wild PCBs with 4 x 16-pin power connectors and up to 2400W of power delivery.

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In some new photos posted to the Chiphell forums, we're learning that NVIDIA was working on prototypes including an AD102 "Ada Lovelace" prototype that was probably used for the GeForce RTX 4090. This prototype PCB featured not one, not two, but 4 x 16-pin power connectors and a 45-phase power delivery which is bonkers.

Each of the 16-pin power connectors can use up to 600W of power, so with 4 of them on-board you'd be looking at an insane 2400W of power delivery. We saw nothing like this on the market, outside of a few custom RTX 4090 graphics cards that featured dual 16-pin power connectors (with up to 1200W of power consumption).

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Not only that, but NVIDIA had an older-gen GA102 "Ampere" prototype PCB that featured 4 x 8-pin power connectors, GA104 with 3 x 8-pin power connectors, GA107 with 1 x 8-pin power connector, and older RTX 20 series "Turing" and GTX 10 series "Pascal" prototype PCBs that NVIDIA used for testing before the final retail boards were revealed.

The best prototype PCB spotted was the flagship GB202 GPU that is found in the GeForce RTX 5090, with 4 x 16-pin power connectors. We should see some rather awesome custom RTX 5090 graphics cards later this year with more 16-pin power connectors (two, but not four) in the near future (hopefully).