NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 cooler: rumored to cost $150 on its own

By now I'm sure you've seen NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 graphics cards, at least in leaked form -- if not, you can read more about that here. But the story just got a whole lot more interesting.

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According to Igor Wallosek from Igor's LAB, the RTX 3080 cooler leak has kicked off an investigation inside of NVIDIA. Two of the subcontractors that handle the manufacturing of the Founders Edition are now involved in an investigation. Both Foxconn and BYD (Build Your Dreams) are under investigation.

Not just that, but NVIDIA product and sales managers have reportedly not seen the design yet -- which as VideoCardz points out, "just proves how fresh the leak was". It came out of nowhere, was radically different -- and kinda shocking in a good way, and now that makes sense. It was so fresh NVIDIA product and sales managers hadn't even seen it.

But now onto that new cooler. The super odd-shaped PCB and dual fans pointing in opposite direction could be costing NVIDIA a lot of money, with Igor reporting that current rumors have the cooled pegged at costing $150.

This is for the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, which Igor notes the "housing and cooler in one piece". Igor adds: "This also suggests the positioning and pricing of the Founders Edition, which you would like to significantly upgrade again".

The additional cost isn't just for the looks, but as usual, there is a lot going on underneath the FE cards again. Igor continues: "But I have more information for you that goes a little bit more than the picture leak. The somewhat more complex cooler design of the FE requires a special circuit board with an additional cutout. The internal designation is given with PG133 and the board should be used equally for all three versions on the launch day. The use of flexible power supply cables, which lead to the separate sockets at the end of the card, is also right here. The PCB and these cables alone will be a real challenge for manufacturers of GPU water blocks".