Tester in danger: How many watts can the 12-pin Micro-Fit connector of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 survive without melting?

The discussions about what current flow various 6-, 8- or now even 12-pin sockets can survive are as old as these sockets themselves. But while over the years one could see the odd experiment or two, the 12-pin Micro-Fit 3.0 connector is new. This in turn naturally aroused human curiosity and this is exactly where my longtime friend Aris [...]


Miracle Drivers? How NVIDIA solved the crashes of the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 while keeping also the power supplies alive | Analysis

With the revision 456.55 NVIDIA wants to fix most of the problems of the new GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 and solved it. In addition to the power supply shutdowns that repeatedly occurred at the beginning with power supplies that seemed to be nominally sufficient, it was mainly the crashes of certain cards within the 3D environment that caused a [...]


Attack on the top dogs? TechN presents an innovative CPU cooler that is particularly suitable for Socket AM4 (but not only)

The new TechN CPU Waterblock for AMDs Socket AM4 is to be a cooler of the absolute top class and will extend the TechN portfolio with a high-quality custom water cooler, according to the manufacturer. That sounds like an ambitious plan, so I’m already working on a test with two other very popular coolers. TechN advertises with the highest [...]


NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 and the crashes – Why capacitors are so important and what’s behind them

After my article about the capacitors on the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 has made a lot of waves, I have to criticize myself in two respects. I had underestimated that the readers might be interested in a somewhat longer and more technical explanation of the circumstances or background and that secondly, the (thoughtless) adoption of the terms [...]


The possible reason for crashes and instabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 | Investigative

Not only the editors and testers were surprised by sudden instabilities of the new GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, but also the first customers who were able to get board partner cards from the first wave. An interesting pattern of behavior emerged that did not affect all cards or manufacturers and the problems only occurred at certain boost clock [...]


Weighty RTX weeks, spiky spikes and upcoming water games | Labor Inside

At the moment there is a little bit of land underneath, because even logistics and a tight schedule are not real friends and probably never will be. The launch of the GeForce RTX 3090 should, one believes the well informed media, already take place on Thursday, the 24.09.2020 at 15.00 o’clock. And since it can be assumed that a review will [...]


GDDR6X at the limit? Over 100 degrees measured inside of the chip with the GeForce RTX 3080 FE! | Investigative

Latest memory chips, such as Micron’s GDDR6X modules on the GeForce RTX 3080 allow the internal protection mechanism to be used for special protection mechanisms (e.g. the clocking down) of the chip temperature Tjunction with suitable software, which is a nice addition in itself, anyone would be able to do it. But this knowledge of what it [...]


The twelve-pin of the day – When a tester is fully charged

As I have to deal with Ampere more than the article plan is good for, I have packed all my thoughts and visual comparisons into not very serious pictures to bridge the gap. I am not allowed to show the card in operation yet, but the NDA never mentioned the plug. So we’ll just use this instead. First we have the trolleybus against a 384-bit [...]


Not all Chips are equal – First information about the possible binning and the quality scattering of the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 | Exclusive

Who doesn’t remember the good times when you beat an Intel quad-core Q6600 with G0 stepping, preferably at a DFI Lanparty with X38 chipset, towards the 4 GHz? Back then, Intel’s binning was quite easy. The good chips from the middle of the wafer, if it was a good wafer, got the highest VID and still ran the coolest. Those were the [...]