The upcoming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has already been the cause of several controversies, and we don't even have an official release date or MSRP as yet. Nevertheless, 3090 Ti news continues to leak and, perhaps due to the extreme nature of this product, it is again making waves. A retweet of @wxnod's post by momomo_us has alerted us to a "horrible" MSI Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Suprim X specs leak. The horror concerns the potential power consumption of this behemoth – as it appears to require just a whisker off half a kilowatt when put under strain.
During the official Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti unveiling at CES 2022, the presentation was unfortunately short on specs and other details. We are still going off pre-unveiling leaked specs for our most confident guesses about the final specs of the soon-to-be-crowned fastest GeForce ever. However, if the Tweeted leak is correct, it will also earn the infamy of being the most significant single GPU power hog ever sold to consumers. We had to say "single GPU" due to the AMD Radeon R9 295x2 and Asus GeForce GTX 295 Mars Edition.
Above, you can see the purported full specs from MSI's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Suprim X Edition. The screenshot looks very much like it is genuine, following the MSI product website style, and no apparent edits or careless typos in the data. Overall the graphics card seems to confirm our expected specs for the upcoming release.
The headlining power consumption figure – 480W falls within expectation as pushing these Ampere GPUs illustrates the law of diminishing returns. The GPU die with its 10,752 active CUDA cores and running at up to its 1,900 MHz Extreme Mode boost will have this card eating up 480W when taxed. It is interesting to see the Extreme level is just 20 MHz higher than the "Gaming and Silent mode" at 1,880 MHz, which will prompt many to ask whether it is worthwhile. However, the absolute bleeding edge enthusiasts want every last MHz, which has always been the case.
Another interesting stat that waves from the spec sheet are MSI's triple 8-pin power connectors for its Suprim X design. It will be enough to cover the 480W (3 x 150W plus 75W from the PCIe slot) without being too near its limits. It is easy to question this decision based on the newer high-density power connectors like Nvidia reference models use. Still, MSI will have its reasons for choosing the older ungainly option. The non-Ti MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Suprim uses the same configuration.
We are waiting for further details of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti direct from Nvidia before January is out. Unfortunately, there hasn't been confirmation of the hardware and software issues delay rumors, so we must assume the schedule set out at CES 2022 just a fortnight ago is still going forward.
