Among all the tech spec announcements for the next-generation Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, allow me to be shallow for a second—the RTX 5090 in particular is gosh darn good-looking, and I think we should all step back for a second and admire it.
I'll let the images do the talking before I wax lyrical. Admit it, this is a mean-looking bit of PC hardware:
Okay, perhaps I've been awake for too long, and the jetlag in combination with all the neon lights of Las Vegas may be warping bits of my brain. But this is a properly strong design, with some lovely little touches I'm only just appreciating.
Look at that angled power connector. The subtle shroud. The restrained yet menacing design notes. Cor, phwoar, and... fine, I'll dial it back a little. Really though, what's almost more impressive here is the size. It's still a serious slab of silicon, plastic, and metal—but I can't be the only one surprised that it looks a little smaller than the RTX 4090 it replaces.
Difficult to tell, I know. But I had visions in my head at various points of an absolute cinder block of a GPU, and what we've ended up with looks a lot smaller than that. I was holding an RTX 4090 FE in my hands just the other day, and thinking to myself that the design does seem to have aged a little, now we have all-black, super-sleek designs like the RTX 4080 Super.
Nvidia seems to have leaned into that aesthetic a little with the new cards, and I'm here for it. While it's not quite achieved the F-117 Nighthawk-like aesthetic of the RTX 4080 Super, there are touches that echo it.
Of course, AIB cards will still feature some horrific shroud designs. That's for sure. I'm certain we'll get some three fan monoliths that look like they come from a different era of PC hardware design from various manufacturers.
But the Founders Edition RTX 50-series cards? Me likey. I know it's poor form to judge an internal component on looks alone, but if this was a shroud design contest, I'd say that the new cards are some of the best-looking I've seen to date. Now I'm going to go and get some sleep, because obviously I'm drunk on proper GPU announcements after months of covering rumour and speculation with a hyper-critical eye.
The new Nvidia cards are here, and they look lovely. That'll do me for tonight.
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