Gigabyte RTX 4090 Windforce 24G Review
Up Close
If you’re a regular reader then you’ll know exactly what we’re about to say here. However, it’s impossible for us to see the giant eye on the side of the Gigabyte box and not dream of having a case that looks like that, with a massive fan on the side. Surely it must be possible?
The Windforce card is at the simpler end of the design spectrum with regards to flash and flair. We know, however, that many of you prefer a subtle card and the lack of lighting and all-black aesthetic might be right up your street. With three 100mm fans that counter-rotate to eliminate dead spots, a vapour chamber and 8 heat pipes, it at least promises to be cool.
The back has a big branded backplate with a huge cutout to keep airflow moving through the card to the rest of your components, whilst also letting the hot air expel from the card as quickly as possible.
This is one of three RTX 4090 cards we’ve seen and they’ve all been triple slot designs. Clearly if you plan to invest in the newest Nvidia card you’re going to require a case suitably large to accomodate it. The other thing worth noting is that Gigabyte have eschewed the theory that we saw on the RTX 3090 cards where manufacturers replaced the Nvidia power input design with more familiar 8 pin types. With the RTX 4090 requiring 4 (count them) 8pin PCIe power inputs we’re not surprised that Gigabyte have stuck with the Nvidia solution.
There might come a day when we don’t rejoice at the sight of a huge array of densely packed fins and some copper heat pipes peeking out, but it is not this day.
As well as a closer look at the ‘screen cooling’ cut out, you can also see the switch at the bottom left that swaps the BIOS from OC mode to Silent mode. Obviously we’re running the card as fast as we can.
Lastly the display outputs are the familiar Nvidia setup of three DisplayPort and one HDMI. Whilst the Windforce is still a triple slot design you’ve only got two tabs to secure it in place. Whether that affects card sag is a long term consideration far beyond the remit of this review.
