Published: January 23, 2025 | Source: Nvidia | Author: Tom Logan

Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review

Up Close

Sometimes a package arrives that absolutely surprises you. We all know what a Nvidia Founders Edition box looks like. This is not that. It’s almost like the old Nintendo Labo thing.

We know the bossman will love this. An all-white box. We’re sure someone arty will paint limited editions of this.

The world’s most recyclable box. We really like it. Saving the planet is important. Climate change is real, as anyone enduring t-shirt winters can attest. Plus we all just chuck the packaging anyway. The only people who keep it are paranoid RMA types and those who need it in the background of ‘content’.

There were plenty of rumours about the Nvidia RTX 5090 size. All myths and guesswork dispelled. Two slots, and with the pass-through port, all very familiar. It’s definitely understated.

The front is more muted than early Founders Edition cards. It’s a very dark silver, instead of that near chrome of the first cards. Nvidia’s confidence is shown by them sticking to two fans. The most powerful card they’ve ever built, and a two-slot, two fan design is felt enough. Impressive chutzpah.

Even the bottom, a place most manufacturers use to expel hot air, is largely enclosed. Two credit card sized slots are all you get. It’s a very tactile object. All soft curves.

Connections

The part of the RTX 5090 Founders Edition you’ll see more than most is also our first area of confusion. The only part of the card that lights up is the GeForce RTX wording on the right. However, Nvidia have also relocated and re-angled the power connector. Now the ATX 3 cable will be directed in front of it. It just seems an odd choice. We are on board with getting your cables tidied away as easily as possible. But at the expense of the only RGB lighting?

At the business end there are no vents. It’s a monolithic whole and all the better for it. With three DisplayPort outputs and a single HDMI, there is enough to ensure even the quad-screen junkies amongst you can plug it all in.

Although these are photos we took from amongst the bustle at CES, we think it’s important to see how tiny the PCB is. All this performance in a footprint around 140mm boggles our brains. Everything from the 32GB of GDDR7 to the GPU and the power phases all exist here. It’s impressive.