EK warns its users about RTX 30 series water block compatibility

[WYP]

Nvidia's Founders Editions are fully custom and require different water blocks than reference models.



Read more about EK warning water block buyers about RTX 30 series compatibility.

 

[YOUDIEMOFO]

So founders isn't supported?

How is the original silicon on the stock board directly from the manufacturer not "reference!?!"

 

[Warchild]

How is the original silicon on the stock board directly from the manufacturer not "reference!?!"

Founders is supported, but its another block. This warning is towards the reference boards that all the AIB are using. We do not know for certain if this reference waterblock will fit on them all.

Who knows what slight variation the AIB will make to the reference PCB.

Nvidia are taking a new approach. In the past their founders looked just like every other reference that ASUS, Zotac etc sold. So it didnt "feel" like a founders card. Now they want to set themselves apart from the reference cards and make the founders truly unique.

 

[AlienALX]

Looks like the nightmares are set to continue with Ampere then.

The more the days pass the more I just want to wait for the new consoles and buy both just to avoid this silliness.

 

[NeverBackDown]

How is the original silicon on the stock board directly from the manufacturer not "reference!?!"

Because Nvidia list what is reference and what is not. They give the AIB partners the PCB designs and tell them this is our Reference design for AIBs and our Founders Line is using a custom non reference PCB.

 

[AlienALX]

Because Nvidia list what is reference and what is not. They give the AIB partners the PCB designs and tell them this is our Reference design for AIBs and our Founders Line is using a custom non reference PCB.

Founders cards are reference.

AIBs? nearly all of them will be different. I highly, highly doubt any one can even use the "reference" PCB from the FE this time because of the shape and cooler design.

AIBs will make their own PCBs, which will be non reference, and thus cast into a big black hole of "Willy make a water block for this card or not?".

And, like most of the 20 cards? it's usually not. Just like that KFA2 2070 Super I bought. No one made a block for it. At all. Not even Byski.

I don't know how much Asus paid EK to make blocks for their four different "Dual" models of exactly the same card, but due to Asus's choice of cheap analogue caps they had to literally cut a hole in the block and patch it with metal just to clear the sodding capactitors.

That is what that metal plate is for. The caps sat so high they could not fit a cold plate so they have an empty area patched by that slab of stainless.

And? that was lucky. That's a £150 block, BTW.

Like I said, nearly all AIB cards didn't even get a block. So not only do you have a nightmare finding the block, but you literally need to find the block first, then buy a card to fit it. Only, if someone like CCL f**k up and show the wrong picture of the wrong model (like happened to me) you end up with a £88 paper weight.

I wouldn't mind so much, but these 30 series cards are going to thrive under water. Only, good luck getting them there in the first sodding place.

Edit. Hang on a minute.

So Nvidia designed a stock reference card, then used it to make their Founders Editions? WTF?

They never cease to amaze me, and not in good ways.

 

[Warchild]

Founders cards are reference.


Like I said, nearly all AIB cards didn't even get a block.

Not sure I follow because the 30X founders is not reference. The PCB is entirely different. Nvidia are releasing 1 version to the AIBs, the reference version. The founders which has the unique V pcb is being kept for themselves.

Not totally correct. All the top sellers got a block, so the MSI Gaming X, founders 20x, strix, aorus gaming blah blah blah all had blocks almost from the get go. Just look at the list on EKWB, bitspower, etc. The list is quite long.

Boards like the HoF were tough to get due to such lack of popularity. But they still had a block from one vendor. Only the extreme enthusiasts were buying it. Kingpin cards, well.. just got blocks from EVGA coincidentally designed by EK themselves I believe.

And yeah the strix used some cheap tall VRM caps, but its not hard to design a block to counter that. It could be done in a day. Just look at the simplicity of it without the plate.

 

[grec]

Yeah, NVidia will need to make no thrills reference PCB designs for OEM cards and board partners to use for testing early stock and speeding along custom PCB development anyway, but nothing says NVidia then have to use these reference PCBs in their own cards, rather than develop on them further behind closed doors into their own unique design.

Reference does not mean "Manufacturer stock", a reference design is one specifically intended to be copied (And learnt from)

 

[AlienALX]

Not sure I follow because the 30X founders is not reference. The PCB is entirely different. Nvidia are releasing 1 version to the AIBs, the reference version. The founders which has the unique V pcb is being kept for themselves.

Not totally correct. All the top sellers got a block, so the MSI Gaming X, founders 20x, strix, aorus gaming blah blah blah all had blocks almost from the get go. Just look at the list on EKWB, bitspower, etc. The list is quite long.

Boards like the HoF were tough to get due to such lack of popularity. But they still had a block from one vendor. Only the extreme enthusiasts were buying it. Kingpin cards, well.. just got blocks from EVGA coincidentally designed by EK themselves I believe.

And yeah the strix used some cheap tall VRM caps, but its not hard to design a block to counter that. It could be done in a day. Just look at the simplicity of it without the plate.

It's different. They have made a hole in the cold plate on that. For the Dual?

They literally had to cut out the cold plate because there were two rows of those tall caps, then bridge it with metal. I would surmise that because they had to separate the cold plate a plastic channel would not have been strong enough.

Either way there was a frig nugget load of cards you couldn't water cool at all.

 

[demonking]

Edit. Hang on a minute.

So Nvidia designed a stock reference card, then used it to make their Founders Editions? WTF?

They never cease to amaze me, and not in good ways.

This is quite common in other industries too. The VW group for instance may put out a reference 4 cylinder 2 litre engine, VW will use a slight variation of this depending on the vehicle its going in, then Audi will use a variation of it, SEAT a variation, Skoda a variation,ect and the reference design is never used. Its only blueprints after all on a basic model, you can just use that design and it will work as Nvidia designed it or you can alter the design and get it through Nvidia's green light and if the design is flawed, well thats your problem (AIB), should have used the reference design.

 

[Warchild]

This is quite common in other industries too. The VW group for instance may put out a reference 4 cylinder 2 litre engine, VW will use a slight variation of this depending on the vehicle its going in, then Audi will use a variation of it, SEAT a variation, Skoda a variation,ect and the reference design is never used. Its only blueprints after all on a basic model, you can just use that design and it will work as Nvidia designed it or you can alter the design and get it through Nvidia's green light and if the design is flawed, well thats your problem (AIB), should have used the reference design.

You forgot Porsche

 

[AlienALX]

It's not a car....

Nvidia always used to use Manli. Always. They were always reference, because that is the one every one else refers to (hence the name). Man they must have spunked some cash messing around like that LOL.

 

[Emu]

Founders cards are reference.

AIBs? nearly all of them will be different. I highly, highly doubt any one can even use the "reference" PCB from the FE this time because of the shape and cooler design.

AIBs will make their own PCBs, which will be non reference, and thus cast into a big black hole of "Willy make a water block for this card or not?".

And, like most of the 20 cards? it's usually not. Just like that KFA2 2070 Super I bought. No one made a block for it. At all. Not even Byski.

I don't know how much Asus paid EK to make blocks for their four different "Dual" models of exactly the same card, but due to Asus's choice of cheap analogue caps they had to literally cut a hole in the block and patch it with metal just to clear the sodding capactitors.

That is what that metal plate is for. The caps sat so high they could not fit a cold plate so they have an empty area patched by that slab of stainless.

And? that was lucky. That's a £150 block, BTW.

Like I said, nearly all AIB cards didn't even get a block. So not only do you have a nightmare finding the block, but you literally need to find the block first, then buy a card to fit it. Only, if someone like CCL f**k up and show the wrong picture of the wrong model (like happened to me) you end up with a £88 paper weight.

I wouldn't mind so much, but these 30 series cards are going to thrive under water. Only, good luck getting them there in the first sodding place.

Edit. Hang on a minute.

So Nvidia designed a stock reference card, then used it to make their Founders Editions? WTF?

They never cease to amaze me, and not in good ways.

Nvidia has two designs for the RTX 30 series cards, the reference design (i.e. the one sent out to all the AIB partners) and the Founders Edition designs which are very different to the reference designs (the RTX 3090 FE and RTX 3080 FE cards have a very short PCB with a triangle cutout where the VRM would be on a reference board). The RTX 20 series had the Founders Editions built on the reference PCB design which meant that buying a RTX 20 series FE guaranteed that you could get a water block for it. This means that for the RTX 30 series, a block for a Founders Edition card will not fit on a reference PCB and vice versa which is unlike previous FE cards.

Boards made by AIB partners can either be made on the reference design or on a custom design as always. Reference design boards are generally compatible with water blocks designed for reference PCBs but not always (e.g. my reference design based Gigabyte RTX 2080 ti Gaming OC that had a fan/RGB header in a non-standard position which interfered with the first generation of reference water blocks but got a notch cut for it in later designs).

If you want to buy a water block for your GPU then you either need to do your research and buy either a known reference design GPU or buy a GPU which usually has a waterblock custom designed for it (e.g. ASUS Strix, EVGA FTW3).

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah I know what the Founders one looks like man