launch at CES 2025, single 12V-2×6 power, PCIe 5.0, DP 2.1a

NVIDIA’s next-gen GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards are rumored for a (huge) debut at CES 2025, with some major new rumors filling out the picture of what to expect from the Blackwell gaming GPUs.

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We had some specs on the GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 teased yesterday with rumors, but new rumors are suggesting that we’ll have a CES 2025 launch… and some more hardware details. NVIDIA is expected to debut a brand new PCB design and new Founders Edition coolers which run on a single 12V-2×6 power connector, squashing rumors of dual PCIe power connectors on the RTX 5090.

The upgraded PCB will house 16 GDDR7 memory modules, each with 3GB of memory capacity and running at speeds of somewhere between 28-32Gbps, which will result in the highest memory bandwidth on a consumer graphics card in history: 32GB of GDDR7 on a 512- bit memory interface — if run at 32Gbps GDDR7 spec — will provide an insane 2.0TB/sec of memory bandwidth. Wow, wow, wow. Do want

NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is expected to appear with a sleek, dual-slot cooling solution (we should expect that for the RTX 5080 FE, too). As for the dual 12V-2×6 power connector rumor, the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition and most custom RTX 5090 models will all feature a single 12V-2×6 power connector (and there are already custom RTX 4090 models with dual PCIe power connectors anyway).

Another big thing I’ve personally been waiting for is DisplayPort 2.0 support, something AMD debuted with its RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs. NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will feature HBR20’s DisplayPort 2.1a specification, enabling 4K 240Hz+ and 8K 120Hz+ over DisplayPort.

We’ve also got newer PCIe 5.0 compatibility, which is another nice (and expected) thing to see from NVIDIA with its upcoming RTX 50 series GPUs.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 details so far:

A single 12V-2×6 power connector: First rumors with dual 12V-2×6 power connectors, but we are now expecting a single 12V-2×6 power connector on the GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards (both in Founders Edition form, and most custom AIB models)

DisplayPort 2.1a support: NVIDIA’s next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will debut with DisplayPort 2.1a functionality, providing the way to 4K 240Hz, right through to 4K 360Hz and 4K 480Hz, as well as 8K 120Hz and 8K 240Hz through a single DP2.1a cable. Can’t wait!

PCIe 5.0 support: PCIe 5.0 support will arrive with NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, too.

20,000+ CUDA cores: With a rumored 21,760 CUDA cores, we’re looking at a big upgrade over the 16,384 inside of the RTX 4090. Not just more CUDA cores, but upgraded Blackwell GPU architecture cores over the current Ada Lovelace GPU cores inside of the RTX 4090.

32GB of next-gen GDDR7 memory: NVIDIA is the first to use the ultra-fast GDDR7 memory standard, with the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 pegged to have an incredible 32GB of GDDR7 memory. This is another big upgrade over the RTX 4090 which has 24GB of GDDR6X memory.

Up to 2.0TB/sec memory bandwidth: We’re hearing that the RTX 5090 will have a monster 512-bit memory bus, which enables an insane ceiling of up to 2.0TB/sec of memory bandwidth if the RTX 5090 uses 32Gbps GDDR7 memory modules. Another giant upgrade over the RTX 4090 which has 1.0TB/sec of memory bandwidth in comparison.

600W of power: Another big upgrade for the RTX 5090 is the 600W of power, which is another 150W of power on top of the 450W TDP of the RTX 4090. We did see custom models and overclocked RTX 4090 cards pushing up to 600W+ of power, but the RTX 5090 is going to be another level again on top of that. Hopefully we see 600W+++ custom AIB models of the RTX 5090.

4K performance: NVIDIA’s next-generation ultimate gaming GPU in the GeForce RTX 5090 should have 50-70% more performance across the board compared to the RTX 4090, especially at the higher-end 4K resolution. 4K 120FPS gaming should be an even easier achievement for the RTX 5090 than it is for the RTX 4090. We’ve got 4K 240FPS coming this year and in 2025, so the RTX 5090 will be the GPU of choice for 4K 240FPS gaming in the future

RT performance: This is where the biggest performance improvements of the next-gen Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will come: ray tracing. Expect some rather large 2-3x performance gains using RT, probably 4x or more in some cases with the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 against their RTX 40 series counterparts. Throw new DLSS 4 on top, and you’ve got some wowzers RT performance.

DLSS4: This is probably my personal favorite part of the excitement of next-gen GPUs from NVIDIA, AI-powered upscaling with a next-gen DLSS 4 that works only on the new Blackwell-based RTX 50 series GPUs. We should expect even higher image quality than offered by DLSS 3.x and new levels of performance with DLSS 4 enabled on a new RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 graphics card.

Power efficiency: NVIDIA’s current-gen GeForce RTX 4090 can use anywhere between 450W and 600W of power depending on the model and overclocking, but the new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will offer far more performance-per-watt of the leading RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 SUPER graphic cards. Another exciting part to see unravel in the near future.