EK Water Blocks Launching For Latest NVIDIA RTX Cards
NVIDIA's powerful 3090 RTX cards have already been improved upon with a new model, the 3090 Ti RTX. As such, water cooler manufacturer EK is positioning itself to launch a new line of water blocks for the new NVIDIA RTX model, using its proprietary Quantum Vector² technology. Of course, only certain manufacturers will release 3090 Ti cards that actually have the new water blocks installed on them, at least, at first.
It appears the first cards to receive these new water blocks will be Founders Edition cards and reference models, but they'll also be a part of consumer card production and will be sold on models such as the ASUS Strix RTX 3090 Ti, the EVGA FTW3 RTX 3090 Ti, and the MSI TRIO RTX 3090 Ti, Videocardz reported on March 31. There will likely be more video cards launching with the EK water blocks at some point in the future.
What is Quantum Vector² water cooling?
EK describes its water cooling solution as high-performance GPU cooling that is a "visual and technical masterpiece." It does look quite visually appealing, featuring a plexiglass layer that has green LED lines streaking through it, contrasting against the black-painted 11mm copper cold plate that is behind it. The EK-Quantum Vector² water block base MSRP is $249.99 per block when purchased standalone. There's no word on how this will influence the price of these cards, which can already cost up to $3,000 at some retailers.
Water cooling is generally much more expensive than regular cooling, albeit it can keep heat volume low so the card can (theoretically) run at a higher degree of performance, though this is generally an equation of how much power the card needs to draw and how much heat it produces as a result. The 3090 Ti RTX consumes as low as 450 watts per hour, or 0.45 kilowatt-hours, versus the 1080 Ti GTX, which consumes 250 watts per hour. So it does make sense to include water cooling out of the box.