NVIDIA provided a detailed look at its next-gen RTX 50 Founders Edition cooler, which it calls a "Double Flow Through" design.
NVIDIA's Double Flow Through Cooler For RTX 50 Founders Edition GPUs Uses 3D Vapor Chamber, Reduced Noise & Compact Design
We have already shown you a hands-on with NVIDIA's fastest Blackwell Gaming GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090, and its compact PCB. During the Editors Day, the company provided more details and a far better dissection of the cooling solution used by the Founders Edition designs.
The next-generation thermal design is an evolution from the previous coolers, which started with the GTX 10 series, featuring a blower-style design.
These were followed by the RTX 20 series that used a dual axial design, the first time incorporating axial fans in the Founders Edition coolers, and the last designs further revamped this through the use of dual-axial flow-through designs, with one fan featured on the front and one on the back. The RTX 30 and RTX 40 GPUs also saw a big increase in cooler sizes, with the RTX 4090 & 3090 series adopting a 3-slot configuration, but that changes in the latest iteration of Founders Edition coolers.
With the RTX 50 series, NVIDIA has gone back to the drawing board and came up with a compact solution that still meets the cooling requirements of its enthusiast-class graphics card. The RTX 5090 comes in a dual-slot design, making it compatible with the SFF requirements while retaining strong cooling performance.
For its next-generation Founders Edition coolers, NVIDIA is using a 3D Vapor Chamber which sits over the compact PCB in the middle. The vapor chamber takes the heat from the GPU & the rest of the components such as VRAM and power circuitry, and distributes it over the five massive heat pipes. These are then attached to three separate pieces of heatsinks with several aluminum fins.
The two heatsink blocks on the sides will connect over the heat pipes while the middle heatsink is going to be attached under the PCB. Then come the two fans which are still based on axial technology & blow air through the fin stacks.
According to NVIDIA, the new RTX 50 Founders Edition cooler dramatically reduces the noise output versus previous-gen designs.
The RTX 20 series coolers with Two-Slot & Dual-Axial designs shoot up to 50dBA around a 300W TDP while a Two-Slot & Flow-Through design would shoot up to the same noise level as around a 400W TDP. The RTX 50 FE can maintain around 30-35 dBA with a load of up to 600W.
There are just a few days left for the launch of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 GPUs, so we will see how well the new Founders Edition coolers fare against previous designs and what their thermal characteristics look like in the days ahead.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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