by
Aaron Klotz
—
Friday, March 10, 2023, 05:43 PM EDT
According to a report by Reddit user, it appears NVIDIA is now shipping a new GPU die with the RTX 4090 named AD102-301-A1. We don't know anything about this die officially, but the user, u/cavitysearch123, reports that the die features a reduced voltage limit of 1.070v compared to the original die's limit of 1.1v. Based on these details, it appears the new die could be a refreshed variant utilizing higher quality silicon, capable of running the same frequencies as the original chip at lower voltages.
The Reddit user found the new die change by accident on his RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card, when he went to remove the Founders Edition cooler to replace it with an aftermarket water block. Thankfully the minuscule name change caught his attention, in time for him to share details of his discovery on Reddit. Given NVIDIA's track record with previous die refreshes, it is doubtful NVIDIA will share any official details of the new die model and its associative changes in the near future.
The user also discovered a couple of other changes made to the RTX 4090 Founders Edition, apart from the die refresh. The card he got also included a new board designation with the name 16F1, and a new BIOS named 95.02.26.00.02. This isn't surprising, since the new die probably required some additional PCB and BIOS tweaks to account for any changes made inside the GPU die itself.
Reddit User u/cavitysearch123's AD102-301 Die Shot
He also confirmed his voltage limitation sightings, showing images of MSI Afterburner and ASUS GPU Tweak III with the V/F curve manually adjusted to target the RTX 4090's maximum voltage. The images blatantly reveal the chip is hard locked at 1.07v, despite the voltage curve being tweaked to a higher limit.
This name change is very similar to the recent die refresh for the RTX 4080, which got an upgrade from die AD103-300 to AD103-301. This refreshed die reportedly features a reduced bill-of-materials, thanks to the removal of a comparator circuit on the PCB. The chip also features some additional stability improvements as well. The RTX 4090 counterpart could very well have these same changes, but we cannot confirm this officially.
Sadly, we'll probably never know officially what has changed under the hood with this new AD102-301-A1 die, but it seems like any RTX 4090's (or other future GPU models with AD102) equipped with this refreshed die could see slightly better power consumption while gaming.
