GPU maker Palit and start-up Lynk+ revealed a concept RTX 4090 that comes with a modular AIO and a giant screen. YouTuber der8auer shared the GPU concept on his channel, which used Lynk+’s GPU cooling solution that combines the reliability and ease of use of AIOs and the performance of custom loops.
The biggest advantage you get with Lynk+’s cooling solution over other AIOs is that it comes as a modular system. That means you can install another radiator from Lynk+ and run it in serial, increasing your AIO’s cooling capacity — making it ready for future GPUs, which could have higher power requirements. You could also attach one of the ends to a CPU water block, allowing you to build a single water-cooled system for both your CPU and GPU.
However, the AIO’s pump is located on the radiator, which could be an issue. Since AIO pumps are designed for water resistance, it’s not recommended to put one in a location where air bubbles could accumulate. This means that you should avoid putting the Lynk+ radiator along the top of your PC case, as that would also place its pump at the highest place of the AIO system (unless you install it askew, which will look horrible).
Another feature this new GPU AIO cooling system will feature is the 7-inch display on the GPU itself. Presumably, you can put anything on the display, but Lynk+ is working with hardware info to show your GPU’s stats in the future. However, the screen’s location might make it difficult to see what’s on it in the first place. It’s placed where the fans are in most air-cooled GPUs, so it will be underneath the graphics card if you mount it on your motherboard traditionally. You therefore must use a riser cable and vertically mount the GPU just so you can see what’s on the display.
The radiator shown in the video is 360mm long, with three 120mm arctic fans, which should put it on par with some of the best AIO coolers of 2024. der8auer's tests show that the GPU’s average temperature is 36.4 deg C, with hotspots at 45.6 deg C, in idle. He then ran a gaming test for 15 minutes, with the RTX 4090 consuming around 390 watts. The GPU temperature remained stable at 58.2 deg C, with the fans spinning at 1,165 RPM.
der8auer expects that this cooling solution is slated for the RTX 5090, especially as we expect it to come out this year. However, Palit did tease a new GameRock GPU with a hybrid cooling solution in May, which we expect to launch during Computex 2024, this week. We will find out if the new hybrid GPU will feature a combined air- and water-cooling solution, or if it’s talking about this modular AIO system, in the next few days. But Lynk+’s developments in GPU and CPU cooling couldn’t come any sooner, especially as new GPUs and CPUs are putting out more heat with AI computing.
