Forbidden Disassembly: NVIDIA Laptop RTX 5090 with Water Cooling
video description
Date: 2025-03-30
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 20
Bob-of-Zoid
I love taking stuff apart! When I was a Kid no toy was safe, because after playing with it for a little bit, I got bored with the make believe and felt the urge to see what makes it tick. By the time I was 12 I had a great record of not only being able to take things apart without breaking anything, but also made some alterations and improvements to things and fix stuff that broke, and preferably before my dad tried and broke it worse... My mom would hand me anything that didn't work and see if I could fix it, instead of paying for repairs or buying a new one, and did fix quite a few things too.
This was in the 70's with no internet to find info, but I did go to the library to see what I could find that may help when faced with something I couldn't figure out myself, and we also still had arts and crafts in the schools too. I built my own computer shortly after I found out you could buy the components and build your own, and for me it was a breeze too.
reply
I love taking stuff apart! When I was a Kid no toy was safe, because after playing with it for a little bit, I got bored with the make believe and felt the urge to see what makes it tick. By the time I was 12 I had a great record of not only being able to take things apart without breaking anything, but also made some alterations and improvements to things and fix stuff that broke, and preferably before my dad tried and broke it worse... My mom would hand me anything that didn't work and see if I could fix it, instead of paying for repairs or buying a new one, and did fix quite a few things too.
This was in the 70's with no internet to find info, but I did go to the library to see what I could find that may help when faced with something I couldn't figure out myself, and we also still had arts and crafts in the schools too. I built my own computer shortly after I found out you could buy the components and build your own, and for me it was a breeze too.
reply
xBrokenMirror2010x
Steve, you should maybe talk to your guy's lawyer about how Nvidia markets this GPU as a 5090 when it is clearly not. There is no way that using the same exact product name for two different products isn't false advertising. If you can find something like this, maybe you can help open the door for a class-action or something so we can stop these companies from blatantly being allowed to lie.
If they are allowed to sell this mobile GPU as an RTX 5090 what stops them from putting these in Desktop cards and selling those under the name RTX 5090 to trick people into thinking they're actually buying an RTX 5090
Different products MUST be sold with different names or we have a whole can of worms where Nvidia can call all of their GPUs the same thing and make it impossible for a consumer to know if they're getting scammed or a good deal. (Lets ignore that by buying any Nvidia card at any price point, you are getting scammed)
reply
Steve, you should maybe talk to your guy's lawyer about how Nvidia markets this GPU as a 5090 when it is clearly not. There is no way that using the same exact product name for two different products isn't false advertising. If you can find something like this, maybe you can help open the door for a class-action or something so we can stop these companies from blatantly being allowed to lie.
If they are allowed to sell this mobile GPU as an RTX 5090 what stops them from putting these in Desktop cards and selling those under the name RTX 5090 to trick people into thinking they're actually buying an RTX 5090
Different products MUST be sold with different names or we have a whole can of worms where Nvidia can call all of their GPUs the same thing and make it impossible for a consumer to know if they're getting scammed or a good deal. (Lets ignore that by buying any Nvidia card at any price point, you are getting scammed)
reply
omsi-fanmark
Unimicron (China, Germany) and Neoconix (USA) specialises in the design and production of high end PCB to PCB connectors and interposers. That thing Steve disassembled against warning is the PCIe connection between MB and GPU. So there should be 8 PCIe lanes (and other stuff) passing through that small thing!
This is similar (almost identical) to the Framework Laptop 16, which has a user-pluggable dGPU option module. Difference is, that Framework gives explicit instructions to the user to connect or disconnect this component in order to install or uninstall the dGPU module at any time. The Framework Laptop 16 is a bit smaller and less heavy w/o the dGPU module. Alternatively, the connector can also be used to connect to an additional NVMe mobule for up to two NVMe 2280 SSDs. The Framework Laptop is completely modular and user-serviceable, Framework even includes the screwdriver. Quite the opposite of this XMG.
reply
Unimicron (China, Germany) and Neoconix (USA) specialises in the design and production of high end PCB to PCB connectors and interposers. That thing Steve disassembled against warning is the PCIe connection between MB and GPU. So there should be 8 PCIe lanes (and other stuff) passing through that small thing!
This is similar (almost identical) to the Framework Laptop 16, which has a user-pluggable dGPU option module. Difference is, that Framework gives explicit instructions to the user to connect or disconnect this component in order to install or uninstall the dGPU module at any time. The Framework Laptop 16 is a bit smaller and less heavy w/o the dGPU module. Alternatively, the connector can also be used to connect to an additional NVMe mobule for up to two NVMe 2280 SSDs. The Framework Laptop is completely modular and user-serviceable, Framework even includes the screwdriver. Quite the opposite of this XMG.
reply
markpierro4679
I think the idea behind the mag connection on the water cooling loop was a breakaway connection. You have a portable device (laptop) with a water cooling base station. Imagine brain farting for a moment, closing your laptop, picking it up and attempting to walk away and forgetting to disconnect the rad. If you have a secured connection on both sides then you are just going to drag a heavy object (rad brick) off the desk and send it crashing to the floor, possibly taking your laptop out of your hands with it or at least it getting snatched out of your hands by the hose loop. With the mag connection on the radiator side the hose loop will break away from the radiator instead of potentially destroying both your expensive laptop and radiator by sudden unintended Linus Sebastian (for those of you who don't know, Linus has a habit of accidentally dropping and destroying expensive electronic items).
reply
I think the idea behind the mag connection on the water cooling loop was a breakaway connection. You have a portable device (laptop) with a water cooling base station. Imagine brain farting for a moment, closing your laptop, picking it up and attempting to walk away and forgetting to disconnect the rad. If you have a secured connection on both sides then you are just going to drag a heavy object (rad brick) off the desk and send it crashing to the floor, possibly taking your laptop out of your hands with it or at least it getting snatched out of your hands by the hose loop. With the mag connection on the radiator side the hose loop will break away from the radiator instead of potentially destroying both your expensive laptop and radiator by sudden unintended Linus Sebastian (for those of you who don't know, Linus has a habit of accidentally dropping and destroying expensive electronic items).
reply
core36
Up until and including the gtx 9 series cards, the mobile chips did have an m next to their name, i.e. gtx 960m
They stopped doing this with the gtx 10 series, because they advertised that there is no difference between the desktop and the mobile chips anymore. And it’s kinda true, if we look at the specs, they have the same memory size, bandwidth and shading units and the only difference seems to be the clock speeds to be a bit more power efficient on mobile chips.
Having them not continue this trend and instead using less powerful chips with the name of the more powerful desktop counterpart without any indication is pretty much a scam
reply
Up until and including the gtx 9 series cards, the mobile chips did have an m next to their name, i.e. gtx 960m
They stopped doing this with the gtx 10 series, because they advertised that there is no difference between the desktop and the mobile chips anymore. And it’s kinda true, if we look at the specs, they have the same memory size, bandwidth and shading units and the only difference seems to be the clock speeds to be a bit more power efficient on mobile chips.
Having them not continue this trend and instead using less powerful chips with the name of the more powerful desktop counterpart without any indication is pretty much a scam
reply
angieandretti
23:12 XMG says the separate CPU & GPU sections of the motherboard allows for more efficient manufacturing. You can pick the CPU and the GPU you want, and they just pull the two appropriate boards required to complete the build request. What really sucks is that they've said up-front that YOU can never upgrade it later at home. If you buy the laptop with a 5080 and later acquire a 5090 GPU board, even if you install it perfectly and don't damage anything, they say it WILL NOT WORK - which is a real shame given what could be possible here with this sort of dual-board design.
reply
23:12 XMG says the separate CPU & GPU sections of the motherboard allows for more efficient manufacturing. You can pick the CPU and the GPU you want, and they just pull the two appropriate boards required to complete the build request. What really sucks is that they've said up-front that YOU can never upgrade it later at home. If you buy the laptop with a 5080 and later acquire a 5090 GPU board, even if you install it perfectly and don't damage anything, they say it WILL NOT WORK - which is a real shame given what could be possible here with this sort of dual-board design.
reply
DJDocsVideos
The default config for the XMG NEO 16(E25) is 2,699.00. The 5090 LAPTOP (24 GB) option is 1450.00 over the 5070Ti (12 GB) default option. and the 1TB Samsung 9100 SSD is 113.53 over the 1 TB Kingston FURY Renegade default option.
RAM and SSD is too expensive in my book.
Sadly there's no Barebone option
Personally I would go with the cheapest options for RAM and SSD and put 2 XPG Gammix S70 Blade 8TB SSDs in and a Crucial DDR5 RAM 128GB Kit (2x64GB) 5600MHz CL46 SODIMM.
However I have no interrest in a laptop with a dGPU from NGreedia and a CPU from Intel.
reply
The default config for the XMG NEO 16(E25) is 2,699.00. The 5090 LAPTOP (24 GB) option is 1450.00 over the 5070Ti (12 GB) default option. and the 1TB Samsung 9100 SSD is 113.53 over the 1 TB Kingston FURY Renegade default option.
RAM and SSD is too expensive in my book.
Sadly there's no Barebone option
Personally I would go with the cheapest options for RAM and SSD and put 2 XPG Gammix S70 Blade 8TB SSDs in and a Crucial DDR5 RAM 128GB Kit (2x64GB) 5600MHz CL46 SODIMM.
However I have no interrest in a laptop with a dGPU from NGreedia and a CPU from Intel.
reply
Squril
Huh...I just bought an XMG laptop, only just arrived. Weird coincidence. Not for gaming, though, so no dedicated graphics (and no OS, which is a nice option). Though they're quite a bit expensive I've chosen them, because they're supposedly repair friendly and, also supposedly, have fairly highly praised customer service.
I'm a bit sad that they only had the choice between intel 155h and AMD 8845hs, but...the 155h at least got decent reviews for battery life, which is what I'm interested in.
Now to watch the video and see how this thing is built.
reply
Huh...I just bought an XMG laptop, only just arrived. Weird coincidence. Not for gaming, though, so no dedicated graphics (and no OS, which is a nice option). Though they're quite a bit expensive I've chosen them, because they're supposedly repair friendly and, also supposedly, have fairly highly praised customer service.
I'm a bit sad that they only had the choice between intel 155h and AMD 8845hs, but...the 155h at least got decent reviews for battery life, which is what I'm interested in.
Now to watch the video and see how this thing is built.
reply
sloreo8278
Really want to see one of these shunt modded and see if the chip is just power starved. The laptop 4090 gets a 25% increase from being shunted. Also really want to see XMG try a bigger radiator and tubing. My laptop is water cooled and runs as much as 30 cooler than it ever did on air, meanwhile theirs barely runs as well as the air cooling does. I use 2 240mm radiators for mine but they swear up and down that more cooling capacity is pointless... While using a single 120mm with no airflow at all for a laptop that can pull 300w total system power.
reply
Really want to see one of these shunt modded and see if the chip is just power starved. The laptop 4090 gets a 25% increase from being shunted. Also really want to see XMG try a bigger radiator and tubing. My laptop is water cooled and runs as much as 30 cooler than it ever did on air, meanwhile theirs barely runs as well as the air cooling does. I use 2 240mm radiators for mine but they swear up and down that more cooling capacity is pointless... While using a single 120mm with no airflow at all for a laptop that can pull 300w total system power.
reply
OnTheRocks71
That 2 part motherboard solution is not something I think I've seen in a laptop. I suppose a user could theoretically upgrade either the GPU or CPU separately by purchasing the requisite board. Although it most likely would never make sense from a financial standpoint when it comes to a laptop. Back in the day manufacturers toyed with MXM graphics cards for their gaming machines which promised user upgradeability, but cards were insanely expensive (if there even was a replacement card) and it added to the thickness of the machine.
reply
That 2 part motherboard solution is not something I think I've seen in a laptop. I suppose a user could theoretically upgrade either the GPU or CPU separately by purchasing the requisite board. Although it most likely would never make sense from a financial standpoint when it comes to a laptop. Back in the day manufacturers toyed with MXM graphics cards for their gaming machines which promised user upgradeability, but cards were insanely expensive (if there even was a replacement card) and it added to the thickness of the machine.
reply
fuxseb
How do laptop manufacturers and NVIDIA get away with selling a inferior product (e.g. 5080) under the name of something else (5090) A while ago there would be something more (Max-Q) or less (M, Mobile) confusing appended to the name. I found out some time ago that almost none of my friends were aware of this performance disparity. A reasonable person can't expect that. After all the SSD capacity, the amount of RAM, Ethernet, DP/HDMI performance are all the same whether it's a desktop or a laptop. So how does it not amount to fraud
reply
How do laptop manufacturers and NVIDIA get away with selling a inferior product (e.g. 5080) under the name of something else (5090) A while ago there would be something more (Max-Q) or less (M, Mobile) confusing appended to the name. I found out some time ago that almost none of my friends were aware of this performance disparity. A reasonable person can't expect that. After all the SSD capacity, the amount of RAM, Ethernet, DP/HDMI performance are all the same whether it's a desktop or a laptop. So how does it not amount to fraud
reply
imglidinhere
The water chamber actually runs the circuit around the outer edge of the GPU and CPU. Even though it's only a 120mm rad, adding that to the immensely powerful heatsink array these machines have, you tend to get well into the realm of 300w total cooling capacity with relative ease. Eluktronics is the American reseller here that I think you guys should check out. :D
The Hydroc G2 is the latest and greatest from them that's about to launch. Be cool if you guys could get a machine from them and give it a thorough testing.
reply
The water chamber actually runs the circuit around the outer edge of the GPU and CPU. Even though it's only a 120mm rad, adding that to the immensely powerful heatsink array these machines have, you tend to get well into the realm of 300w total cooling capacity with relative ease. Eluktronics is the American reseller here that I think you guys should check out. :D
The Hydroc G2 is the latest and greatest from them that's about to launch. Be cool if you guys could get a machine from them and give it a thorough testing.
reply
Christopher-b1p
I run a gaming laptop with a 4050 or 4060 in it and an i9.. I have about 200 hours in with Civ 7. I run it overclocked with the fan at max. It's not too noisy. People might turn their noses up at a gaming laptop, but really, it's convenient, and not really that expensive, The price has come down 30%. My previous gaming laptop went up in flames (not literally) because the computer shop wouldn't clean it (under warranty).. I never really used the Nvidia chip in it, because it always used the on board Intel.
reply
I run a gaming laptop with a 4050 or 4060 in it and an i9.. I have about 200 hours in with Civ 7. I run it overclocked with the fan at max. It's not too noisy. People might turn their noses up at a gaming laptop, but really, it's convenient, and not really that expensive, The price has come down 30%. My previous gaming laptop went up in flames (not literally) because the computer shop wouldn't clean it (under warranty).. I never really used the Nvidia chip in it, because it always used the on board Intel.
reply
NickChapmanThe
3 things.
1 The just Josh video was entirely reasonable but the GN Steve setting and features and cuts (no one cuts TO GN Steve!) definitely kept me confused and entertained.
2 the treardown felt like an unedited hangout in the best kind of way (im half way through).
3 I can't put a finger on why I don't want to watch the j video. I think I missed the joke and am salty but don't want to admit it. But I'm short on content and know I'll enjoy once I hit play. I guess I'm confessing.
Thanks as always!!
reply
3 things.
1 The just Josh video was entirely reasonable but the GN Steve setting and features and cuts (no one cuts TO GN Steve!) definitely kept me confused and entertained.
2 the treardown felt like an unedited hangout in the best kind of way (im half way through).
3 I can't put a finger on why I don't want to watch the j video. I think I missed the joke and am salty but don't want to admit it. But I'm short on content and know I'll enjoy once I hit play. I guess I'm confessing.
Thanks as always!!
reply
SpankMyFace
I think last generation mobile nvidia cards were all either variants of the 4060 desktop card, or the 4070.
If you got a 4050m, 4060m, or 4070m, they were all 4060 variants with different voltage limitations.
If you go look at some of the benchmarks, you could tell the GPUs were all the same just by looking at performance graphs.
Kinda shytty of Nvidia, they were somewhat upfront about their 9XX laptops since they put the m moniker in the name... not anymore though.
reply
I think last generation mobile nvidia cards were all either variants of the 4060 desktop card, or the 4070.
If you got a 4050m, 4060m, or 4070m, they were all 4060 variants with different voltage limitations.
If you go look at some of the benchmarks, you could tell the GPUs were all the same just by looking at performance graphs.
Kinda shytty of Nvidia, they were somewhat upfront about their 9XX laptops since they put the m moniker in the name... not anymore though.
reply
jamesmcd71
Dell has had a problem building a gaming PC for decades now. But when it comes to a laptop, in my opinion, you can't find a better one. They are not the cheapest, but they build an exalent machine that is extremely easy to serve and maintain.
And the quality is the same across the range. From the budget baller to the most expensive gaming focused laptop, all are built extremely well without the insane over engineering found in the desktop division.
reply
Dell has had a problem building a gaming PC for decades now. But when it comes to a laptop, in my opinion, you can't find a better one. They are not the cheapest, but they build an exalent machine that is extremely easy to serve and maintain.
And the quality is the same across the range. From the budget baller to the most expensive gaming focused laptop, all are built extremely well without the insane over engineering found in the desktop division.
reply
pixeled-
Really enjoyed this one. I know it's outside of your usual coverage but I would love it if you guys reviewed and/or disassembled more mobile platforms (laptops, handhelds, etc.). I think technology-wise it has a lot to offer that's within your range of interests such as the latest Ryzen MAX APU series. Also, loved to see your approach/genuine surprise to things such as the angled screws and the narrow ethernet port ;)
reply
Really enjoyed this one. I know it's outside of your usual coverage but I would love it if you guys reviewed and/or disassembled more mobile platforms (laptops, handhelds, etc.). I think technology-wise it has a lot to offer that's within your range of interests such as the latest Ryzen MAX APU series. Also, loved to see your approach/genuine surprise to things such as the angled screws and the narrow ethernet port ;)
reply
TheShivABC
The price they want for these laptops they should come with an MXM graphics card instead of being directly soldered, I love planned obsolescence, my dell precision m6800 covet edition originally came with an MXM 3.0 quadro 4100m, but with some mods and edit to the bios microcode it has an RTX2060M MXM 3.1 card in it, even though its an older cpu (i7 4930MX) it works great, still pretty much plays everything I want
reply
The price they want for these laptops they should come with an MXM graphics card instead of being directly soldered, I love planned obsolescence, my dell precision m6800 covet edition originally came with an MXM 3.0 quadro 4100m, but with some mods and edit to the bios microcode it has an RTX2060M MXM 3.1 card in it, even though its an older cpu (i7 4930MX) it works great, still pretty much plays everything I want
reply
SaarN1337
When you look at specs of computers you can easily tell that a processor called 275HX would be a mobile CPU, while NVIDIA doesn't give a f and gives their mobile chips the exact same name as their desktop counterparts as if they're identical, It should be illegal to call it a 5090.
They need to bring back the -m suffix so the ones who aren't familiar can have a chance to verify what they're actually getting
reply
When you look at specs of computers you can easily tell that a processor called 275HX would be a mobile CPU, while NVIDIA doesn't give a f and gives their mobile chips the exact same name as their desktop counterparts as if they're identical, It should be illegal to call it a 5090.
They need to bring back the -m suffix so the ones who aren't familiar can have a chance to verify what they're actually getting
reply
Serketry88
A) but did it have all its ROPs B) I can see the two separate PCBs for the CPU and GPU making configurating different models much easier, and C) the magnetic water tube connection at the radiator might be a quick-detach/ break point, in case the user knocks the radiator off the desk, or walks off with the laptop without unplugging it. I think that was a selling point on an older external rad system, years ago.
reply
A) but did it have all its ROPs B) I can see the two separate PCBs for the CPU and GPU making configurating different models much easier, and C) the magnetic water tube connection at the radiator might be a quick-detach/ break point, in case the user knocks the radiator off the desk, or walks off with the laptop without unplugging it. I think that was a selling point on an older external rad system, years ago.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
