EKWB Now Offers Active Backplates for RTX 3080, 3090 Reference GPUs
EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX3080/3090 active backplate is made to complement the existing EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 water blocks and actively cool the backside of a reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs.
EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 Active Backplates
EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 active backplate links the water block and active backplate part with a new terminal, which replaces the stock terminal that comes with your water block. This way, the whole enclosure requires only one inlet and one outlet, removing unnecessary additional tubing and reducing clutter. It is the ultimate aesthetic and performance solution that finds your GPU sandwiched between two water blocks, allowing maximum cooling.
The brand new Vector Active Backplate directly cools all PCB hotspots found on the backside of the GPU core and VRM (voltage regulation module). In the case of RTX 3090, the VRAM located on the backside is being cooled, while the PCB on RTX 3080 GPUs is being cooled around the front-mounted VRAM. Cooling liquid is channeled over all these critical areas.
These newly developed active backplates feature a fin array with six wide channels allowing for very low flow restriction. This, in turn, provides overall lower temperatures, while the active backplate itself gets more than sufficient surface area for heat transfer.
The base of the active backplate is CNC-machined out of nickel-plated electrolytic copper, while the top is either CNC-machined out of glass-like cast Acrylic or black POM acetal. The rest of the backplate is made of nickel-plated or anodized aluminum, and it doesn't come in contact with the liquid. These Vector Active Backplates also feature terminals that match the top cover - the Plexi version has an acrylic terminal, while the acetal one boasts the black POM acetal terminal. The watertight sealing is ensured by high-quality EPDM O-rings.
Compatibility
EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 Active Backplates are compatible with EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 water blocks made for reference PCB design. For a full compatibility list, please check the EK Cooling Configurator.
D-RGB Lighting on EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 Active Backplate
On the acrylic model, the aesthetic end-piece is housing the addressable D-RGB LED strip, while the acetal model has no LED lighting. This active backplate boasts a total of eight individually addressable RGB LEDs, and it's compatible with popular RGB sync technologies from all major motherboard manufacturers. The arrow marking on the 3-pin D-RGB LED connector is to be aligned with the +5V marking on the D-RGB (addressable) header.
Availability and Pricing
The EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX series active backplates are made in Slovenia, Europe, and are already available for pre-order through EK Webshop or EK Partner Reseller Network at an MSRP of 134.90 EUR (inc. VAT). They are expected to start shipping in early April 2021.
Member
Posts: 28
Joined: 2015-04-24
To be clear, cooling the back is completely optional and is more of an esthetic choice that a necessity. If you dont want to drop money for a back block then dont.
Senior Member
Posts: 952
Joined: 2015-11-21
agree to disagree, the backplate is one of the main heat sources left in my water cooled computer, the one cooking my memory sticks and going straight into the top radiator and motherboard vrm/pch heatsink which is irrelevant on most intels but not on TRX40 threadripper as the large VRM/PCH heatsink on top is hot enough already (thus the active chipset fan)
(it's why before I went liquid cooling on TR I had a weird bottom/top intake and front/rear exhaust config temps and even benchmark scores were better and I tried all the configs you can imagine in my case 500+ benchmarks too)
versus my old air cooler that would burn my finger my current water cooler has lowered the backplate heat but it's still there and I don't want it
my vision of liquid cooling is that all heat must be exhausted outside of the case, so if I can lower the backplate temp from it's current 50-60 Im' all for it (air cooled it reached 80+°C)
Senior Member
Posts: 1307
Joined: 2011-01-11
Does anyone have any information on how this performs?
In comparison to say optimus and their blocks?
About to slap on my Optimus block some time this week and would love to know how viable this truly is.
Senior Member
Posts: 952
Joined: 2015-11-21
too soon Desk Star maybe a youtuber will do it ? part isn't available yet in retail, pre-order 1st deliveries starting april
I pre-ordered you can count on me to be as harsh on it as I was with the alphacool if it gives no benefits, is badly designed or doesn't look good

won't be able to tell you about eventual perf increase as my card is power limited I found a 390watts firmware but it's several revisions older than my current :/ maybe EK will give a block to DerBauer to test :p
Senior Member
Posts: 2640
Joined: 2015-03-20
Awesome, I'll wait for it then. I was going to get a Kryographics with active backplate (which uses a heatpipe so I prefer EK's solution anyway), but I can't find it anywhere around here.
EK blocks seem to be much more available around these parts, so I hope I'll be able to fetch that block and backplate here before the summer (I want to put in a custom loop in time for the first heat wave). I need to buy some other Watecooling parts anyway, so far I only have the distro plate/pump that came with my case (I'm still looking to find a couple of white 360mm Radiators that fit the O11 Dynamic XL case and Koolance QD3s in stock somewhere, CPU blocks seem to be available in relative abundance, though, not sure which one I'll get, perhaps something white like Corsair's XC7 if that is any good - I haven't built a custom loop since the early 2000s - back then there weren't many options - so I'm really a bit out of the loop on what's good and where to buy parts in the EU right now).
Hi there
If you are in EU then I really recommend get parts through the Aliexpress, I have built several loops with parts from Aliexpress
For fittings I use Barrow or Bykski exclusively, for GPU waterblocks I'm now using Bykski waterblocks and I'm very happy with them and performance they're surprisingly good, I'm getting 36-38°C on KPE XOC BIOS capped at 65-70% and VRAM temperatures in gaming won't break 60°C with 1495MHz OC on VRAM and 105MHz OC on core, in normal rendering temperatures won't break 30-32°C now
For CPU block, Heatkiller IV Pro is my favourite with Aquacomputer Kryos Next and Optimus waterblock
Just O11 Dynamic XL is not the best case for water cooling, but that's my view on that
Hope this helps
Thanks, Jura