Nvidias direct-to-chip liquid cooling is a sustainability and a performance win

Date:
Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:05:00 +0000

Description:
We have eliminated massive amounts of power usage and pretty much all water usage Nvidia Rubin to use 45C direct-to-chip cooling.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Nvidias closed-loop liquid cooling system virtually eliminates water waste Direct-to-chip cooling transfers heat more effectively than air It enables higher performance-per-watt and higher rack densities Data centers arent without their fair share of criticism energy-intensive compute raises temperatures and giant campuses consume considerable amounts of air and/or water to keep them running optimally.

Land scarcity and financial incentives have also been pushing new
developments closer to high-risk areas, including drought-prone regions, ultimately leading to even higher cooling requirements. But Nvidia knows
this, and it knows traditional air cooling has pretty much reached its limits as AI hardware becomes denser and denser. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Closed-loop cooling virtually eliminates water waste With cooling now a core part of AI infrastructure design, Nvidias latest liquid-cooled AI
systems promise higher thresholds to reduce the burden, driving down water
and energy consumption as a result.

By running coolant at higher temperatures 45C or 113F, to be specific it enabled simpler cooling systems and lowers electricity consumption. Nvidias concept uses 75% water, 25% glycol as a coolant, noting that it can run about 5-7C higher than hot tubs. You may like Cooling just became the most
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Compared with traditional evaporative cooling towers, Nvidias latest proposition involves a closed-loop system where coolant continuously circulates through servers to remove excess heat from chips. The warm coolant then cycles through external dry coolers leaving virtually no water evaporation.

The company boasted that cooling-related water consumption can be reduced by as much as 100% in suitable climates subject to the occasional extreme day, with cooling towers totally eliminated. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
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The Nvidia DSX reference design for AI factories has zero water consumption we have eliminated massive amounts of power usage and pretty much all water usage, Data Center Cooling and Infrastructure Director Ali Heydari said .

The systems efficiency primarily comes from direct-to-chip liquid cooling, where liquid flows directly through cold plates attached to CPUs and GPUs. This captures and expels the heat from exactly where its produced.

Not only is this more effective than cooling entire rooms, but liquid also promises to transfer heat thousands of times more effectively than air. What to read next The AI heat trap: why data centers must rethink thermodynamics Micron's $50 billion chip factory in Idaho will use billions of litres of water every year Amazon reveals exactly how much water its data centers used last year

Major improvements across water consumption, energy efficiency and Power
Usage Effectiveness (PUE) all help on the sustainability front, but theres another layer to the benefits. Nvidia says it can increase rack density and performance Nvidia acknowledged that chip power consumption and rack
densities continue to rise, so by implementing liquid cooling data center companies can add more GPUs per rack, use higher rack power and ultimately pack in larger AI clusters within the same building footprint.

The company explained that its Rubin systems now fit inside two racks,
instead of six, marking a major space saving.

Simultaneously, air cooling has become ineffective. Once the watts per chip crossed a certain level, liquid cooling became mandatory, Motivairs CEO Richard Whitmore said.

Independent testing totally separate from Nvidias latest announcement shows that its H100 systems delivered around 17% higher performance when water cooled, compared with air cooling. Under sustained AI workloads, GPU temperatures fluctuated between 41-50C when water cooled, and 54-72C when air cooled.

Besides improving immediate and sustained performance, greater thermal efficiency could also boost longevity.

The new, higher-temperature closed-loop water cooling model is set to be used in upcoming Rubin deployments this year. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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