Renderboxes achieves world's first with AMD's latest 9800X3D gaming CPU

Renderboxes founder Richard Rogers claims to have developed the world's first quad RTX 4090 GPU workstation. The secret sauce? AMD's just-released Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming processor. 

New technology on its own isn’t that exciting. A new AMD chip, for example, is just a lump of silicon and metal right up until you apply it to your computer, and suddenly, it’s something very cool. 

Cooler still is when technology gets into the hands of the rebels and renegades of the space. That’s when you end up with something borderline revolutionary. 

A fine example is what Renderboxes has just done with AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

All night long

"Sat up all night testing this out," says Renderboxes founder Richard Rogers in a video revealing—alongside the company's brand new workstation building facility—AMD's latest gaming-focused CPU successfully driving four NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPUs in a single Renderboxes Nano workstation system.

For a bit of background, Renderboxes—based in the UK but with customers all over the world—has a reputation for pushing the limits of workstation performance to meet the needs of creative professionals. Its primary focus is on intensive tasks like 3D rendering, animation, and video production. 

It built its pedigree upon unique innovations in the space, such as developing independent cooling solutions for GPUs or the decoupling of vast amounts of GPUs from the motherboard for extreme render power and compute, resulting in machines that run quieter, cooler, and more efficiently under heavy loads. And with this latest announcement, it may have done it again.

The video, posted to the Renderboxes Instagram, teases a potential new approach to high-performance workstations. This new model—working title: the Nano Zen—marks a bold move into making pro-grade power accessible to a broader audience. As Rogers says in the video, this is “a professional workstation built on a consumer CPU.” 

After seeing the video, we chatted with him about this new budding quad-core revolution. 

Professional power at consumer price points

What makes the Nano Zen particularly significant, Rogers tells us, is how it challenges conventional workstation design wisdom. 

By successfully implementing a consumer-grade CPU in a professional quad-GPU configuration, Renderboxes is opening the door to more affordable professional workstation solutions. The system is designed to excel in demanding applications and professional tools that benefit from fast core speeds and multiple GPUs.

As mentioned above, we start with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D—a gaming-focused processor with performance chops that have turned heads across the tech world. This has been combined into a Renderboxes Nano rig, configured with four NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPUs. 

The AMD Ryzen 9800 series process. Photo: AMD

From there, Renderboxes has cleverly integrated its signature PLX switching technology, previously only available in its HEDT and Pro workstations, into this more budget-friendly system. This is the core technology that makes it possible to manage multiple GPUs on a single consumer CPU setup, enabling a four-GPU powerhouse configuration without latency or performance compromise.

The house it all lives in is the Renderboxes Nano chassis. The Nano is designed to accommodate future expansions, maximize GPU airflow, reinforce protection for machines being shipped and moved around, provide custom cooling solutions for heat dispersal, custom AIO cooling for CPU, and worldwide switching PSU for global use, with ease of access for servicing/upgrading.

The Renderboxes Nano chassis. Photo: Renderboxes

Then, for the last step on this magical mystery tour, it’s back to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, where Renderboxes has tapped into AMD’s advanced Zen 5 architecture to optimize for both energy efficiency and peak performance, making the Nano Zen surprisingly quiet and cool, even during intense workflows. 

R&D in action

According to Rogers, this concept is still in R&D, but in the video he does hint at an official model launching in January 2025. 

This gives us just enough time to get excited over the possibilities. DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Cinema 4D—really any demanding application that craves multi-GPU support and the fastest core speeds—running smoothly on pro spec machines selling at prosumer prices. 

That’s the dream, right?

As well as the video software potential, the configuration seems well-suited for high-end gaming systems too. In a world where many gamers also dabble in streaming or content creation, the multi-GPU support and optimized core performance provide the flexibility to switch between gaming and production tasks without compromise, making it a solid option for those seeking a hybrid solution.

Looking forward

While still in development, if the Renderboxes team can deliver this is a promising future for professional workstation design. 

By thinking outside conventional hardware configurations, Renderboxes may open up new possibilities for content creators and professionals who require serious computational power but have previously been priced out of high-end solutions.

"Just watch this space," Rogers teases at the end of the video. Given what we've seen so far, that space could be worth watching...

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