Advancing AI With Smarter Cooling And Sustainable Innovation

Author: Andrew Pack, Dell Technologies & Matt Houseman, NVIDIA Collection: 2025 OCP Global Summit - Expo Hall Sessions

Summary

Dell and NVIDIA jointly present the evolution of GPU rack power and performance from Kepler through Blackwell Ultra, showing 2.6x more power per rack (from ~40-60 kW to ~120 kW) but 41x the performance, achieving an exaFLOP in a single rack. The presentation makes the case that while GPU compute efficiency is at an all-time high -- 2,500x more efficient at training and 200,000x the inference performance over 11 years -- the surrounding infrastructure (cooling, power, cabling) must evolve to match. Air-cooled racks use approximately 30% of their power for cooling via fans, making the transition to liquid cooling an economic and physical necessity at 40-80+ kW per rack densities.

Dell introduces its Integrated Rack Scalable Systems (IRSS) portfolio spanning three tiers: Ultimate Performance (IR9000, liquid cooled, including XE9712 with GB300 NVL72), Extreme Performance (IR7000, OCP ORv3 standard, liquid cooled, including XE9780L/XE9785L and XE8712), and High Performance (IR5000, EIA 19-inch, both liquid and air cooled). The highlight is the Dell PowerCool Enclosed Rear Door Heat Exchanger (eRDHx), which captures 100% of remaining air-side heat to facility water at 32C/90F (versus 20C for traditional RDHx), enabling cooling tower operation instead of chillers (10x lower energy). This delivers 60% reduction in cooling energy or alternatively 16% more compute deployment without increasing power consumption. The eRDHx is available Q4 CY2025.