Choosing RTX 4090: liquid-cooled OC vs triple-fan air for long renders

[Zoey65]

I'm building an extreme high-end PC for 4K gaming and professional 3D rendering work, and I've allocated the budget for an RTX 4090, but I'm trying to decide on the specific model from the various AIB partners. I've been poring over RTX 4090 benchmarks for thermal performance and clock speeds, but I'm finding it difficult to translate those synthetic numbers into real-world differences in noise levels and sustained performance during long rendering sessions. For users who have hands-on experience with different 4090 variants, is the premium for a heavily overclocked liquid-cooled model actually justified for my use case, or will a well-designed triple-fan air-cooled card provide nearly identical real-world results without the complexity and potential failure points of an AIO cooler?