Question New graphics cards and resolution

DAG93

Reputable
Feb 23, 2020
92
4
4,545
Hey everyone I come to you on the eve of the Nvidia 4000 series launch with a question about performance vs screen resolution. I know from the reviews today that the 4090 becomes less bottlenecked by cpu performance at higher resolutions such as 4K. At 1440p the processor that I am most interested in (5800x3d) seems to be quite the bottleneck for the 4090 is some situations. I have a 21:9 ultra wide which has more horizontal pixels then a standard 1440p. Being that the 4090 scales better at higher resolutions is it safe to say that a user of an ultrawide 1440p monitor would expect less of a bottleneck from the cpu? My brain says yes but I am unsure. I plan on waiting for AMD to release their new cards also before I make a decision on what will pair best with my system so I don’t leave performance on the table. It’s just most reviews only show for standard 1440p resolutions and not 3440 x 1440.
 

DAG93

Reputable
Feb 23, 2020
92
4
4,545
Thank you! That’s exactly what I was thinking. That being said the 4090 is a bit to much… I’ll be looking towards the 4080 and AMD releases. From a business perspective I understand what and why Nvidia is doing what it is doing but I hope AMD is here to drop them down a notch this generation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: alceryes
Thank you! That’s exactly what I was thinking. That being said the 4090 is a bit to much… I’ll be looking towards the 4080 and AMD releases. From a business perspective I understand what and why Nvidia is doing what it is doing but I hope AMD is here to drop them down a notch this generation.
You're welcome.

AMD did the same last generation, with the 6900 and 6950 competing with the 3090 and 3090 Ti. They'll compete with this generation too. With the 4090 performance numbers being where they are, I can't help but think that NVIDIA got spooked by AMD last gen. Normally, this kind of performance uplift takes two full generations, but it looks like NVIDIA opened the throttle almost (there will be a Ti version of the 4090) all the way on this one, right out of the gate.

Also, important note, it's not that your CPU will become less of a bottleneck, it's that your GPU becomes MORE of a bottleneck, at higher resolutions. There is a distinction, especially if considering the less powerful 4080s which will shift this bottleneck dynamic. Definitely wait for reviews and make an informed decision.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DAG93
Normally, this kind of performance uplift takes two full generations
In terms of manufacturing, the GeForce 40 series is two generations ahead of the RTX 30 series. The RTX 30 series was built on an improved 10nm process. The 40 series is built on an improved 5nm process. A similar thing happened with Pascal. Maxwell 2 was on 28nm, NVIDIA skipped 20nm and went to 16nm for Pascal.

I would argue that, outside of a few interesting layout changes, both companies are simply iterating on their existing designs and rely on manufacturing to carry their performance improvements.
 
Last edited:
In terms of manufacturing, the GeForce 40 series is two generations ahead of the RTX 30 series. The RTX 30 series was built on an improved 10nm process. The 40 series is built on n improveda 5nm process. A similar thing happened with Pascal. Maxwell 2 was on 28nm, NVIDIA skipped 20nm and went to 16nm for Pascal.

I would argue that, outside of a few interesting layout changes, both companies are simply iterating on their existing designs and rely on manufacturing to carry their performance improvements.
True. It would be nice if some of the 3rd party reviewers do more of an IPC comparison between the 3000 and 4000 cards, just to see how much of the improvement is straight Hz. Kinda like AMD's new chips - a good portion of the improvement is because of the high boost clocks.
Although, I do think the nm reduction and Hz uplift accounts for a good portion of the improvement, I think the new gen cores also give a nice performance bump over the old.