Review Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Review: Queen of the Castle

[-Fran-]

Uhm... You had missed the very important piece to this disclaimer:

though improvements will vary based on your specific system setup, and the game settings used. In our testing, performance increases were found in a wide variety of DirectX 12 games, across all resolutions:

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: up to 24% (1080p)
• Battlefield 2042: up to 7% (1080p)
• Borderlands 3: Up to 8% (1080p)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard: up to 12% (4K)
• Control: up to 6% (4K)
• Cyberpunk 2077: up to 20% (1080p)
• F1Ⓡ 22: up to 17% (4K)
• Far Cry 6: up to 5% (1440p)
• Forza Horizon 5: up to 8% (1080P)
• Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition: up to 8% (4k)
• Red Dead Redemption 2: up to 7% (1080p)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: up to 5% (1080p)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: up to 5% (1080p)
• Watch Dogs: Legion: up to 9% (1440p

Hm... Why are those bad? Am I missing something?

From what I've read, nVidia is working on improving their CPU scheduler woes with the new gens, as now they're too CPU bottlenecked and it shows. AMD could have an edge there they definitely do not want to give since AMD has hardware schedulers in their cards (why it also performs under-par with nVidia in pre-DX11 games mostly).

Well, point is: any performance improvement is always welcome. Even with asterisks XD

Regards.

 

[Phaaze88]

After checking out the power consumption charts for the AIB models covered by TPU thus far, it looks like I was right about those AIB models with factory overclocks.
I would still like to see GN cover transients on other models; their image(s) would be a little easier on the eyes.

They really are a tough sell Vs the FE, IMO - save for maybe the AIO/CLC models, and even those have their caveats.
Including what spongiemaster posted: the FE is going to have a wider selection of waterblocks and be more compact - for those who want to go that route.
Back to that sad Strix, I would rather get a FE and either custom loop, or put one of Alphacool's Eiswolfs on it.


Founder's Edition.
[Hypno]You weren't considering a Suprim Liquid just now. It was a Founder's Edition.
A Gaming OC? No, that's a Founder's Edition sitting on the store shelf.
The Founder's Edition is out of stock on a website, so you were going to snatch up one of the Founder's Edition that was in stock? Yes, everything is Founder's Edition...[/end]
Just Founder's Edition.

 

[LastStanding]

Hm... Why are those bad? Am I missing something?

Yes... Yes you are. When I ALSO had stated earlier:

Going by ~ ~ Turing ~ ~ and Ampere's few or nonexistent performance uplift driver history (less than 5 drivers ~ ~ since 2018 ~ ~) it is easy to say, don't hold your breathe.

It only took NVIDIA years, though, to enhance (or... give back performance it had nerfed [Ampere early components issues that required a special update from NVIDIA, remember] from previous weak drivers 😉) old titles (that many gamers have retired), but Turing is not even mentioned (but some reports are showing a uplift for Turing ~ 2-5% for a SMALL set of titles..., hooray 🎉, right? 😏)
so, if that's worth cheering for, well, some gamers deserves to be treated like money-pots for the industry.

 

[thestryker]

They really are a tough sell Vs the FE, IMO - save for maybe the AIO/CLC models, and even those have their caveats.
Including what spongiemaster posted: the FE is going to have a wider selection of waterblocks and be more compact - for those who want to go that route.
Back to that sad Strix, I would rather get a FE and either custom loop, or put one of Alphacool's Eiswolfs on it.


Founder's Edition.
[Hypno]You weren't considering a Suprim Liquid just now. It was a Founder's Edition.
A Gaming OC? No, that's a Founder's Edition sitting on the store shelf.
The Founder's Edition is out of stock on a website, so you were going to snatch up one of the Founder's Edition that was in stock? Yes, everything is Founder's Edition...[/end]
Just Founder's Edition.

This certainly does seem to be Jensen's endgame: everyone wants FE and AIB is settling.

 

[Phaaze88]

This certainly does seem to be Jensen's endgame: everyone wants FE and AIB is settling.

Aye. We could have more AIBs drop out, but time will tell. If others bounce, Nvidia probably won't care - more money going directly to them.

 

[spongiemaster]

This certainly does seem to be Jensen's endgame: everyone wants FE and AIB is settling.

If that was the plan, Nvidia should have sold more FE's at launch. I've only seen one person say they got one. And there none on Ebay. If not even scalpers could get them, how many did Nvidia actually ship?

 

[LastStanding]

If that was the plan, Nvidia should have sold more FE's at launch. I've only seen one person say they got one. And there none on Ebay. If not even scalpers could get them, how many did Nvidia actually ship?

Well, I can say this for my area within a 150km radius, all of our retailers are fully stocked and there were no one waiting in line like it was for Ampere. Hmmm... 🤔

 

[Newoak]

Our testing of the GeForce RTX 4090 proves it's the undisputable performance leader of current GPUs, beating previous cards by 50% and more. DLSS 3 should further extend the lead, and upgraded ray tracing hardware means you can finally max out the settings in most games. Just mind the sticker shock, as the card doesn't come cheap.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Review: Queen of the Castle : Read more

On second thought, Nvidia’s 4000 series might not be in that much danger after all. The 4090 costs $100 more than the 3090 msrp, while offering over 70% performance boost. If you increase the 3060’s ($330 MSRP) performance by 70%, it performs equally to A 3080 in 2k. The 3080 is going for $530 used on ebay. So it may be the miners who are going to get massacred, not NVIDIA. The 3060ti+70% beats the 3090 by more than 15%. In G-d I trust.

 

[spongiemaster]

Well, I can say this for my area within a 150km radius, all of our retailers are fully stocked and there were no one waiting in line like it was for Ampere. Hmmm... 🤔

There was stock available for a few minutes at least for AIB models online. I'm talking about the FE model. Retailers in your area are not likely full stocked with those as Nvidia doesn't send them to most retailers.

 

[thestryker]

If that was the plan, Nvidia should have sold more FE's at launch. I've only seen one person say they got one. And there none on Ebay. If not even scalpers could get them, how many did Nvidia actually ship?

In NA they're still locked in a contract with Best Buy and it seems like EU doesn't get much allocation so that could easily explain why there aren't as many on Ebay yet. Best Buy is hardly perfect, but AFAIK checkout can't be completely automated there which would give actual customers a better shot at them.

My point was though that if they convince people that the FE is the card to get they can take more of the GPU allocations themselves over time and never worry about having excess stock. They're not likely to shove AIBs out of the way immediately, especially when they're still making absurd margins (remember EVGA was losing money on high end card sales).

 

[-Fran-]

If that was the plan, Nvidia should have sold more FE's at launch. I've only seen one person say they got one. And there none on Ebay. If not even scalpers could get them, how many did Nvidia actually ship?

Simple: mind scarcity. To be fair to nVidia, their strategy is simple and effective: put out golden samples in the form of FE cards in short supply, so people get enticed enough to just bite the bullet and buy one from AiB partners.

The FE cards are "premium feel" enough and have (specially with this release) generated* enough of an impression to make most people feel like any other card version is moot for same or equal price/cost. It's only an impressions and mind games. Effective ones, I'd say.

EDIT: Forgot to close with "Either way, nVidia wins" xD

Regards.

 

[LastStanding]

Well, we've caved in and pull the trigger on this elephant to confirm the noise if it is true or just shilled gibberish.

Keeping our receipt tattooed to our chest!

 

[-Fran-]

Yes... Yes you are. When I ALSO had stated earlier:

It only took NVIDIA years, though, to enhance (or... give back performance it had nerfed [Ampere early components issues that required a special update from NVIDIA, remember] from previous weak drivers 😉) old titles (that many gamers have retired), but Turing is not even mentioned (but some reports are showing a uplift for Turing ~ 2-5% for a SMALL set of titles..., hooray 🎉, right? 😏)
so, if that's worth cheering for, well, some gamers deserves to be treated like money-pots for the industry.

Hm... I'd say you're wrong on the premise, but not the... Sentiment?

With this release, I'd say it is quite evident nVidia could have optimised their drivers whenever they wanted, but now they actually need to? I mean, generally speaking, the only time big corps in dominant positions get their gears spinning quick is when they feel some form of pressure or get a tangible benefit from doing so. I'm not sure what exactly is that nVidia gets out of optimising their software GPU scheduler in the drivers, but I'm sure those will be tangible benefits for everyone with an nVidia GPU and that should be welcome, regardless of the reason why. I'll choose to believe it is because they need to do it. That being said, nVidia doesn't get much improvements, historically, with drivers because they're already super well optimised from day 1.

Regards.

 

[Tac 25]

The kids will be happy too, as they weren't expecting to have running water or food this month.

who needs food and running water when you can game at 1440p?

 

[Why_Me]

This is beyond preposterous! Now a $1600 card (and that's even before the "partners" start releasing their $2000+ versions), plus major cooling AND a "minimum" of 1000 W PSU" is the new "great deal"??

You can buy, RIGHT NOW, a fully loaded PC with either a 3090 or a 6950 XT for less than that amount. And this PC will play ANY game you throw at it in 4K in the next 6-7 years, if not even longer!!

Start doing your homework before making a post such as that one. You can pick up a nice aftermarket Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 4090 for MSRP off of Newegg. As far as your 4K claims .. the 4090 absolutely wrecks any card out there at that resolution.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQklDR8nv8U

 

[PEnns]

Start doing your homework before making a post such as that one. You can pick up a nice aftermarket Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 4090 for MSRP off of Newegg. As far as your 4K claims .. the 4090 absolutely wrecks any card out there at that resolution.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQklDR8nv8U

What an inane reply!!

There are other points that you totally ignored or are unable to comprehend - apart from the pathetic pricing for your beloved 4090!

But please, go ahead, get one and be happy ever after. A fool and his money are easily parted.

 

[-Fran-]

Yikes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmUb9sDS9zw


Regards.

 

[Doon1]

Try running the MSFS test again with a 5800x3D CPU. It's the single thread king.
AMD 5800X3D performance - Community Support / Hardware and Peripherals - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

 

[-Fran-]

I don't know if this is beating a dead horse or just bringing new information to the table, but... Bear with me for a minute:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23RS3RAg16k


So, why do we want more FLOPS in GPUs and not just RT or other specialized HW function stuff? The above is why. Not all tasks you see there can be accelerated by specialty hardware (well, strictly speaking it can, but as I said, bear with me here) or even care for such things; maybe ML, but that's not strictly speaking "specialized" and just FP8 or 16 units and special sauce to maximize throughput. Is this throwing shade to the 4090? Maybe, but considering how it is the king/queen of the hill, it isn't. It is still the fastest GPU and would probably barely drive all of that on its own. Same with the strongest CPUs in the market, since that uses a lot of CPU and RAM.

In short, what am I getting at here? Well, that's the future I'm looking forward the most and it will require very powerful hardware. So "8K" resolution is not the "end all be all" of graphics and neither is RT. Hell, I'd even say DLSS is more important there (and not DLSS3; that's just garbage for VR).

I hope you like what you see in the video and feel as excited as I am for the near future of VR tech, starting with the Meta Quest Pro that will launch soon.

Regards.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Try running the MSFS test again with a 5800x3D CPU. It's the single thread king.

That's part of CPU testing, which is something Paul will be covering with the upcoming Raptor Lake as well as Zen 4 and other CPUs. I know MSFS is one of his test games, so I'm certainly curious to see how the various CPUs rank in it when paired with a 4090. Note also that the 5800X3D is not a universal panacea and that there are games where it does not show good scaling relative to the vanilla Ryzen 5000 CPUs.

 

[-Fran-]

Yikes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRkjUtH4nIE

EDIT: Just to clarify inb4 nVidia fangirls whinning. This is not throwing shade to the 4090, but 2 things instead:
1- Bring to light a very real problem with the stupid power connector (PCI Sig to blame, for sure). If you need to use this, make sure you READ the warnings with real attention.
2- Make fun of new GPUs which will depend on this feeble connector to power the monstrous power draws going forward and be absolutely amused by how people will bend backwards to defend the "MOAR POWAH" approach from everyone.

Regards.

 

[Josephb2]

Well put together, I think I'll be just fine with my 3070 for now though

 

[GirardW]

Our testing of the GeForce RTX 4090 proves it's the undisputable performance leader of current GPUs, beating previous cards by 50% and more. DLSS 3 should further extend the lead, and upgraded ray tracing hardware means you can finally max out the settings in most games. Just mind the sticker shock, as the card doesn't come cheap.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Review: Queen of the Castle : Read more

Queen of a bouncy castle?
I need a card that can do some heavy lifting so which card is the King of the Castle?

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Queen of a bouncy castle?
I need a card that can do some heavy lifting so which card is the King of the Castle?

All the RTX 4090 cards I've tested perform within a relatively narrow range, so it depends a lot on how much you're willing to pay for a few extra percent in performance and potentially higher power draw.

For the fastest overall, with a 30W higher power limit, the Asus ROG Strix OC wins. But finding that card for less than $2,500 — never mind the $1,999 MSRP — is going to be difficult at best. If you want one, put auto-notify on Newegg, B&H, Best Buy, etc. and hope for the best. Or just pay $3,000+ at Amazon (please don't).

The reality for the RTX 4090 remains $2,000+ for most cards, sadly, but Newegg has had a couple show up for "only" $1,699 or $1,799 over the past week. Even if you really want/need the RTX 4090 compute, I'd suggest saving several hundred and getting pretty much whatever costs the least. If you want to close the performance gap, manual overclocking will readily get most cards to the ROG Strix level of performance (though fan speeds and noise may suffer).

 

[GirardW]

All the RTX 4090 cards I've tested perform within a relatively narrow range, so it depends a lot on how much you're willing to pay for a few extra percent in performance and potentially higher power draw.

For the fastest overall, with a 30W higher power limit, the Asus ROG Strix OC wins. But finding that card for less than $2,500 — never mind the $1,999 MSRP — is going to be difficult at best. If you want one, put auto-notify on Newegg, B&H, Best Buy, etc. and hope for the best. Or just pay $3,000+ at Amazon (please don't).

The reality for the RTX 4090 remains $2,000+ for most cards, sadly, but Newegg has had a couple show up for "only" $1,699 or $1,799 over the past week. Even if you really want/need the RTX 4090 compute, I'd suggest saving several hundred and getting pretty much whatever costs the least. If you want to close the performance gap, manual overclocking will readily get most cards to the ROG Strix level of performance (though fan speeds and noise may suffer).

It's funny because no matter how big the development team is, or how advanced the game engine is, or how fast the CPU/GPU is, or how much money you throw at a project, video games are still limited to 2D.

So your pricing figures indicate that 2D entertainment has become very expensive over the years, and that the updated graphics are just a decoy to hide the fact there's been no real progress even though prices have skyrocketed.

Can you imagine what developers and publishers would charge if it was truly 3D entertainment? You'd have to pay them just to breath.