The best Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card

Why Is NVidia RTX 4090 One of the Most Sought-After Graphics Cards in the Market?

It’s already well-known from all GPU comparisons (as of early 2023) that the Nvidia RTX 4090 is a monster of a graphics card for delivering raw performance. However, it’s also popular that the GPU costs much more than an average gamer is willing to spend on a graphics card. However, when you can find Nvidia RTX 4090 for sale… well, the story changes, doesn’t it?

How the Nvidia RTX 4090 Surpasses Other GPUs In An Everyday Gaming Rig? (Or Does It?)

The RTX 4090 is the best graphics card for ultra-high-performance gaming, with no GPU comparisons. However, having the fastest car in the world wouldn’t make much sense if you never meant to race it, right? The same is true for the Nvidia RTX 4090.

Additionally, having the best components in your gaming rig is an absolute requirement for your 4090 not to be bottlenecked to have maximum performance.

Of course, achieving that could cause an arm and a leg unless you’re sponsored or financially loaded, which is why we are banking on Nvidia RTX 4090 for sale so that it can be practical in your gaming setup.

Therefore, without any further ado, let’s review the specs, features, and performance of the Nvidia RTX 4090 and see how this GPU fares against other graphics card comparisons.

Looks and feel?

The RTX 4090 is a bulky one for sure and it makes you wonder that it might crack your motherboard. After all, it is bigger than micro-ATX boards, almost on par with ATX-sized boards.

So, you will need GPU support brackets to secure the graphics card inside your case safely.

The good thing is, with a quick GPU comparison with the RTX 3090, the 4090 has screw holes along the back of the card to install the GPU support bracket.

Besides the size and support, its connector is another thing you must consider about the RTX 4090. It has a 12VHPWR power connector instead of the standard 8-pin connectors. This new type of power connector can offer up to 600W of power supply.

12VHPWR means 12+4 pin power connector. Therefore, you will need a 16-pin connector in your PSU. There have been a few reports of these cables shorting out, but the concerns have mostly been officially put to rest, with the reason for shorting being user error

Features

Tensor And Ray Tracing Cores (What does having these cores mean?)

The Nvidia RTX 4090 comes with fourth-gen tensor and third-gen ray tracing cores. Both of these cores are specialised hardware components that are designed to accelerate computing tasks. This results in faster and more efficient performance in the tasks they are designed specifically for.

For example, they create realistic lighting and shadows in 3D scenes, producing realistic and immersive graphics.

These cores are better equipped to run deep learning algorithms, speeding up calculations of complex light interactions. That, too, with incredible accuracy.

Clock Speeds, CUDA Cores, and VRAM

The RTX 4090 has a base clock of 2,520 MHz and a boost clock of up to 2,520 MHz. To develop a perspective, here’s the GPU comparison with RTX 3090 TI – the 3090 has a base clock of 1,560 MHz with a boost clock speed of up to 1,860 MHz.

That’s an impressive improvement, but what if we told you, it was always expected?

When you consider the number of CUDA cores on an average RTX 4090 for sale, the clock speeds were anticipated. The RTX 4090 has 16,384 CUDA cores, 52.38% more than the previous gen’s RTX 3090 TI – 10,752 CUDA cores.

However, the VRAM is the same as the RTX 3090 TI – 24 GB. (The RTX 4090 has many more CUDA cores with better clock speeds).

Energy Efficiency

The RTX 4090 and the 3090 TI, both have a TDP (thermal design power) of 450W. However, the RTX 3090 was fabricated on Samsung’s 8nm process node; whereas the RTX 4090 is manufactured on TSMC’s tinier 4nm process node.

This means the RTX 4090 is able to deliver more power on a tinier transistor. So, while more microprocessors can be fabricated on the same-sized silicon chip, they can also be more energy efficient since they can squeeze out more performance on the same amount of power drawn.

Power Drawn And Thermals

To get a quick idea of how hot the RTX 4090 runs, a stress test is typically the first way to go. Typically, more power drawn means more power delivered; higher power drawn usually means more heat produced. Therefore, a GPU must be able to disperse the heat it produces efficiently.

The stress test results are retrieved from Digital Trends, and here’s the RTX 4090 graphics card comparison with 3090, 3090 TI, and 3080 TI.

Temps:

·         RTX 4090 – peaked at 64°C

·         RTX 3090 – peaked at 68°C

·         RTX 3090 TI – peaked at 64°C

·         RTX 3080 TI – peaked at 78°C

Although 4090 and 3090 TI had the same temps, 4090 consumed about 25W lesser power.

Power Drawn

·         RTX 4090 drew 426W

·         RTX 3090 drew 347W

·         RTX 3090 TI drew 456W

·         RTX 3080 TI drew 348W

GPU Comparison – RTX 4090 vs 3090

Gaming Performance

The exciting part is the gaming performance of the Nvidia RTX 4090. These results have been grabbed from Gamesradar and Digital Trends, and you can read more about them by visiting these sites. Here we will discuss the test results, what they mean, and how they fare against comparison with other GPUs.

First, the gaming benchmarks were obtained from these games:

• Cyberpunk 2077

• Hitman 3

• Guardians of the Galaxy

And here are the test results of how RTX 4090 fared, on average, against other graphics cards:

The RTX 4090 was

• 16% faster than RTX 4080 (103 fps)

•  52% faster than RTX 3090 TI (79 FPS)

• 62% faster than RTX 4070 TI (74 FPS)

• 33% faster than RX 7900 XTX (90 fps) – the best AMD graphics card

The most notable conclusion is from the performance results in Cyberpunk 2077. The RTX 4090 is more than 50% faster than the RTX 3090 TI (at 4K resolution and maxed-out settings). That too, without the assistance of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

DLSS uses deep learning algorithms to provide faster rendering times and higher image quality in real time. However, this is Nvidia’s proprietary technology and still has a long way to go before it becomes impressive in several games.

With the raw performance that RTX 4090 delivers, DLSS becomes nice-to-have rather than need-to-have. This, for GPU comparisons, can’t be said for even the fastest previous-gen graphics cards – they couldn’t even break past the 60 FPS mark at 4K resolution without DLSS.

RTX 4090’s Suitability For Gaming

RTX 4090 is the graphics card that can leave all other GPUs in the dust for gaming. It is the only GPU to run the most demanding games at native 4K resolution without ray tracing or upscaling and still deliver exceptional frame rates.

However, if you plan on running games at 1440p, you are bound to be bottlenecked by the CPU. The results become even less impressive as you scale down to 1080p.

Think of it this way, if you’re running a game like Gears Tactics at 1440p; sure, the RTX 4090 is 36% faster than the RTX 3090 TI – which is about 200 FPS vs 160 FPS.

But are the extra 40 FPS worth it? Especially when the cost difference between both GPUs is around $500.

Professional Workloads and Content Creation

As I have mentioned, an Nvidia RTX 4090 for sale is how you can justify it for a gaming rig; however, it is the professional workloads and content creation that every bit of performance will be absolutely worth it. So, here are the results grabbed from Puget Systems that show RTX 4090 graphics card comparisons.

Video Editing

DaVinci Resolve Studio

The RTX 4090 can deliver 40% faster performance for video editing than the RTX 3090 and the 3090 TI. It is also a whopping two times faster than the older 2080 TI.

For test purposes, the software DaVinci Resolve Studio was used. The overall score was that the RTX 4090 scored only 9% higher than the RTX 3090 TI, and 10% higher than the 3090; however, that’s not the entire story.

The overall score is more CPU bound rather than GPU-intensive. Therefore, a 2nd GPU-intensive test is performed in tasks including OpenFX and noise reduction. Here’s what the results came out to be for GPU comparison.

•  RTX 4090 was 34% faster than the RTX 3090 TI

• RTX 4090 was 42% faster than RTX 3090

• Dual RTX 4090 was 40% faster than dual RTX 3090

• Dual RTX 4090 was outperformed by dual RTX 3090 TI

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro doesn’t utilise a powerful GPU as much as the DaVinci Resolve Studio. However, it can still perform better in GPU-bound tasks such as Lumetri Color, most blurs, and more. Here’s how Nvidia RTX 4090 performs in Adobe Premiere Pro:

• Overall score – RTX 4090 is a mere 7% faster than RTX 3090 and 3090 TI (overall, Premiere Pro doesn’t utilize GPU a lot)

• 14% and 17% faster than RTX 3090 TI and RTX 3090 TI respectively in GPU-accelerated effects in tasks including Lumetri Color and most blurs.

Adobe After Effects – Motion Graphics and VFX

There’s a negligible benefit gained from upgrading to RTX 4090 in Adobe After Effects – the CPU bottlenecks the tasks in Adobe After Effects.

The RTX 4090 is only about 2% better than the RTX 3090. Additionally, the 3090 actually scored higher overall. The test results are quite inconclusive since the margin of error in real-world testing is around 5%.

Regardless, Adobe After Effects doesn’t benefit from the RTX 4090.

Unreal Engine – Game Development

We have saved the best test results for the last game development and virtual reality production truly benefit from an Nvidia RTX 4090.

The RTX 4090 delivers 78% more framerates than RTX 3090 TI across all scenes, without DLSS. The 4090 was a whopping 93% faster when the graphics card comparison was made against the RTX 3090.

Having these higher frame rates means that you can do a lot more in your scene, and put in much more information, especially when you are working at a capped framerate of 30-60 FPS.

Additionally, GPU rendering tasks were performed, and here are the results along with GPU comparisons:

• RTX 4090 is about 2x faster than RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 TI

• RTX 4090 is a whopping 4x faster than RTX 2080 TI

What To Consider Before Upgrading To RTX 4090 (Is It Worth The Investment)?

The RTX 4090 is, without a doubt, the best gaming graphics card, but it also costs much more than an average gaming rig – yep, the entire gaming setup and not just a graphics card.

And that’s not all, to get your money’s worth with the Nvidia RTX 4090, you might need to spend some more. The card will only be worth it if you have top-notch components installed already. This includes the recent DDR5 RAM, the fastest SSD, a high-resolution high-FPS gaming monitor, and the fastest CPU – as previously mentioned, the CPU is the bottleneck in several gaming benchmarks.

However, if you come across Nvidia RTX 4090 for sale, you can be relaxed that it will deliver the finest performance for at least a decade.

With that said, the Nvidia RTX 4090, costing around $1600, will be more suitable for 3D content creation and professional workloads. And, if you’re in game development, the 4090 will deliver 78%-93% better performance. In that case, upgrading to Nvidia RTX 4090 is worth every penny.

FAQs

What is DLSS and is it important for gaming?

DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling, a proprietary technology developed by Nvidia. It is an important feature for gaming for those who want to play games at higher resolutions (such as on big-screen monitors/TVs where high resolutions are absolutely necessary) but are limited by their hardware’s capability.

DLSS works by using machine learning algorithms to upscale lower-resolution images to higher-resolution images without losing image quality while also reducing visual artifacts. DLSS provides faster rendering times and improved game performance or real-time 3D rendering applications.

However, DLSS is still a relatively new technology and is not supported in several games, or they deliver a lacklustre performance. The good news is that the Nvidia RTX 4090 offers enough raw performance, which is plenty, without even enabling DLSS.

How much VRAM is required for gaming?

VRAM or Video Random Access Memory required for gaming can vary from game to game. If you want to run a game at 1080p and 30-60 FPS, as little as 4GB VRAM is plenty. Higher resolutions at 1440p or 4K with higher FPS would need at least 6-8 GB.

Now, if you own a big-screen 55-inch TV or gaming monitor, you will need more VRAM accordingly. The same goes for achieving consistent frame rates during the most complex scenes. The Nvidia RTX 4090 has plenty of VRAM for you – 24GB.

Why is having more CUDA cores important?

CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) cores are important in GPUs as they are responsible for performing complex calculations quickly and efficiently. These calculations can be for scientific simulations, data analytics, deep learning, etc.

They are a type of parallel processing unit and can perform thousands of calculations simultaneously. Hence, making them much faster than traditional processors used for parallel computing workloads.

The number of CUDA cores varies from GPU to GPU, with high-end GPUs typically having higher CUDA cores. This enables them to handle the most complex calculations and processing tasks more efficiently. The Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU comparison with the previous gen’s RTX 3090 TI improves 16,384 CUDA cores against the 10,496 cores.

In Conlusion

The Nvidia RTX 4090 is the latest graphics card in Nvidia’s lineup, and it is unarguably the greatest, as proved by the graphics card comparison in the article. It is an an incredible graphics and component and worth every penny, but only when used for productivity tasks such as 3D content creation or game development.

If you’re a professional gamer, having an RTX 4090 is justified as every bit of image quality and FPS is important.

However, if you’re a casual gamer, your best bet is to look for an Nvidia RTX 4090 for sale to get your money’s worth truly. The GPU needs quite a hefty budget, costing at least $500 more than the previous gen’s best of the best cards. Although, the graphics card comparison did show that the newer one is also better.