The GeForce RTX 4090 is Nvidia’s new flagship graphics card, the most powerful in its new lineup. We were able to play with it and it’s a monster of power. Here is our test of the behemoth that wants to win among hardcore gamers.
Nvidia introduced its new GeForce RTX 40XX graphics cards a few weeks ago and the highest-end model is the RTX-4090. This is the most powerful of the manufacturer, the one that must show all its know-how. We have could take it in hand.
This card is not made for everyone, Nvidia emphasizing its communication more on the RTX 4080, the product most suitable for the gamer market (and cheaper!). Like the RTX 3090, this is a show of power, a card dedicated to the performance-seeking elite and the professional world. Imposing and sold for 1949 euros in its Founder’s Edition version (the basic model designed by Nvidia), it targets an ultra-niche market. Now only remains to determine what this card has in the belly. Do we have THE ultimate gaming product? Does it greatly outperform the competition or is it a flop? Answer right away.
Small details before starting the test: we passed the RTX 4090 Founder’s Edition on the grill, therefore the “basic” card. The data may vary with the custom versions (from the manufacturers) but we are in the same range. This mini-test was carried out in partnership with Igor’s Labwith whom we share data and photos.
An incredible technical sheet and a design in line with the RTX 3090
A quick technical tour before getting to the heart of the matter. The RTX 4090 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture, designed by Nvidia. We have an AD102-300 GPU engraved in 4 nm. The card has 76.3 billion transistors, it’s huge. There are 18,000 CUDA cores, 64 TPC (Texture Processing Cluster), 128 third-generation RT cores, 512 fourth-generation Tensor cores, and 24 GB of GDDR6X memory. In total, it has a power of 83 TFLOPS. Finally, note that the TGP of the RTX 4090 is 450 Watts by default, but can be increased up to 600 Watts. In addition to impressive power, Nvidia brings DLSS 3 technology to its baby, which (theoretically) makes it possible to gain even more performance by duplicating the images displayed on the screen thanks to AI.
On the design side, we remain very close to what the manufacturer already offered with its RTX 30XX series. We have a very characteristic visual with two fans placed on each side of the aluminum chassis. The latter still displays its cross design which gives a real personality to the menu, without necessarily overdoing it. It is also a way to better circulate the air in order to stay cool, the breath passing directly to the heart of the product.
What is most striking about this RTX 4090 is its size. It’s a real monster! Weighing more than two kilos on the scale, it adopts colossal dimensions of 30.5 x 13 x 6 cm. It is suitable for ATX gamer cases, but that’s barely. It occupies three slots on the motherboard and uses a PCI-Express 4.0 interface. On the back we have an HDMI 2.1a port along with three DisplayPort 1.4a ports.
A beautiful toy that now needs to be put on the grill.
Read also – Nvidia finally cancels the launch of the RTX 4080 12 GB
The RTX 4090 in game, what is it worth?
Let’s not be in suspense: the RTX 4090 is a real powerhouse and outperforms (unsurprisingly) all other cards on the market. We conducted our tests on ten games:
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Total War Saga Troy
- Year 1800
- far cry 6
- Watch Dogs Legion
- Rainbow Six Extraction
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Metro Exodus
Ten very different games, therefore, more or less resource-intensive. We obviously have activated ray-tracing when possible, as on Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus or Watch Dogs Legion. As for the configuration, we carried out these tests with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor, 32 GB of RAM (two 16 GB DDR5-6000 Corsair Dominator modules) as well as a 2 TB SSD. All with a MSI MEF X670 Ace motherboard. The power supply is 1200 Watts and our Windows 11 has the latest update, 22H2.
Let’s start with the tests in 1440p (without DLSS). As can be seen, the RTX 4090 atomizes the other cards on the market (Nvidia or AMD). We can thus see the insolent progress of the manufacturer compared to the RTX 3090, an evolution of 50%!
In 4K, the progress is also impressive. As we can see, the RTX 4090 flies through the fray. Here, we count a performance improvement of 63% compared to the 3090, it’s even better!
Finally, we tested the card in 4K with DLSS 3 activated, therefore in the “ultimate” conditions of play. As we can see on the table, we obtain a framerate average of 170 frames per second. Unheard of in this resolution. We see a 46% improvement over the RTX 3090 Ti. Nvidia’s new product takes us a giant leap in performance!
The RTX 4090 therefore keeps its promises. It is the ultimate card for the game, surpassing everything that has been done so far. A power that is also used for very resource-intensive applications used by image and 3D professionals.
With such performance, one can fear in terms of heating and noise. Nvidia has done a great job since in a closed box, we reach a average temperature of 68 degrees with a hot spot at 77 degrees. It is very acceptable. The noise pollution is also almost absent since open case, our RTX 4090 only gives off a slight hiss at 38 decibels. You really have to listen hard to hear it!
Controlled consumption
Such power, it consumes and our concerns revolved around this subject. After our tests, they are brushed aside by Nvidia. Here again, the Californian firm has done an excellent job. The RTX 4090 consumes a lot, it’s a fact, but huge progress has been made since the previous generation. As we can see, the new card is less energy-intensive than the 3080, or even the 3090 in 1440p.
Same observation in 4K, with DLSS activated or not. If we find less greedy cards, especially from AMD, the RTX 4090 does extremely well on this segment. We expected an increase in consumption in correlation with power, but this is not the case.
In short, this RTX 4090 is a success on all counts.
