Nvidia RTX 4090: If you have been following the GPU market over the last few years, you know it’s been a wild ride. However, now that we’re nearing the end of a massive price increase for GPUs, Nvidia is set to release its next big flagship GPU, the RTX 4090.
Details and leaks about the upcoming 40-series have been leaked, with some wild rumors about power consumption and pricing. In any case, it’s likely to rank among the most powerful GPUs available. We don’t know what will turn out to be true, but here’s what we’ve heard so far.
Nvidia RTX 4090 Performance
Power does not always equate to performance, but the RTX 4090 must find a way to convert that power into pure graphical fulfillment. There’s no denying that high-end Nvidia GPUs are among the best in the world, even if they’re expensive and difficult to obtain. However, the RTX 4090 may end up being on a completely different level.
To begin, according to kopite7kimi, the card will be able to achieve a score of 19,000 on a Time Spy Extreme benchmark test. This would make it the fastest GPU ever built, with a score nearly double that of the RTX 3090’s 10,000. According to other rumors, the RTX 4090 can achieve 4K 160 frames per second with both ray tracing and DLSS enabled. If these rumors are true, gamers will adore this card.
The raw performance, however, is even more shocking. The RTX 4090 is expected to be the first GPU to surpass 100 teraflops. These are truly incredible numbers, but let’s be honest: this is strictly an enthusiast card. Such performance exists on the outskirts of consumer requirements. Full settings will allow gamers to play Cyberpunk 2077 or Elden Ring. The only issue could be the subsequent increase in your electricity bill.
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Architecture rumors
The Nvidia RTX 4090 is expected to have 16,384 CUDA cores, 144 ray tracing cores, and 576 tensor cores, according to rumors. This could give it a sizzling 40% performance boost over the RTX 3090.
It will also have 24GB of VRAM, just like the 3090. However, according to Twitter leaker Kopite7kimi, the RTX 4090 will have a base clock speed of 2235MHz and can boost up to 2520MHz, which is more than double the RTX 3090.
| RTX 4090 | RTX 3090 | |
| CUDA cores | 16,384 | 10,496 |
| Ray tracing cores | 144 | 82 |
| Tensor cores | 576 | 328 |
| VRAM GDDR6X | 24GB | 24GB |
| Base clock speed | 2235MHz | 1394MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2520MHz | 1695MHz |
| Bus width | 384 width | 384 width |
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Power draw
According to rumors, the RTX 4090 will be a power-hungry beast with an insatiable appetite for electricity. To put it another way, when pushed to its limit, it will require up to 600 watts of power. With some already downclocking their GPUs to reduce heat and noise, this amount of power could pose a problem.
Although it will have a standard 12-pin PCIe Gen 5 power connector, it is likely that it will require some kind of adapter to draw that much power. It may be built in or must be purchased separately. Nvidia typically does not nickel and dime customers, so the latter is unlikely.
Nonetheless, 600 watts is a lot of power. The previous-generation RTX 3090 consumes up to 385 watts, which is quite a lot. The RTX 4090 can move enough energy to heat your house, indicating that it’s past time to upgrade your power supply. According to Igor’s Lab, the RTX 4090 will require 450 watts just to power the GPU. The rest will be required by the VRAM, fans, inductors, caps, and MOSFET.
The RTX 4090 will get hot as a result of this massive demand for power. We’re talking about the heat on the “surface of the sun” — enough to melt the unit under sustained load. To keep temperatures under control, a massive cooling unit would be required.
We reported on something similar in June. The RTX 4090 features a three-slot BFGPU cooler, similar to the RTX 3090 Ti, but with more fins and heat sink surface area. It will almost certainly retain the same dual flow-through as the RTX 3090, and the logo will be illuminated by LED lights.
That is most likely true for the Founders Edition. But what about third-party cards, which frequently come with significant overclocks? They’re going to be chunky, it appears. The Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 AMP Extreme, as seen in leaked images (via Wccftech), is a four-slot behemoth with a curved, slightly bulbous design. Given how much power the 4090 is likely to require, taking up four slots in your PC is probably par for the course. Prepare to begin clearing out space in your PC chassis.
Nvidia RTX 4090 release date and availability
We won’t know any final details or pricing until Nvidia announces the RTX 4090. But we do know that Nvidia releases new graphics cards every two years in the fall, so the most likely release date is between mid-September and the end of October. The last time this happened, the world was in the grip of a global health and supply crisis. While things are certainly chaotic this year, chip supply chains are far better than they were in 2020. This means that the RTX 4090 could reach consumers much faster than the RTX 3090.
Nvidia leaked a testing schedule in late May to add more support to an upcoming fall release, which included August and September for mass production of the unit. Of course, this could be incorrect. After all, a rumor from May suggested that the RTX 4090 would be available in mid-July. This obviously did not occur, and it contradicts Nvidia’s usual fall release schedule.
On the other hand, it is possible that Nvidia will postpone the event until early 2023. The reason is simple: they have an excess of RTX 3000-series chips. During the pandemic, logistics bottlenecks caused chips to pile up in warehouses, and Nvidia may hope to offload some more of these 2020 GPUs before releasing a new version.
Currently, rumors suggest that Nvidia will only release the RTX 4090 while holding off on the midrange 4000-series cards to offload surplus stock. This would help to lower the price of older but still capable chips, bringing them more in line with AMD chips.
The current RTX 3090, arguably the king of graphics cards at the moment, has dropped from a high of $1,999 to around $1,499. The RTX 4090 will most likely end up north of that figure, though we don’t see it breaking the $2,000 barrier.
Pricing is critical right now, especially with AMD hot on Nvidia’s tail. The AMD Radeon RX 7000 series of GPUs promises to be equally powerful, but at a lower cost. The current AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT costs $900, which is $500 less than the current Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti. Nvidia’s recent financial woes in the gaming industry may prompt the company to become more aggressive with pricing, but we’ll have to wait and see.
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