The Nvidia RTX 4090 is one of the most anticipated graphics card releases in memory, as rumors about the processing power (and power demands) of the next-gen BFGPU have gamers everywhere salivating.
The current-gen RTX 3090 was one of the most impressive graphics cards we've seen when it launched, and even with the slightly more powerful Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti being Nvidia's current flagship right now, we'd still say the Nvidia RTX 3090 is the best graphics card in terms of performance-to-price ratio (although it really pushes the limit of what is an acceptable price, even for a high-end graphics card).
The RTX 4090, which should be a step up from what even the RTX 3090 Ti is capable of, will be one of the biggest product launches of the year, quite frankly, because it will be our first official look at Nvidia Lovelace. , Nvidia's new consumer graphics card architecture.
As the successor to Nvidia Ampere, Lovelace was originally seen as a mid-cycle update rather than a full architectural leap, but rumors abound that Nvidia has changed course from its original plan and is aiming more for an architecture overhaul. , which makes the launch of the RTX 4090 even more exciting.
However, Nvidia has kept much of this under wraps, so we don't know much for sure. Still, we've rounded up everything we've heard about the Nvidia RTX 4090 to keep you up to date with the latest rumours, speculation and analysis on the next generation of Nvidia's flagship GPU.
Nvidia RTX 4090: get straight to the point
- What is it? Nvidia's next flagship graphics card
- When will it be available? Could launch in August 2022
- How much will it cost? Taking inflation into account, probably a bit better than the RTX 3090
Nvidia RTX 4090: release date
In May 2020, the first Ampere GPU to be announced, the Nvidia A100 GPU, was introduced to help developers and scientists work on COVID 19 research (among other things), but it was a data center and platform. cloud computing, not a consumer. GPU.
The Nvidia RTX 3080 was released several months later, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 launching on September 17, 2020, followed by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 on September 24. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 was released on October 28, 2020.
This time around, we expect the Nvidia RTX 4090 to launch first, possibly as early as August 2022, and should then be followed by the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 in September and October, respectively.
Nvidia RTX 4090: Price
The price of Nvidia RTX 4090 is a big unknown right now. The RTX 3090 debuted at €1,499 (£1,399, AU$2,100) for the Nvidia Founder's Edition, and other AIB partners introduced additional features like larger fans or RGB elements that have pushed the price up again.
And that was just the MSRP. However, in terms of the actual price paid, these prices were often well above the MSRP due to the confluence of supply chain shortages contributing to inflation and intense demand for next-gen graphics cards inspiring speculators to use swarms of bots to buy available stock and resell it at inflated prices online.
And then there were the cryptocurrency mining operations that bought entire warehouses of graphics cards that gamers would otherwise have bought.
All of this helped the RTX 3090 sell much more than anyone expected. Will the prologue be passed for the RTX 4090? It's hard to say, honestly. We expect the RTX 4090 to be a very expensive graphics card, to be sure, but how much will that perfect storm around the RTX 3090 affect the price of the RTX 4090?
Cryptocurrency prices have fallen in recent months, leading to lower demand for high-end graphics cards from crypto miners, so the upward pressure on prices is not as strong. And while the chip shortage remains an issue, it came just before the release of Ampere and AMD RDNA 2, so those graphics card lines weren't prepared for the chip crunch of 2020 and 2021.
However, it is 2022 and now the chip shortage is somewhat entrenched. Nvidia has known where the chip situation is and has had time to prepare in a way that it couldn't before with the RTX 3090.
As for the dastardly speculators... well, there's not much anyone can do against the human urge to screw strangers for profit, but there's likely a lot more inventory on hand this time around, so it's a lot less profitable. try to buy dozens. thousands of dollars worth of graphics cards in the hope of reselling them for a 50% (or more) premium.
All of this points to a more modest price increase relative to the general inflationary environment we find ourselves in. Although that remains to be seen, it would be great if Nvidia kept the price of the RTX 4090 in line with the RTX 3090.
Nvidia RTX 4090: specifications
Since we don't have anything official about the RTX 4090, any details about its specs are more speculation than fact.
What we can say is that it will almost certainly be a beast of a graphics card, and we're not just talking in terms of frames per second. If the rumors are true, it could also be called the Nvidia Tarrasque (opens in a new tab) considering the amount of power it is expected to consume.
Someone told me that the xx90 with 600W TGP has been confirmed. I think it's too early to talk about it. March 12, 2022
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With a TGP (Total Graphics Power) of 600 W, this component alone could be the most power-hungry consumer PC component of all time. That's enough power to run some of the best gaming PCs out there, and we're not just talking cheap systems either.
This power consumption only makes sense if the Nvidia RTX 4090 is as powerful as some claim, two to three times faster than the RTX 3090.
To be clear, the RTX 3090 can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K at its highest ray tracing settings with DLSS disabled and hit 30+ FPS, which is still playable if not ideal. Enable DLSS and it's the only graphics card that has a chance of getting close to 60fps on this setting, hitting up to 52fps, second only to the RTX 57 Ti's 3090fps max.
Now, saying that a graphics card is twice as fast doesn't mean that it directly translates to doubling your fps in a given game, but at just twice that speed, the RTX 4090 (with DLSS enabled) should easily exceed 60fps. and maybe even hit 80fps if these rumors are true. That's serious gaming performance, and would be what we'd expect if it nearly doubled the TGP of the RTX 3090 (opens in a new tab), which has a TGP of 350W.
Once we get closer to launch, we'll probably start to learn more about core counts and clock speeds, but suffice to say, this should definitely be the biggest graphics card launch of the year.