The Nvidia RTX 4090 makes me laugh.
Part of that is due to its size. When a standalone GPU is as large as a modern video gaming console—it's nearly identical in total volume to the Xbox Series S and more than double the size of a Nintendo Switch—it's hard not to laugh incredulously at the thing. None of Nvidia's highest-end "reference" GPUs, previously branded as "Titan" models, have ever been so massive, and things only get more ludicrous when you move beyond Nvidia's "Founders Edition" and check out AIB options from third-party partners. (We haven't tested any models other than the 4090 FE yet.)
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A gallery of size comparisons. 4090 vs. Xbox Series X gamepad.Sam Machkovech
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4090 vs. Yoshi Amiibo toy (roughly 3 inches tall).
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4090 vs. banana.Sam Machkovech
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4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
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4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
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4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
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4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
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4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
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4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
After figuring out how to safely mount and run power to the RTX 4090, however, the laughs become decidedly different. You're going to consistently laugh with, not at, the RTX 4090, either in joy or excited disbelief.
The RTX 4090 is the biggest holy-cow jump in GPU performance compared to its contemporaries in recent history. It arguably exceeds even the Nvidia 1000-series Titan X in that regard. Think of any current PC gaming workload that includes "future-proofed" overkill settings, then imagine the RTX 4090 faking like Grave Digger and crushing those tests like abandoned cars at a monster truck rally.
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Zoom in on nicely etched text.
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Nvidia's twin-fan design returns in a chassis that resembles the 3000-series founders editions.Sam Machkovech
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Unsurprising combination of HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4 ports, along with a better sense of its height.
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You're not imagining things; that's a slight concave curve on each of its edges. If you already have an ATX 3.0-compliant power supply, you can expect a tidier connection between the 4090 and your PC's power supply. If not...
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... you can use this adapter to connect the 4090 to legacy PSUs. This cable comes with the 4090 by default, and the box suggests no less than 450 W for its power.
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Spoiler alert: You only need to connect three of these to get the GPU running. But the fourth is there for... reasons.
You'd hope for results like that from a $1,599-and-up GPU, but remember, at its launch, Nvidia's Titan-like RTX 3090 disappointed on a price-to-performance front compared to the RTX 3080. What's more, the RTX 3090 only got away with its inflated price due to the Great GPU Shortage. (Emails I sent to many desperate friends during the Dark Times amounted to "if you have to spend over $1,000 on a new GPU, see about getting a 3090 at MSRP.")
For anyone even considering the 4090 at its bonkers price tag, you're at least getting what you pay for (AIB markups notwithstanding). The RTX 4090 is as impressive as it is fairly priced—at least until the competition at AMD tries to catch up. But this review is also for anyone wondering what the "Ada Lovelace" generation of Nvidia GPUs may eventually deliver at lower price tiers—in particular, a bold new flavor of Nvidia's "DLSS" system—and whether the 4090's staggering successes will trickle down to the rest of us. Because for those customers, hoping for higher performance and fair, realistic pricing is no laughing matter.
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