RTX 4090 Review: Spend at least $1,599 on Nvidia’s Biggest Deal in Years

The Nvidia RTX 4090 makes me laugh.

This is partly due to its size. When a standalone GPU is about the size of a modern gaming console — it’s nearly identical in overall volume to the Xbox Series S and more than double the size of the Nintendo Switch — it’s hard not to laugh at it. None of Nvidia’s “reference”high-end GPUs, formerly referred to as “Titan”models, have ever been this massive, and things get even more ridiculous when you go beyond Nvidia’s “Founders Edition”and check out AIB options from third-party partners.. (We haven’t tested any models other than 4090 FE yet.)

However, after figuring out how to safely install and connect power to the RTX 4090, the laugh becomes completely different. You will be constantly laughing with the RTX 4090, not at it, either in joy or excited disbelief.

The RTX 4090 is the biggest GPU performance leap over its contemporaries in recent history. Perhaps it surpasses even the Nvidia 1000-series Titan X in this respect. Think of any current PC gaming load that includes “future-proof”overconfigurations, and then imagine the RTX 4090 pretending to be Grave Digger and crushing these tests are like abandoned cars in a monster truck rally.

You would have hoped for such results from a $1,599 and up GPU, but remember that at launch, Nvidia’s titanium-like RTX 3090 was a disappointing price-performance ratio compared to the RTX 3080. lack of GPUs. (The letters I sent out to many desperate friends during the dark times boiled down to this: “If you have to spend over $1,000 on a new GPU, see how to get the 3090 at the suggested retail price.”)

For anyone even considering the 4090 at its crazy price, you are at least getting what you pay for (AIB markups notwithstanding). The RTX 4090 is just as impressive as it is at a fair price – at least until AMD’s competitors try to catch up. But this review is also for those who are wondering what Nvidia’s “Ada Lovelace”generation of GPUs might eventually offer at lower price points – in particular, Nvidia’s bold new “DLSS”system variant – and whether the 4090’s staggering gains will seep down. the rest of us. Because for those customers hoping for better performance and a fair, realistic price, it’s no laughing matter.