GeForce RTX 5090 Founder’s Edition Review – Gamer’s Pricey Dream

GeForce RTX 5090 Founder's Edition - Regular Testing

Those were the games that were updated to support the new NVIDIA DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation ahead of the official launch. However, I still tested the GeForce RTX 5090 with a few of the most taxing PC games available, starting with Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong.

The stunning Unreal Engine 5 powered action RPG features full-fledged path tracing and is really heavy on any PC. With the benchmark tool, handily available via Steam as a separate app, the new flagship GPU shows its prowess, reaching nearly a hundred frames per second with just the regular Frame Generation. Once the game is updated to support Multi Frame Generation, I can easily see it running at over 200 frames per second on this beast of a GPU.

While a bit older, Dying Light 2 Stay Human features several ray tracing options (shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections, global illumination, and flashlight). With DLSS set to Quality and everything maxed out, the GeForce RTX 5090 crushed the benchmark with over 210 average frames per second.

Another good old benchmark is IO Interactive's HITMAN World of Assassination (formerly known as HITMAN 3), powered by the latest version of the Glacier engine and enhanced with ray traced sun shadows and reflections. I picked Dartmoor, the physics-heavy benchmark level, which again reported very, very high average FPS, although the 1% Low FPS was a bit lower than I expected.

The acclaimed Unreal Engine 4-based roguelike third-person shooter Returnal features a really detailed benchmark, which, again, reported well over 200 average frames per second when run on the GeForce RTX 5090 Founder's Edition, even with ray traced moon shadows and reflections.

Arguably the first heavily ray-traced game, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition is still a noteworthy benchmarking test. The new NVIDIA flagship graphics card surpassed 130 average frames per second, and even the 1% Low FPS was nearly 100 frames per second—all this without needing Frame Generation, which isn't supported.

The open world action RPG made with the Luminous Engine isn't known to be well-optimized, which shows in our results. There's a vast difference between the average frames per second and the 1% Low FPS.

This is another game powered by the Snowdrop engine, although not quite as impressive as Star Wars Outlaws. Still, even without DLSS Frame Generation (not supported), the RTX 5090 averages 106 FPS with all the bells and whistles turned on and the highest in-game DLSS Super Resolution setting (Ultra Quality).

The latest Assassin's Creed on the market also lacks DLSS Frame Generation, but it's not at all a problem for this GPU, even with DLAA active.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered incorporated some of the technical improvements added in Forbidden West. Even with just the old x2 Frame Generation and DLAA enabled, this graphics card averages nearly 200 frames per second.

Turn 10's Forza Motorsport offers a worst-case scenario benchmark where all 24 cars are packed together at the start of a race, with heavy rain pouring. Even so, with DLAA enabled and all ray tracing settings activated (full reflections, ambient occlusion, and the RTGI that was added with a post-launch update), the GeForce RTX 5090 averaged nearly 80 frames per second.

Here's another Unreal Engine 5 game, The Talos Principle 2 by Croteam. This one does exhibit a fair bit of stuttering, as evidenced by the gulf between average and 1% low FPS, though these are game-related issues.

For the final gaming test, I picked Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos Montréal. The game runs on the studio's proprietary Dawn engine. Even with ray-traced reflections and transparent reflections enabled, it performs flawlessly.

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9.5

WCCFTECH RATING

With the release of the GeForce RTX 5090 Founder's Edition, NVIDIA has once again proved why it's the leader in the desktop GPU segment. The new graphics card features potentially groundbreaking new future-facing technologies like RTX Neural Shaders, but even in the here and now, it delivers extremely high performance even when testing the most taxing PC games with the maximum settings. DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation is another great advancement that is sure to keep the upscaler well ahead of the increasing competition, though perhaps the most impactful improvement is the hardware flip metering that greatly improves frame pacing and, therefore, smoothness. Once again, the only real downside is the pricing, which has received a sizable bump over the Ada generation, when the RTX 4090 cost $1,599. If money is no object, though, this is the GPU to get to realize all your 4K@200+Hz path traced gamer's dreams.

Pros

• The GeForce RTX 5090 delivers excellent performance in all tested PC games, even without DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation
• The hardware Flip Metering is a game-changer for how much it improves smoothness
• The RTX Neural Shaders ensure the graphics card will remain relevant for years to come

Cons

• The pricing is unfortunately quite a bit higher than last generation

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