NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB “Ada” Founders Edition Review – BFGPU Perfected

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series - GeForce RTX 4090

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 will use 128 SMs of the 144 SMs for a total of 16,384 CUDA cores. The GPU will come packed with 96 MB of L2 cache and a total of 384 ROPs which is simply insane but considering that the RTX 4090 is a cut-down design, it may feature slightly lower L2 and ROP counts. The clock speeds are not confirmed yet but considering that the TSMC 4N process is being used. The clock speeds are rated at up to 2.6 GHz and NVIDIA is claiming over 3 GHz speeds with overclocking which you can read more about here.

As for memory specs, the GeForce RTX 4090 will feature 24 GB GDDR6X capacities that will be clocked at 21 Gbps speeds across a 384-bit bus interface. This will provide up to 1 TB/s of bandwidth. This is the same bandwidth as the existing RTX 3090 Ti graphics card and as far as the power consumption is concerned, the TBP is rated at 450W. The card will be powered by a single 16-pin connector which delivers up to 600W of power. Custom models will be offering higher TBP targets.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Cards Performance

As for the performance of these monster GPUs, NVIDIA shared the computational and gaming performance figures and it looks like the GeForce RTX 4090 will be the first gaming card to hit the 100 TFLOPs compute horsepower limit.

Just for comparison's sake:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: 90 TFLOPs (FP32) (Assuming 2.8 GHz clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: 40 TFLOPs (FP32) (1.86 GHz Boost clock)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090: 36 TFLOPs (FP32) (1.69 GHz Boost clock)

Based on a theoretical clock speed of 2.8 GHz, you get up to 103 TFLOPs of compute performance and the rumors are suggesting even higher boost clocks. Now, these are definitely sounding like peak clocks, similar to AMD's peak frequencies which are higher than the average 'Game' clock. A 100+ TFLOPs compute performance means more than double the horsepower versus the 3090 Ti flagship. One should remember that compute performance doesn't necessarily indicate the overall gaming performance. Even so, it will be a huge upgrade for gaming PCs and an 8.5x increase over the current fastest console, the Xbox Series X.

This will be a 2x compute performance uplift and a 2x gain in gaming performance as NVIDIA has demonstrated for each graphics card versus its predecessor and this is without even factoring in the RT and Tensor core performance which are expected to get major lifts too in their respective department.  A 2-4x gain over the RTX 3090 & RTX 3090 Ti would be very disruptive.

Gamers should expect 4K gaming to be buttery smooth on these graphics cards and with DLSS, we might even see playable 60 FPS at 8K resolution which is something that NVIDIA has been trying to achieve with its RTX 3090 series BFGPUs for a while now.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics Cards Price & Availability

Now coming to the prices, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti & RTX 3090 graphics cards are undoubtedly the most expensive single-chip GPUs to date. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 will come at a price of $1599 US for the Founders Edition variant and will be available on the 12th of October.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Official Specs:

Graphics Card Name	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
GPU Name	Ada Lovelace AD102-300	Ada Lovelace AD102-250	Ada Lovelace AD103-300	Ada Lovelace AD104-400	Ada Lovelace AD104-250	Ada Lovelace AD106-350	Ada Lovelace AD107-400
Process Node	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N
Die Size	608mm2	608mm2	378.6mm2	294.5mm2	294.5mm2	190.0mm2	146.0mm2
Transistors	76 Billion	76 Billion	45.9 Billion	35.8 Billion	35.8 Billion	22.9 Billion	TBD
CUDA Cores	16384	14592	9728	7680	5888	4352	3072
TMUs / ROPs	512 / 176	TBD	320 / 112	240 / 80	184 / 64	136 / 48	TBD
Tensor / RT Cores	512 / 128	456 / 128	304 / 76	240 / 60	184 / 46	136 / 34	TBD
L2 Cache	72 MB	72 MB	64 MB	48 MB	36 MB	32 MB	24 MB
Base Clock	2230 MHz	2280 MHz	2210 MHz	2310 MHz	1920 MHz	2310 MHz	1830 MHz
Boost Clock	2520 MHz	2520 MHz	2510 MHz	2610 MHz	2475 MHz	2535 MHz	2460 MHz
FP32 Compute	83 TFLOPs	TBD	49 TFLOPs	40 TFLOPs	29 TFLOPs	22 TFLOPs	15 TFLOPs
RT TFLOPs	191 TFLOPs	TBD	113 TFLOPs	82 TFLOPs	67 TFLOPs	51 TFLOPs	35 TFLOPs
Tensor-TOPs	1321 TOPs	TBD	780 TOPs	641 TOPs	466 TOPs	353 TOPs	242 TOPs
Memory Capacity	24 GB GDDR6X	24 GB GDDR6X	16 GB GDDR6X	12 GB GDDR6X	12 GB GDDR6X	8-16 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6
Memory Bus	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit	128-bit	128-bit
Memory Speed	21.0 Gbps	21.0 Gbps	23.0 Gbps	21.0 Gbps	21.0 Gbps	18.0 Gbps	17.0 Gbps
Bandwidth	1008 GB/s	1008 GB/s	736 GB/s	504 GB/s	504 GB/s	288 GB/s (554 GB/s Effective)	272 GB/s (453 GB/s Effective)
TBP	450W	425W	320W	285W	200W	160-165W	115W
Price (MSRP / FE)	$1599 US / 1949 EU	12,999 RMB (China-Only)	$1199 US / 1469 EU	$799 US	$599 US	$399-$499 US	$299 US
Price (Current)	$1599 US / 1859 EU	12,999 RMB (China-Only)	$1199 US / 1399 EU	$799 US	$599 US	$399-$499 US	$299 US
Launch (Availability)	12th October 2022	28th December 2023	16th November 2022	5th January 2023	13th April 2023	24th May / 18th July 2023	29th June 2023

NVIDIA Founders Edition Designed To Utilize Up To 600W of Power For Higher Overclocking

As for its brand new Founders Edition cards, the GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB and RTX 4080 16 GB, NVIDIA has produced a compact PCB similar to the ones we saw on the previous generation & designing a PCB like this helps improve airflow and cooling performance.

NVIDIA says that they have further optimized the Dual Axial Flow Through system, increasing fan sizes and fin volume by 10%, offering 20% higher air flow and upgrading to a 23-phase power supply (20+3 Phase for RTX 4090). Memory temperatures are reduced, and the new, substantially more powerful Ada GPUs are kept cool in ventilated cases, giving gamers excellent overclocking headroom. NVIDIA went through a rigorous testing procedure and is said to have evaluated as many as 50 fan designs before finalizing the one we are getting on the new cards. The cooler is used to dissipate heat from the heatsink assembly that comprises a vapor chamber, a big jump from the previous design too.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 also uses the same cooler as the RTX 4090 Founders Edition and since it has a lower TDP, it should deliver even better thermal performance.

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Each GeForce RTX 40 Series Founders Edition graphics card reduces cable clutter by leveraging the new standard GPU power input of next-gen ATX 3.0 power supplies, the PCIe Gen-5 16-pin Connector. This enables you to power GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards with just a single cable, improving the aesthetics of your build. If you are using a previous-gen power supply, an adapter cable is included in the box, allowing you to plug in three 8-pin power connectors, with an optional fourth connector for more overclocking headroom. ATX 3.0 power supplies will be available in October from ASUS, Cooler Master, FSP, Gigabyte, iBuyPower, MSI, and ThermalTake, with more models to come.

One advantage of the new 16-pin connector is that while the Founders Edition cards are designed at 450W & 320W, respectively, they can utilize the extra headroom provided through the new connector for extreme overclocking with the RTX 4090 going for that full 600W mark. The new power delivery also gives the RTX 40 series a 10x increase in response time to power transient management compared to the previous generation.

The new cards also feature DP 1.4a (4K 12-bit HDR @ 240Hz) and HDMI 2.1 (4K 120Hz HDR / 8K 60Hz HDR). All cards are compliant with the PCIe Gen 4 interface on existing motherboards and also feature full compliance with the Resizable-BAR technologies.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition PCB:

Next-Gen Micron GDDR6X Dies Run 10C Cooler Thanks To New Process Node

NVIDIA has also leveraged Micron's latest GDDR6X memory chips for its GeForce RTX 40 graphics cards which run 10C cooler, are more power efficient and since they are all 16Gb DRAM dies, they can be fused on one side of the PCB to be cooled better than dual-sided memory.

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