The Nvidia RTX 4090 is one of the most anticipated graphics card launches in a long time, as rumors about the processing power (and power requirements) of the next-gen BFGPU have gamers everywhere salivating.
The current-gen RTX 3090 was one of the most impressive graphics cards we’d seen when it launched, and even if the slightly more powerful Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti is currently the current standard bearer for Nvidia, we’d still argue that the Nvidia RTX 3090 is the best graphics card in terms of value for money (although it really pushes the limit of what is an acceptable price point even for a premium graphics card).
The RTX 4090, which is expected to take a massive leap beyond what even the RTX 3090 Ti is capable of, will frankly be one of the most important launches of the whole year as this is our first official look at Nvidia Lovelace will be , Nvidia’s new consumer graphics card architecture.
As the successor to Nvidia Ampere, Lovelace was initially seen as more of a mid-cycle refreshment than a full-scale architectural leap, but there are many rumors that Nvidia has changed its original plan and is aiming for more of an architectural overhaul, making the launch of the RTX 4090 all the more exciting power.
However, Nvidia has kept a lot 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 bring you up to speed on the latest rumours, speculation and analysis about the next generation of Nvidia’s flagship GPU.
Table of Contents
Nvidia RTX 4090: In a nutshell
- What is it? Nvidia’s next flagship graphics card
- When will it be available? It could be launched as early as August 2022
- What will it cost? Probably slightly higher than the RTX 3090 given the inflation
Nvidia RTX 4090 Release Date
In May 2020, the first Ampere GPU to be announced – the Nvidia A100 GPU – was unveiled to help developers and scientists (among others) work on COVID-19 research, but that was a data center and a cloud computing platform, non-consumer GPU .
The Nvidia RTX 3080 was launched a few months later, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 launching first on September 17th, 2020, followed by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 on September 24th. 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, followed by the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 in September and October, respectively.
Nvidia RTX 4090: price
The price point of the Nvidia RTX 4090 is a really big unknown at the moment. The RTX 3090 debuted at $1,499 (£1,399, AU$2,100) for the Nvidia Founder’s Edition, while other AIB partners introduced additional features like larger fans or RGB elements that pushed the price even higher.
And that was just the MSRP. However, when it comes to the actual price paid, these prices were often well above the MSRP as supply chain bottlenecks contributed to inflation and strong demand for next-gen graphics cards prompted profiteers to deploy swarms of bots to buy up available inventory and sell sell it online at inflated prices.
And then there were the cryptocurrency mining operations, which were buying up entire warehouses of graphics cards that would otherwise have been bought by gamers.
All of this contributed to the RTX 3090 selling for way more than anyone expected. Will the past be a prologue for the RTX 4090? Difficult to say, honestly. We anticipate, without question, that the RTX 4090 will be a very expensive graphics card, but how much of that perfect storm around the RTX 3090 will still be there to impact the RTX 4090’s price is unclear at this point.
Cryptocurrency prices have collapsed in recent months, which has reduced demand for high-end graphics cards from cryptominers, so the upward pressure on prices is not as strong. And while chip shortages are still a major concern, they hit just before the Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 launches, leaving those graphics card lineups unprepared for the chip crisis of 2020 and 2021.
However, it’s 2022, and now the chip shortage is somewhat baked in. Nvidia has known what the chip situation is and has had time to prepare for it in a way it was previously unable to do with the RTX 3090.
As for sneaky profiteers…well, there’s not much anyone can do about the human impulse to screw strangers for profit, but this time around there will likely be a lot more inventory available to make it far less profitable to buy up tens of thousands of dollars in graphics cards with the hope of reselling them at a 50% (or more) premium.
All of this points to a more modest price increase versus the general inflationary environment we find ourselves in. It remains to be seen, but it would be fantastic if Nvidia priced the RTX 4090 at the same level as the RTX 3090.
Nvidia RTX 4090: Specifications
Since we don’t have anything official about the RTX 4090, all the details on its specs are speculation rather than fact.
What we can say is that this will almost certainly be a beast of a graphics card, and we don’t just mean in terms of frames per second. If the rumors are true, this might as well be called Nvidia Tarrasque (opens in new tab) given how much electricity it is expected to consume.
Someone told me that xx90 was confirmed with 600W TGP. I think it’s too early to talk about it.March 12, 2022
With a TGP (Total Graphics Power) of 600W, this component alone is perhaps the most power-hungry consumer PC component ever. That’s enough power to power some of the best gaming PCs, and we’re not just talking about budget systems either.
So much power consumption only makes sense if the Nvidia RTX 4090 is as powerful as some claim, which is 2x to 3x the speed of the RTX 3090.
To be clear, the RTX 3090 can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K on the highest ray tracing settings with DLSS off and hit over 30 FPS, which is still playable, if not ideal. Turn on DLSS and it’s the only graphics card that has a chance to approach 60 fps and hit as high as 52 fps with these settings, only topped by the RTX 3090 Ti’s 57 max fps.
Now, to say that a graphics card is twice as fast doesn’t mean it directly translates to doubling your fps in any given game, but at just double the speed, the RTX 4090 (with DLSS enabled) should easily hit 60 fps and maybe drop it even reach 80 fps if these rumors are true. That’s a serious gaming feat, and it would be what we’d expect if you nearly doubled that TGP of the RTX 3090 (opens in new tab)which has a TGP of 350W.
As we get closer to launch, we’ll likely hear more about core counts and clock speeds, but suffice it to say this should definitely be the biggest graphics card launch of the year.
- Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 may already be in testing
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