Nvidia recently unveiled its new 40-series of GeForce RTX graphics cards with two new GPUs—the GeForce RTX 4090 and the GeForce RTX 4080. While the previous-generation of 30-series GPUs are more than enough to keep up with the PS5 and Xbox Series X//S, the new 40-series of cards seems to be more of a way for Nvidia to expand on its work with RTX ray tracing and DLSS technologies. Here are 9 things you should know about Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards.
What Cards Have Been Announced?
Nvidia recently unveiled its new RTX 40 series of graphics cards with two new GPUs—the RTX 4090 and the RTX 4080. As their names might imply, the RTX 4090 is currently set to be the new generation’s flagship graphics card with top-of-the-line specs like 24GB GDDR6X RAM, a base clock speed of 2.23GHz, a boost clock speed of 2.52GHz, and 16384 CUDA cores.
The second card, the RTX 4080, will be available in two versions—12GB RAM and 16GB RAM. The 12GB GDDR6X RAM version features a boost clock of 2.61GHz and 7680 CUDA cores, while the 16GB GDDR6X RAM version features a boost clock of 2.51GHz and 9728 CUDA cores.
While we don’t really have hard benchmark numbers yet, the RTX 4090 is expected to be between two to four times faster than the previous flagship, the RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 4080, on the other hand, is expected to be two to four times faster than the RTX 3080 Ti.
When Are They Out?
The RTX 4090 is set to be available starting on October 12, while the RTX 4080 is set for release some time in November. It is worth noting that while these are the dates for Nvidia’s release, this likely means that third-party versions of both cards will be available slightly later. The release date is likely for Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition releases of the cards.
Higher Prices
One of the most interesting things about Nvidia’s 40-series announcement has been the new prices. The company hasn’t been shy about wanting its graphics cards to be more expensive, wanting the price of buying a single graphics card to be like buying an entire current-gen gaming console. To that end, the new RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 cards have been priced considerably higher than their RTX 30-series counterparts.
The RTX 4090 is priced at a whopping $1,600. The 12GB RAM version of the RTX 4080 is priced at $900, while the 16GB RAM version is priced at $1,200. If these prices look similar to what we had during the absurd inflation of GPU prices over the last couple of years, that seems to be completely intentional.
Performance Differences
Currently, the only real metrics we have for comparing the new RTX 40-series graphics cards with the previous-gen RTX 30-series cards are numbers given out by Nvidia itself. During its unveiling, Nvidia showed off a bar graph comparing the RTX 4090 with the RTX 3090 Ti.
For the sake of comparison, the games are apparently running at 3840×2160 resolution, the highest graphical settings allowed by the games, DLSS set to its Super Resolution Performance mode, and DLSS Frame Generation on RTX 40-series cards.
Aside from Cyberpunk 2077, the games seemed to show the new RTX 4090 being twice as fast as the RTX 3090 Ti. Cyberpunk 2077 showed a 4-times improvement in speed over the previous generation of GPUs, thanks to the new Ray Tracing Overdrive mode.
But What Can They Play?
With the leap in power over the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti, the new RTX 40-series cards will likely find a home in any PC that wants to run games at 4K and 60fps. In fact, the new cards support displays at much higher resolutions, and while we’re not going to be seeing 8K gaming monitors outside of low-production enthusiast gaming lines just yet, we’ll likely see higher 4K monitors running at higher refresh rates, and these cards will be able to properly tap into all of that power. Don’t be surprised if we soon find ourselves talking about gaming at 4k and 144fps.
Ada Lovelace Architecture
While the new Ada Lovelace architecture means that the performance gains are quite impressive, it is also worth noting that the new architecture also means better power efficiency for the new graphics cards. According to Nvidia, despite the massive jump in power from the previous generation, the RTX 4090 only seems to need around 450 watts of power at most to gain the most performance out of the card.
How this will shape up in real-world use is yet to be seen, especially since third-party RTX 40-series GPUs might end up having their own bells and whistles like custom overclocking and different fan curves. It should still be of great relief to many that they may not need to upgrade their power supply units if they plan on upgrading from an RTX 3090 Ti to an RTX 4090.
DLSS 3 and Why It Matters
Alongside the new graphics cards, Nvidia also announced the new version of its DLSS technology. Dubbed DLSS 3, the technology will be exclusive to RTX 40-series GPUs, and Nvidia has stated that around 35 games will support the technology at launch.
Essentially combining DLSS Frame Generation, DLSS Super Resolution and Nvidia Reflex, DLSS 3 is said to provide a 4-times performance boost in supported games.
While new GPUs and games will support DLSS 3, Nvidia has stated that it won’t be leaving the RTX 20-series and RTX 30-series cards behind. The studio has stated that DLSS 2—DLSS Super Resolution—and Nvidia Reflex will still be supported on the older cards.
RTX 30-series May Not Become Cheaper
Considering how things are going for the global economy, with skyrocketing inflation and everything getting more expensive, it is likely that the RTX 30-series graphics cards won’t really benefit from the release of the RTX 40-series cards when it comes to pricing.
As we mentioned above, Nvidia hasn’t been shy about wanting its GPUs to cost more, and with conditions in the cryptocurrency space changing in a way as to have older GPUs finally have more reasonable price tags, it is quite likely that Nvidia wants to keep selling its older cards at their MSRP.
While RTX 30-series cards becoming more affordable would no doubt benefit many PC gamers out there, chances are quite high that, until Nvidia unveils more cards in its RTX 40-series lineup, prices of cards like the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 will likely stay where they are right now.
What Other Cards Can We Expect?
With Nvidia having announced only the new flagship graphics cards of its RTX 40-series, the company will definitely be announcing more cards as time goes on. Since the company is likely intent on getting rid of as many of its leftover RTX 30-series cards as it can before introducing a new mid-range series of cards to the market.
We fully expect the RTX 40-series of the RTX 3060, the RTX 3060 Ti, and the RTX 3070 to be unveiled in 2023. We’ll also likely see more powerful flagships get unveiled—essentially the equivalents of the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti. An exact timeframe, however, is difficult to guess since Nvidia is likely waiting to run out of RTX 30-series cards to sell before cannibalising its own sales with new cards.