Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: Fantastically, futuristically fast

The monstrous GeForce RTX 4090 delivers luxuriously fast frame rates and futuristic features, but DLSS 3 may be the real star.

- BRAD CHACOS

Nvidia’s $1,599 GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card (fave. co/3DOEuWk) sports a luxury price tag, but you get a truly luxurious gaming experience in return.

Want face-melting frame rates? The last-generation RTX 3090 (fave.co/3wPpJAn) was a speed demon, but the GeForce RTX 4090—thanks to Nvidia’s new “Ada Lovelace” architecture—screams through traditional games up to 83 percent faster. Nvidia’s 40-series flagship chews through futuristic ray-traced games too, propelled by more advanced 3rd-gen RT cores and a radical new Frame Generation DLSS 3 feature that doubles (or more) frame rates yet again with a heaping helping of AI.

It’s not just about games, though. Creators will love the 24GB of blazing-fast GDDR6X memory when it comes to pixel-packed video renders, and Nvidia’s inclusion of not one, but two AV1 video encoders (fave.co/3eBsbpj) means the RTX 4090 is suitably equipped to handle the future of streaming.

No matter what you want to accomplish, the monstrous GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition can handle it without breaking a sweat—though your wallet and power supply might, as all this extra performance doesn’t come free. Let’s dig in.

SPECS, FEATURES, AND PRICE