Nvidia today announced three new graphics cards based on its next generation graphics architecture. Available starting next month, prices for these will start at $ 899.
At the top of the stack is the new RTX 4090. This huge new GPU features 16384 CUDA cores with boost clocks reaching up to 2.52 GHz. The card comes with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 384-bit memory interface. Nvidia claims to be 2-4 times faster than the RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 4090 is rated at 450W and works with a single 16-pin PCIe Gen 5 cable or 3 8-pin PCIe cables. It is priced at $ 1599 and will be available starting October 12.
Next up is the RTX 4080, which comes in two variants. The more premium variant features 9728 CUDA core and 2.51 GHz boost clock. It has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 256-bit interface. Nvidia claims to be 2-4 times faster than the RTX 3080 Ti. Then there is also a second variant with 12GB GDDR6X memory and 192-bit memory interface. This version has 7680 CUDA cores and a 2.61 GHz boost clock.
The 16GB model is rated at 320W and the 12GB model at 285W. They are priced at $ 1199 and $ 899 respectively and will be available in November.
The heart of these new graphics cards is the new GPU. Based on Nvidia’s new TSMC 4nm Ada Lovelace architecture, the new GPU features third generation RT cores, fourth generation Tensor Core, and support for new features such as DLSS 3 and AV1 encoder.
Compared to the RTX 3090 Ti’s 40 shader-TFLOPs, the RTX 4090 has 83-TFLOPS. Thanks to the new Shader Execution Reordering, shader performance is said to improve by 2x and game frame rates by 25%. Nvidia also claims that RT performance on the RTX 4090 is around 191 TFLOPS while the RTX 3090 Ti was capable of reaching 78 TFLOPS. The new 4th generation Tensor cores are said to have 5x throughput on the RTX 4090.
The 40 series cards will also include two eighth generation Nvidia Encoders (NVENC). These not only can decode AV1 but will also be able to encode it. The company has partnered with OBS Studio to bring AV1 encoding to its client. Nvidia has also upped ShadowPlay’s capture resolution up to 8K at 60fps in HDR.
One of the most impactful features announced was DLSS 3, which will be exclusive to the 40 series graphics cards. The new version uses an optical flow accelerator and sequential frame data to create new frames on the GPU itself (rather than on the game) to improve frame rates up to 4 times. This method also avoids CPU bottlenecks that affect traditional image upsampling and reconstruction methods as frame rates increase.
Over 35 games have been announced with support for this feature, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator. These will start appearing next month. The company also announced a version of Portal with real-time ray tracing, which will launch in November and will be a free update for existing Portal owners. It is part of the Nvidia RTX Remix modding platform, which offers tools to improve the graphics of older titles.
Returning to graphics cards, the new 40 series models will replace the 3090 series of cards but join the existing 3060, 3070 and 3080 series of cards, which will continue to be sold. We don’t expect low-end 40 series models until 2023.
Nvidia will sell its Founders Edition cards for the 16GB RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, along with AIB partner models, such as ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, Galaxy, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and ZOTAC. Most of these cards feature a 3-4 slot design along with robust power requirements. The cards will have HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4a connectivity.
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