The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 is Nvidia's halo card of the product line. It bucked the trend of other prior Nvidia cards by not having a successor in the same product line, and it delivered on the promise of easily handling almost any game at max settings. We gave the card a good score almost three years ago but, in hindsight, it should've scored even higher considering how it lived up to the hype. Its major bugbear was the price, which came closer to the old Titan line while still being aimed squarely at gamers. Little did anyone know that the $1,599.99 retail price tag would easily go far north and stay there to this day. With the introduction of the RTX 50-series of cards, we finally have the successor with the RTX 5090 and its expected upgrades in almost every area. However, the video card has a tall order to overcome when you consider the huge leap that the 4090 made over the 3090 Ti at the time.

Before getting to the rest of the card, the elephant in the room has to be addressed: the price. At $1,999.99 for the MSRP, the GeForce RTX 5090 is the most expensive card from a numbered series to be released yet. This is just for Nvidia's model, mind you, as there's no doubt that the partner cards will be priced even higher for the base models alone. Only the Titan RTX launched higher than this with an MSRP of $2,499.99, and that was aimed squarely at professional creators rather than gamers. It's pricey, and it immediately places it in the hands of those with a "spare no expense" attitude to PC gaming. The only reason that anyone may see this as a reasonable price is if they're trying to shop for a RTX 4090, which is selling for at least $2,500 — way above the original MSRP.

We received the Founders Edition from Nvidia, and it is a surprising card from a physical standpoint. The length and width of the card is the same as all of the Founders Edition models from the RTX 40-series line, but the height matches the lower end of that line instead of the higher end. This is a true two-slot card instead of a three-slot one. The PCB has shifted to the middle of the board, and both fans are on the bottom of the card instead of on both sides. It's an all-metal card, and the only bit of plastic is the same 16-pin connector on this side. This time around, that connector has been rotated 90 degrees and then slanted another 45 degrees so it sticks out at an angle. The adapter for traditional 8-pin power connectors is still present, but the cable is softer and longer to potentially relieve stress on the connection. The card feels dense, but it weighs less than expected. The card comes in at 1,825g, which is over 300g less than the RTX 4090 Founders Edition. It's no featherweight, but there's less of a chance of card sag later on.

When it comes to the specs, there are a few important items to note. The memory bandwidth sees an increase to 1,792 GB/sec versus the RTX 4090's 1,008 GB/sec. The VRAM is now GDDR7 at 32GB, which is 8GB more than the GDDR6X that the 4090 was sporting. Power draw is also higher at 575w for the card alone, with a 1,000-watt power supply now being a requirement instead of a recommendation. Proper cooling is a consideration, as the card dumps a ton of heat in its surrounding area when at load. The three DisplayPorts are now using 2.1b specifications, and the same goes for the HDMI connector to ensure very high bandwidth for high refresh rate 4K or 8K displays.

The upgrade in specs is nice, but there are two things this card is banking on as far as gamers are concerned. The first is DLSS 4, which promises to be a significant upgrade over every other version of the AI technology to date. The main concept is still the same, so the technology has the game run at a lower internal resolution and then uses the card's tensor cores to upscale the image so it looks like a good facsimile of the target resolution. This time, the focus is on image clarity, so ghost images are eliminated and finer details like chain link fences, thin foliage, and power lines look clear and smooth instead of jagged or noisy.

For the most part, this works quite nicely. Small movements made on the screen don't produce odd-looking images, and the shimmer associated with fine details is reduced to the point where you have to lean into the screen to see something amiss. The problem is that this technique only works if you're aiming to play at your monitor's native resolution. Go for a lower resolution such as 1440p on a 4K display like the LG C3 OLED, and you'll get some odd-looking issues. Alan Wake 2 produces overly ghostly character models, while Star Wars Outlaws creates water caustic-like effects on surfaces where water isn't present. This may not be something that many people will run into — most players tend to go for the monitor's target resolution — but it shows that the process isn't perfect yet.

The second thing is multi-frame generation. DLSS 3 used AI to generate an extra frame of visual data to make games look smoother. DLSS 4 goes the extra step by letting you create up to three more frames of AI-generated screen data to simulate a higher frame rate experience. All of this is done without incurring a responsiveness delay that's greater than what DLSS 3 had, so it creates some caveats when using the technology. Gamepad users may not feel much of the delay when compared to keyboard and mouse users. Single-player games are more suited for this compared to competitive online affairs. Then again, you'll need to see if you're sensitive to these delays before determining whether frame generation is a boon or a detriment.

The idea behind frame generation is fine, but it also creates some interesting scenarios. While doubling the frame rate with AI may seem fine, going for 3x or 4x the normal frame rate can begin to reach into ludicrous territory, since the frame rates go beyond what most high-refresh monitors are capable of handling. Going into the high 200s and beyond seems reserved for eSports players, but they're the ones most likely to turn off the technology due to the introduced latency. It can feel like a solution to a problem that few may experience, so some will see this as catering to the crowd that's obsessed with numbers going up above all else.

Nvidia promises that there will be at least 75 titles that take advantage of these technologies at launch, and while some of those games will get patches so the Nvidia-specific features are present in their respective settings screens, others will get the upgrades via the Nvidia app. The process has you going into the app to find the game that already has some DLSS support built in and turned on. From there, you can change the game's app setting to override the DLSS and frame generation processes and then reboot the game for the changes to silently get applied; you won't see changes to the game's setting screen otherwise. The process takes a bit of work, and there's some work that still needs to be done on Nvidia's side. For example, the names used for each DLSS model have no explanation for what they are and what they do. Granted, the press had an early version of the Nvidia app to work with, but there needs to be a more user-friendly list of settings. Additionally, players will be completely dependent on Nvidia actually adding games to the app list for the override process to be viable. The process works fine for titles that will never get the advanced DLSS features patched in.

For this review, we'll be comparing the RTX 5090 against the RTX 4090, Nvidia's previous flagship card. That card still beat out every other card in Nvidia's current lineup, so the head-to-head comparison is logical. AMD's top card is the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which we do not have in our possession. We're hoping to remedy this soon for the upcoming reviews in the RTX lineup, but reviews from other outlets have already placed the card roughly at the level of the old RTX 4080.

The PC we're using for these tests is a Ryzen 7 7700X equipped with 32GB of G.Skill Flare X5 Series DDR5-6000 RAM in a dual channel configuration. The motherboard is the MSI B650-P Pro. We're using Windows 11 version 24H2, and the Nvidia press driver is version 571.86. We placed our testing focus on 1440p and 4K resolutions, since testing at 1080p would produce ludicrous numbers with and without ray tracing. Unless noted, all of the graphical settings were placed at their maximum individual levels instead of relying on presets, and DLSS upscaling was always set to Quality with frame generation on when available. Tests were also conducted using the game's built-in benchmark, with a few exceptions that will be noted in their respective titles. As always, we recommend using this review in conjunction with others that may have a wider selection of cards to get a clearer picture of where the GeForce RTX 5090 stands.

3DMark

As always, we start off the benchmark portion of the review with the 3DMark suite of synthetic benchmarks. The Fire Strike DirectX 11 scores were pretty high: 54205 for the 1080p test, 42082 for the 1440p test, and 28516 for the 4K test. Time Spy is the DirectX 12 test, and the RTX 5090 scored 33074 at 1440p and 16853 at 4K. Port Royale is the ray traced-focused test running at 1440p, where the RTX 5090 scores 34848. Speed Way is another ray traced-focused 1440p test which is a bit heavier than Port Royale, hence the score of 14022 for the RTX 5090. Finally, Steel Nomad is the DirectX 12 4K test where the card gets a score of 13725. Overall, there are some good scores that are higher than what was seen from the RTX 4090, but not monumentally so.

The suite also contains a test specifically for the various forms of DLSS, and it uses a slice of Port Royale for testing. At the native 1440p, the 5090 reaches an average frame rate of roughly 165fps, but the frame rate quickly goes into the full 200s range with the first three iterations of DLSS. By the time you go to DLSS 4, the numbers climb into the high 400s. At 4K, the RTX 5090 hits an average frame rate of under 80fps but gets doubled to 140fps with the original DLSS alone. For some reason, the DLSS 2 test wouldn't run, but DLSS 3 produced 193fps before ballooning through the 200s and capping off with 357fps with DLSS 4 with 4x frame generation. If this was the only benchmark being done, then the RTX 5090 would easily be declared a winner, but tests involving real games tell a very different story.

Red Dead Redemption II

It may be fairly old by now, but Rockstar's Western epic still sports a more advanced engine than the recently released Red Dead Redemption, and it is still the publisher's more demanding title, since Grand Theft Auto V never received the upgrades that the Xbox Series X and PS5 versions of the game did. At 1440p, the RTX 5090 achieves a 144fps average with a 40fps low; adding in DLSS bumps it to a 151fps average with a 37fps low. Move over to 4K, and the RTX 5090 hits an average of 111fps with a 37fps low, while DLSS moves things into a 128fps average and a 36fps low. That sounds good, but the percentage difference is less impressive when compared to the RTX 4090. That's a difference of 11.7% at 1440p and 7.5% for 1440p with DLSS, while things fare better with 16.5% at 4K and 14.2% at 4K with DLSS. One odd thing to note is that the numbers for the RTX 4090 were lower for the tests conducted for this review than what we had recorded during the review for the RTX 4080 Super last year.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

With Horizon Zero Dawn rebuilt using the same engine as Horizon Forbidden West, performing a benchmark should provide a good idea of how both games will perform on this card. At 1440p, the RTX 5090 scores 152fps with a 70fps low, while adding in DLSS and frame generation bumps the score to 275fps with a 100fps low. For some unknown reason, using DLSS alone makes the card score lower than what was seen without any upscaling. When compared to the RTX 4090, that's a difference of 5.4% for 1440p and a 23.5% difference when DLSS and frame generation are added to the mix. At 4K, the RTX 5090 hits 129fps on average with a 58fps low. Adding DLSS bumps things up to 136fps but produces a lower low of 53fps, while adding frame generation produces a 223fps average and a 147fps low. As far as percentages go, the RTX 5090 gets a 6.4% advantage at 4K, 3.7% difference with DLSS, and 19.1% with frame generation added in.

Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail

It is rare that an MMO gets a benchmark and even rarer that said benchmark would be available separate from the game. The benchmark enables DLSS of an unknown setting, and it only produces an overall score at the end, but if you choose to save your score, you'll get a text file with a few more details. At 1440p, the RTX 5090 scores a 218fps average with a 79fps low, which is a 5.6% lead over the RTX 4090. At 4K, the frame rate hits a 157fps average and an 84fps low, which gives the card an uplift of 17.3%.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Ubisoft's title may not be that new anymore, but it still retains some value as being a title where ray tracing cannot be fully turned off. It is also a game that only features frame generation when using AMD's FSR 3.1 technology. At 1440p, the RTX 5090 reaches an average of 151fps with a low of 122fps, giving it a 27% advantage over the RTX 4090. With DLSS on, the frame rate for the RTX 5090 reaches 176fps with a 131fps low, and moving to FSR 3 with frame generation produces an average frame rate of 228fps with a 173fps low. With a DLSS advantage of 30% and a FSR advantage of 19%, these are some big wins for the RTX 5090. Moving on to 4K, the RTX 5090 hits an average of 97fps with a low of 82fps, a 15% advantage over the RTX 4090. It's roughly the same percentage advantage when using DLSS; the average frame rate hits 120fps with a low of 99fps, while FSR 3 produces a 179fps average and a 125fps low, making for a 35% boost in favor of the RTX 5090.

Forza Horizon 5

The game is technically solid all around, making for a perfect benchmark game for hardware of all types, since the ray tracing isn't all that taxing. At 1440p, the RTX 5090 reaches an average frame rate of 219fps with a low of 192fps, a 21% boost over the RTX 4090. Strangely, DLSS lowers the average to 213fps with a 188fps low, while frame generation makes things right with a 331fps average and a 194fps low. That sort of thing didn't happen with the RTX 4090, which didn't see that strange frame rate drop with DLSS alone. At 4K, the RTX 5090 enjoys a 23% bump over the RTX 4090 with an average frame rate of 206fps and a low of 181fps. Again, DLSS alone reduces the average to 202fps with a 180fps low, but frame generation brings things back up with a 313fps average and a 185fps low.

Star Wars: Outlaws

Ubisoft's licensed game is the first title in this review to get the RTX 50-series features built into it via a patch. It is also another game with most ray tracing features on at all times. The only ray tracing option that can be toggled is RTX Direct Lighting, which has a major impact on the frame rate. Since this game doesn't have a built-in benchmark, tests were conducted by running around in the game's opening city.

At 1440p with RTX Direct Lighting off, the RTX 5090 looks good with a 97fps average and a low of 73fps. The RTX 4090 holds its own with a 79fps average and a 62fps low. Adding DLSS gives the 5090 a bump to 142fps on average, and things get exponentially better once the various multipliers of frame generation enter the conversation. Turn on RTX Direct Lighting, however, and you get a sense of how heavy it is, with the RTX 5090 dropping its average to 52fps. It needs DLSS to get to a 94fps average, and the same happens with the RTX 4090, albeit at a lesser degree.

At 4K, things look a bit bad for the RTX 5090, as it averages 49fps without RTX Direct Lighting on. Turn on that feature, and the game becomes heavy; the 5090 achieves an average of 26fps, and the 4090 goes down to 21fps on average. Both cards need frame generation and DLSS to reach more playable frame rates, as seen in the included charts.

Alan Wake 2

Remedy has always been a fan of pushing out new graphical technologies, and this title is no exception thanks to a recent patch. Just like Star Wars: Outlaws, Alan Wake 2 has no built-in benchmark, so tests were conducted in the game's opening level. This works out well thanks to the abundant foliage, presence of smoke monsters and rain, as well as some lighting and a character model with enough visible body hair to give DLSS a real workout.

At 1440p, the RTX 5090 achieves an average of 145fps with a 68fps low, while DLSS gives it a little bump to 159fps on average with a 71fps low. Turn on ray tracing, however, and the frame rate is almost halved on the RTX 5090 with an average of 73fps; recovery only occurs once DLSS is on. One odd thing is that while we tried to conduct tests with frame generation on at these resolutions, the game would turn on Vsync, so we couldn't go past the 120fps refresh rate of the TV. This isn't something you'd want to resolve, since the image became such a blurry mess that it was almost nausea-inducing. The good news is that this phenomenon didn't occur when the resolution was switched to 4K. The bad news is that the halving of frame rate still occurs, so you need DLSS for the RTX 5090 to reach the modern respectable frame rate of 60fps, while the RTX 4090 needs frame generation to get to that same category.

Marvel Rivals

This recent multiplayer-only hit only has ray tracing in the form of Unreal Engine 5's Lumen technology, but it is quite optimized when compared to Epic's own Fortnite, which can crash on Windows 11 machines if you try to push out its graphical settings. Marvel Rivals is also significant as being one of a few titles that uses the Nvidia app to get some RTX 50-series features into it. Just like Alan Wake 2, frame generation only comes into play at a monitor's native resolution, so don't expect any 1440p numbers in this area. Also, while there's no hardware ray tracing, there is Lumen, which is Unreal Engine's own software ray tracing solution.

At 1440p, the RTX 5090 hits an average of 190fps with an 85fps low when ray tracing is off. That's only a 6.5% bump over the RTX 4090. Oddly, turning on DLSS actually makes the numbers go down with a 185fps average and a 79fps low, which actually matches the RTX 4090's results. Turning on ray tracing sees the RTX 5090 get a 162fps average with an 80fps low, and the bump with DLSS on isn't significant, as you'll get 170fps for the average and 82fps for the low.

Going to 4K in this setup opens up multi-frame generation to big numbers, as you can get averages from 243fps to 459fps, depending on the multiplier you choose and whether or not you want ray tracing. Without this, the numbers are still respectable. With ray tracing off, the RTX 5090 gets 155fps on average with a 72fps low, while DLSS gives that a decent bump to 187fps on average and a 78fps low. Turn on ray tracing, and you'll get a 115fps average with a 62fps low, while DLSS gives the card a 136fps average and a 79fps low.

Black Myth: Wukong

The game was always set up as a poster child for Unreal Engine 5; a standalone benchmark was released prior to the full game so people could see how taxing the game would really be. Unlike many other games, this one has no presets, as it prefers to set a number of its graphical options with percentages. Luckily, those percentages provide some hints on naming conventions.

At 1440p with ray tracing off and TSR set to 100% resolution scaling, the RTX 5090 hits an 81fps average, which is a very nice bump over the RTX 4090, which hits 66fps with the same settings. Set DLSS to 75% resolution scaling, and you'll get a more comfortable 102fps average, which gets a further bump to 158fps with frame generation on. Add ray tracing into the mix, and the RTX 5090 barely hits 55fps for the average, making DLSS at 75% a necessity to hit the likes of 89fps and 140fps with frame generation. At 4K, the story with the RTX 5090 is the same, as you need DLSS and frame generation to get comfortable frame rates. Turn on ray tracing at this resolution, and DLSS with frame generation becomes a necessity, since going with TSR at 100% resolution scaling only produces an average of 29fps. Adding in DLSS alone at 75% resolution scaling only sees the card hit 55fps for the average.

Cyberpunk 2077

The final game on the list that we benchmarked happens to be a title with just about every available graphical option. It also remains one of the more taxing games when it comes to the various forms of ray tracing. The different configurations are plentiful enough that we need to split up the results into several different charts.

Starting with 1440p and ray tracing off, the RTX 5090 scores an average of 133fps with a 112fps low, which gives it a 27% boost over the RTX 4090. Things get strange with DLSS on and using the old Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model. The 163fps average with a 114fps low is nice, but it ends up being lower than what the RTX 4090 achieved, which was a 166fps average and a 120fps low. Using the new Transformer model with DLSS, the frame rate gets even lower with a 159fps average and a 113fps low. With the regular 2x frame generation in play, the RTX 5090 frame rate gets better, but CNN still gets a higher frame rate overall with a 322fps average versus the Transformer's 303fps. Throw in 3x and 4x frame generation, and none of this matters, with the frame rate now averaging in the mid- to high-400s. Turn on ray tracing, and the RTX 5090 starts with an average of 96fps and a low of 86fps, and each subsequent technology boosts things significantly until 397fps is reached when using DLSS and 4x frame generation. Path tracing is where things get exciting, as the RTX 5090 hits an average of 62fps and a low of 53fps, while the RTX 4090 can only manage an average of 48fps with a 41fps low, a difference of 25%.

At 4K, Cyberpunk 2077 shows that it can still be a heavy title to run once every option is bumped to the highest level. The RTX 5090 hits an average of 66fps with a 56fps low and ray tracing off. The RTX 4090 has been able to do this in the past, but patches released since the RTX 4080 Super review must've made that tougher,  since the previous flagship only scored a 44fps average with a 37fps low. Add ray tracing into the mix, and the RTX 5090 only hits a 52fps average, so it needs DLSS to get into the mid-to high-80fps mark. Use path tracing instead, and the RTX 4090 hits an unplayable range with a 23fps average, while the RTX 5090 only gets a cinematic 32fps average, only being bumped to 61fps once you enable DLSS.

Again, we'd highly recommend that you seek out other reviews for the RTX 5090 to see the benchmark results from different hardware and different games. Based on these 10 test games, it's obvious that Nvidia really needs its AI tools to start boosting those frame rates, as the generational upgrade isn't doing that much for them, at least with this card. This is especially true with ray tracing and more so with path tracing, as both of those technologies are still expensive to implement. None of these are bad things, but it does make the improvements touted by Nvidia seem less impressive for those who are fond of the intent behind DLSS but fear that frame generation will become a crutch for developers who aren't willing to optimize their titles properly. It's uncertain whether this marks the demise of frame rates as a valid measuring metric for performance, but it makes one wonder whether a game's performance is actually good if it relies heavily on multiple frame generation to reach a desired target.

Speaking strictly from a gaming perspective, the GeForce RTX 5090 is more of an incremental update over the previous generation of video cards instead of a monumental one. The gains over the previous generation are still good, but they won't immediately dazzle like the RTX 4090. The large amount of fast VRAM present is a boon, even if no game takes advantage of the large pool yet; the reduction in its physical size is good news for those looking to put a powerful card into a small form factor PC. One can't help but gawk at the asking price, especially since the card still isn't powerful enough to handle some of the heavier games without using some AI tools. RTX 4090 owners can hold off on attempting to get the RTX 5090, while those who own a top-of-the-line RTX 30-series card or older will want to wait on the verdict for the RTX 5080 before thinking about this card.

Score: 7.5/10