Image: Nvidia
Nvidia has finally revealed its latest RTX 40-series graphics cards, and they’re just as powerful as they are expensive.
Nvidia has finally revealed the latest generation of its GeForce GPUs, which consist of three all-new RTX 40-series graphics cards. The most powerful of the three cards is the RTX 4090, while the other two are variations of the RTX 4080 - one 16GB version and a less pricey 12GB version. Make no mistake, however: any one of these cards will bring you that much closer to bankruptcy.
The headliner here is the RTX 4090, by far the most powerful graphics card the company has ever attempted to put out. The card touts massive performance boosts over the last generation of RTX cards, doubling the performance of the RTX 3090 Ti alone in some cases. This card comes with 16,384 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR6X memory, running at a hefty 21Gbps. It eats up a lot of power (450W), but surprisingly only around as much as the RTX 3090 Ti despite doubling its performance output.
Here’s the weird bit. Where most might expect the other two 4000-series cards to have different names, Nvidia has defied expectations and named them both the RTX 4080 - despite them having different specs. You can think of them as the ‘more powerful’ and ‘less powerful’ 4080, with one having 16GB of memory while the other settles for 12GB. The 16GB version of the card has 9,728 CUDA cores while the 12GB card has 7,680. Both versions are priced according to their slightly differing specs, with the 12GB version functioning as something of a rebranded RTX 4070, but with a jacked-up price point.
Let’s talk pricing! These cards aren’t cheap. The standout RTX 4090 will launch on October 12 with prices starting at a whopping US$1,599. The RTX 4080 (16GB) will start at US$1,199 while the RTX 4080 (12GB) will start at US$899, but both of these cards launch a little later in November. For comparison’s sake, the RTX 2080 launched with prices beginning from US$699. The RTX 3080 started at US$699 upon release. The RTX 4080 (16GB) goes for a fun, not at all depressing, US$1,199. That’s quite a leap, even if you take inflation into account.
These prices are not going to be viable for most people, but they do come attached to cards that boast powerful new features. The RTX 40-series cards come with DLSS 3, in what Nvidia calls the third generation of RTX. DLSS 3 creates additional high-quality frames using AI powered by these new cards to boost performance, leading to a big leap in visual fidelity and framerates. Here’s an example of the feature running on Cyberpunk 2077, using AI to predict and generate additional frames:
Nvidia DLSS 3.0 will be supported by 35 games, with more to come after launch. The company has also announced an upcoming remaster of Valve’s first-person-shooter puzzle game Portal, which adds ray-traced graphics. Titled Portal With RTX, the remaster will launch as a free DLC for anyone who already owns the game. Here’s what it looks like in action: