This is a busy time in testing salt mines with Ars Technica GPUs (not to be confused with mining, which GPUs used to be known for). Having concluded our review of the Intel Arc A700 series, we’re back to testing a GPU we’ve had for a few days now: the Nvidia RTX 4090.
Provided by Nvidia to Ars Technica for review purposes, this GPU beast stands well outside the average consumer range, even for a product category where the average price continues to rise. While we’re not allowed to reveal anything about our testing at press time, our upcoming coverage will reflect the reality of this $1,599 and up GPU. In the meantime, we thought the unboxing of the Nvidia 4090 “Founders’ Edition”would begin to tell the story of who this GPU might not be for.
On paper, the Nvidia RTX 4090 is poised to outdo its Nvidia predecessors with specs that easily surpass the early 2022 RTX 3090 Ti product. The 4090 has about 50% more CUDA cores and 25-33% more cores in other important categories, especially cores dedicated to tensor computing and ray tracing (which are also updated to new specs for Nvidia’s new 5nm process). However, one characteristic of the 3090 and 3090 Ti remains identical: the type and capacity of the video memory (again, 24GB of GDDR6X RAM).
That said, despite outperforming the 3090 Ti in many performance-affecting specs, Nvidia is sticking with its 450W max power – sure, it’s still a power-hungry card, but the results could push a new level of efficiency for such a high-end product. -something has to give way if max power doesn’t change, and that comes in the form of a massive new chassis that now requires three full PCI-e slots in your preferred gaming case, as well as the extra length.
You can appreciate that extra size in your own case by comparing its 12″(304mm) length and 5.4″(137mm) depth to a more standard-sized GPU like the new Intel Arc A770 (pictured in the final gallery above).).). You’ll also need to make room for at least three standard 8-pin power connectors in the chassis of your choice, which can be plugged into a 12-pin ATX 3.0 adapter (pictured in the penultimate gallery). Our size comparison gallery has everything from Yoshi’s plastic toy to a banana, from an Xbox controller to an entire Xbox console.
If there’s something you’re itching to know about the RTX 4090, whether it’s because you want to buy it specifically or because you’re wondering how its launch will affect other future GPU technologies, let us know in the section comments. This unboxing may not address performance issues like the new DLSS system or cheaper models in Ada Lovelace’s GPU lineup, but our upcoming review, scheduled for next week ahead of the GPU’s Oct. 12 launch date, will go a lot further.
This article has been updated since it was posted to fix a 4090 plugged in power cable bug.