The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 launched final week, setting a brand new bar peak for the competitors to clear. With the RTX 4090 sitting atop the GPU benchmarks hierarchy and rating because the quickest of the greatest graphics playing cards, there stays the query of which specific 4090 mannequin you should purchase. Moreover the Founders Version, now we have playing cards from quite a few third-party add-in board (AIB) companions on the best way. We’re kicking off our third occasion evaluations with the Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC (opens in new tab), a fully enormous card that dwarfs the already chunky 4090 Founders Version.
The straightforward reply for which card you should purchase can be “no matter RTX 4090 you’ll find in inventory.” Regardless of the acute pricing, the efficiency uplift was vital sufficient that the entire 4090 playing cards nearly instantly bought out at launch. Definitely a few of that may be attributed to RTX 4090 scalpers, however with out cryptocurrency GPU mining — no, the RTX 4090 will not be worthwhile for mining, nor are another GPUs proper now — we will solely hope that scalper pricing will shortly fade away.
That may naturally rely upon Nvidia getting ample provide of RTX 4090 GPUs to the market. Whereas we all know the playing cards bought out, we do not know what number of have been truly bought. It may very well be 1000’s, or perhaps even tens of 1000’s. However halo GPU launches sometimes do not include large provides. Nonetheless, the RTX 4090 is extremely quick and Nvidia seemingly is not in a rush to push out different 40-series fashions — not when Nvidia by its personal admission (opens in new tab) says it expects to be in an oversupply scenario no less than by means of the top of the 12 months.
Nvidia cannot delay without end, nevertheless, not with AMD asserting RDNA 3 on November 3. We totally anticipate AMD to supply some card — maybe a Radeon RX 7900 XT — at a a lot lower cost than the RTX 4090. Possibly there’ll even be a number of high-end playing cards utilizing the Navi 31, like RX 7950 XT, RX 7900 XT, and RX 7800 XT. We’ll discover out extra within the subsequent couple of weeks.
We have now examined three totally different RTX 4090 playing cards: the Founders Version, this Asus ROG Strix, and (evaluate upcoming) the MSI Suprim Liquid X. We’ll have outcomes for all three playing cards on this evaluate, although educated players will know that efficiency not often differs a lot between playing cards utilizing the identical core GPU — aesthetics and different components turn into extra essential. Listed below are the specs for the three totally different
| Graphics Card | Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC | MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X | RTX 4090 Founders Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structure | AD102 | AD102 | AD102 |
| SMs | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| GPU Shaders | 16384 | 16384 | 16384 |
| Enhance Clock (MHz) | 2610 (Gaming), 2640 (OC mode) | 2625 | 2520 |
| VRAM Pace (Gbps) | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| VRAM (GB) | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| TFLOPS FP32 (Enhance) | 85.5 | 86 | 82.6 |
| TFLOPS FP16 (FP8) | 684 (1368) | 688 (1376) | 661 (1321) |
| Bandwidth (GBps) | 1008 | 1008 | 1008 |
| TDP (watts) | 450 | 480 | 450 |
| Launch Date | October 2022 | October 2022 | October 2022 |
| Launch Value | $1,999 | $1,749 | $1,599 |
We have eliminated a lot of the redundant rows from the specs listing above, as all three playing cards have the identical base {hardware}. The one actual variations by way of specs come from the enhance clock and any potential distinction in energy ranking.
Asus does not specify a TBP, although we suspect it is the identical 450W because the Founders Version. Should you set up Asus GPU Tweak, you may also choose an OC mode that applies an extra 30 MHz to the GPU core clock and boosts the facility restrict by just a few %. We skipped that and as a substitute will examine guide overclocking.
On paper, the Asus card has a 3.6% manufacturing unit overclock whereas the MSI card has a 4.2% manufacturing unit overclock. In apply, the GPU clocks we measured throughout testing are far nearer than that. The Founders Version averaged 2738 MHz in our Metro Exodus check, the MSI card bought 2783 MHz (1.6% greater), and the Asus card bought 2791 MHz (1.9% greater). As normal, Nvidia’s real-world GPU clocks have a tendency to simply outstrip the spec sheet.
If you’d like extra data on what makes the RTX 4090 tick, try our Nvidia Ada Lovelace Architectural deep dive. We additionally ran fairly just a few extra exams on the RTX 4090 Founders Version, together with skilled content material creation workloads and DLSS 3 testing. For our AIB card evaluations, given the comparatively restricted variations we see in efficiency, we’ll focus extra on the cardboard design and aesthetics in addition to another extras.
Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC: Teardown and Overclocking
The above Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix unboxing video provides you with an excellent overview of what you get with the cardboard. It is enormous, weighing in at simply over 2.5kg (5.5 kilos) and measures 358 x 149 x 70mm — fairly a bit longer, taller, thicker, and heavier than Nvidia’s RTX 4090 Founders Version that measures 304 x 137 x 61mm and weighs 2186g.
In comparison with the earlier technology RTX 3090 ROG Strix (opens in new tab), issues have modified considerably. The 4090 card is kind of boxy, with out the chopped off corners. There’s additionally not as a lot RGB lighting, or no less than it is totally different from the earlier 30-series Strix playing cards. There is a rectangle plastic cowl on the finish of the cardboard (reverse the video ports), together with an RGB “Republic of Avid gamers” brand, and that is it.
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The brand new ROG Strix chassis positively embraces the “go massive” mentality of graphics playing cards. It is a 3.5-slot width, successfully occupying 4 slots in apply. Oddly, Asus sticks with a dual-slot IO bracket. We’re unsure why, since masking an additional slot would assist help the cardboard a bit extra and probably present extra exhaust ports.
Not that the cardboard will truly exhaust a lot air out the IO bracket, regardless of the cutouts. The heatsink fins are oriented parallel to the IO bracket, which implies a lot of the airflow will exit the highest and backside of the cardboard and again into your case. It is a conventional method to cooling and will work fantastic, although we would not counsel placing the ROG Strix right into a smaller case — not like it might match anyway.
Asus consists of three 104mm axial followers on the cardboard, all with built-in rims that assist direct airflow into the heatsink fins and enhance static strain. That is a barely bigger fan measurement than on the earlier technology 30-series Strix playing cards’ 97mm followers, and the brand new followers are additionally barely thicker (deeper). As we have seen with different latest Asus playing cards, the center fan rotates clockwise whereas the skin followers rotate counter-clockwise, which Asus says reduces air turbulence and fan noise.
Asus additionally consists of twin HDMI 2.1 ports alongside the normal triple DisplayPort outputs, although solely 4 will be energetic at any time. As famous in the principle 4090 evaluate, the DP ports are nonetheless utilizing the previous 1.4a customary — sure, that is the identical port customary that first appeared on the GTX 10-series again in 2016. Why not DisplayPort 2.0? It apparently wasn’t prepared in time, or no less than that is what Nvidia claimed when requested throughout a briefing. That appears unlikely contemplating the RTX 30-series launched in 2020, and DP 2.0 was finalized in 2019. In the meantime, VESA simply introduced the DisplayPort 2.1 spec, which AMD’s RDNA 3 is rumored to help — no actual shock because it’s totally backward suitable with DP 2.0.