For the GeForce 40 generation, NVIDIA decided to release the flagship first and fill down the product stack in subsequent months. The GeForce RTX 4090 was first launched in October 2022, so far we've seen the launch of RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti. Both these new releases are impressive, but they both confirm that RTX 4090 is by far the fastest graphics card available. AMD's new Radeon RDNA 3 architecture with RX 7900 XTX wasn't able to beat the RTX 4090's dominance either.

GeForce RTX 4090 is based on the AD102 graphics processor, which is the world's first 5 nanometer GPU, fabricated at TSMC Taiwan. On the RTX 4090, NVIDIA has enabled 16384 GPU cores (+88% vs RTX 3080, +52% vs RTX 3090 Ti)—this alone will achieve a big performance boost. NVIDIA didn't just add "more," they also made their units smarter. While the CUDA Cores haven't really changed since Ampere, the company increased L2 cache significantly, up to 72 MB from 6 MB on the RTX 3090 Ti—a huge increase. The ray tracing cores got several performance improvement features, like shader execution reordering, opacity tests and micro mesh generation (more about these on the Architecture page of this review). Last, but certainly not least is DLSS 3 Frame Generation, which introduces a completely new way of increasing FPS. With Frame Generation, the GPU will automagically generate an additional frame for each frame rendered, based on the movement in each frame—doubling FPS in the process.

With this review we're introducing our new "GPU 2023.1" test system, which is based on the Intel Core i9-13900K, with fast DDR5 memory, the EVGA Z790 DARK motherboard and a 16-pin ATX 3.0 Seasonic PSU. We've also made the switch to Windows 11, added several new games and added reporting for minimum FPS (one percent lows) to our data processing pipeline.

In a pure raster scenario, without ray tracing enabled, the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 achieves incredible performance results: +51% vs RTX 3090 Ti, around 30% faster than Radeon RX 7900 XTX and GeForce RTX 4080. Compared to the NVIDIA RTX 4090 Founders Edition the performance uplift is 4%. The MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming X is a factory overclocked variant of the RTX 4090 that's rated for 2595 MHz Boost, vs 2520 MHz on the FE, or +3%. The factory overclock is certainly a welcome addition, but it really doesn't make much of a difference. Even on other more expensive custom-designs the actual performance gained from the factory OC is just a few percent, too.

All this testing is done at 4K resolution and that's the only resolution that really makes sense for the RTX 4090. Maybe 1440p, if you want to drive a 144+ Hz monitor at max FPS, but you'll end up a bit CPU-limited in many titles. Interestingly, when CPU limited at 1080p, the RTX 4090 is clearly behind Ampere cards in several games. It seems the new architecture has a bit higher CPU overhead, which further drags down the maximum FPS the CPU can achieve. This is more of an interesting curiosity though, not a real issue.

Where RTX 4090 can flex its capabilities is with ray tracing enabled. While previously enabling RT at 4K always meant some compromises—either upscaling or reduced settings—the RTX 4090 will give you 60 FPS with RT active in nearly all titles. Taking a closer look at our ray tracing benchmarks we can see that the performance hit from enabling ray tracing is lower than before, thanks to the various technological improvements. Compared to AMD, the ray tracing performance is considerably higher, the new Radeon RX 7900 Series doesn't change that.

MSI's RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio comes with a more cost-efficient cooler than the Suprim X. While the Suprim X uses a vapor-chamber base, the Gaming X uses a classic solid baseplate design. Other parts of the cooler have also been designed to be less expensive, which makes perfect sense if you're building a custom-design that's targeted at lower price points. Our apples-to-apples cooler comparison test confirms that the Gaming X cooler is among the weaker ones of all the RTX 4090s that I've tested so far. The range between best and worst air cooler is 9°C at the same fan noise and heat load—not that much. The Gaming X Trio's cooler is still more powerful than that on the NVIDIA Founders Edition, by around 5°C. The good news is that MSI did the right thing and found perfect fan settings, given the RTX 4090 GPU's heat output and the cooler's capabilities. With the default (silent) BIOS, the card runs very quietly, making it quieter than most other non-MSI RTX 4090 models that we've tested. Only the super-expensive ASUS STRIX when switched to the quiet BIOS is a little bit quieter—all the other RTX 4090s from all the big vendors are louder—pretty impressive. Temperatures. which are higher than other cards are still good, reaching 72°C on the GPU, 81°C on the hot spot and 72°C on the memory. Nothing to lose sleep over about. Still, if you prefer lower temperatures, MSI has you covered. Switch to the "Gaming" BIOS, which runs a more aggressive fan curve that brings down temperatures by around 5°C. This fan setting is still pretty quiet with 34 dBA, roughly matching the Founders Edition.

We've tested NVIDIA's new DLSS 3 frame-generation capability several times now, and I have to say I'm impressed. At first I was highly sceptical and thought it would be like the soap opera interpolation effect on TVs, but no, it works REALLY well. The algorithm takes two frames, measures how things have moved in those two frames and calculates an intermediate frame in which these things moved only half the distance. While this approach is definitely not problem-free, especially when pixel-peeping at stills or slowed down video, in real-time it's nearly impossible to notice any difference. As you run at higher FPS and resolution it becomes even more difficult because the deltas between each frame are getting smaller and smaller. I also feel like we're only seeing the beginning of this technology, and there will be numerous improvements in the future. Adoption rates should be good, because implementing DLSS 3 frame generation is very easy if you already have DLSS 2 support in your game. Another interesting NVIDIA Tech is "Reflex," which reduces the gaming latency, so you see things earlier on your screen and can react quicker, to get more kills, or survive for longer.

Thanks to the move from 8 nm Samsung to 5 nm TSMC, efficiency has improved drastically. Energy efficiency is almost doubled compared to cards like RTX 3090 / 3090 Ti, a bit better than AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, much better than RX 6000 Series. The GeForce RTX 4080 is another 10% more efficient yet, while the RTX 4070 Ti is 10% less efficient than the 4090. MSI's card consumes a little bit more power in gaming, but the difference is relatively small (411 W on FE vs 429 W on MSI). What's a bit more relevant is the non-gaming power consumption, which went from 22 W to 32 W, probably the RGB is to blame here.

Manual OC on the RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio was very similar to other RTX 4090 cards, I wouldn't be able to tell that this is a cheaper RTX 4090 variant. It seems the big differences are due to silicon lottery. Hardcore overclockers will be held back by the power limit adjustment range on the Gaming X Trio though. While all cards run at a default of 450 W, their manual adjustment power limit settings are vastly different. The NVIDIA Founders Edition goes up to 600 W, the ASUS STRIX and Gigabyte Gaming OC, too. the rest of the cards are around 500-530 W. The MSI Gaming X Trio in this review tops out at 480 W, which is quite a bit lower than expected. Unless you plan on overclocking and raising the power limit, this is a complete non-issue. Still, I wish MSI would give us a higher power limit setting.

The MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio is currently listed and in-stock for $1700, which is a $100 increase over the NVIDIA Founders Edition. While $100 is not nothing, it's only a small 6.3% delta to the $1600 baseline MSRP set by NVIDIA. All other RTX 4090 cards currently available are more expensive, with the bulk sitting at around $2000, some even reaching $2500 and above—madness. $1600, $1700 or $2000, for one thing it doesn't matter: the GeForce RTX 4090 card is REALLY expensive. In return you get the best, and apparently a lot of people want that and are willing to pay the price, or the cards wouldn't have been out of stock for months. The supply and demand situation has been improving and cards are in stock now, but still terribly expensive. I really like MSI's RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio, it comes at pricing that's better than most alternatives yet doesn't compromise in any key areas. Actually, the noise levels are really good, the cooler is good enough, and the factory OC doesn't make much difference on any card anyway. If you're in the market for an RTX 4090 but still want to not overspend, then the RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio should be on your list. On the other hand, if you want an RTX 4090 you probably want the best, no matter the price? I wouldn't think like that, but for those people who do, the compromise offered by Gaming X won't be good enough—consider MSI Suprim X, ASUS STRIX and similar halo cards, but be prepared to pay the premium.