NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review

Manufacturer: NVIDIA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review

Four Slots of Power in a Dual-Slot Package

After more than two years, NVIDIA’s new flagship is here. Now, this might seem like a silly question, but did NVIDIA really need to release the GeForce RTX 5090 now? Consider that the GeForce RTX 4090, which launched back in October of 2022, is still the fastest gaming GPU in the world. AMD has exited the high-end consumer graphics market (at least for now), and Intel only plays a small role in the midrange GPU segment.

Somehow, while NVIDIA is finally launching the nearly 600-watt GPU some predicted back in 2022, the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card is only a dual-slot design. Yes, a dual-slot card with a 575-watt TGP. The secret is the tiny new PCB and massive cooling potential from NVIDIA proprietary cooling solution, which allows 2/3 of the card to be devoted entirely to cooling. It works extremely well, and damned impressive engineering.

Here are the RTX 50 Series specs we know so far (with the RTX 4090 thrown in for comparison):

  RTX 5090 RTX 5080 RTX 4090
GPU GB202 GB203 AD102
Architecture Blackwell Blackwell Ada Lovelace
SMs 170 84 128
CUDA Cores 21760 10752 16384
Tensor Cores 680 (5th Gen) 336 (5th Gen) 512 (4th Gen)
RT Cores 170 (4th Gen) 84 (4th Gen) 128 (3rd Gen)
Base Clock 2.01 GHz 2.30 GHz 2.24 GHz
Boost Clock 2.41 GHz 2.62 GHz 2.52 GHz
Texture Units 680 336 512
ROPs 192 128 176
Memory 32GB GDDR7 16GB GDDR7 24GB GDDR6X
Memory Data Rate 28 Gbps 30 Gbps 21 Gbps
Memory Interface 512-bit 256-bit 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth 1.79 TB/s 960 GB/s 1 TB/s
Transistor Count 92.2B 45.6B 76.3B
Die Size 744 mm^2 378 mm^2 609 mm^2
Process Tech TSMC 4nm NV Custom TSMC 4nm NV Custom TSMC 4nm NV Custom
TGP 575W 360W 450W
Launch Price $1999 $999 $1599

 

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 12

As we expect from NVIDIA, a big part of the RTX 5090 launch is DLSS. Not only is there Frame Generation of up to 4x in supported titles, but DLSS 4 also brings the new Transformer Model, which uses a vision transformer “enabling self-attention operations to evaluate the relative importance of each pixel across the entire frame, and over multiple frames”, and this employs “double the parameters of the CNN model to achieve a deeper understanding of scenes”. This new model is said to generate “pixels that offer greater stability, reduced ghosting, higher detail in motion, and smoother edges in a scene”.

There have been a number of technical deep dives published since NVIDIA’s recent editor’s day, including this one from Tom’s Hardware, which you can explore for a more technical explanation of some of the finer points of this new DLSS technology.

While the lack of competition at the high end of the graphics market (i.e. zero price pressure from AMD) no doubt contributed to the 25% increase in price, but was there also a 25% increase in performance? Let’s find out. But first, a look at the new card…

The RTX 5090 Founders Edition

Somehow, while NVIDIA is finally launching the nearly 600-watt GPU some predicted back in 2022, the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card has regressed in size. No, we are not looking at a 4-slot cooler for this 575-watt card, and it isn’t even triple-slot. It is dual-slot. Yes, a dual-slot card with a 575-watt TGP.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 13

The secret is the tiny new PCB and massive cooling potential from NVIDIA proprietary cooling solution, which allows 2/3 of the card to be devoted entirely to cooling. It works extremely well, and damned impressive engineering. It might be the most impressive part of this entire launch, actually, and NVIDIA has a YouTube video about the design, embedded below.

Performance Testing

It’s a new year, and – at least for PCPer in 2025 – that means new GPU testing. Out are all previous benchmark results, in is a new test platform with the mighty AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, and the dreaded Windows 11 24H2 (which has actually been very stable with all of the latest updates applied, knock on wood).

While the lack of competition at the high end of the graphics market (i.e. zero price pressure from AMD) no doubt contributed to the 25% increase in price, but was there also a 25% increase in performance? Let’s find out.

PC Perspective GPU Test Platform
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (Stock)
Motherboard GIGABYTE AORUS X870E ELITE WIFI7
BIOS F3i
AGESA 1.2.0.2b
Resizable BAR Enabled
Memory 32GB (16GBx2) G.Skill Trident Z NEO @ DDR5-6000 CL28
Storage Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD
Power Supply be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13
Operating System Windows 11 Pro, 24H2
Drivers GeForce Game Ready Driver 566.36 – 571.86

While the lack of competition at the high end of the graphics market (i.e. zero price pressure from AMD) no doubt contributed to the 25% increase in price, but was there also a 25% increase in performance? Let’s find out.

The Return of Ultrawide Benchmarks

NVIDIA has made it pretty clear that DLSS 4 is a massive part of this launch, but we are still looking at a faster flagship card in raw performance as well. To test non-DLSS performance, I ran benchmarks at my preferred ultrawide resolution of 3440×1440 at the highest possible settings (detail and ray tracing) – with NO resolution scaling.

Now, 3440×1440 is 4.95 million pixels, compared to the ~3.69 million pixels of 2560×1440, but this review really should have some UHD resolution results. I was going to present UHD benchmarks, but ran short on time to complete these. Time was so precious around here this month, in fact, that I decided to just compare the last three xx90 cards from NVIDIA in this review, and leave additional comparison testing for the next round.

Some of these tests are brutal at max settings, so if you are sensitive to sub-60 FPS results don’t look at the left side of this chart:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 18

No one in their right mind should attempt to run Alan Wake 2 at 3440×1440 with max settings and no DLSS, but the 46.13 FPS average I achieved with the RTX 5090 represents a 24% increase over the RTX 4090’s 37.11 FPS. 1% lows were less consistent with the preview driver, but I expect that to improve post-launch in this title. And while we’re here, just look how far we have come since the RTX 3090, which is really starting to show its age in these demanding titles (12.08 FPS here!).

Black Myth Wukong offers a benchmark tool that has been most punishing thing I’ve run on modern hardware, and at max settings the RTX 5090 offers a nearly 39% increase over the RTX 4090 (47.06 FPS vs. 33.88 FPS averages). Oh, and the RTX 3090 managed 11.44 FPS in this benchmark. Let’s move on.

In the rest of the non-DLSS testing we saw the RTX 5090 produce a 30% lead in Cyberpunk 2077 v2.2, close to 37% in F1 22 (that one is getting retired soon), 20% in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (another older test), and 27% in Talos Principle 2. Overall, some very meaningful gains – at least at this resolution (and these unreasonably high settings).

NVIDIA provides this clip to demonstrate DLSS Frame Generation settings in Cyberpunk 2077

Next, we have to look at some results that leverage the new DLSS 4 and its 4x Frame Generation tech. Thankfully, NVIDIA was providing early access to upcoming versions of games that support this, and we will begin with a look at Cyberpunk 2077. Here I ran the game at the same 3440×1440 resolution as the previous tests, but this time I used the more demanding (and path-traced) RT Overdrive preset:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 19

Average FPS scales nicely as we move from the standard 2x FG to 4x FG with the RTX 5090, but 1% lows are disappointing with this pre-release version. Perhaps this is an issue with the press build of Cyberpunk 2077 that enabled DLSS 4 support, since the prior version (with the prior-gen GPU) was much more consistent at these settings.

Here are a couple of additional tests – at 3440×1440 and actually a result at UHD (3840×2160) – to see if this phenomenon is limited to Cyberpunk:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 20
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 21

Here again – in both Alan Wake 2 and Black Myth Wukong – we have a drop in frame time consistency with the RTX 5090 and DLSS 4 + Frame Gen, while the RTX 4090 results continue to be solid. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but perhaps we will have an updated driver in the near future.

Low 1% frames aside, the way these games look with generated frames is actually very impressive in person. I chose the “balanced” DLSS preset, and while I think I can tell the difference (and generally use the “quality” preset), where the rendered frames end and the generated frames begin is not clear to me. It’s downright buttery at 4x FG, and not in that “soap opera” interpolation way. This is the part of the review that demands video, and I should embed some footage next time.

Power Draw and Thermals

All of the improvements to overall performance with the RTX 5090 do come at a price, and I’m not talking about the MSRP. Yes, this GPU was produced in the same TSMC custom 4nm process as the RTX 40 Series, and the die size for the RTX 5090 is quite a bit larger and more power-hungry

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition Review - Graphics Cards 22

It certainly draws up to its rated 575 watts, but thermally this Founders Edition card is very well behaved, though my frigid basement is not going to produce the most realistic ambient temps I still had a max observed 63 C GPU load temp during a looped 3DMark test (my only thermal experiment so far).

Believe it or not, this Founders card is also very good in the noise department (actual SPL measurements to follow), and seems no different than the RTX 4090 on the open test bench (i.e. I can’t hear it over the 360mm AiO fans).

Final Thoughts

Well, NVIDIA has topped NVIDIA. Once again, and with zero competition at the high end, GeForce reigns supreme. And while raster performance has risen, DLSS 4 is the star of the show with the RTX 50 Series, now supporting up to four generated frames per rendered frame (!) if you dare. Yes, the price for NVIDIA’s flagship has risen again, from $1599 to $1999 this generation, but those who want the fastest graphics card in the world will surely buy it anyway.

Review Disclosures

This is what we consider the responsible disclosure of our review policies and procedures.

How Product Was Obtained

The product was provided by NVIDIA for the purpose of this review.

Company Involvement

NVIDIA had no control over the content of the review and was not consulted prior to publication.

PC Perspective Compensation

Neither PC Perspective nor any of its staff were paid or compensated in any way by NVIDIA for this review.

Advertising Disclosure

NVIDIA has not purchased advertising at PC Perspective during the past twelve months.

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About The Author

Sebastian Peak

Editor-in-Chief at PC Perspective. Writer of computer stuff, vintage PC nerd, and full-time dad. Still in search of the perfect smartphone. In his nonexistent spare time Sebastian's hobbies include hi-fi audio, guitars, and road bikes. Currently investigating time travel.

2 Comments

  1. razor512

    Awesome review, and thank you for including results at higher resolutions with no upscling. Regardless of practicality, it is good info to have, especially since it also allows other potential bottlenecks to be explored.

    Reply
  2. BigTed

    I’d love to see one of these in action on one of those new fangled 480hz OLEDs with the 4 x framegen running. Also, ctrl f “While the lack of competition”… Its repeated 3 times.

    Reply

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