Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 review: A video card with AI

Whether you call that a win or not depends on your refresh rate. 4K monitors with a 60-Hz refresh will probably be happy with most of this, but I can imagine some people with 120-Hz displays will need to tweak the settings to consistently stay above 100 fps. It seems clear that true 4K gaming at the highest end is still not fully achievable with current hardware, at least not without the help of technologies like frame generation that sidestep the issue.

My main gaming monitor is a 1440p ultrawide with a 120-Hz refresh rate, and I know a lot of my friends have gone in the same direction. It’s easy to achieve consistently high frame rates, but it’s a cinematic experience, on a single display, that easily handles two windows for nongaming work.

Chart screenshot courtesy of Brad Bourque

It’s safe to expect 90- to 120-fps performance across most games at this resolution, which is great news for gamers looking to max out their existing monitors. Like a single-player, cinematic-heavy game Cyberpunk 2022 And Star Wars Aliens They’re still on the cutting edge of graphical fidelity, so I’m not necessarily disappointed that they have some room to grow, especially when they already look so good. Choice of online games and shooters Marvel rivals Run smoothly without too much help, and having a consistent frame rate is arguably more important in those games.

Is it worth it to you?

Anyone considering the RTX 5090, Founders Edition or otherwise, should consider their budget first. The FE version of the card will set you back $2,000 if you buy it directly from Nvidia, and partner cards with overclocking and liquid cooling will likely cost even more. You’ll need to spend around $1,000 for a monitor that really takes advantage of your newfound graphical power and potentially a new 1,000-watt or 1,200-watt GPU. That means you could be looking at a $3,500 bill before you get another part, and regardless of performance, I have trouble imagining. Start any construction like that

Photo: Brad Bourque

The RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 will hit the market in late January, followed by more budget-friendly cards. Without spending time with the other RTX 50 series cards, I can’t speak to their relative performance, but I do know their price tags look a lot more attractive. I expect these cards to support multiframe generation out of the box, and that’s great news if you want to sit back and enjoy smooth gameplay.

Previous Founders Edition releases haven’t been in stock for long, so you’ll have to wake up before the 30th to snag one if you want one. The whole situation makes the RTX 5090 feel less like the top end of the 50 series and more like a showpiece.

This is the GPU I would configure when daydreaming a new rig, in a realistic build I wouldn’t select the first part. PCpartpicker. If the price tag doesn’t give you a moment’s pause, by all means, enjoy your new GPU. For everyone else, I’d wait and see what the rest of the new GPUs look like before you jump.