Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 review: a new level in graphics power

Blitzes the games of today, built for the titles of tomorrow.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on 12 Oct 2022

To quote Alan Partridge: "Now you're being interesting!". So far, what we've seen from Nvidia's RTX 4090 has been impressive - performance increases significantly ahead of the gen-on-gen bumps we've seen previously in some scenarios, off-pace in others (usually because of the surrounding PC). However, when we move into ray tracing, we're seeing some of the most intensive GPU workloads you can get, especially at 4K resolution.

Just to reiterate, this is how our benchmarking system presents according to the device you're viewing this review on. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Cyberpunk 2077

We're at ultra RT settings here, but remember that for lighting, there's still one further lever you can pull - Psycho RT - which we'll be looking at in the DLSS 3 section later on in page 7. The workloads put on the GPU in Cyberpunk at 4K are astonishing and to be frank, DLSS 2 should be deployed here. Regardless, with a 113 percent increase in performance from RTX 3090 and an 85 percentage point boost vs 3090 Ti, we're looking at big, big gen-on-gen gains here. From this point on, we're also going to see just how much of a mountain AMD has to climb in order to match Nvidia's RT performance.

Cyberpunk 2077, Ultra RT, DX12, TAA

Dying Light 2

Techland pushed out the boat with its RT support for Dying Light 2, delivering one of the most intense graphics workloads seen in gaming. RTX 4090 is over three-and-a-half times faster than RX 6900 XT in this one, and the gap is actually wider in parts of the test sequence where the sky doesn't dominate so much of the scene! RTX 4090 is 94 percent faster than its last-gen predecessor while the boost vs RTX 3090 Ti remains vast at 74 percent. The gaps close at lower resolutions, of course, but for this class of hardware, DLSS is the way forward.

Dying Light 2 Ultra RT, TAA, DX12

F1 22

Codemasters continues to iterate and improve upon its in-house EGO engine and with F1 22, an array of RT features are added. The performance increases aren't as pronounced as prior titles - and in the thick of the action, you do wonder whether the RT features are given time to shine - but regardless, an 89 percent boost in frame-rate over RTX 3090 dropping to circa 70 percent up against the RTX 3090 Ti is still a creditable achievement.

F1 22, Ultra RT, DX12, TAA+FSR Sharpening

Control

We'll end this page with a look at Remedy's Control - and more specifically, Alex Battaglia's Corridor of Doom. This has been and perhaps always will be one of the toughest RT workouts of all, though the corridor still has big performance implications even without RT enabled. With an 82 percentage point boost over the RTX 3090 and a 63 percent increase over the 3090 Ti, the numbers are still impressive but not quite up there with the most punishing RT performers. Ray tracing is still the way to play this game, in my opinion, and running at high frame-rates at 4K is no bother once DLSS enters the equation.