RTX 3090 Ti: The new fastest graphics card has its (performance) price
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is launched today. That means: The first reviews are also available. As expected, the RTX 3090 Ti replaces the RTX 3090 as the fastest card. However, that also has its price.
2000 dollars is the recommended retail price (MSRP) of the Founders Edition of the RTX 3090, which is almost a bargain for a graphics card these days. However, if you compare the MSRP of the RTX 3090 without Ti at launch, it is 33% more. It cost around 1500 dollars in 2020 - in the Founders Edition, of course. First reviews now show: The steep difference only has a limited impact on the performance.
What is the difference between the RTX 3090 Ti and the RTX 3090?
Nvidia introduced the RTX 3090 Ti at CES 2022. After that, it became quiet about the card, which is officially on the market as of today. Unlike the RTX 3090, the Ti version features 10,752 CUDA cores versus 10,496. There is also more in the specific Tensor and Raytracing cores. The memory has also received an upgrade: There it is now 21 Gbps instead of 19.5 Gbps. Here is a comparison of the cards.
| RTX 3090 Ti | RTX 3090 | |
|---|---|---|
| CUDA-Kerne | 10 752 | 10 496 |
| Raytracing-Kerne | 84 | 82 |
| Tensor-Kerne | 336 | 328 |
| Basistakt | 1560 | 1400 |
| Boosttakt | 1860 | 1700 |
| Speicher | 24 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X |
| Speichergeschwindigkeit | 21 Gbps | 19,5 Gbps |
| TDP | 450 Watt (bis zu 480 je nach Modell) | 350 Watt |
What the reviews say
Techpowerup has tested the Zotac RTX 3090 Ti Amp Extreme. In 2160p resolution, the card outperforms the RTX 3090 by eleven percent in the 25-game test suite, and is a full 25 percent ahead of the RTX 3080. AMD's currently strongest card, the Radeon RX 6900 XT, is even 30 percent behind the RTX 3090 Ti. With 450 watts, the performance is high, but the efficiency is only 10 percent lower than other cards of the Ampere generation.
Computerbase took a look at the Asus GeForce RTX 3090 Ti TUF OC. The RTX 3090 Ti delivers twelve percent more FPS than the RTX 3080 Ti across various resolutions in both rasterizer and ray tracing games in the tests of the German hardware magazine. It is especially suitable for playing ray-traced titles in 2160p resolution. Thus, it is currently the fastest consumer gaming card. The same applies to graphics and video production.
Reviewer Wolfgang Andermahr points out that the high consumption has far-reaching consequences. Thus, load peaks of 450 watts and more should bring cases to their limits. They simply can't dissipate so much heat output. And considering the future graphics card generations, which are reported to draw up to 600 watts of power, case manufacturers would have to come up with new solutions.
It is still unclear when exactly the cards will be available in the store. It's best to check back from time to time.
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