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ASUS ROG Strix OC RTX 4090 review

Plenty of card is expected to bring plenty of performance, and with that some new aesthetics

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After plenty of rumors and speculation, we finally get hands on with the new behemoth of a card. Specifically, we have the ROG Strix OC RTX 4090 from Asus. Updated and improved over its previous design style as seen in the 30 series.

It’s been two years since the RTX 30 series came out and now we have the upgraded RTX 4000 series. A move from Ampere to Ada architecture promises massive improvements. And alongside that, Nvidia has also announced its AI upscaling upgrade with DLSS 3. Only available to the new hardware in Ada allows even better performance on top.

And with that new performance and build we see board power, cost, and size increase and so it will be good to see how that translates into everyday usage. As well as setting the generations benchmarks before AMD’s RDNA 3 launches.

Best in Class

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC

Core Clock Speed

2,640 MHz boost

CUDA Cores

16,384

Memory Size

24GB GDDR6X

Dimensions

357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm

PSU Required

1000W

TDP

450W

Packaging and design

Now with the higher TDP of the RTX 4090 at 450W, we have seen a change in the designs of the custom AIBs. Mainly the increased thickness of the cooling solutions across the board. As seen with the Founder’s Edition card, the AIBs have also changed up and improved what they have to offer.

As such the ROG Strix comes in a chunky and hefty box. On it, we see all the updated details on the new series of cards. Plenty of new information to read when you’re bored. The outer box comes in at a size of 420 x 225 x 126 mm, giving you a good expectation of what to expect from the inside.

Then the inner box has also been upgraded. Flipping open the lid we see the use of a much thicker and sturdier foam. With such a large and heavy card it requires much more rigid support. So it is now enveloped with this new foam, with the top covered with a softer one.

Below the card, you’ll find the secret compartment containing the rest of the goodies. Including your collector’s card for the model. Along with a velcro strap, quick start guide, warranty card, and a graphics card holder. Which itself doubles up as a screwdriver to our surprise.

Now the card itself is a monster of size and weighs a significant amount getting it out of the box. Taking it out we finally get to see the size and design of the card. And measuring it up against an MSI 3090 you really see the transformation, all to handle the heat produced. Then we have the updated design, a much more boxed design. With fewer curves and sharp edges, it now is sleek and curved to the large design.

The majority of the card is now open. With the edges fully open for the heat sink airflow to leave through. We also see that on the IO and side edges where a plastic cover directs the airflow out into any possible area. Whilst the front face edge has three fans on it to get good airflow through the card.

Whilst the back also has a large cutout allowing easy airflow out of the card to move that heat away. With only the PCB covered just shows how much cooling is needed for the GPU chip. 

The color is also the iconic blue and red on the fan side with the ROG name on the front with some shiny accents. With the back having cutouts for a speedy look, the ROG logo covers the slant and the mesh to bring some fun to the back.

All the RGB of the card is at the end of the card with a ring around the end edge. As well as some on the logo on the front face of the card. Which can be controlled and incorporated into the ASUS ecosystem.

On that end, you also get two fan connectors. With the ability to control fans based on your GPU temperature and not CPU like the motherboard might default to. Whilst the opposite IO end gives you a two slot bracket only. With plenty of empty space, ROG incorporates a whole support plate across the card to help with bending as well as including the support mount to help with the bending that may over time damage the card.

Specification and price

Tech Specs

Core Clock Speed

2,640 MHz boost

CUDA Cores

16,384

Memory Size

24GB GDDR6X

Dimensions

357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm

PSU Required

1000W

TDP

450W

Memory Clock

21 Gbps

Memory Bus

384-bit

Card Bus

PCIe 4.0 x16

Output

2x HDMI 2.1a, 3x DP 1.4a

Power Connectors

1x 16-pin

Pros
  • Excellent air cooling solution
  • Pushes performance above the rest of the selection
  • Updated design cooling and aesthetically focused
Cons
  • A more expensive choice over the rest of the picks and will cost a lot to run

The new ROG Strix OC design is built upon the new Nvidia RTX 4090. It is the upgraded new generation of graphics cards based upon the Ada architecture. Which the Strix card improves upon and extracts the best out of GPU with the design.

Upgrading the architecture means that now the new AD102-300 core comes equipped with 16,384 CUDA cores. With help from the move back to TSMCs foundry, using its 4nm process, moving over from Samsungs 8nm. Which allows the 608mm² sized die to fit 76.4 billion transistors.

Those cores are made up of 512 TMUs, 176 ROPs, 128 SMs, 512 Tensors, and 128 RT Cores. Also supported by 128KB per SM L1 cache and a 72 MB L2 cache. Further improvements are found in the clock rate of the cards. There we see a large boost in the frequency with just the base clock at 2,235 MHz with the boost capable of reaching 2,520 MHz. Although custom cards will be able to improve upon that and the ROG Strix OC offering 2,640 MHz even though our testing pushed it even further and overclocking opportunites plenty with it.

Now in terms of memory, the 4090 continues on with 24GB of GDDR6X, not unusual seeing that GDDR7 only recently got announced. But it does keep up the high bandwidth over 1TB/s. As it is clocked at 21.2 Gbps across the 384-bit bus giving it a bandwidth of 1,018 GB/s. Helping with the high potential 8K gaming resolution.

Overall this does lead to high board power. It is at 450W so not as high as expected and keeping the same as the 3090 Ti so it does mean it takes some power to run. As well as a lot of energy to dissipate away from the card.

Now for IO by default, the RTX 4090 comes with 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a ports. Although the ROG Strix increase this to two HDMI ports it is a surprise that the cards still lack the expected DisplayPort 2.0. This would allow much bigger potential displays the 4090 could achieve. It would let your display take advantage of the high performance the 4090 can achieve even if Nvidia doesn’t believe you need it.

Price

Now for the price, the MSRP of the RTX 4090 is $1,599 USD or £1,679. However, this can vary depending on which model you choose. As this will be the cheapest selection that either Founder’s Edition can offer but AIBs will likely offer more.

So it is likely that any other custom models will add a premium on top likely 10% or more. And the Strix OC as an overclocked option will ask even more. Now that is a massive price to ask for one part of your build.

A high cost expected of the flagship is what Titans used to be. And so it’s not a card the average user needs and wants to pay for. And we see the previous top-end coming down in price to move the stock that is still capable of achieving a lot on its own.

ROG Strix OC RTX 4090 thermal design and cooling

There is a lot of power to harness in this card as we’ve previously seen. And so when it comes to air cooling there is a lot of thermal density to try to move all that energy away. As you don’t want to be losing out on any performance out of your expensive card.

There are options of liquid-cooled cards or water blocks for them that will keep the size down. But the ROG Strix RTX 4090 is not ashamed of its air-cooled beastly size. 

Most of the 357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm sizing is the heatsink required to soak up those components’ works.

The whole card does come in at a whopping 2.574 kg to harness the power. Which does make us worry about the longevity of the flatness of the card over time. If you’re not using a support, even the diecast frame may struggle to keep it up straight. But what other option is there for the high TBP.

Firstly, the card uses a new patented vapor chamber. With milled pathways for the heatsinks, they slot in better without needing to be pressed flat and restricting airflow. Whilst also increasing the contact surface between them and the contact pad. Allowing it to handle the potential load much better over the previous version without a vapor chamber and a 30% increase in dissipation area.

The seven heat pipes then move that heat to the 3.5-slot heatsink to move that thermal energy away. Which is then handled by the three axial tech fans that have also been upgraded. An increase up to a 104mm diameter fan also increases the thickness to 15mm and is capable of 63.63 Cubic Feet per Meter. Up from 51.38 CFM from the previous ROG Strix fans.

ROG Strix RTX 4090

And with all the cooling the card is open to let all that heat escape around the card or out the top. And it’s very effective, although by default the card is limited to 450W as recommended, it topped out to 64.9°C in our testing. So it would be more than capable of handling the 500W spec.

During this stress testing the card did reach a 438.6W power draw but then, later on, averaged below 400W. And the fans ran at 1,450 RPM at the time but cut back to just over 1,200 RPM during the lower rate. This was also very unnoticeable with the large capacity and the fans not needing to run at 100%.

During that testing, it also reached a peak of 2,805 MHz and so at some point could be pushed beyond.

ROG Strix RTX 4090 compared to the MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3090 pictured above.

ROG Strix RTX 4090 performance

Now the real power of the card can be seen in its performance. In our testing, we also used an MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3090 as our comparison to the old generation of cards. So we see the performance increase over that although we expect further improvements as drivers improve.

Our test bench used for the testing:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
  • Cooler: Asus ROG RYUJIN II 360
  • RAM: 2x 16GB Trident Z5 Neo DDR5
  • Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
  • PSU: Phanteks Revolt X 1000W
  • Case: Cooler Master MF 700

CSGO

Here we see an uplift across the board. But the game is more CPU limiting although with the new platform it is already pushing the limits to performance you’re not going to experience. As DisplayPort 1.4a will limit even your 4k to 120Hz so you can’t experience that at full res. Here at 1080p it has an uplift of 14%, 11% in 1440p, and 4% at 4k.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk is a more intensive game and offers great graphics. Along with the capability of full ray tracing usage and an early look at DLSS 3 performance.

At 1080p you get 24% more, 52% at 1440p, and 54% at 4k. Really showing off in these sorts of games. We also tested the ray tracing and DLSS performance.

At 4K ray tracing the 4090 achieves a 105% increase over the 3090, although that still is only 43 FPS. It is at Ultra settings and Psycho ray tracing so the new card even struggling with that. But DLSS can help and DLSS 3 really does as using it boosts the performance to 133 FPS on performance quality.  An uplift of 209%, whereas DLSS 2 for the 3090 only boosts its performance by 167%.

Doom Eternal

Doom is another well-performing game. And we see the 4090 improving by 56% at 1080p, 64% at 1440p, 76% at 4K, and with ray tracing, and an increase of 67%. So an overall large improvement.

Fortnite

Fortnite is a harder game to test and run at full capacity. So we see an uplift of 13% at 1080p, 38% of 1440p, and 59% at 4k. So a trend of increase across the board, but you can get even more when you focus on performance in the game as you should.

Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 is a newer popular Esports title that you’ll want to get good performance out of. And both these cards can provide that with over 490 FPS at 1080p, 300 at 1440p, and 170 at 4k. Between the generations, we get a 20% uplift at 1080p, 27% at 1440p, and  37% at  4k. 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Further increases across the board. And the 4090 improves on the 3090 by 30%, 65% at 1440p, and 88% at 4k. Whilst ray tracing shows the better generation cores with 97% improvement over the last gen.

Warzone

Here the 4090 improves upon the card 3090 by  68% at 1080p, 77% at 1440p, and 90% at 4k. 

DLSS 3 and synthetics

A new Microsoft Flight Simulator build shows off a DLSS 3 beta build. Here we can test out how much of the work can be offloaded from the CPU to improve the performance of the game. With it, the performance jumps 113% from 54 FPS to 115FPS vastly improving the experience.

Now in Blender, the new card also can improve rendering. And it comes with AV1 encode decode for other tasks. In BMW the 4090 cuts down the render time by 45%, whilst in Classroom, it improves it by 51%. Cutting down how much you have to wait for much bigger tasks.

3DMarks also shows pure improvements with the cards. Whereas in time spy extreme, the graphics performance improves the score by 92%. And Port Royal’s uplift at 94%, shows off how much better the architecture is. 

Final thoughts

Now overall, the ROG Strix RTX 4090 is a massive improvement over the previous generation. The model itself is well-designed for the specs and is aesthetically pleasing. It can push what the card can achieve well above spec and it can give you so much.

However, the card itself is a bit overkill. The new generation is a large improvement over the 30 series and the new tech is impressive. But it comes at a cost, with an MSRP of $1,599 USD or £1,679 which is hard to recommend to anyone. So it really comes down to your needs but these aren’t for anyone if you can utilize the full potential it is a great pick. We look forward to the more affordable picks down the line as even the RTX 4080 has a higher price point now.

So we can expect some strong competition from RDNA 3 and maybe Intel Arc further down the line to pick from.

ROG Strix OC RTX 4090 FAQs

How big is the ROG Strix OC RTX 4090?

The ROG Strix RTX 4090 comes in at a size of 357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm.

How heavy is the ROG Strix RTX 4090?

The whole behomth of the ROG Strix RTX 4090 comes in weighing 2.574 kg.

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC

Core Clock Speed
2,640 MHz boost
CUDA Cores
16,384
Memory Size
24GB GDDR6X
Dimensions
357.6 x 149.3 x 70.1mm
PSU Required
1000W
TDP
450W

Summary BEng Mechanical Engineering A Levels: Maths, Physics, Chemistry PC Builder at Gladiator Benchmarker and reviewer at BGFG DofE Bronze & Silver Experience Through his education, he learned the proper methods of testing and research. Earning a degree in Engineering he worked in groups and solo to submit and write up test reviews and coursework following best practices for referencing and providing the best information. At Gladiator Seb worked as a PC builder, with tens of PCs daily, he learned the ins and outs of what makes a PC great and how to put them together thoroughly. He also ran the testing section for a while to make sure the computers ran as they should and had all they needed. While also diagnosing any problems and resolving them gaining experience in fixing PCs. Moving on from building, he then went to benchmarking and writing. Starting in video production of benchmarks for the WePC channel he learned the ins and outs of Premier and running benchmarks for many GPUs and games. After which he went on to write about them instead, learning the ins and outs of articles and reviewing. Education University of Manchester Southend High School for Girls Sixth Form St. Thomas High School for Boys