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Is the RTX 4090 worth it?

With all that power there is a lot of performance in the card however it comes at a cost so is it worth it?

Updated: Jan 29, 2024 3:16 pm
Is the RTX 4090 worth it?

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When it comes to gaming performance, the RTX 4090 is a powerhouse. It is future-proof, versatile, and extremely powerful. In fact, it is the most powerful GPU out there in the market. And therefore, it is so expensive.

High FPS for 8K gaming with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-powered graphics makes it nothing short of absolute power. Or you can enjoy plenty of frames at lower resolutions for competitive gaming.

But all of that extreme performance comes at a price, which is it draws a ton of power. And that’s what makes it the most powerful, but not worth it. Unlike its predecessor, the RTX 3090, which draws 350 W, the RTX 4090 card draws in 450 W of power which is a massive jump.

And needless to say, more power means more amount of heat produced, too, in a time where some gamers are downgrading their GPUs just to reduce heat and power draw. And coming in at a time of increased energy costs.

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

ROG Strix RTX 4090 1

Now coming back to the pricing of this particular GPU, the RTX 4090 is priced at $1,599 USD/£1,679. At the same time, you can buy an RTX 3090 for around $1000 -1200 pricing, dropping even lower in sales. On which you can play the majority of 4K games at 60 FPS with maxed out setting in ease.

But keeping all of this aside for a second, who should really go for the RTX 4090? Gamers who want to be 8K gaming pioneers can opt for the RTX 4090, as the DLSS 3 is exclusive to the RTX 4090 cars, the predecessor of this GPU will be excluded from significant performance gain.

That will make 8k gaming without any major frame drop feasible for the RTX 4090. You can even look out for this GPU if a large part of your daily workflow involves AI or machine learning applications, 3D Rendering, 4K and 8K video production, upscaling and interpolation, etc.

However, for the average gamer, it’s not a necessary purchase. You can easily buy a cheaper RTX 30 series card more than capable of great performance for the current games and availability. These should last you a while themselves and so the RTX 4090 is not worth it for the majority.

RTX 4090 FAQ

Is the RTX 4090 worth it?

For most users, the RTX 4090 will not be worth it. It is an expensive graphics card with a lot of power that will unlikely be needed and utilized by the average user. It will be better to wait for more GPU releases to find something more down to earth in terms of price and still great performance.

How powerful is the RTX 4090?

The RTX 4090 achieves double the score of the 3090 in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme and Port Royal. As well as improving rendering performance by over 50%. It also can take advantage of DLSS 3 take can improve performance by over 110%, especially in CPU-bound scenarios.


With a background in engineering and PC gaming, Seb is a staff writer with a focus on GPU, storage, and power supplies. Also one of tech supports in the office he likes helping and solving problems.

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