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The Nvidia RTX 5090 is set to be the next flagship graphics card offering in the GPU market. Upon its release later this month (January), it is expected to deliver up to twice the framerates as compared to the last generation. This is with AI-based upscaling features enabled, where the company has added improved techniques such as multi-frame generation.
While independent reviews aren't out yet, we now have access to the first-party numbers, which should be enough to get an idea of what to expect. Read on to find out how the 5090 stacks up in some of the latest titles.
How does the RTX 5090 perform in video games?
The RTX 5090 continues to struggle at 4K native resolutions. In some of the most demanding titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, and Alan Wake 2, the card still can't hit 60 FPS at UHD. However, the real magic is with DLSS turned on. This boosts the framerates to well over 200 in most titles, which is pretty impressive at UHD.
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Nvidia is also claiming gains in latency with DLSS turned on. The numbers look better than native resolutions, which can be explained with the new multi-frame generation sorcery the company has come up with. Latencies have continued to be one of the key issues with upscaling technologies. Solving this would be crucial to the 5090's overall potential.
The detailed framerate gains with the expected latency are as follows:
RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090: How big is the difference?
As compared to the 4090, the RTX 5090 has been advertised to be about 50-100% faster. These gains are with upscaling technologies turned on, which helps both GPUs deliver higher framerates than usual.
In a tech demo, Nvidia showcased an ultra-high-definition image with 33 million output pixels. However, only two million of those were calculated by a graphics processor with the remainder interpolated by an AI. While this is impressive in terms of power efficiency and rendering workload on GPUs, AI-processed images simply don't have the polish and crispness of a natively-generated alternative.
If you're a seasoned gamer, you'll be able to tell the difference. However, DLSS has gotten good enough for the average joe to fail at telling native vs AI. This adds to the appeal of the technology.
Below is a look at the gains with the settings at which each game/software was tested:
The improvements are mostly credited to the rasterization improvements, specs bumps, and multi-frame generation bundled with the latest GPU. While a 100% performance gain sounds exciting, waiting for exact performance gains at native resolution is a wiser idea.
Overall, the RTX 5090 is positioned to be the unparalleled champion of consumer video games in the Blackwell generation. However, with this GPU, we are also looking at a $1,999 introductory MSRP and a whopping 575W power budget. Both numbers are considerably worse than the last generation, which raises certain concerns in terms of efficiency and value aspects.
