Nvidia launches the next-gen RTX 40-series GPUs

Nvidia has launched the new RTX 40-series GPUs. The RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 are now both officially released following months of rumours and a recent tease from Nvidia. The RTX 4090 will be available on October 12th for $1,599, while the RTX 4080 will go on sale in November starting at $899. The next-generation Ada Lovelace architecture from Nvidia powers both.

RTX 4090 Specifications. Image: Nvidia.

The top card for the Ada Lovelace generation is the RTX 4090. Massive 24GB of GDDR6X memory will be included in the box. It will use the same amount of power as the RTX 3090 Ti while, according to Nvidia, being 2-4 times faster. Based on a PC with a Ryzen 5900X processor, Nvidia advises a power supply of at least 850 watts.

The RTX 4090 has16,384 CUDA Cores, a base clock of 2.23GHz that can be increased to 2.52GHz, 1,321 Tensor-TFLOPs, 191 RT-TFLOPs, and 83 Shader-TFLOPs.

RTX 4080 Specifications. Image: Nvidia.

The RTX 4080 is available in two variations; one with 12GB and one with 16GB of GDDR6X memory. According to Nvidia, the RTX 4080 is 2-4 times faster than the RTX 3080 Ti that it replaces. With a starting price of $899, the 12GB model has 7,680 CUDA Cores, a 2.31GHz base clock that can be increased to 2.61GHz, 639 Tensor-TFLOPs, 92 RT-TFLOPs, and 40 Shader-TFLOPs.

With 9,728 CUDA Cores, a base clock of 2.21GHz that can be increased to 2.51GHz, 780 Tensor-TFLOPs, 113 RT-TFLOPs, and 49 Shader-TFLOPs of power, it is more powerful and starts at $1,199. A power supply of at least 700 watts is needed for the 12GB RTX 4080 model, and at least 750 watts is required for the 16GB model. In November, the two RTX 4080 models will go on sale.

New Nvidia ShadowPlay support will be available on all three of these RTX 40-series graphics cards, allowing users to record gameplay at up to 8K resolution at 60 FPS in HDR. Additionally, Nvidia is utilizing its most recent encoders (NVENC), which have increased efficiency and support for AV1 encoding.