The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090: A Beast in Gaming and Beyond

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is now 36% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 2080 Ti on average, according to recent testing. This significant boost in performance means that the 3090 can handle demanding games at higher resolutions with ease.

As we move to higher resolutions, the 3090's capabilities become more apparent. Flight simulator was still one of the lowest improvements out of what was tested, while Control took top spot again. However, when testing at 4K, the 3090 is now almost 47% faster than the 2080 Ti on average. This increase in performance is noticeable even in games that were already optimized for lower resolutions.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was able to take over Control for top spot with almost a 57% improvement in terms of average FPS. Even the worst result saw a 40% boost, making it clear that the 3090 is capable of delivering significant performance gains at higher resolutions. When considering total system power draw from the wall, the PC with the 3090 installed was using around 29% more power, pushing the system to over 500 watts.

Testing the value proposition of the 3090 in terms of dollar per frame, we see that it is worth considering for those serious about 4K gaming. If we consider that the 3090 is $1500 USD at launch, and the 2080 Ti was meant to be $1000, then that's a 50% more money for the 3090. However, the 2080 Ti wasn't really available at that price, so if we instead go with $1200, which is closer to what it was actually available for, then the 3090 is 25% more money.

However, it's worth noting that the 2080 Ti can be found on the second-hand market for under $700, making it a more affordable option. This means that if you could get the 2080 Ti at $1000 in the past, the 3090 would actually be slightly worse from a dollar per frame perspective.

The 3090 isn't exactly targeted towards gamers, but there's no denying that it's a beast in gaming. To get the most out of it, though, you really want to focus on playing at higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K. If you're a competitive 1080p gamer playing at competitive settings, your CPU will probably matter more than going for a 3090 over some other decent but cheaper GPU option.

Even many GPU-heavy titles tested here at 1080p didn't see huge gains from the 3090. However, testing both in content creator workloads shows that the 3090 can offer significant gains. The Puget Systems benchmark saw the 3090 scoring 42% higher than the 2080 Ti. Despite taking averages of 5 runs, the individual results were two to three hundred points different, so this might not be the most accurate test.

Testing V-Ray with the Open Data Benchmark showed massive gains from the 3090, which was scoring 119% higher than the 2080 Ti. This is testing compute power, and if you recall the 3090 has 141% more CUDA cores, so this sort of gain is expected in this type of workload.

Finally, Blender was tested with the Open Data Benchmark using the CUDA option when running the test, and the 3090 was completing these tasks 125% faster than the 2080 Ti. This shows that the 3090 can offer significant gains in compute-heavy workloads.

In conclusion, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is a beast in gaming and beyond. While it may not be the best option for every gamer, those serious about 4K gaming or content creation will find significant value in its performance. As with any expensive GPU, though, it's essential to consider your budget and what you plan on using it for.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI’ve compared Nvidia’s new RTX 3090 graphicscard against the 2080 Ti from last generationin games at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p resolutionsas well as content creator workloads to seewhat the differences are.Let’s start with the spec differences.The 3090 has around 141% more CUDA cores thanthe 2080 Ti and 118% more memory.The 3090’s memory is also faster, and the3090 has higher base and boost clock speedsas well, so it’s basically better in allregards, though it does also use more power.Of course, at the moment the 3080 is closerin price to the 2080 Ti, but I don’t havea 3080 yet, I don’t think anyone does, andalthough the 2080 Ti had a $1000 MSRP, itseemed to sell around the $1200 USD pricepoint, so $300 below the 3090 launch price.The system that I’m testing with uses theIntel i9-10900K overclocked to 5.2GHz on all10 cores in an MSI Z490 ACE Motherboard with32gb of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory running in dualchannel.I’ve got MSI’s GeForce RTX 3090 GamingX Trio, and my Aorus 2080 Ti to compare with.The latest drivers at the time of testingwere used on both GPUs, so let’s get intothe results.Starting out with Microsoft Flight Simulator,I’ve got the newer 3090 shown by the purplebars, and the older 2080 Ti shown by the redbars.The three resolutions tested are on the left,starting from 1080p down the bottom, 1440pin the middle, and 4K up the top.In this test there was only a minor differenceat 1080p, then the margin grows as we stepup to higher resolutions.At 1440p the 3090 was 20% faster than the2080 Ti, though this was the slowest resultout of all 11 games tested at this resolution,then at 4K the 3090 was reaching 41% higheraverage frame rates.Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using thegames benchmark tool.Again there’s less of a difference at 1080p,as these higher end GPUs are better utilizedat higher resolutions.At 1080p the 3090 was around 19% faster, butthen at 4K the 3090 had a massive 57% lead- the biggest improvement seen out of allgames that I’ve tested.Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign modeby running through the same mission on bothgraphics cards.Interestingly the 2080 Ti actually had better1% low results at 1080p, but this was theonly time this happened.This game has a 200 FPS frame cap by defaultwhich the 3090 was hitting, so I suspect thismay be why its 1% low was behind, given the1% low on the 3090 was higher than this at1440p.At 4K the 3090 is reaching a 45% higher averageframe rate, even the 1% low from the 3090is a fair amount ahead of the 2080 Ti’saverage frame rate.Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested withthe games built in benchmark.The 2080 Ti was still delivering above 60FPS in this test with the highest settingpreset at 4K, but it’s no match for the3090, which was again around 45% ahead.The difference is of course lower at lowerresolutions, the 3090 is around 38% fasterthan the 2080 Ti at 1440p, then just 14% aheadat 1080p.For Control I’ll start with RTX off results.At 1080p the 3090 has a modest 20% lead overthe 2080 Ti, then a much higher 43% lead at1440p, increasing further to a 53% higheraverage frame rate at 4K.The 3090 was still able to run the game wellwith above 60 FPS at 4K, making it a fairbit more playable compared to the 2080 Ti,at least with the highest setting preset thatI’ve tested.With RTX on and DLSS enabled the 3090 is now35% faster than the 2080 Ti at 1080p, comparedto 20% with RTX off.The differences are nowhere near as big at1440p and 4K though, for instance at 4K inthis test the 3090 is 55% ahead of the 2080Ti, but then in the RTX off results shownearlier the 3090 was 53% ahead.Basically RTX and DLSS in this game is runningbetter on the 3090 than the 2080 Ti, but outsideof 1080p it’s not that much better.I’ve tested Metro Exodus with the game'sbenchmark tool, and again there are some nicegains with the 3090.At 4K we’re looking at a 45% higher averageframe rate from the 3090, and around 25% higherat the lower 1080p resolution.In Death Stranding the 3090 was giving me1% lows that were ahead of the average framerate of the 2080 Ti at 4K and 1440p resolutions,it was close at 1080p but not quite there.Like many other games, we’re around the46% point in terms of average FPS improvementwith the 3090 at 4K.The Witcher 3 is still being tested as youguys still voted for it in a poll I ran recently.This game saw the lowest difference betweenthe two GPUs at 4K, though the 3090 stillhad a 40% higher average frame rate, and againthe 1% lows from it were ahead of even theaverages from the 2080 Ti at both 4K and 1440p.Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested withthe built in benchmark, and is another oneyou guys voted to see more of.The 3090 was 22% faster than the 2080 Ti at1080p, 25% faster at 1440p, and 42% fasterat 4K, so below average increases comparedto the other games tested at the higher resolutions.Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested incampaign mode.The 2080 Ti was still giving an above 60 FPSexperience at 4K even with all settings maxedout, but once more the 3090 pushes thingsto the next level by averaging 100 FPS, a43% improvement.This was another test where even the 3090’s1% lows were ahead of the 2080 Ti’s averages.Rainbow Six Siege was tested using the gamesbenchmark tool with Vulkan.The 2080 Ti was right on 144 FPS at 4K, soit’s probably still going to be pretty decenteven if you actually have a high refresh 4Kmonitor, but the 3090 is again offering niceimprovements, with a 48% higher average framerate at this resolution, and it manages topush the 1080p result above 500 FPS, somethingI’ve never seen before in this test.At 1080p on average over all 11 games testedthe 3090 was under 22% faster than the 2080Ti.In some titles like flight simulator, downthe bottom, we’re seeing a negligible difference,while others such as Control with RTX enabledat the top still had nice gains.At 1440p the 3090 was now 36% faster thanthe 2080 Ti on average.As higher resolutions can typically make betteruse of the GPU we’re starting to see whatthe 3090 is capable of.Flight simulator was still the lowest improvementout of what was tested, while Control wasat the top again.At 4K the 3090 is now almost 47% faster thanthe 2080 Ti on average.This time Red Dead Redemption 2 was able toovertake Control for top spot with almosta 57% improvement, and even the worst resultwas still a 40% boost, so if you’re seriousabout 4K gaming something like the 3090 couldbe worth considering.When we look at total system power draw fromthe wall, the PC with the 3090 installed wasusing around 29% more power, pushing the systemto over 500 watts.I tested Control here, as we just saw it wasaround 53% faster in terms of average F PS,so 29% more power from the wall for a 53%boost to FPS, sounds reasonable to me.Let’s check out value in gaming in termsof dollar per frame.If we consider that the 3090 is $1500 USDat launch, and the 2080 Ti was meant to be$1000, then that’s 50% more money for the3090, but the 2080 Ti wasn’t really availableat that price, so if we instead go with $1200which is closer to what it was actually availablefor, then the 3090 is 25% more money.This of course doesn’t factor in that peoplehave been fire selling their 2080 Ti’s inthe lead up to the 3000 series release, atthe moment it’s easy to score one for under$700 on the second hand market, so I’velisted that too.The 3090 looks better than the 2080 Ti at$1200, but if you could actually get the 2080Ti at $1000 in the past then the 3090 wouldbe slightly worse from a dollar per frameperspective, and this is of course assumingthe 3090 will be available at $1500, that’sstill yet to be seen.The 3090 isn’t exactly targeted towardsgamers, but there’s no denying that it’sa beast in gaming.To get the most out of it though, you’rereally going to want to focus on playing athigher resolutions like 1440p or 4K.If you’re a competitive 1080p gamer playingat competitive settings, in a lot of casesyour CPU will probably matter more than goingfor a 3090 over some other decent but farcheaper GPU option.Even many GPU heavy titles tested here at1080p didn’t see huge gains from the 3090.I��ve also tested both in content creatorworkloads, it’s not just all about gaming!I’ve tested DaVinci Resolve with the PugetSystems benchmark, and the 3090 was scoring42% higher than the 2080 Ti.Despite taking averages of 5 runs, the individualresults were two to three hundred points different,so this might not be the most accurate test,hopefully by running it 5 times the resultsare decent but yeah it did vary between runsa fair bit.I’ve tested the V-Ray benchmark and sawmassive gains from the 3090, which was scoring119% higher than the 2080 Ti.This is testing compute power, and if yourecall the 3090 has 141% more CUDA cores,so this sort of gain is expected in this typeof workload.Blender was tested with the Open Data Benchmarkwith the BMW and Classroom tests.This is also relying more on compute power,I selected the CUDA option when running thetest, and the 3090 was completing these tasks125% faster than the 2080 Ti, another seriouswin.In Compute heavy workloads the 3090 is ableto offer significant gains, so it really comesdown to what you plan on running and of courseyour budget, as we saw this does not translatequite as well into gaming performance, thoughgaming performance was still a nice step upover the 2080 Ti at higher resolutions.I’d be interested to hear in the commentsif you’re considering the 3090, let me knowwhat you plan on using it for.In gaming the RTX 3080 will be far bettervalue at half the price and will be a muchbetter sweet spot for many gamers, I’vegot one of those in the mail at the momentand will test it soon, so make sure you’resubscribed for future 3080 comparisons.\n"