The new RTX 5090 from Nvidia will boast twice the performance of its counterpart, RTX 4090, thanks to the Blackwell architecture and DLSS 4. However, it will take a 575W power supply, which again, raises eyebrows in the considerations of potential buyers.
The company has finally unveiled its latest flagship graphics card, the GeForce RTX 5090, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The new graphics card is said to offer twice the performance of its predecessor, the RTX 4090, and this is largely due to the integration of Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture and the fourth generation of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS 4) technology.
The RTX 5090 has amazing specs, with 32GB of GDDR7 memory, 21,760 CUDA cores, and a memory bandwidth of nearly 1.8TB/s. This allows the GPU to handle the most demanding gaming and professional applications with unprecedented efficiency. However, this leap in performance comes at a significant increase in power consumption. The RTX 5090 has a total graphics power of 575 watts, a significant increase from the 450 watts that the RTX 4090 requires. As such, Nvidia recommends a minimum 1000-watt power supply for systems that feature this GPU. In the announcement, Nvidia demonstrated the RTX 5090’s capabilities by running “Cyberpunk 2077” with DLSS 4 enabled, achieving 238 frames per second (fps) compared to the RTX 4090’s 106 fps with DLSS 3.5. This shows a great potential for enhanced gaming experiences.
The RTX 5090 is due for release on January 30, 2025, at a retail price of $1,999. While the enormous performance gains are attractive, prospective buyers should note that this would also mean more power consumption, and they would need to have systems that could handle the increased energy consumption. Also, the increased power consumption will result in more heat, which means efficient cooling solutions would be required to keep the system at optimal performance and stability.
On this aspect, Nvidia has made a rather significant leap as their RTX 5090 stands twice as powerful as the RTX 4090. However, this comes in with increased demand for power, thus associated considerations as consumers should approach upgrading with extra care.
