NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 Series Release Date, Price, Specs

Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs have been released. We are talking about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080.

To help visualize the potential of the RTX 4000 GPUs, we have considered NVIDIA’s previous GPU lineup, the RTX 3000 series, and the performance improvements over the RTX 2000 series.

Although don’t forget that AMD will soon be releasing the RDNA 3 series in November, so check that out too!

Let’s see what RTX 4000 has to bring to the table!

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Release Date

The RTX 4090 was released on October 12^th with an MSRP of $1599, which is $100 more expensive than its predecessor, the RTX 3090.

The RTX 4080 was released in November 2022 with just one version. Originally, there was supposed to be a 12GB and 16GB RTX 4080.

Note: Because of community backlash, NVIDIA “canceled” the 12GB RTX 4080 and gave it a new name, the RTX 4070 Ti. This card launched in January of 2023.

3.11 update
4070 —>4/13

— hongxing2020 (@hongxing2020) March 11, 2023

The latest leaks mention that the RTX 4070 will release on April 13, 2023.

A couple of RTX 4060/Ti Founders Edition images have leaked, so the GPU’s release may be nearing.

There are also rumors circulating regarding RTX 4090 Ti and RTX 4000 Titan GPUs. Whether these GPUs actually exist, we still don’t know for certain.

Laptop GPUs like the RTX 4090, RTX 4080, RTX 4070, RTX 4060 and RTX 4050 released throughout the first quarter of 2023.

By 2024, they believe they will have Ampere Next Next ready, which is supposedly the RTX 5000 series.

EVGA Left NVIDIA

We should also mention that as of this generation, EVGA will no longer manufacture graphics cards. This decision is supposedly a consequence of NVIDIA’s years of mistreatment.

EVGA’s spokesperson mentioned that NVIDIA kept EVGA (and probably other partners) in the dark on the GPU’s prices and constantly undercutting them, which reduced their profit margins while NVIDIA’s profit margins shot up.

Price

We hoped that the reduced interest in crypto mining and the improvement in chip shortage would lead to better price points for future graphics cards.

Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. Instead, NVIDIA takes a completely different approach and puts substantially more expensive price tags on its GPUs.

Here are the price tags:

• RTX 4060 Ti – $499 (not confirmed)
• RTX 4070 – $599-749 (not confirmed)
• RTX 4070 Ti– $799
• RTX 4080 16GB – $1,199
• RTX 4090 – $1,599

The RTX 4070 Ti was $899 when it was still named RTX 4080 12GB, but even at $799, it’s still too expensive, considering that the 3070 Ti was $599 at launch.

Not only that but aftermarket RTX 4070 Tis are selling for more than $900. Some even reach prices above $1000.

The RTX 4080 is 71% more expensive than the 12GB RTX 3080! Even worse, RTX 4080s go for well above $1,200, and some go up to the RTX 4090 price point.

The RTX 4090 is $100 more expensive than the RTX 3090. Europe’s pricing is a lot worse though. The lowest-priced RTX 4090 we spotted is around 1,999 EUR and pricing can get up to 2,569 EUR.

According to Moore’s Law Is Dead, the RTX 4070’s MSRP might be $750, while With AIB models, the 4070’s cost can be as much as the 4070 Ti FE.

This is considerably more expensive than we originally thought and the RTX 4070 might not offer any greater value than the 4070 Ti.

Specifications

The Ada Lovelace microarchitecture is built on TSMC’s 4N process, a solid leap from the 8nm Ampere (Samsung) chips.

A smaller process node will result in two significant benefits: more performance for less power.

Here are NVIDIA’s claims of Ada Lovelace’s improvements over older generations like Ampere and Turing:

RTX 4000 Series (vs. RTX 3090) specification comparison table:

Specifications	RTX 3090	RTX 4090 Ti (The Beast)	RTX 4090	RTX 4080 16GB	RTX 4070 Ti	RTX 4070	RTX 4060/Ti
GPU Die	GA102	AD102	AD102	AD103	AD103	AD104	AD104
Process	Samsung 8nm	TSMC 5nm (4N)	TSMC 5nm (4N)	TSMC 5nm (4N)	TSMC 5nm (4N)	TSMC 5nm (4N)	TSMC 5nm (4N)
Base Clock Speed	1395 MHz	?	2230 MHz	2510 MHz	2610 MHz	2310 MHz	2310 MHz
Boost Clock Speed	1695 MHz	?	2520 MHz	2210 MHz	2310 MHz	2610 - 2800 MHz	2535 MHz
CUDA Cores	10496	18176	16384	9728	7680	5888	4352
Bus Width	384-bit	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit	128-bit
Memory	24GB GDDR6X	48GB GDDR6X	24GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X	8GB GDDR6/X
Memory Speed	24Gbps	24Gbps	21Gbps	23Gbps	21Gbps	21Gbps	18Gbps
Bandwidth	936.2 GB/s	?	1008 GB/s	736 GB/s	504 GB/s	504 GB/s	288 GB/s
L2 Cache	6MB	96MB	96MB	64MB	64MB	48MB	48MB
Total Board Power	350W	800W?	450W	320W	285W	250W	220W
Release Date	September 1st, 2020	TBA 2023	October 12, 2022	November, 2022	January 7th, 2023	Q1 2023	Q1 2023

Note: Data on RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 is based on leaks due to missing official information.

For more information, here’s NVIDIA’s comparison of the three new upcoming GPUs with the previous generation lineup.

RTX 4090 Ti/Titan/The Beast

The leaks on NVIDIA’s “true” flagship are a bit vague. This AD102 chip that’s been referred to as the “The Beast” might be the 4090 Ti, Titan, or maybe even get a completely different name.

Supposedly, this flagship SKU will have 12,432 CUDA cores and 48GB of GDDR6X running at 24 Gbps. Bandwidth will be well over one terabyte, considering that the regular 4090 will have a terabyte of bandwidth.

However, a gaming GPU like the RTX 4090 Ti doesn’t make sense to have 48GB of VRAM, while an RTX (4000) Titan with 48GB GDDR6X makes sense.

News surrounding this GPU has been pretty scarce, but recently, this giant GPU’s heatsink was recently spotted, and certain Titan RTX renders did get leaked.

It’s possible that NVIDIA is preparing a trump card in response to anything AMD might release throughout 2023.

RTX 4090

The GeForce RTX 4090 has 16384 CUDA cores, compared to 10496 on the GeForce RTX 3090. So about a 50% increase in CUDA, but it also boosts up to 2520 MHz, which, again, is quite higher than the 3090.

Of course, it also comes with a huge amounts of VRAM (24GB).

That’s not the only thing that NVIDIA has increased, though. It is rated at 450W TDP, 100W more than its predecessor.

RTX 4080

As we mentioned previously, the RTX 4080 had two versions, but the smaller 12GB version got “unlaunched” because of community backlash.

The 16GB RTX 4080 is a different beast and an expensive one too. With 16GB of VRAM, 9728 CUDA Cores, a 2.51 GHz boost clock, 256-bit memory width, and 320W TDP, it’s a very powerful card that comes close to the RTX 4090.

But, with a $1,199 MSRP and often selling several hundred dollars more than that, it still doesn’t provide a good value, compared to the $700 RTX 3080.

Its direct competitor is AMD’s RX 7900 XTX, with a cost of $999.

RTX 4070 Ti

The RTX 4080 12GB was just a cut-down RTX 4080 16GB, coming with much worse specifications; then NVIDIA pulled it back because of the community’s response and released it again as the RTX 4070 Ti for $100 less.

This $800 card comes with 12GB of VRAM, 7680 CUDA Cores, a 2610 MHz boost clock, and 285W TDP.

It’s current AMD contender is the RX 7900 XT. Check out the performance segment below to see how these two GPUs fare against each other.

RTX 4070

The RTX 4070 Ti is undoubtedly a very fast GPU, but its $800 price tag repelled a lot of people interested in RTX 4000.

However, the RTX 4070 might be better priced, but it’s also worth mentioning that it has 23% fewer CUDA cores (5888) and it will run at a 225W TBP rather than 285W.

So, there will probably be a significant enough difference in performance.

Fortunately, this non-Ti 4070 will also have 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM.

What’s more interesting is the fact that there will be two variants of the RTX 4070. One variant will be used for premium AIBs with a 225W TBP that’s paired with NVIDIA’s new 16-pin connector, while cheaper models will have a 200W TBP and will have the standard 8-pin connector.

RTX 4060/Ti

According to kopite7kimi, the RTX 4060/Ti will be the AD106 GPU with 4352 CUDA cores. Originally though, we thought that the RTX 4060/Ti would be using the AD104 GPU. However, the AD106 chip could be substantially cheaper to use.

RTX 4060 Ti has a very short reference board. The PG190 still uses CEM5 connector.
AD106-350-A1
4352FP32
8G 18Gbps GDDR6
32M L2
220W

— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) December 13, 2022

Unfortunately, the RTX 4060 Ti won’t get a VRAM upgrade and will stick with 8GB of GDDR6, just like NVIDIA’s last generation RTX 3060 Ti.

There is more bad news though. Kopite7kimi also claims that the RTX 4060 Ti will deliver RTX 3070-like performance. That’s not a very significant generational improvement, especially if NVIDIA prices the new GPU as high as the 3070.

Furthermore, based on recent leaks by Twitter leaker @T4CFantasy, the RTX 4060 will have a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2535 MHz.

Of course, AIB models will probably clock much higher.

NVIDIA also increased TDP to 220W compared to 200W on the 3060 Ti.

RTX 4000 Laptop GPUs

Like with every NVIDIA GPU generation, the RTX 4000 will also have mobile GPUs for laptops.

Starting from the RTX 4050 and all the way to the RTX 4090. Of course, performance compared to the desktop series will be vastly different. The 4090 alone has about 40% fewer CUDA Cores and 8GB less VRAM.

But, in comparison to previous laptop GPU generations, these laptop graphics cards should be fast.

Based on NVIDIA, with DLSS 3, RTX 4000 laptop GPUs (Ada) may deliver between 2x to 4x more fps in game and productivity workloads than RTX 4000 laptop GPUs (Ampere).

Laptops with RTX 4080s and RTX 4090s will start at $2,000, while laptops with the mid-range RTX 4070, 4060, and 4050 will start at $1,000.

However, third-party benchmarks show that the laptop RTX 4090 is substantially slower than the desktop RTX 4090.

Hardware Unboxed’s comparison in 1440p shows that the desktop 4090 is 36% faster on average. In 4K, the desktop GPU is up to 56% faster.

In Dying Light 2 with ray tracing enabled, it’s obvious that the RTX 4090 laptop simply doesn’t offer performance nearly as fast as the desktop RTX 4090.

While laptop GPUs are generally slower than their desktop counterpart, it is misleading to use the exact same name for both GPUs when it’s obvious that one offers a different level of performance.

The laptop RTX 4090 should at least have the “M” suffix to signal to buyers that it’s a mobile/slower variant.

The best solution is to name laptop GPUs based on their performance counterparts. So, if the mobile RTX 4090 performs closer to the desktop RTX 4070 Ti, it should be named RTX 4070 Ti M, etc.

Performance

RTX 4090

The performance gains we see with the RTX 4090 might actually excuse the pretty high price tag.

This might even be one of the biggest generational performance leaps in GPUs. Let’s look at some third-party benchmarks.

First up is Gamers Nexus’ Total War: Warhammer 3 1440p benchmark. Immediately, it is obvious that the RTX 4090 is undoubtedly the fastest gaming GPU in the world right now.

In this game, the new NVIDIA flagship is almost 40% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti. Keep in mind this is without any ray tracing or DLSS options enabled. It’s also 45% faster than the RTX 3090.

In Tomb Raider at 4K, the performance is consistent with the previous benchmark, surpassing the RTX 3090 Ti by around 40%.

To further establish the performance dominance of the RTX 4090, here are two charts by Hardware Unboxed showing a 13-game average in 1440p and 4K.

In 1440p, the RTX 4090 is ~45% better than the RTX 3090 Ti and RX 6950XT. At 4K though, without any CPU bottleneck, the RTX 4090 is almost 60% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti.

When ray tracing is enabled in games though, the RTX 4090 story gets even better.

Hardware Unboxed tested the RTX 3090 Ti, RX 6950 XT and RTX 4090 in Dying Light 2 Stay Human with ray tracing enabled. Without any DLSS upscaling, the RTX 4090 is 117% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti.

With DLSS enabled, the 4090 is around 95% faster than the previous NVIDIA flagship. So, NVIDIA definitely improved the ray tracing capabilities in this new generation of RTX GPUs.

DLSS 3 takes things even further for the new flagship, making it almost 150% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti, but more on this new feature later.

The RTX 4090 also performs pretty well in productivity tasks, cutting down the time needed to export 3D renders and video edits by half.

RTX 4080

There is no doubt that the RTX 4080 is a great graphics card, and these three benchmarks/charts below from Hardware Unboxed prove that.

For this 1080p data, keep in mind that the RTX 4080 is often CPU limited, so it can’t give 100% at this resolution.

Either way, even at 1080p the RTX 4080 is dominating the charts, ending up about 16% faster than the RX 6950 XT and 19% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti.

It’s also 36% faster than its predecessor, the RTX 3080.

When resolution is increase to 1440p, the performance gap widens.

The RTX 4080 is almost 25% faster than the RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti. It’s also more than 50% faster than the RTX 3080.

At 4K, the performance gap is similar to 1440p, with the RTX 4080 outperforming the RTX 3080 by 52% and the RTX 3090 Ti by 21%.

These are great generation-over-generation performance gains, but here comes the “but”.

The cost per frame at 1440p is one of the worst currently, based on real pricing on Newegg. Still better than the RTX 4090 though.

RTX 4070 Ti

Even though the RTX 4070 Ti is still very expensive at $800, its performance is nothing to scoff at.

Here are some charts for 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions:

In 1080p on a 16-game average, the RX 7900 XT and RTX 4070 offer almost identical performance.

In 1440p, there’s a slight gap in performance, with the AMD counterpart overtaking the RTX 4070 Ti by around 3%.

In 4K, the gap increases further, with AMD ending up around 8% faster than NVIDIA.

But, for $100 less, the RTX 4070 Ti is definitely offers much better value, if you manage to find the card at MSRP.

RTX 4060 Ti

An AD106/RTX 4060 Ti benchmark was recently leaked showing that this new GPU is on par with the RTX 3070 Ti.

So, no significant jump in performance here, but we can expect at least some good pricing out this GPU.

The RTX 3070 Ti had a $600 MSRP, so we expect this 4060 Ti to be at most $400, but knowing NVIDIA, they might push this card to $450.

DLSS 3.0

DLSS 3.0 is the successor to DLSS 2.0, but not exactly. DLSS 3.0 uses DLSS 2.0 as we know it and then applies NVIDIA’s new Frame Generation technology to boost FPS even further.

Here’s how it works:

With the so-called “Optical Flow Accelerator,” a new part of the RTX GPUs, and by adding Optical Multi Frame Generation, NVIDIA brings serious FPS boosts to the table.

Simply put, RTX 4000 GPUs can generate new frames based on “guesses,” artificially increasing the FPS, and improving the player’s experience.

Do note that DLSS 3 will not be available for RTX 3000 and 2000 cards because they lack this Optical Flow Accelerator.

Here’s DLSS 3 or Frame Generation in action:

From this Hardware Unboxed chart, the RTX 4090 is 145% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti. These are some absolutely incredible gains in performance.

But is there a catch?

Well, yes. There is one (or two) related to latency and in-game feel.

Here’s an example. In Cyberpunk 2077, with DLSS 3 enabled, the game shoots up to 112 FPS. That framerate should lead to a substantially smoother experience than 62 FPS.

However, since those extra FPS are generated with DLSS 3, the responsiveness/latency feel is like you are playing the game at 62 FPS

This isn’t a huge problem, but it might be noticeable for some people. Tim from Hardware Unboxed explained this as “smooth motion, but a slow feel.”

Furthermore, there are UI-related issues/artifacts, which isn’t a dealbreaker and it might get fixed with a future update.

If you are interested for a more in-depth analysis, check out the video:

Scalping & Price Increases

Throughout the last couple of years, ever since the release of the RTX 3000 series, scalping has become a huge trend.

This new trend skyrocketed the prices of new GPUs while considerably cutting down the supply. This shortage continues in 2022 as it did in 2021 and 2020.

Even the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, TSMC and Samsung, struggle to keep up with the demand.

Right now, you might be wondering: will this kind of scalping affect the RTX 4000 series? Unfortunately, we cannot know for sure, but at least we know that both TSMC and Samsung are investing in improving their manufacturing capacities.

We’ll know the status of RTX 4000 availability once the GPUs are released.

Until then, you can check back for future developments on the RTX 4000 Series!