NVIDIA Unveils GeForce RTX 50 Blackwell, Up To 3X Sooner Than RTX 4090

It was again in September of 2022 that NVIDIA first revealed the GeForce RTX 4000 collection. The GeForce RTX 4090 has been the reigning GPU efficiency champ, primarily unchallenged, ever since then. It simply abdicated the throne to its successor, although: the GeForce RTX 5090 is right here, bringing with it the patron model of the Blackwell GPU structure.

Introduced tonight at NVIDIA’s keynote in a surprisingly windy Las Vegas, the GeForce RTX 50 collection represents NVIDIA’s newest efforts at bringing its usually datacenter-focused chip growth efforts again dwelling to avid gamers demanding the newest rendering know-how and the very best GPU efficiency. So with out additional ado, let’s truly speak concerning the GPUs.

Clearly, first up is the GeForce RTX 5090, and an important specification for lots of you is the value: $1999 USD. That is a rise over even the $1599 of the GeForce RTX 4090, however it’s not simply inflation guilty, as the brand new GPU is a whopping 92 billion transistors. You would possibly simply get your cash’s value, although, because the specs are staggering: 170 Streaming Multiprocessors (up from 128 in RTX 4090), and a full 32GB of GDDR7 reminiscence operating at 28 Gbps. That delivers a complete reminiscence bandwidth only a hair below 1.8 TB/second, roughly an 80% enhance from the earlier technology.

Thanks virtually fully to the big measurement of the GPU and architectural modifications, the GeForce RTX 5090 apparently affords 3400 AI TOPS—totally 2.5 instances that of the GeForce RTX 4090, going by NVIDIA’s personal numbers. After all, AI TOPS aren’t that related to gaming workloads, which is what the vast majority of you pricey readers are in all probability most occupied with. NVIDIA did not produce any

Along with the top-end GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA additionally introduced the GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070. The GeForce RTX 5080 is actually one-half of a GeForce RTX 5090, with 16GB of RAM on a 256-bit bus, and it comes with an identical price ticket of $999. It does characteristic barely larger clock charges on its reminiscence—a dizzying 30 Gbps—so the efficiency might be a bit greater than half of the flagship.

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is an extra step down at $749; it additionally comes with 16GB of RAM, after which the GeForce RTX 5070 with 12GB of GDDR7 reminiscence is attractively priced at $549. NVIDIA claims that even the GeForce RTX 5070 is quicker than the GeForce RTX 4090, though we predict that is more likely to be each in a path-traced workload and taking DLSS 4 into consideration.

Certainly, DLSS 4 is actual and NVIDIA says that it has moved away from convolutional neural networks towards a brand new new transformer mannequin to extend each picture high quality and efficiency. Nonetheless, the large characteristic this time round is multi-frame technology. DLSS 4 is able to rising body charges significantly by producing as much as three frames between the precise classically-rendered frames. Jensen Huang says that out of 4 full-resolution 4K output frames—roughly 33 megapixels of picture knowledge—solely 2 megapixels should be computed historically.

That is not the one AI characteristic NVIDIA premiered tonight. RTX Neural Shaders are small AI networks embedded inside shader code. NVIDIA says that they will enhance each picture high quality and efficiency with a smaller reminiscence footprint in comparison with typical shader code, like with NVIDIA’s Neural Texture Compression. Additionally, NVIDIA RTX Neural Face seems to be a brand new middleware library that makes use of AI to enhance the realism of life-like, interactive faces rendered in real-time.

Arguably essentially the most thrilling new characteristic of ‘Blackwell’ is definitely the introduction of one thing known as RTX Mega Geometry. NVIDIA claims that this characteristic permits the GeForce RTX 50 collection to ray-trace one-hundred instances the triangles of Ada Lovelace GPUs. We’re longing for extra particulars on Mega Geometry, however Huang did not truly point out it in his temporary GeForce RTX 50 presentation.

Lastly, NVIDIA introduced the second technology of its Reflex enter lag discount know-how. Supposed to be used along with DLSS 4, that is supposedly the key sauce that permits the multi-frame technology know-how to work with out making each sport really feel like an entire lag-fest. The unique model of Reflex affords tangible advantages when it comes to enter lag discount, so we’re keen to check NVIDIA’s claims right here.

Unusually, NVIDIA additionally revealed the cellular GeForce RTX 50 lineup tonight. These vary from the top-end GeForce RTX 5090, outfitted with 24GB of reminiscence and delivering 1824 TOPS, right down to the GeForce RTX 5070 with 8GB of RAM and producing 798 TOPS. As with the earlier technology, it seems like NVIDIA is actually utilizing GPUs one tier down for the cellular elements, though the GeForce RTX 5090 (cellular) does not map on to any of the desktop elements, so it is going to be fascinating to see for certain.

So far as the desktop GPUs go, all of those elements are on the best way to retailer cabinets this month. In the meantime, laptops outfitted with the brand new GeForce RTX 50 cellular GPUs will probably be coming round towards the top of this quarter, or in March.