Nvidia’s Ampere-powered $1,499 GeForce RTX 3090 is the last word price-is-no-object graphics card. It chews up video games and spits out frames for breakfast, as we lined in depth in our comprehensive Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition review. You want a pixel-packed monitor to get probably the most out of it, although—like a 3440×1440 ultrawide show.
Here’s the factor although: Most players shouldn’t purchase the GeForce RTX 3090. Even at full 4K, it’s solely 10 to 15 % quicker than the $700 GeForce RTX 3080, which prices lower than half as a lot. The positive aspects are even much less at 1440p decision, the place your CPU and different components of Nvidia’s GPU structure grow to be the efficiency bottleneck, reasonably than uncooked shading energy. Sometimes, the GeForce RTX 3090 isn’t tangibly quicker than the RTX 3080 at 1440p regardless of its steep worth premium. This card is best suited to inventive professionals who can make the most of its huge 24GB reminiscence buffer. The fearsome gaming efficiency is extra of a pleasant additional for some off-hours playtime.
Because 3440×1440 ultrawide decision primarily splits the distinction between 4K and 1440p, we solely noticed modest positive aspects within the 15-percent vary in comparison with the extra inexpensive RTX 3080. Again: Most players ought to persist with the GeForce RTX 3080. That being stated, some folks demand the absolute best efficiency, worth be damned, so we determined to publish our hands-on RTX 3090 3440×1440 ultrawide benchmarks, identical to we did with the GeForce RTX 3080.
We examined ultrawide efficiency with the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 3440×1440 ultrawide benchmarks
We performed our assessments on the identical $550, 144Hz Nixeus EDG34S monitor as earlier than. It’s an impressive worth for the worth, albeit a bit sparse with additional quality-of-life options. While it formally helps solely AMD’s FreeSync Premium adaptive sync expertise, you’ll be able to manually activate G-Sync in Nvidia’s control panel, and it really works like a allure. You’ll want to make use of the monitor’s on-screen show to activate adaptive sync first, nonetheless. All in all, it’s an awesome accomplice for Nvidia’s “BFGPU.”
Note that these benchmarks don’t come from the Nvidia Founders Edition utilized in our preliminary GeForce RTX 3090 testing. Instead, they’re culled from the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio, an overclocked gamer-centric model of the cardboard that’s bristling with followers, heatsinks, and loads of RGB lighting. Read our full review of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio here.
Here’s a listing of what’s inside our GPU check system, which was constructed to reduce potential bottlenecking in different elements, placing the total brunt of the assessments on the graphics card itself:
- Intel Core i7-8700Ok processor ($300 on Amazon) overclocked to 5GHz all-core
- EVGA CLC 240 closed-loop liquid cooler ($105 on Amazon)
- Asus Maximus X Hero motherboard
- 64GB HyperX Predator RGB DDR4/2933 ($355 on Amazon)
- EVGA 1200W SuperNova P2 energy provide ($352 on Amazon)
- Corsair Crystal 570X RGB case, with entrance and prime panels eliminated and an additional rear fan put in for improved airflow
- 2x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSDs ($70 every on Amazon)

The MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio in our testing rig.
Each sport is examined utilizing its in-game benchmark on the highest doable graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body charge caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with another vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) to push these playing cards to their limits when it’s obtainable.
We didn’t embrace the legendary GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, as our earlier benchmarks present it acting on a par with the RTX 2080 in most video games. It’s a hair slower in correctly optimized DX12 or Vulkan video games.
Hit up our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition evaluate for extra info on our methodology and testing system. We’ll simply current the uncooked graphs and sport data earlier than providing some wrap-up ideas on the finish. We couldn’t embrace Borderlands 3 or F1 2020, two video games in our commonplace check suite, attributable to ultrawide compatibility points we outlined in our earlier RTX 3080 benchmarking piece.
Got it? Good. Let’s go.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Yep, Sony exclusives are hitting the PC now. Horizon Zero Dawn hit Steam with some efficiency points, however probably the most egregious ones have been largely cleared up because of arduous work from the builders, and the sport topped the gross sales charts for weeks after its launch. It additionally appears to reply considerably to PCIe 4.0 scaling, which can make this an attention-grabbing inclusion once we shift to a PCIe 4.0-based system sooner or later.
Horizon Zero Dawn runs on Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine, the identical engine that powers Death Stranding. Ambient Occlusion can nonetheless supply iffy outcomes if set to Ultra, so we check with that setting at Medium. Every different visible choice is maxed out.

Gears Tactics
Gears Tactics places it personal brutal, fast-paced spin on the XCOM-like style. This Unreal Engine 4-powered sport was constructed from the bottom up for DirectX 12. We love with the ability to work a tactics-style sport into our benchmarking suite. Better but, the sport comes with a plethora of graphics choices for PC snobs. More video games ought to commit such loving care to explaining what flipping all these visible knobs imply. You can’t use the presets to benchmark Gears Tactics, because it intelligently scales to work greatest in your put in {hardware}, which means that “Ultra” on one graphics card can load completely different settings than “Ultra” on a weaker card. We manually set all choices to their highest doable settings.
Fun reality: The GeForce RTX 3080 FE is the solely graphics card that doesn’t generate a “Your GPU can’t handle this” warning when enabling Glossy Reflections, and solely the 3080 and the RTX 2080 Ti lack that warning for Planar Reflections.

Metro Exodus
One of the most effective video games of 2019, Metro Exodus is likely one of the best-looking video games round, too. The newest model of the 4A Engine supplies extremely luscious, ultra-detailed visuals, with probably the most beautiful real-time ray tracing implementations launched but. We check in DirectX 12 mode with ray tracing, Hairworks, and DLSS disabled for our fundamental benchmarks.

Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a cooperative third-person shooter the place a staff of adventurers blasts by means of hordes of mythological enemies. It’s a technological showcase, constructed across the next-gen Vulkan and DirectX 12 applied sciences and infused with options like HDR assist and the power to toggle asynchronous compute on and off. It makes use of Rebellion’s customized Azure engine. We check utilizing the Vulkan renderer, which is quicker than DX12.

Total War: Troy
The newest sport within the fashionable Total War saga, Troy was given away free for its first 24 hours on the Epic Games Store, shifting over 7.5 million copies earlier than it went on correct sale. Total War: Troy is constructed utilizing a modified model of the Total War: Warhammer 2 engine, and this DX11 title seems beautiful for a turn-based technique sport.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider concludes the reboot trilogy, and it’s totally beautiful. Square Enix optimized this sport for DX12, and recommends DX11 provided that you’re utilizing older {hardware} or Windows 7, so we check with DX12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes use of an enhanced model of the Foundation engine that additionally powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and contains non-obligatory real-time ray tracing and DLSS options.

GTA V
This DX11 sport isn’t actually a visible barn-burner just like the (considerably wonky) Red Dead Redemption 2, however it nonetheless tops the Steam charts day in and time out, so we deem it extra worthy of testing. RDR2 will melt your graphics card, certain, however GTA V stays so fashionable years after launch that upgraded variations of will probably be obtainable on the next-generation consoles. That’s endurance.
We check Grand Theft Auto V with all choices turned to Very High, all Advanced Graphics choices besides prolonged shadows enabled, and FXAA. GTA V runs on the RAGE engine and has acquired substantial updates since its preliminary launch.

Rainbow Six Siege
Like GTA V, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege nonetheless dominates the Steam charts years after its launch. It’ll be getting a visible improve for the next-gen consoles. The builders have poured a ton of labor into the sport’s AnvilNext engine through the years, ultimately rolling out a Vulkan model of the sport that we use to check. By default, the sport lowers the render scaling to extend body charges, however we set it to 100 % to benchmark native rendering efficiency on graphics playing cards. Even nonetheless, body charges soar.

Final ideas and evaluation
The GeForce RTX 3090 completely screams at 3440×1440 ultrawide decision—however it’s not that a lot quicker than the GeForce RTX 3080, which prices a whopping $800 much less. It often wins by about 15 %, with Gears Tactics displaying the most important change, with a 22 % enchancment. On the opposite finish, each Shadow of the Tomb Raider and GTA V are lower than 5 % quicker with the RTX 3090 than the 3080.
Just in case we didn’t make this clear but: If you’re solely on the lookout for a superb gaming expertise, it’s best to most likely put money into an RTX 3080, not the RTX 3090. Buy your self some good upgrades for the remainder of your PC with all the additional cash you’ll save. That stated, if you should use the RTX 3090 for skilled workloads it’s an impressive worth, and in the event you’re looking for the last word 3440×1440 efficiency regardless of the price, you’ll be very pleased with this card for ultrawide gaming.
Check out our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition review for exhaustive data on Nvidia’s daunting BFGPU, or our information to 5 key things you need to know about the RTX 3090 in the event you don’t really feel like sifting by means of limitless graphs and technicalese. We’ve additionally reviewed the custom MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio used for this testing. Give the $550 Nixeus EDG34S a critical look in the event you’re planning on upgrading to 144Hz 3440×1440 to go along with it.
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