Which no doubt makes the double-the-price GeForce RTX 3090 ($2,429 AUD) versus the GeForce RTX 3080 ($1,139 AUD) a little confusing. Or, difficult to justify if all you plan on doing is gaming. The price-point makes more sense when you realise the 24GB of cutting-edge GDDR6X memory in the RTX 3090 is aimed more at delivering 8K performance, and bandwidth for those in creative fields.

Where that amount of memory would offer a sizable leap over the RTX 3080. Also the 10,496 CUDA cores would probably do wonders for rendering and editing.

"GeForce RTX 3090 will appeal to the most demanding users. It’s great for creators making movies and rendering cinematics," NVIDIA writes. "It’s sure to appeal to researchers building systems for data science and AI. And, of course, it’s ideal for extreme gamers who want to experience the new world of 8K gaming."

Ahead of the card's launch overnight NVIDIA put its 4K game performance into perspective in a new post. Where, in addition to highlighting that the RTX 3090 is 50% faster than the more expensive TITAN RTX when it comes to 4K gaming, it's only "about 10-15% faster on average than the GeForce RTX 3080".

That said, PC gamers are known for spending premium scrilla to eek out an extra bit of performance to have the very best of the best. And on that front, as per this sponsored video by Linus Tech Tips - the RTX 3090 can run DOOM Eternal at native 8K at 60fps on near-max settings.

Apologies in advance for the thumbnail you're about to see.



The 8K LG OLED he's using cost more than $30,000 in Australia. Which is about as far from attainable as you can get when it comes to using this new GPU in its optimal setting.

No doubt the limited performance bump in 4K will come as a surprise to many (especially those looking to purchase an RTX 3090), but in a way it solidifies the massive value and performance that NVIDIA managed to pack into the flagship RTX 3080. As seen across our three in-depth reviews for that release, second-gen RTX is legit awesome.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio Review
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity Review

Oh, and as a final note in its write-up NVIDIA confirms that the RTX 3090 will also be hard to come by. "Want to apologise upfront that this will be in limited supply on launch day," NVIDIA concludes. "We know this is frustrating, and we’re working with our partners to increase the supply in the weeks to come."