- The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 packs 21,760 CUDA cores while the RTX 4090 houses 16,384 CUDA cores.
- RTX 5090 comes with 32GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory, delivering bandwidth of up to 1,792 GBps. RTX 4090's 24GB GDDR6X memory can reach up to 1,008 GBps.
- RTX 5090 supports DLSS 4 with a new feature called Multi Frame Generation. It uses neural networks to generate three frames in advance.
After months of rumors and leaks, Nvidia finally launched the Blackwell GPU for consumers. The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU delivers multi-fold improvements over its predecessor, RTX 4090. It packs faster memory, brings DLSS 4, houses a large number of CUDA cores, and much more. So if you want to find out the difference between the two Nvidia GPUs, go through our detailed comparison between Nvidia RTX 5090 and 4090.
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Specs Comparison
| Specs | Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Blackwell (GB202) | Ada Lovelace |
| Fabrication Process | TSMC N4P (4nm) | TSMC 4N (5nm) |
| Transistors | 92 Billion | 76.3 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 21,760 | 16,384 |
| Shader Cores | 125 TFLOPS | 83 TFLOPS |
| Tensor Cores | 5th Generation 3,352 AI TOPS | 4th Generation 1,321 AI TOPS |
| Ray Tracing | 4th Generation 318 TFLOPS | 3rd Generation 191 TFLOPS |
| Clock Speed | 2.01GHz (Base) 2.41GHz (Boost) | 2.23GHz (Base) 2.52GHz (Boost) |
| DLSS | DLSS 4 | DLSS 3/3.5 |
| Memory | 32 GB GDDR7 | 24GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Bus | 512-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 1,792 GBps (1.8 TBps) | 1008 GBps (1 TBps) |
| TDP | 575W | 450W |
| Price | $1,999 | $1,599 |
| Release Date | January 2025 | October 2022 |
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Architecture
First off, the Nvidia RTX 5090 is developed on the latest Blackwell architecture whereas the RTX 4090 is developed on the Ada Lovelace architecture. At this point, the Ada architecture is over two years old. In addition, RTX 5090 is manufactured on TSMC’s 4nm (N4P) process node, which results in 92 billion transistors on the die. On the other hand, RTX 4090 is fabricated on TSMC’s 5nm (4N) process node and packs around 76.3 billion transistors.
As for CUDA cores, RTX 5090 is the first Nvidia consumer GPU that features over 20,000 CUDA cores (21,760, to be precise). RTX 4090 houses 16,386 CUDA cores. Here, thanks to the Blackwell architecture and improved 4nm node, RTX 5090 packs 32% more transistors.
Overall, Nvidia says RTX 5090 delivers close to 2x better performance than its predecessor, RTX 4090. In AI workloads, the performance difference is nearly 3x. And all of this is possible at a lower frequency which is surprising. The RTX 5090 card has a peak frequency of 2.41GHz, slightly lower than the RTX 4090’s 2.52GHz peak clock speed.
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Performance
Moving to performance, Nvidia has disclosed some numbers comparing the RTX 5090 and 4090. The Shader cores on RTX 5090 can deliver up to 125 TFLOPS whereas the RTX 4090 can output up to 83 TFLOPS. Here, RTX 5090 leads by 50%.
The 5th-gen Tensor cores on RTX 5090 can perform up to a whopping 3,352 trillion operations per second (TOPS) on AI workloads. The 4th-gen Tensor cores on RTX 4090 can process up to 1,321 AI TOPS, which means RTX 5090 is around 2.5x faster than RTX 4090 on AI tasks.
Next, the 4th-gen Ray Tracing cores on RTX 5090 can deliver graphics performance up to 318 TFLOPS. And the 3rd-gen RT cores on RTX 4090 deliver up to 191 TFLOPS. In Ray Tracing performance, the RTX 5090 leads by around 66%.
In gaming benchmarks that Nvidia shared, the company says RTX 5090 offers 2x better performance than RTX 4090 in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, and Alan Wake 2. In a demo that Nvidia showcased, RTX 5090 with DLSS 4 produced 238 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077. The RTX 4090 with DLSS 3.5 could only reach up to 109 FPS.
As for Generative AI workloads, RTX 5090 again doubles the AI performance when running the Flux.dev image generation model locally.
Coming to DLSS 4, it brings a groundbreaking Multi Frame Generation feature which is only available on the RTX 50 series cards. However, other improved DLSS 4 features like Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, Super Resolution, etc. are available on RTX 40, 30, and 20 series cards.
The highlight of DLSS 4 is indeed Multi Frame Generation which uses Transformer-based neural networks to predict up to three frames in advance. So besides raw performance improvements, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation is only exclusive to RTX 50 series cards. You must keep this in mind if you want to upgrade from RTX 4090.
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Memory Bandwidth
The Nvidia RTX 5090 is the first consumer GPU to feature the ultra-fast GDDR7 memory. It packs 32GB of VRAM and operates on a 512-bit memory bus, allowing the memory to reach a crazy bandwidth of 1.8 TBps (1,792 GBps). On the other hand, RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth is limited to 1,008 GBps. You get 24GB of GDDR6X memory on RTX 4090, which relies on 384-bit memory bus.
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Power Consumption and TDP
As for power consumption, the Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU has a TDP of 575W which is 125W more than the RTX 4090’s 450W TDP. Nvidia recommends a PSU of up to 1000W for the RTX 5090. That said, many expected that the RTX 5090 would be much larger, but it shares the same dimensions as the RTX 4090. And unlike the RTX 4090 which was a 3-slot card, the Founder Edition RTX 5090 is a two-slot GPU which means you can fit it into a smaller case.
Nvidia RTX 5090 vs 4090: Early Thoughts
The RTX 4090 GPU debuted at $1,599 and the RTX 5090 is priced at $1,999. Many were expecting that Nvidia would price the Blackwell GPU around $2,500, but the company chose a reasonable price. With a $400 increase in price, you get a much faster GPU that delivers strong performance on all fronts, be it gaming, AI workloads, or creative rendering.
In addition, with RTX 5090, you get DLSS 4 with the Multi Frame Generation feature and have access to 32GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory. Of course, we need to wait for in-depth benchmark testing, but the Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU looks like a powerhouse. If you already have the RTX 4090, you may not want to upgrade instantly, but if you are using an RTX 30 series card, the RTX 5090 is an easy recommendation.
Anshuman Jain
