Excitement builds as new RTX 4090 specs emerge

It was only yesterday when a new rumor surfaced, suggesting that the launch of Nvidia's RTX 40 series would take place in early Q3. Kopite7kimi has since narrowed down the launch timeframe to 'mid July' which would put the launch just a matter of weeks from now. But now the serial leaker goes further, teasing an updated set of specs for the high end RTX 4090, and they even give a performance estimate.

Firstly, it's important to note that these are rumored specs. But if the launch is just weeks away, the final specifications have surely been set, and the first batches of cards would be in production. So, lets have a look at the latest potential specs provided by Kopite7kimi.

The shader count has decreased relative to earlier leaks. 16,128 shader cores is still a dramatic increase over the RTX 3090 Ti, but that’s not unexpected given the much higher transistor density provided by TSMC’s N4 process. It’s expected to include 24GB of 21Gbps GDDR6X memory, the same amount and speed that the 3090 Ti comes with.

Perhaps the most interesting spec is the newly rumored TDP, at 450W. After all the talk and rumors of 600W or more, that’s a very welcome little bit of news. It means that the current RTX 3090 Ti designs are likely to closely resemble their RTX 4090 counterparts. We were surprised by just how quiet the fans of the Asus TUF RTX 3090 Ti were and if that TDP does end up carrying over to the RTX 4090 (and therefore surely less than 450W for a 4080) then I’m reassured that RTX 40 cards will be manageable and be able to run at relatively cool temperatures without the need to resort to banshee screaming fans.

Then there’s the performance estimate. Doubling the 3D performance of the RTX 3090 would be nothing short of spectacular. Again, this is just a rumor, but even 50% or more would be a very impressive generational uplift, and it would mean that Ada Lovelace SKUs may actually feature improved performance per watt over their RTX 30 predecessors. That’s not something I had expected at all. If Nvidia can pull that off, it would be a dramatic shift in the narrative.

There doesn’t appear to be any tech or trade show in mid July, but that doesn’t mean anything. Nvidia is perfectly capable of hosting its own launch event, and in fact doing so means it can take charge of the news cycle, unlike at a show like Computex where the stage is shared, so to speak. If Nvidia does plan a launch event in July, we can expect to see teasers or a countdown in the days and weeks before. Nvidia's Computex keynote is worth keeping an eye on next week.

The other little nugget from Kopite7kimi’s tweet is that they are disappointed with RDNA 3. Whether this is relative as a result of the RTX 4090 2x performance claim or something with RDNA 3 itself is unknown, but even if AMD were to cook up a hypothetical RX 7900 XT with 50% or more performance over a 6950 XT, it wouldn't be enough if these latest Nvidia rumors turn out to be accurate.

It’s all getting closer folks. Start saving. We’re all very excited to see how the looming GPU battle plays out.