Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 is the most brutally fast graphics card ever introduced, augmented by new DLSS 4 technology that feels like magic. But you pay dearly for it, and it feels like this GPU was designed more for AI researchers than PC gamers.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is a powerful upgrade to an already overpowered enthusiast-grade GPU, and in a lot of ways, this card is so good that it's largely superfluous for just about anyone who isn't in it for the pure flex of owning it. It's overkill, especially if you only want it for gaming, since monitors that can truly handle the frames this GPU can put out are likely years away.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 might be the fastest graphics card in the world, but its generational improvement is smaller than in previous generations. Instead, this is the kind of GPU you get if you want to bet on Nvidia’s vision of an AI gaming future.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 marks the debut of the new Blackwell architecture, with new features, higher performance, more memory, and a lot more bandwidth. But the drivers could use a bit more time baking in Jensen's oven.

It's the GPU I'd configure while daydreaming of a new rig, not the first part I’d select in a realistic build on PCPartPicker. If the price tag doesn’t give you a moment of pause, then by all means, enjoy your new GPU. For everyone else, I’d wait and see what the rest of the new GPUs look like before you leap.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 is incredibly fast thanks to DLSS 4, but at $2,000 it's not for mere mortals.

Nvidia’s new flagship is genuinely the fastest gaming GPU ever, and Multi Frame Gen is transformative for frame rates in games that support it. However, without DLSS 4, the RTX 5090 is only a little quicker than its predecessor, and this graphics card’s new features need much wider game support to justify its astronomical price tag.

I do think the RTX 5090 is a solid card. Yes, there are some valid concerns around pricing and power draw increases, but I just don't think the target audience for this card will be particularly bothered – it's ultimately all about the increased performance, and while circa 30% gains won't blow your mind like the jump from an RTX 3090 to the RTX 4090, it's still a decent generational uplift considering that Moore's Law, if not completely dead, is certainly well out the door.