NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition performance review: Ushering a new era of AI rendering

We have previously covered how AI is playing an even bigger role in pushing NVIDIA’s next generation Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 Series’ cards’ performance, and how the tech giant has also reverted its halo part – RTX 5090 FE – to an impressive dual-slot design. That leaves pretty much only performance benchmarks to cover and now that NVIDIA has finally lifted the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (FE) review embargo, here we are.

In the event you have not read about the new technologies that power the RTX 5090 (namely Neural Rendering and DLSS 4) or the engineering feat in the design of the new FE cards, I do recommend you do so first. If you already have, then let’s find out how NVIDIA’s latest and greatest fare compared to its predecessors.

Our Test Rig

For 2025, our graphics card test rig has been overhauled and refreshed with the following specifications:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
• ROG Maximus Z890 Hero
• Samsung 990 Pro 1TB SSD
• Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5
• Windows 11 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM 4K Gaming Monitor

For this review, I’ll be comparing the RTX 5090 FE not only with its last two direct predecessors, the RTX 3090 and RTX 4090 FE cards. I’ve also included all the Founders Edition cards from the GeForce RTX 40 Series just for good measures.

Gaming performance

My game list includes a mixture of old and recent games to test the RTX 5090 FE’s performance, and while the list isn’t exhaustive by any measure there are enough different game engines and APIs variety to give us an idea of broader performance trends.

While it's the 4K performance numbers that we'll be focusing on, because I can't imagine anyone spending US$2,000 on a beast of a card to play games at resolutions lower than that. But just for our own reference, and because it's interesting to see how the two-generation-old RTX 3090 FE underperforms against a mid-range card like the RTX 4070 Super FE, I've included results from 1080p and 1440p as well.

Unsurprisingly, the RTX 5090 FE pulled ahead of the pack in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But the performance gap between it and the RTX 4090 is not quite as wide as the previous generation, when the latter outperformed the RTX 3090 FE by more than 40% at 4K here. Generationally, we are not seeing the kind of uplift with the RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090 when it comes to raesterisation performance, but we have already kind of expected as much because NVIDIA already pre-empted us (read about it here). The RTX 5090, and by extension all of the RTX 50 Series cards, do have a secret weapon though, which will be revealed further down.

It's the same for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, but clearly the game isn't even giving the RTX 5090 FE a sweat when it scored similar frames per second across all resolutions.

The RTX 4090 FE isn't too far off from the RTX 5090 FE.

Sega's Total War: Warhammer III is a great example of a game that doesn't feature or depends on visual visual wizardry like DLSS. To run it well, you need good old-fashion raw GPU power.

With more modern games like Cyberpunk 2077, we do see a marked gap in performance between the RTX 5090 FE and its direct predecessor.

Read Dead Redemption 2 may be more than five years old now but it's still one of, if not the most, resource intensive games on the PC. With all visual settings turned on, the game is unplayable with cards at the lower end of the table. But the game offers the best playability on the RTX 5090 FE, almost hitting the minimum 60fps.

DLSS 4.0 & Multi-Frame Generation

With the RTX 50 Series, NVIDIA has reimagined the way a traditional GPU works and push pixels out onto your screens. Remember that secret weapon I mentioned earlier? Well, NVIDIA is calling it Multi-Frame Generation (MFG). An evolution of the original Frame Generation (launched with the RTX 40 Series), MFG is what elevates DLSS to the next level and is a game changer. Exclusive to the RTX 50 Series, MFG is a fundamental shift in how games are rendered, using AI to generate most of the pixels on screen thanks to a new hardware piece in the GPU called Flip Metering. It effectively means that for every two traditional frames rendered, DLSS 4 can now generate three AI-created frames. The result is a rendering process that’s not only faster but also less resource-intensive, freeing up headroom for additional graphical effects or higher frame rates.

Play

This, of course, requires the game to support the new DLSS 4 too. But when it works, the results are amazing. Take a look at the Cyberpunk 2077 results below, which is one of the few titles that will work with the RTX 50 Series cards and DLSS 4.

Even without DLSS switched on, the RTX 5090 FE is already holding on its own pretty well. But turn on DLSS 4 and the frames gained is astounding. NVIDIA wasn't bluffing when they claim RTX 5090 cards can achieve gaming at 4K at 240fps. The caveats here are that the game have to support DLSS 4 and you will need one of the new gaming monitors that supports 4K resolutions and 240Hz refresh rates.

What NVIDIA has done here with using AI to elevate framerates, and not just brute force, is nothing short of incredible.

AI and Content Creation

NVIDIA says the RTX 5090 has an AI TOPS of 3,352 but that number as a reference is meaningless in my opinion, as it does not quite meaningfully translate to what it can do in real-world tasks. But we know for certain that it's extremely powerful, especially for a consumer-grade GPU being used for AI-related workloads, like AI text generation. If you're working on AI projects and is wondering if the RTX 5090 is worth upgrading over your existing RTX 4090, then I think the above results should make for a compelling case for the Blackwell-based card. Unfortunately, the RTX 3090 FE wouldn't run the same tests on Procyon and has to be excluded. 

However, if you're a video creator and is currently using a RTX 4090 graphics card then the case for jumping to the RTX 5090 isn't quite as compelling. The new card did outperformed the RTX 3090 by 33%, and its 4:2:2 H.265 hardware support, DisplayPort 2.1 and HEVC video encording capabilities could swing decisions though.

Power and Temperature  

Unforunately, all of these AI wizardry and visual bells and whistles do come at a cost: higher TGP. At 575W (with AIB partners like ROG and MSI surely going closer to 600W), the RTX 5090 FE will require one of those PSUs that supports 1000W and above. What I'm surprised though, is how the card ran at a similar temperature as the RTX 4090 despite sporting a slimmer and smaller footpring and cooler. It's a testament to some fantastic engineering work by NVIDIA.

Final thoughts

The RTX 5090 FE is a bold step forward in graphics card design, one that reimagines gaming performance through the lens of AI-driven enhancements. Instead of throwing in more transistors to improve raw silicon power – an increasingly impractical and costly approach – NVIDIA has introduced a new paradigm that combines traditional rendering with advanced AI processing. It’s not just about pushing pixels faster; it’s about rethinking how those pixels are created in the first place. It's not just about adding more brute power, it's also about adding "intelligence" into the GPU.

DLSS with MFG is a game-changer and crucially, this AI-assisted performance doesn’t come at the expense of quality. While some may question the use of “fake frames” or scrutinise AI-generated pixels, in my limited time with Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars: Outlaws, the results are often indistinguishable from native rendering. In certain scenarios, DLSS can even surpass the clarity of native resolution, providing sharper and cleaner images thanks to the new transformer-based neural network architecture (). That said, minor glitches or artefacts occasionally crop up, but they’re rare and far from disruptive – certainly not enough to justify disabling these features. The key strength of the RTX 5090 lies in its versatility. NVIDIA has committed to supporting a wide array of games and applications with its DLSS Override feature via the NVIDIA App, extending the benefits of MFG to over 75 titles at launch.

Pricing, however, complicates the narrative. At an SRP of US$1,999, the RTX 5090 FE carries a 25% premium over the RTX 4090 FE, which might seem hard to justify on the basis of an average 30% 4K performance improvement alone. But thanks to MFG, I think NVIDIA can credibly claim more than double the performance of its predecessor in supported games and reframe the value proposition. It’s also worth noting, though, that the RTX 4090 has hovered around the $2,000 mark for most of its lifecycle, so the real-world price delta may feel less significant. What’s harder to predict is whether the RTX 5090 will actually retail close to its MSRP in the long term. Once Founders Edition stock runs dry and the likes of ROG, MSI and Gigabyte control the supply, prices could climb to US$2,500 or even US$3,000, creating a very different discussion around value. It's possible, we have already seen it with the RTX 4090.

Ultimately, the RTX 5090 represents a shift in focus for NVIDIA. It’s no longer just about sheer horsepower but about using AI to redefine what’s possible in gaming and it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here with future GPUs.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition, along with the RTX 5080 Founders Edition and partners cards will be available from 30 January 2025. The RTX 5070 Ti and 5070 cards will be released in February 2025.

Related articles:

- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition preview: A sleek and compact next-gen powerhouse

- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series: How Blackwell's Neural Rendering and DLSS 4 are shaping next-gen gaming

- NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang officially unveils the GeForce RTX 50 series at CES 2025 keynote

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