The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is currently the most powerful gaming graphics card on the market, delivering industry-leading performance at 4K in the latest AAA titles. It’s powerful AD102 chip and 24GB of VRAM make it the go-to choice for gamers who want the best of the best. It has reviewed well in our extensive testing and its impressive performance metrics have certainly not escaped NVIDIA’s board partners, who themselves have worked hard to create great RTX 4090 models, each with their own unique selling points.
But with just so many RTX 4090s to choose from, which is the best RTX 4090 model to buy? In this piece, we’ve evaluated and tested a wide range of RTX 4090 options to recommend the various models that we believe to be suited to a range of different buyers.
The Best RTX 4090 GPUs to Buy
1. Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
The RTX 4090 Founders Edition is an absolutely fantastic choice for those in the market for an RTX 4090, for its sleek visuals, great performance and MSRP price point. Using NVIDIA’s in-house Founders Edition cooling design, it brings a degree of visual class to the RTX 4090 lineup, shunning RGB, garish colour schemes and plastic shrouding to create a more purposeful all-round package.
The cleverly engineered design uses a dual chamber approach, separating the cooling between the left and right-hand sides of the card. It also, rather uniquely, has one fan at the bottom of the card, and one fan up top. Both fans are large, run quietly and do a sufficient job of cooling the GPU. The ring that connects the outer edges of the fan blades also helps to direct air and increase air pressure.
Key Specs | NVIDIA RTX 4090 Founders Edition |
---|---|
Video Memory | 24GB GDDR6X |
Memory Bus | 384-bit |
Core Clock Speed | 2.23GHz |
Boost Clock Speed | 2.52GHz |
CUDA Cores | 16384 |
RT Cores | 128 |
Power Consumption | 450W |
Length | 304mm |
MSRP | $1999 |
Being one of the more compact RTX 4090 graphics cards on the market, you do lose out on heatsink space, something which naturally pushes temperatures up. While the sleek, machined design looks great, it is admittedly hard to find a motherboard and case that are in keeping with this aesthetic – something which may bother builders looking to keep their build looking uniform.
Suggested Article: The Best PC Cases to Buy for an RTX 4090 PC Build
2. MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X
Those looking for an RTX 4090 design with a particularly quiet and innovative cooling solution should look no further than the MSI Liquid X variant of the RTX 4090. MSI have combined a blower fan design on the card itself with a pre-attached and pre-filled 240mm radiator for maximum heat dissipation.
From an engineering perspective, this design is particularly clever as it looks to move the heat away from the GPU die itself, and allows the end-user to deal with that heat more efficiently and across a larger surface area.
Key Specs | MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X |
---|---|
Video Memory | 24GB GDDR6X |
Memory Bus | 384-bit |
Core Clock Speed | 2.23GHz |
Boost Clock Speed | 2.64GHz |
CUDA Cores | 16384 |
RT Cores | 128 |
Power Consumption | 480W |
Length | 280mm |
MSRP | $2199 |
The liquid cools down the GPU chip via an integrated waterblock, with the warm liquid then moving into a radiator where it is cooled. By default, this radiator comes with a pair of 120mm MEG Silent GALE P12 fans pre-mounted, but there is nothing to stop you from adding a second pair for push-pull cooling.
The silver colour scheme won’t be for everyone, and while the overall aesthetic is pretty sleek, the small stature of this design will look out of place in larger, more imposing builds.
3. Palit RTX 4090 GameRock OC
For those looking for something that little bit different, you can’t stray too far wrong with the Palit GameRock OC cooler on this RTX 4090. The unique crystal and rock inspired design certainly isn’t for everyone, but brings a touch of glam to the RTX 4090 range, and will be well-suited to those looking for a card with an element of wow factor.
The solid backplate, triple-slot form factor and black and grey color scheme round off a nice looking design, while a standardised IO of 3 DP and a HDMI connection also ensure you can easily connect this card to triple or quad monitor setups.
Key Specs | Palit RTX 4090 GameRock OC |
---|---|
Video Memory | 24GB GDDR6X |
Memory Bus | 384-bit |
Core Clock Speed | 2.23GHz |
Boost Clock Speed | 2.61GHz |
CUDA Cores | 16384 |
RT Cores | 128 |
Power Consumption | 450W |
Length | 329mm |
MSRP | $1999 |
Temperatures maintained low in our testing, while frame rates were pretty high throughout. You keep all of the great RTX 4090 features and functionality, such as DLSS 3.0 and NVIDIA Ray Tracing, in a truly on of a kind design. The GameRock OC is also a little expensive, meaning potential buyer’s with an eye on the purse strings may want to look elsewhere.
How We Test GPUs
As part of informing our product recommendations, we test 100s of graphics cards each year at a range of different resolutions, in a variety of titles. As part of ensuring our testing is fair, repeatable and represents cards correctly, we publish all of the settings used in our testing. You can read in detail about how we test graphics cards for our run down of our GPU testing methodologies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the RTX 4090 good for gaming?
The RTX 4090 is great for gaming, especially at high resolutions like 4K.
Is the RTX 4090 overkill?
If you aren’t looking to game at top settings and high resolutions, then the RTX 4090 is likely an overkill graphics card choice.
What PSU does the RTX 4090 need?
The RTX 4090 requires at least an 850W power supply, and uses the next-gen 12pin power connector. An adapter to generic 6+2pin GPU connectors is included in the box.