RTX 3080 vs 4090: The Ultrawide Comparison

RTX 4090 reviewed against the RTX 3080 12GB: Is the extra money worth it? The RTX 3080 12GB can provide a very good 1440p experience, and even does well at 4K. But the RTX 4090 is at a whole new level of performance. But what about for Ultrawide 3440x1440 resolution? Is it worth it? Let's look at some apples to apples comparisons as well as looking at what sorts of realistic graphics settings (including ray tracing and DLSS 2 and 3) make sense for each GPU.

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Chapters:
0:00 Ultrawide Intro
2:52 Test System Specs
3:26 Plague Tale: Requiem Ultra
4:08 Plague Tale: Requiem Ultra DLSS Quality vs Native Ultra
4:47 Spider-Man Remastered Very High (CPU limits discussed)
5:16 Spider-Man Remastered Very High Ray Tracing (CPU limits discussed)
5:36 Showing normal DLSS doesn't help FPS when CPU limited
5:57 Showing DLSS 3 Frame Gen DOES increase FPS when CPU limited but not all frames are equally useful
6:56 Cyberpunk 2077 Ultra
8:11 Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Ultra
9:24 DLSS Quality RT Ultra vs RT Psycho
10:39 God of War Ultra DLSS Quality vs Native
11:20 Forza Horizon 5 Extreme
12:00 Shadow of the Tomb Raider Ray Tracing Ultra
12:45 Shadow of the Tomb Raider Highest
13:14 Horizon Zero Dawn Ultimate Quality
13:42 Red Dead Redemption 2 Favor Quality Max DLSS vs Native
14:30 Final Thoughts

[thirtyeighteen]

Thanks for covering the ultrawide geeks out here. We are quite neglected in the world of benchmarks.

[Cruor]

Thank you for this. I'm blown away by how many people still play at 1920 X1080, 3440X1440 is possibly the most meaningful "upgrade I can feel" I have ever done in like 25 years of PC gaming.

[rjy]

I have an alienware 3440x1440p 120hz and I originally ran it on a 2060 which was managable, but upgraded to a 3080 10gb and its perfect for me. It lets me hit 120 fps or close to it in almost every game I play (mostly sim racing). Upgraded my r5 3600 to 5700x recently and it made a huge improvement on my frame rates and overall experience.

[jasonspain]

I've owned two ultrawides in my life. Never going back. Currently have an LG 38gn950 and it's the best monitor for my use case. Love your content!

[ponli]

Getting an ultrawide 1440p is the best upgrade Ive made. And it's not just for action games, if you play strategy games it's also really good. All that extra space for the main map is really good for paradox games where the interface can feel a bit encroaching. The only games that don't support ultrawide is older console ports, it's pretty much supported as standard for all modern titles.

[maxkrug]

Still playing on 2070S on medium with DLSS - enough so far. Mostly over 60 fps

[dorsmap]

FINALLY. I've been looking for a comparison very close to this for a while. 3090 vs 4090 at 3440 x 1440. This will do just fine! I appreciate this.

[thorrior]

I've got the 4090 and I'm using it with a 175 Hz 3440 x 1440 monitor and I don't regret buying it. I had a 3090 before and in most games that I play the difference is very noticable. I just wish there would be more reviews considering the ultra wide resolutions.

[MMOsForLife]

I can't express strongly enough how insightful this video is. I have been using 3440x1440 for years now, but when it came to determining the performance demands, I would usually guesstimate between 1440P and 4K because most GPU performance reviews do not include that common ultra-wide resolution. But adding the 4090 value/performance assessment was VERY helpful as well. Based on this, my next GPU will probably be a 6070. :) In a world where you don't have to buy a power hungry brick to be able to max demanding games? I could only hope.

[midniteoyl]

3840x1600 is the best ultrawide resolution, IMO. Can be had in an IPS panel with a LG or Alienware, or what I finally went with, a 43" QN90b mini-led QLED which is able to do 3840x1600 21:9 @144hz in VRR mode (can also do super ultrawide 3840x1080). You lose the curve and some response time, but gain much deeper blacks and have the ability to run a console at 4k 120hz..

[Spyder_V]

Thank you for this! I've found a few videos but only did side-by-side comparisons without commentary. I love my 1440p ultra wide and really want to see which gpu to upgrade to.

[HowToLinux]

This is my first ultrawide benchmark :DD thanks i hope you do the same with the new RDNA3 GPUs

[SinjiKazama]

Thanks! I switched to ultrawide in 2014 and I just can't go back to normal.

[TheBigCarp]

It still blows my mind that 1080 is the common res to game on. I will say i play at 1440p UW and coming from an RTX3080, my enjoyment has definitely increased. My monitor is 120hz so I have so much room for smooth gameplay now with no more fps dips.

[robynd]

I recently got a 4090 aorus master and play on a 3840x1600 lg ultragear and I can say that's a good resolution to stretch it's legs on an ultrawide before going up to 4k. Great video btw.

[GyldN]

This is me. Went from a 1440 16:9 and 3080 to the alienware 21:9 QD-oled with the 4090. I agree with the conclusion but my tought here was also that the 4090 is way more future proof than the 3080 and i love to max out evey game with high fps. Therefor not going for the 4k screens

[cataliniliescu]

Thanks Daniel for focusing also on the 1440p ultra wide, excellent video!
Regarding the "is the 4090" worth it? I feel that many reviewers focus only on how is the 4090 today or this Gen. What about my scenario, where i plan to skip the next gen of GPUs (i do a tik-tok approach, every 2 years i change either CPU platform then GPU)? So i don't really care if the 4090 today is limited by SOME game engines or my 5800X3D, because in 4 years, time that i plan to use the 4090, for sure game engines will evolve (also the CPU i will change to in 2024 will use this GPU better). I do think that if you go for a top of the line GPU, like the 4090, it is feasible to think that you may skip the next GPU generation, so limitation of game engines now is not the main point anymore.

[Hammercannon]

FINALLY someones done it. ive got a 3090 and coinsidering a 4090 due to the 3090's lack of performance at 3440x1440

[casper]

Ultrawide!!! Finally. No more doing math between 2160p and 1440p to guess about ultrawide. Im really loving my 3080 12gb @ 3440x1440, I'd not recommend it at 4K. Plague Tale: Requiem was slaughtering the 3080 though, the framerate dips were painful. Had to manually set 85% resolution because dlss made walls and stuff jitter.

I use my Windows computer only for gaming. (I use a MacBook, iMac, and iPad Pro for general computing needs.) Thus, the PC is in the living room plugged into the 77" LG G2 OLED. It's spectaculoso.