RTX 3090 Ti vs RTX 4090: The Ultimate Comparison (4K, Ultrawide, 1440p, RT On/Off, DLSS on/off)

RTX 4090 reviewed against the RTX 3090 Ti: Is the extra money worth it? Should you upgrade if you already have a 3090 Ti? The RTX 3090 Ti can provide a very good 1440p experience, and even does well at 4K. In this video we will even look at ultrawide 3440x1440. But the RTX 4090 is at a whole new level of performance. 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) make sense for each GPU.

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Chapters:
0:00 This is not just an apples to apples comparison
0:34 How to read the "smoothness' of the performance
1:10 Which GPU cooler versions am I testing?
1:45 Test system specs
2:06 Unreal Engine 5 Benchmarks
4:23 "Next Gen" Game: A Plague Tale Requiem
6:13 Cyberpunk 2077 4K Ultra
7:30 Realistic 4K Settings Cyberpunk 2077
8:04 Ultrawide Cyberpunk 2077 Ultra 3440x1440
8:36 1440p Ultra Cyberpunk 2077
9:09 4K Ray Tracing Cyberpunk 2077 w/DLSS
9:41 Realistic 60fps 4K Ray Tracing Cyberpunk 2077
10:13 Ultrawide Ray Tracing Cyberpunk 2077
10:57 1440p Ray Tracing on/off DLSS on/off Cyberpunk 2077
11:28 Even 1080p RT Psycho is incredibly hard for the 3090 Ti
12:07 Forza Horizon 5: 4K Ray Tracing Extreme
13:12 Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Ray Tracing Max DLSS on/off
14:18 4K Ultra vs RT Max Guardians of the Galaxy
14:54 1440p Guardians of the Galax RT Max
15:31 Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4K RT On vs Off
16:16 Ultrawide Shadow of the Tomb Raider RT on vs off
17:01 1440p Shadow of the Tomb Raider RT on vs off
17:47 Spider-Man Remastered 4K RT Very High
18:14 God of War 4K Ultra Native vs DLSS (DirectX 11 Test)
18:53 Horizon Zero Dawn 4K Ultimate Native vs DLSS
19:35 Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan) 4K Favor Quality DLSS vs Native
20:27 Ultrawide Red Dead Redemption 2 Favor Quality 3440x1440
20:54 1440p Red Dead Redemption 2 Favor Quality
21:14 Final Thoughts: Is it worth getting the 4090 over the 3090 Ti (or upgrading)

[REDZwon]

WOW. Great Video! You spent a lot of time on this and did a great job! Thanks!

[Real_MisterSir]

Huge appreciation for the ultrawide benchmark 3440x1440. The 3K resolution scene is growing quickly so it's nice to see you being one of the first creators to cover this field consistently.

[duct.q.]

I got 3090 Ti recently, and my reason was simple! 3090 Ti was 900 € and 4090 was 2300-2700€. I was actually waiting for 4090 and expected it to be expensive, but above 2k is just too much even for someone like who "could" effort a GPU for the price of a good used car.

[SamuelRosadoEsq]

Thank you for the ultrawide comparisons! I upgraded from a 1080ti to a 4090 for my 1440p Ultrawide and couldn't be happier.

[jchacon]

Love the detail on this comparison! Definitely helps in making a value decision.

[TerraWare]

This is a great comparison video Daniel and also quite inspiring. I ended up benchmarking Quake 2 RTX at 4K between my Strix 3080Ti which is pretty much a 3090 and my Tuf 4090 to to see how they compare in a fully path traced game and the results are quite impressive. About double the performance.

[loki]

That feeling though, at least for me. Knowing I can get any game and max the hell out of it and play at 4K with high fps. I used to be stuck on a GTX 1080. I literally chose not to buy games I wanted because I couldn't play them at any satisfactory resolution and setting. This 4090 will hold me for two generations and likely without even compromise. Playing with VRR enabled and hovering over 60fps 4 YEARS from now still maxed out when gaming is a win. Usually, you'd start to have to make compromises even after just 2 years.

[SPSteve]

I love my EVGA 3090Ti FTW3, but the 4090 is an absolute beast! NVIDIA knocked it out of the park with the 4090. I'll wait for the 5000 series before upgrading, but I'm very impressed by the 4090.

[mrxcs]

Can you compare two monitors 27", one native 1080P other 1440P, because using DLDSR on 1080P is really really close.

[realghostxd]

Thank you for including the ultrawide comparision, recently both me and my brother switched from 16:9 to 21:9.

[mkatakm]

3090 ti prices are still very high. It is better to buy a 4090. Though buying a used 3090 or 3090 ti is also a good option.

[denisonn]

Great review! I have a question. So many mention that 4090 can be CPU limited at 1440p. I've noticed it's less so in graphics intensive games and with RT enabled. What about in 3-4 years time when new games come out and graphics and RT gets better? Will GPU be better utilised?
I have 12700K and DDR4 so I guess similar to your 5950X DDR4 in gaming performance give or take

[globoaviacao]

I had an EVGA 3090ti and loved it. I have purchased a Gainward 4090 in the launch date and I am very impressed with it. It is very quiet and runs cool. Depending on the game it has huge performance gains. I use a Samsung G9 5120x1440.

[techie]

Still struggling with buyers remorse after paying full price for my 3090 ti fe back in April. Don't think I'll be giving nvidia any more of my money, hopefully AMD's next offerings will prove to be worth looking at.

[jimmyjay]

Such a great Video. Your Tests are very well explained, even to people, who don't deepdive into this kind of stuff. Your comparisons are very gamer oriented what i like alot. Thank you for the great work on this one and keep up the good work in future uploads. Much love!

[-yoshi.]

thanks Daniel for all work youre doing

[mncn]

4K OLED or Mini-LED is the only way to play, lol. Just gorgeous!

[EngineVSEngine]

If you can't get either card at MSRP then it's moot which one is better in my opinion..

[Haley]

I am using 27 inch 2K 144Hz monitor. The RTX 3090 would serve me for a long long long time :D

[racechronic]

will you test AV1 encoding? how much diff is it with h.264 or h.265 in quality and Size? if AMD send a GPU to you, then try it on all 3 gpus.