RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 tested at same power level: RTX 50 flagship shows efficiency downgrade vs previous gen
Nvidia's latest flagship GPU, the RTX 5090, has a 28% higher TDP than its predecessor, the RTX 4090. This 28% increase in TDP, and a healthy increase in CUDA cores, makes the RTX 5090 around 27% faster vs the RTX 4090. However, the gain is much less when both cards use the same amount of power.
Reviews of the RTX 5090 are out and, for folks who want the best performance regardless of cost and power consumption, Nvidia has created a monster in the RTX 5090. From rasterization to ray tracing, the RTX 5090 delivers unmatched performance at 4K. Throw in DLSS 4 and you have a GPU that can do 4K gaming at above 200 FPS in titles that support Nvidia’s Multi-Frame Generation tech.
That said, the RTX 5090 isn’t as impressive of a jump in performance as the RTX 4090 was vs the RTX 3090. In our testing, the GPU is, on average, 27% faster than the RTX 4090. However, this 27% gain in performance comes with a significant increase in power consumption, as the RTX 5090 is rated at 575 W vs the RTX 4090’s 450 W.
This begs the question: What does the performance difference between the RTX 5090 and the RTX 4090 look like if both cards are normalized for power? Thankfully, ComputerBase has done the testing, and the results are quite interesting.
RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 at 450 W
According to ComputerBase, the RTX 5090 manages 17% more FPS on average vs RTX 4090 in rasterization workloads when both cards are limited to 450 W. So, the RTX 5090 suffers a performance regression of 8% when using 125 W less power.
This 17% performance bump at 450 W is also quite interesting, since the RTX 5090 packs 33% more CUDA cores than the RTX 4090. As such, one would expect the performance difference to be noticeably greater than the measured 17% when the RTX 5090’s power consumption advantage is removed. Granted, the lower GPU clocks of the RTX 5090 (113 MHz less) are undoubtedly negatively affecting the overall performance.
All things considered, it seems that Nvidia is brute-forcing its way to a decent lead for the RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090. However, this doesn’t fare well for the GPU’s efficiency, as the RTX 5090 appears to scale linearly with TDP (27% more performance for 28% more energy). For reference, the RTX 4090 has a >50% advantage vs RTX 3090 at a 29% higher TDP.
Source: https://www.notebookcheck.net/RTX-5090-vs-RTX-4090-tested-at-same-power-level-RTX-50-flagship-shows-efficiency-downgrade-vs-previous-gen.952084.0.html
