Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Review: Fast and Dumb

[waclark]

I will never call a product "dumb".
That's for the free market to decide. If the product is good enough, the market will bear it and people will buy it. If it isn't, people won't buy it and the makers will be forced to either reduce prices, discontinue the product, or rethink their strategy (or all of the above).

The people who want it and have the money, will just buy it.

Personally, I think you're better off waiting for the 4000 series, but for those people who need a card and want it now - or specifically saved up in wait for this card, it's here, it's $300 more than I paid for my non-Ti and it's the most powerful card on the market full stop.

I only have one problem with these new RTX cards. They are gigantic. I could care less about power consumption or heat dissipation. My only issue is they require a larger case and you'd have to rebuild your entire system to accommodate them.

Going forward, if you're building a machine, make sure you spring for a 1000W PSU

I will not buy another card this size - I demand there be a 2 slot maximum with an AIO liquid cooler.

At this price, the 3090 Kingpin is the only true competitor

Agreed. I know many of these blogs have a gamer focus. They fail to realize there are people, and companies, in the world that need high performance graphics and computing. What may be "dumb" for a home user isn't dumb for an engineering firm that does 3D design and analysis.

 

[Aaron Fox]

No this is still wrong. Not to sound like a complete wanker but I can comfortably buy multiple 3090 Ti's per week and not bat an eyelid, doesn't mean I'd ever buy one because I'm not a dope with my money.

"For those people Having the best is worth more to them than $2000"

You're right, some people are extremely shallow and try to find meaning in owning the best. Doesn't make those products any less silly and pointless though.

GPUs lose status so quickly, too. The shortage has slowed that quite a bit but it's generally a very rapid depreciation.

It's one thing to buy something wildly overpriced that is going to hold its status value. That makes it less 'wildly overpriced' than it would seem, at least to the special club who can afford it and who can afford to care. The extremely expensive Chanel handbag may hold its value for a long time. I don't know as I don't inhabit that universe.

Computer parts so quickly get replaced that the thrill of having the best is going to be strongly tainted by the misery of knowing the part is not only going to be so rapidly obsolete but there are better things in enterprise (even if they're possible but not being produced) that will never trickle down, making the part even less exciting.

Wafer-scale chips are an example. How can anyone get all that excited about a minuscule humdrum consumer GPU or CPU chip when the tech exists right now to give someone an entire wafer that's a chip. Imagine the POWER!

(Of course, it will use a lot of power, too.) Maybe, though, we can really begin to enjoy unoptimized games running full quality settings (raytracing included) on the pointless 8K (pointless because human visual acuity gets no benefit from that resolution at normal viewing distances for gaming) with wafer-scale GPUs? It will only take a small power plant to do it and a few extra millions for the hardware. Some of the rich can perhaps put aside the bigger yacht and larger private golf course on their islands.

But even wafer-scale stuff will become rapidly obsolete — should wafer-scale solutions become part of the enthusiast consumer PC gaming paradigm. Yachts and golf courses don't change as much, as with Rolex watches.

 

[Strawman]

If the 3090ti existed back when I bought my 3090 then I would have bought the ti instead. I dont understand the comments about dumb people...

 

[lightzout]

The RTX 3090 Ti is an overclocked 3090 with a ludicrously high power rating of 450 watts, a ~30% increase over the original. Is that dumb? Surely sounds like it, but to be sure let's go over the benchmarks.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2442-geforce-rtx-3090-ti/

Fast and Dumb is being too kind. The GPU industry is awash in money from crypto, killing the air and water we depend on and still raising prices while while useless garbage like this. For shame, This is obscene and ignorant.

 

[lightzout]

GPUs lose status so quickly, too. The shortage has slowed that quite a bit but it's generally a very rapid depreciation.

It's one thing to buy something wildly overpriced that is going to hold its status value. That makes it less 'wildly overpriced' than it would seem, at least to the special club who can afford it and who can afford to care. The extremely expensive Chanel handbag may hold its value for a long time. I don't know as I don't inhabit that universe.

Computer parts so quickly get replaced that the thrill of having the best is going to be strongly tainted by the misery of knowing the part is not only going to be so rapidly obsolete but there are better things in enterprise (even if they're possible but not being produced) that will never trickle down, making the part even less exciting.

Wafer-scale chips are an example. How can anyone get all that excited about a minuscule humdrum consumer GPU or CPU chip when the tech exists right now to give someone an entire wafer that's a chip. Imagine the POWER!

(Of course, it will use a lot of power, too.) Maybe, though, we can really begin to enjoy unoptimized games running full quality settings (raytracing included) on the pointless 8K (pointless because human visual acuity gets no benefit from that resolution at normal viewing distances for gaming) with wafer-scale GPUs? It will only take a small power plant to do it and a few extra millions for the hardware. Some of the rich can perhaps put aside the bigger yacht and larger private golf course on their islands.

But even wafer-scale stuff will become rapidly obsolete — should wafer-scale solutions become part of the enthusiast consumer PC gaming paradigm. Yachts and golf courses don't change as much, as with Rolex watches.

The graphics card sector has been "pre-selling" technology in its hardware to be unlocked or utilized later but that is not whats happening here. This is just rooster stroking consumers.

 

[Shirley Dulcey]

It's a bragging rights card. Not the first, won't be the last. Unless you're willing to pay a large premium to have the fastest graphics card on the block, there isn't much point to buying one.

 

[kiwigraeme]

If the 3090ti existed back when I bought my 3090 then I would have bought the ti instead. I dont understand the comments about dumb people...

I think it's not so much dumb people - as dumb product - it's not really dumb - it will sell- but unless you need one today - then if you are not rich and want the best - buy the RTX 4090 - it will smoke this in fps and ray tracing - have hardware support for newer codecs etc . Buying a year ago would be find .
For NVidia it probably serves multiple purposes - bragging , income, testing market for higher power - or conditioning market - plus lots of other reasons .

ie buy a 3090TI now and see a 4090 be 50% plus faster in September - for the few games who really need the speed

 

[Strawman]

I think it's not so much dumb people - as dumb product - it's not really dumb - it will sell- but unless you need one today - then if you are not rich and want the best - buy the RTX 4090 - it will smoke this in fps and ray tracing - have hardware support for newer codecs etc . Buying a year ago would be find .
For NVidia it probably serves multiple purposes - bragging , income, testing market for higher power - or conditioning market - plus lots of other reasons .

ie buy a 3090TI now and see a 4090 be 50% plus faster in September - for the few games who really need the speed

Well yeah, it's a late release, no arguments there, but the thing is it doesn't make sense to buy any other card either right now. Don't think a 3080 or a 3080ti is a smart buy when the 4xxx are right around the corner - assuming they will release before - around September

 

[kiwigraeme]

Well yeah, it's a late release, no arguments there, but the thing is it doesn't make sense to buy any other card either right now. Don't think a 3080 or a 3080ti is a smart buy when the 4xxx are right around the corner - assuming they will release before - around September

I gave some thought to this - If you need a card now then if you could get a 3080 for around msrp of $700 then it's a pretty good buy for many people . It's a great card - you can play now - you can go into the lottery for a founders edition - for many people with 1440 monitor it's super fine.
No knowing mark ups -delays of coming stuff
Plus great if gaming household - as could use as secondary PC . Plus it will have a high resale value .Unlike say a topline TV .
In my country - we get a reasonable amount of stock - Early orders can go into a queue .
A 3090ti owner wants the best - so kind of silly - a 3080 wants a great card - they get a great card .
Things are changing much faster a RTX1080ti owner got a great card for along time .
I have that dilemma in the TV space - super great TVs coming this year etc - yet prices are dropping and tech and sizes will be better following year .
I just going to see the QD-OLEDS in person - if I'm really impressed - I'll wait another year to get a 77" or 83" model - as they will come and the tech will be understood more - plus TCL/JOLED will have massive 3D printed ones in a few years - I have the option of gifting to family - so doesn't really matter

 

[Badvok]

In light of the news that AMD GPU drivers are automatically overclocking AMD CPUs, are you guys going to re-test so we can actually see like-for-like comparisons? Perhaps using an Intel platform would be preferable.

 

[Usukosej]

Well yeah, it's a late release, no arguments there, but the thing is it doesn't make sense to buy any other card either right now. Don't think a 3080 or a 3080ti is a smart buy when the 4xxx are right around the corner - assuming they will release before - around September

Does it not make sense to buy any other card if you NEED a card right now. I'd say yes. I would much rather get a 3060Ti/3070/6800 and replace it with a 4070/4080 in 6-9-12 months than buying a 3090 Ti for 2000+ dollars today that is for sure

 

[Strawman]

Does it not make sense to buy any other card if you NEED a card right now. I'd say yes. I would much rather get a 3060Ti/3070/6800 and replace it with a 4070/4080 in 6-9-12 months than buying a 3090 Ti for 2000+ dollars today that is for sure

So youd never be the target group of the 3090 / 3090ti/4090 ever, your opinion doesn't count.

 

[Usukosej]

So youd never be the target group of the 3090 / 3090ti/4090 ever, your opinion doesn't count.

Maybe not, but I have a 3080 Ti.

Who would buy a 3090 Ti if they knew 4080/4090 will come in 6 months, pretty much no-one I'd say.

I buy stuff when it's considered "new" not when it's about to be replaced by a new generation.

Bought 3080 on release for MSRP, sold it for 1500 dollars and picked up 3080 Ti for 1500 dollars. I essentially paid 699 for my 3080 Ti. Unbeatable value and within 2% of 3090 performance

 

[toooooot]

It is hard for me to be excited about this video card. Hard because of outrages prices, and the fact that 4000 series are coming soon.
I do not recommend buying anything 3000 now.
If you have something decent, skip 3090ti or any 3000 card.

 

[Tom Sunday]

Unless you're willing to pay a large premium to have the fastest graphics card on the block, there isn't much point to buying one.

Greetings from Stehekin, WA. Small town USA. I am still plugging along on my hoppled together 2008 Dell 730x and with a 2015 used Geforce 980ti. Still being fully able even today in playing all of my games and AAA titles. I would hope in getting a good 10-years out of my 980ti. Meanwhile people here are talking upgrading their GPU only after 2-3 years? Perhaps there must be something wrong in my thinking?

 

[Aaron Fox]

I would hope in getting a good 10-years out of my 980ti.

AMD was selling Fiji cards to buyers in 2017 and discontinued driver support last July. So, that was about 4 years of support for those customers.

Absolutely disgraceful, especially during the worst GPU shortage in history, with the pending arrival of Windows 11, and with the later release of a 4 GB card that is slower.

 

[loki1944]

They must have confidence in a segment of the market for whom money comes before sense.

 

[HardReset]

AMD was selling Fiji cards to buyers in 2017 and discontinued driver support last July. So, that was about 4 years of support for those customers.

Absolutely disgraceful, especially during the worst GPU shortage in history, with the pending arrival of Windows 11, and with the later release of a 4 GB card that is slower.

Fiji was marginal product and has only 4GB memory. Additionally AMD does not actually discontinue drivers support. They just stopped developing new features for those cards. What that basically means is that Fiji won't officially support FSR. At this point, nothing else. Like it or not, that makes sense.

And yeah btw, Nvidia does not support DLSS until RTX 2000 series. Other than that, I can't really see what kind of support Nvidia will give for Kepler/Maxwell. Probably nothing. Again, fanboys yell for nothing.

 

[hahahanoobs]

$700 Mac wheels.
$1000 Mac stand.

The 3090 Ti is dumb to buy, but it isn't a dumb product.

 

[scavengerspc]

My niece just picked up an MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6900 XT for $1050 so, I'll leave it at that.