ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix 24GB GDDR6X

A 38,098 PassMark G3D score and 99th percentile ray tracing make this the fastest gaming card in our database. But it pulls 450W, needs a 1,000W PSU, and takes up 3.5 slots. Shop carefully, the USD 1,324 price spread between listings is pure markup.

Let's talk numbers. The 32.98 FP32 TFLOPS of compute puts this card in the 95th percentile for raw compute, and the 24GB of GDDR6X with 576 GB/s of memory bandwidth means you won't be texture-starved at 4K. Ray tracing is where this thing really flexes, sitting at the 99th percentile. That's not just top of the charts, that's the chart. The 76 RT cores and 304 Tensor cores chew through DLSS workloads like they're nothing, and AV1 encoding is a nice bonus if you stream or record.

Thermals are also a standout at the 92nd percentile. The triple-fan Axial-tech setup with the vapor chamber keeps this card from turning your case into a toaster, though it does take up 3.5 slots to do it. Connectivity is more middle-of-the-road at the 79th percentile, with 3 DisplayPort 1.4a and 2 HDMI 2.1 outputs. Fine for most setups, but not exactly generous for a card at this price.

Against the Gigabyte AERO GV-N5080AERO OC-16GD and the ZOTAC APOCALYPSE RTX 5080 APOCALYPSE OC, the Strix 4090 still wins on raw raster and ray tracing, but the gap isn't as wide as the price suggests. The 5080 cards are newer architecture with better efficiency, and the MSI Ventus RTX 5070 Ti 16G VENTUS 3X PZ OC gets you close in gaming at a fraction of the cost. The Sapphire NITRO+ 11322-01-40G is a different beast entirely, but if you're cross-shopping, the 4090's 24GB of VRAM is the main thing the 16GB competitors can't match. For pure 4K gaming with ray tracing maxed, the Strix still holds the crown, but you're paying flagship money for a card that's no longer the only game in town.

Here's where it gets tricky. Prices across US listings swing from USD 3,775 to USD 5,099, a spread of USD 1,324 for the exact same card. That's not a typo. If you're shopping, the lower end of that range is the only number worth considering, and even then you're paying a hefty premium over the competition. The 43rd percentile efficiency score means you're also paying more on your power bill every month. This is a halo product, and the price reflects that, but the gap between the cheapest and most expensive listing is pure retailer markup, not performance.

The ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 posts a PassMark G3D score of 38,098, which lands it in the 99th percentile for ray tracing and 97th for raw raster performance in our database. That's the kind of number that makes everything else on the shelf look like it showed up to the wrong race. You're getting 16,384 CUDA cores, 24GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, and a 2,550MHz boost clock, all wrapped in a 3.5-slot cooler that ASUS claims pushes 23% more airflow than the previous design.

But here's the thing: this card is a monster in every sense of the word. It's 358mm long, pulls 450W at stock, and ASUS recommends a 1,000W power supply. The 16-pin connector is non-negotiable. If your case is small or your PSU is anything less than beefy, you're going to have a bad time before you even install the drivers.

Skip this if your PSU is under 1,000W, your case can't fit a 358mm 3.5-slot card, or you care about efficiency. The 43rd percentile efficiency score means you're paying a premium for power you might not need. If you're gaming at 1440p or don't need maxed ray tracing, the RTX 5080 or 5070 Ti will get you 90% of the experience for a lot less money and a lot less heat.

The ROG Strix RTX 4090 is still the fastest gaming GPU we've tested in terms of raw ray tracing and 4K performance, and the 99th percentile RT score backs that up. But the 43rd percentile efficiency and the 1,000W PSU requirement are real costs that don't show up on the spec sheet. If you want the absolute best and have the case, the PSU, and the budget, this is it. Just don't pay USD 5,099 when the same card is listed at USD 3,775 elsewhere.