NVIDIA has finally launched the RTX 3090 Ti after months upon months of rumors. But is it worth it?
nvidia rtx 3090 ti
Releasing at an MSRP of $1999, the 3090 Ti features NVIDIA's GA102 GPU. In short, it is a die with none of the compromises featured in the previously released RTX 3090. According to WCCFTech, the card caters to three major markets: "ultimate gamers," professional content creators, and even data scientists who need uncompromising hardware performance for their work.
NVIDIA packed the RTX 3090 Ti with as much memory (24GB) as the base 3090, but it features 10,752 CUDA cores, 84 SM units, more tensor cores, and RT cores which are stated to be "1.7x faster" than the base 3090. In short, this card will be an absolute beast even with ray tracing turned on full blast at resolutions beyond 4K.
But to get this card on your rig, you need to make sure that your computer's power supply is up to snuff. Team Green states that the RTX 3090 Ti consumes an insane 100 watts more than the base 3090, which is already a power-hungry beast in its own right. This constitutes a massive 450W TDP that a 1000W PSU can only sate.
NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti Reviews: Not Too Good
Perhaps those who have been following NVIDIA during the RTX 3000 generation saw this coming from a mile away. Owing to Team Green's relatively terrible decision-making for this generation, reviews of the 3090 Ti are not that good, even if the card is extremely powerful.
Most reviews criticize the card's insane MSRP of $1999 (notwithstanding the card's current street pricing, which we'll get to in a moment). Combine this with the card's performance relative to the 3090, and reviewers see a lot of problems, including YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed:
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In their review, Hardware Unboxed considered the 3090 Ti as just another attempt by NVIDIA to "milk buyers' wallets." This was evident in their testing, which showed that the 3090 Ti's performance uplift from the base 3090 was almost negligible-averaging less than 5 FPS.
In terms of MSRP, you'll be paying $500 more for a 3090 Ti for basically the performance of an overclocked RTX 3090. As such, this makes the 3090 Ti a not-so-good value (some may even say it is a terrible value).
Equally Insane Street Prices
Now, here's the not-so-fun part: how much does the 3090 Ti cost in the wild? NVIDIA's MSRP is set at $1999, which is already crazy in its own right. But if you check on a site like eBay, you'll be met with even more insane scalper pricing, making you question reality itself.
Some eBay listings for the 3090 Ti reach as high as $3650 for a single card, with the "cheapest" at around $3495. That's almost two months' worth of rent and represents horrible value, considering you can get almost the same performance from a much cheaper (but still prohibitively expensive) base RTX 3090.
Good luck with your wallet and power bill if you decide to buy this.
Related: Graphics Card Names EXPLAINED: What Is GTX, RTX, Etc...
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
