NVIDIA 4000 Series

Wintermute2 · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:36

Oh man, terrible news! Jonny Guru - history's greatest PSU reviewer - is now at Corsair and no longer does independent PSU reviews. Short of buying an oscilloscope and learning _a lot_ about PSU components and manufacturers, I don’t know how I’m going to pick a new PSU now.

Does anyone know of any independent reviewers that go to the same level of detail as Jonny?

Also, out of interest, does anyone think that an EVGA Supernova G3 850W (my current PSU) will handle a 4090FE, assuming I don’t overclock? I’m currently running a 5950x with 4 sticks of Flare X 3200 CL14, a Kraken X52 with Noctua NH14s instead of the stock fans and an additional 5x Noctua NH 14s in the case, as well as 3x PCIE4 M.2 drives, 2x SATA SSDs and a big old 7200rpm HDD. My gut says ‘yes’ but it’d be a bit close for comfort.

For those of you on the bleeding edge, what PSU are you using for custom loop cooled 7950x/13900K systems to accommodate a 4090 with the clocks pushed as high as they will go? Would a 1000w PSU provide enough headroom if – for example – Meteor Lake had a 300w+ TDP? Obviously, futureproofing is for idiots, but I haaaate having to upgrade my PSU…

MidKnight said:
Right, stupid question time! Why is it that 1440p is cpu bound but 4K isn’t?

Number of pixels dude.

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:47

Wintermute2 said:
Number of pixels dude.

Right but why isn’t 1440p also handled by the GPU, I mean if 4K (so 3840 x2160) isn’t CPU bound as the GPU is doing the heavy lifting why isn’t that the case with 1440p or am I misunderstanding something (high likely!)

Jay-G25 · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:50

MidKnight said:
Right but why isn’t 1440p also handled by the GPU, I mean if 4K (so 3840 x2160) isn’t CPU bound as the GPU is doing the heavy lifting why isn’t that the case with 1440p or am I misunderstanding something (high likely!)

at 1440p you will be producing so many frames that the cpu stuggles to keep up , ie gpu wants to send 600fps but cpu can only deal with a 300fps load so will be cpu bottlenecked .. the 4090 is so fast you can come across this issue at 4k as well so isn't exclusive to 1440p

Iron Man · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:53

Nice that the 4090 is giving me a good excuse to upgrade my cpu,mb and ram! This should be a beast with the 70xx3D

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:55

Jay-G25 said:
at 1440p you will be producing so many frames that the cpu stuggles to keep up , ie gpu wants to send 600fps but cpu can only deal with a 300fps load so will be cpu bottlenecked .. the 4090 is so fast you can come across this issue at 4k as well so isn't exclusive to 1440p

So really you need a 13th gen cpu (for example) to get the best from these cards (which would involve a new m’board too), that right?

Colonel_Klinck · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:55

MidKnight said:
Right but why isn’t 1440p also handled by the GPU, I mean if 4K (so 3840 x2160) isn’t CPU bound as the GPU is doing the heavy lifting why isn’t that the case with 1440p or am I misunderstanding something (high likely!)

At 4k the CPU isn't drawing any more frames but the GPU is haven't to deal with 4k worth of pixels. So lower resolutions take the work load off the GPU and back on to the CPU as the frame rates rise and it just can't keep up.

Colonel_Klinck · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:56

MidKnight said:
So really you need a 13th gen cpu (for example) to get the best from these cards (which would involve a new m’board too), that right?

What CPU do you have?

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:59

Colonel_Klinck said:
What CPU do you have?

Intel i9 14 Core Processor i9-10940X (3.3GHz) 19.25MB Cache

Jay-G25 · 19 Oct 2022 at 22:59

MidKnight said:
So really you need a 13th gen cpu (for example) to get the best from these cards (which would involve a new m’board too), that right?

Correct , to get the best out of a 4090 now you would need a 13900k setup so new CPU, Mb and Ram (£1000 +) you will still be ok with your current cpu just know it will be throttled at lower res. Also what resolution do you currently play at ?

Wintermute2 · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:00

MidKnight said:
Right but why isn’t 1440p also handled by the GPU, I mean if 4K (so 3840 x2160) isn’t CPU bound as the GPU is doing the heavy lifting why isn’t that the case with 1440p or am I misunderstanding something (high likely!)

All else equal, as you increase the number of pixels for a given level of GPU compute your frame rate will fall. CPU compute is used for workloads that are less dependent on the nubmer of pixels on screen (i.e. draw calls) so if you hold the CPU workload constant and reduce the number of pixels eventually you hit a point where the CPU is the bottleneck. In the example you're giving, it sounds like the CPU is the bottleneck at 1440p, and at 4k the GPU is the bottleneck. It depends a lot on the game you're playing though....and what the game is doing at the time...lots of 'all else equal' statements

jasonsony735 · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:02

I'm kinda in two minds about keeping my 4090 now because I got a higher score with my 3080 Card ! Can anyone explain why that is doesn't make sense to me

I scored 15 441 in Time Spy

Intel Core i7-8700K Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 x 1, 32768 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:03

Jay-G25 said:
Correct , to get the best out of a 4090 now you would need a 13900k setup so new CPU, Mb and Ram (£1000 +) you will still be ok with your current cpu just know it will be throttled at lower res. Also what resolution do you currently play at ?

i have been playing at 5120x1440 (ultra wide) but I have a new monitor which is native 4K (3840x2160)

Colonel_Klinck · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:04

MidKnight said:
Intel i9 14 Core Processor i9-10940X (3.3GHz) 19.25MB Cache

That's still a good CPU, I'd get the 4090 and see how it performs. What is the refresh rate of your monitor?

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:07

Colonel_Klinck said:
That's still a good CPU, I'd get the 4090 and see how it performs. What is the refresh rate of your monitor?

165Hz

Colonel_Klinck · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:09

MidKnight said:
i have been playing at 5120x1440 (ultra wide) but I have a new monitor which is native 4K (3840x2160)

In that case I wouldn't worry. You'll still be GPU bound but might lose a few frames over the 12900/13900k.

Jay-G25 · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:12

jasonsony735 said:
I'm kinda in two minds about keeping my 4090 now because I got a higher score with my 3080 Card ! Can anyone explain why that is doesn't make sense to me

I scored 15 441 in Time Spy

Intel Core i7-8700K Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 x 1, 32768 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say you are cpu bottlenecked in standard timespy , i am cpu bottlenecked with a 10900k @5.3Ghz let alone a stock 8700k :cry:

. Run Timespy extreme and report what your graphics score is compared to your 3080

MidKnight · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:12

Colonel_Klinck said:
In that case I wouldn't worry. You'll still be GPU bound but might lose a few frames over the 12900/13900k.

So therefore the 4090 would be a sizeable update over the 3090?

Jay-G25 · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:14

MidKnight said:
165Hz

Personally i think you will be fine if that is your 4k refresh rate , shouldn't be an issue for your CPU at 4K ( game dependent )

and yes a very big difference , if you can afford it go for it you will not be disappointed

jasonsony735 · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:14

Jay-G25 said:
going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say you are cpu bottlenecked in standard timespy , i am cpu bottlenecked with a 10900k @5.3Ghz let alone a stock 8700k . Run Timespy extreme and report what your graphics score is compared to your 3080

How do I run it in Extreme ?> I only have the free base one.

mof · 19 Oct 2022 at 23:14

jasonsony735 said:
I'm kinda in two minds about keeping my 4090 now because I got a higher score with my 3080 Card ! Can anyone explain why that is doesn't make sense to me

I scored 15 441 in Time Spy

Intel Core i7-8700K Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 x 1, 32768 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

Tried reinstalling drivers or using different ones?