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RuneSR2's avatar
RuneSR2
Grand Champion
11 months ago

NVIDIA Series 50: RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 (Ti) - 5090 and 5080 benchmark results (non-DLSS4)

Nvidia launches the new Series 50 on January 30 2025, see the introduction here:

 

Press release:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-blackwell-geforce-rtx-50-series-opens-new-world-of-ai-computer-graphics

 

- and Nvidia promises once again great performance:

 

Problem is that this performance primarily is achieved with DLSS4 - without DLSS4 support, the party is greatly reduced:

 

Very few VR games support DLSS - and if supported that's DLSS 2.0, like in MADiSON.

To me, DLSS4 is worthless - I only use VR, I never play 2D games. Also DLSS4 does not work with AMD's video cards thereby limiting adoption. 

No doubt the RTX 5090 will be faster in plain vanilla 2D or VR games than the 4090, but right now it's unknown how much. Also costing $2k, the 5090 is the most expensive card ever produced by Nvidia and targeted ordinary-ish consumers. The RTX 5080 at $1k may be the sweeter spot for many enthusiasts. 

RTX 5090 has 600 watts of power consumption, so easily the most power-hungry gpu so far - but again, we need to see the real benchmark numbers, which hopefully will arrive in a few weeks. 

Fun thing, I've been into these launches of new video card since the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics in 1996. That's close to 30 years now. My enthusiasm for new video cards has been much weakened, too high power consumption, too expensive (normally a high-end video card would be about $500),  tons of features I don't care about - and then the risk of VR compatibility issues. So never upgrade to a new video card, before Meta supports it - and that can take many months, if ever. Due to potential VR compatibility issues, I'm never an early adopter of new video cards. 2c. 

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  • RuneSR2's avatar
    RuneSR2
    Grand Champion
    9 months ago

    Not sure about the mental status of this dude, lol - he does trigger many alarms and red flags, but as long as he's not going to spend time alone with my kids or pilot my plane 🙂 He does however test his RTX 5090 with a Quest 3 and delivers quite a lot of VR benchmark results. Now, measuring fps in VR games is difficult and requires special equipment which I do not think this dude has - so take the measurements with a grain of salt and some pepper. Also remember that with vsync on, the RTX 4090 will be cut down to 45 fps, if the performance is in the range of 45 - 89 fps in 90 Hz, while the RTX 5090 will show 90 fps if performing at 90+ fps. So - in theory and just as an example - RTX 4090 at 89 fps will show 45 fps, while 5090 at 91 fps will show 90 fps. Babeltech used FCAT VR benchmark tool from Nvidia to get reliable measurements in VR, more here:

     https://babeltechreviews.com/oculus-rift-vr-benching-amd-vs-nvidia-part-2/

    Just be aware in the vid below that some big differences between 4090 and 5090 that can be exaggerated and might depend on the game and the rig.  That said, for now I have not come across better VR results comparing 4090 vs 5090:

     

    - and remember, other PCVR users do not look and talk like this dude! 😅

    The results from Red Matter 2 did seem strange to me - I played through the entire game in solid 80 fps using Index res 400% res, and he can't get more than 46 fps with the RTX 4090 and Quest 3 res 400%. Sure the Quest 3 has higher panel res than Index, but the RTX 4090 is about 70% faster than my RTX 3090. In Red Matter 2 res 400%, the RTX 5090 was close to 3 times faster than the RTX 4090, which did seem odd to me - of course it could be true, which would be amazing, but these results need to be reproduced by others - note the red circles I've added to the image below:

    PS. Seems the scalpers are having great times in Europe - no one does the limbo here 🤣

     

    • Norman3D's avatar
      Norman3D
      Expert Protege
      9 months ago

      Hi Rune,

      Red Matter 2 dev here. For the record, I’m fairly certain you tested RM2 back in the day when it still hadn’t received the latest graphical update with the most recent bells and whistles. That probably account for the difference.

      • RuneSR2's avatar
        RuneSR2
        Grand Champion
        9 months ago

        Thanks, and of course you could be right - but usually the 5090 is not 2.5 times (=150%) faster than the RTX 4090, and that difference seems very odd to me. 

        I was more wondering if the RTX 4090 could hit some ram limit with Quest 3 res 400% - where the 5090 could benefit from the 32GB. Running low on ram could explain the sudden massive slowdown of the RTX 4090. For the RM2 testing, the following config was used:

         

        GPUS: RTX 5090/4090

        CPU: 7950X3D

        RAM: 64GB 6000Mhz/CL30 DDR5 RAM

        Quest 3 with Virtual Desktop, Godlike: 6144x6432(400%) Per Eye

         

        That res translates into 79 million pixels per frame combining both eyes - so quite an insane res, more than 2 x 8k res. Also the Quest 3 was using 120 Hz. 

        Also results from Metro could indicate that the 4090 hits a wall even with 24GB vram:

        Here the 5090 is more than 3 times faster than the 4090 - extremely unusual results. But a lot of other variable could interfere. I'd love to see same test made with Index and other hmds not using streaming or VD. And I'd love to see other Quest 3 users verify these results made by one YouTuber, who does not seem to have much experience testing hardware. 

        Of course if the 32GB should make the above possible that would be a valid reason to get the 5090 - for those wanting to use such extreme resolutions, and that might be a very small minority. 2c.

        (Btw, if some thinks I'm joking about any game needing 32GB of vram, see how easily Alyx used nearly 20GB vram here with a Reverb G2 and RTX 3090 with 24GB vram as res increased - jump to 9:36 to see the 18.5GB vram use:

         

        Thus it's very likely that RTX 4090 may have hit a vram wall when extreme Quest 3 resolutions were used. ) 

  • RuneSR2's avatar
    RuneSR2
    Grand Champion
    9 months ago

    For those playing older 32-bit PhysX-enabled games, this may be an interesting read as this 32-bit support has been cut from RTX 50X0 cards. Can you believe an RTX 3050 beating the almighty RTX 5090? 🙂 See it here:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1iv2a4c/i_bought_a_3050_to_pair_with_my_5090_to_uncripple/

    These games seem to be affected:

    • Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia
    • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
    • Crazy Machines 2
    • Unreal Tournament 3
    • Warmonger: Operation Downtown Destruction
    • Hot Dance Party
    • QQ Dance
    • Hot Dance Party II
    • Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
    • Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
    • Mirror’s Edge
    • Armageddon Riders
    • Darkest of Days
    • Batman: Arkham Asylum
    • Sacred 2: Ice & Blood
    • Shattered Horizon
    • Star Trek DAC
    • Metro 2033
    • Dark Void
    • Blur
    • Mafia II
    • Hydrophobia: Prophecy
    • Jianxia 3
    • Alice: Madness Returns
    • MStar
    • Batman: Arkham City
    • 7554
    • Depth Hunter
    • Deep Black
    • Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage
    • The Secret World
    • Continent of the Ninth (C9)
    • Borderlands 2
    • Passion Leads Army
    • QQ Dance 2
    • Star Trek
    • Mars: War Logs
    • Metro: Last Light
    • Rise of the Triad
    • The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
    • Batman: Arkham Origins
    • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

    Source: https://www.pcguide.com/news/heres-every-game-affected-by-rtx-50-series-dropping-physx-32-bit-support/

    Not sure if any VR games are affected though. 

    And more issues have been found here:

    https://www.techpowerup.com/332884/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090-spotted-with-missing-rops-nvidia-confirms-the-issue-multiple-vendors-affected-rtx-5070-ti-too

    On Reddit, a few 5090s have been photographed catching fire. That happened with some 4090s at launch too. For now might be a good idea to wait a few months to see how everything gets fixed or not. Also seems all have to wait no matter what, as 5090s seem non-existent in shops currently. 

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1ivs34a/innocent_capacitor_blamed_for_asus_rtx_5090/

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1iv7277/my_5090_astral_caught_on_fire/

  • Hitmanhepp's avatar
    Hitmanhepp
    Expert Protege
    8 months ago

    Does anybody know if the 5090 works with the link cable? All the videos I've seen have been using virtual desktop 

    • TomCgcmfc's avatar
      TomCgcmfc
      MVP
      8 months ago
      Hitmanhepp wrote:

      Does anybody know if the 5090 works with the link cable? All the videos I've seen have been using virtual desktop 

      No reason that I can think why it wouldn't work with Link.  Very few VR YouTubers have a Quest/rtx5090 right now.  Those that do tend to also run dedicated displayport headsets so it's maybe easier for them to use VD.  Also, they all have affiliate links with VD, lol!

      I think, like me, you have a QPro/rtx4090.  Currently I don't see any compelling reasons to upgrade to a rtx5090.  I mainly use my QPro with Link for flight sims like msfs2020 and I get excellent results, esp. since dlss4 came out a month or two ago.  Might make some sense if I decided to buy a much higher res headset.

      I also have a Q3 that I mainly use for everything else; standalone VR/MR and wireless PCVR with Air Link.  I set my Q3 PCVR device graphics to 80z refresh rate and the res slider full right (same with my QPro) and have never found any non-flight sim apps that my current rtx4090 can't handle.

      When I upgraded my PC from a rtx3090/i99900k/32Gb 3200ram/z390mb (which I ended up selling to a friend) to a rtx4090/i913900k/32Gb 6400ram/z790mb +2 years ago it gave me a very nice performance boost (+50%).  I don't know for sure but I doubt that slipping a rtx5090 is going to give me more than ~25% improvement.  So, my current plan is to skip the rtx5000 series and wait a couple more years for the rtx6000 series, and then also look at newer/faster cpu's and ram.

      • Hitmanhepp's avatar
        Hitmanhepp
        Expert Protege
        8 months ago

        Yep, currently using a QPro/RTX 4090. It's currently impossible for me to get a 5090 but I think I will get one once they become available. I play DCS world as well as MSFS and while I don't think I'd see much of an improvement on MSFS (I run it at 40fps with ASW) I think with DCS I'd be able to keep 80fps the vast majority of the time. Currently with DCS there's a few situations when flying low over cities that ASW kicks in, I reckon a 5090 might just be enough to prevent that. Provided it works with meta link software...