Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Graphics Card Review

The RTX 4090 is here, and as you’re probably aware, it’s pretty damn amazing, offering up one of the biggest generational leaps that we’ve seen for a very very long time and therefore allows NVIDIA to keep hold of the crown as having the most powerful GPU on the planet right now, and with a ton of AIB cards on the market, I wanted to drill down into the Gigabyte Gaming OC model. Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC When looking for a new GPU, you often get a ton of choices from various brands, and then various models from that particular brand, and normally with Gigabyte we’d see an Eagle, Eagle OC, Gaming OC, and Master models, and at the time of filming this, it seems like with the RTX 4090, Gigabyte are actually releasing around 11 models in total from Windforce, all the way up to the AORUS XTREME Waterforce model with the gaming OC sitting comfortably in the middle, and that’s why I’ve always liked the Gaming OC model. It offers up that happy middle ground of features, design, performance, thermals and acoustics, without breaking the bank too much over what would typically be an MSRP-based card. Features NVIDIA Ada Lovelace Streaming Multiprocessors: Up to 2x performance and power efficiency4th Generation Tensor Cores: Up to 2X AI performance3rd Generation RT Cores: Up to 2X ray tracing performancePowered by GeForce RTX 4090Integrated with 24GB GDDR6X 384-bit memory interfaceWINDFORCE cooling systemRGB FusionDual BIOSProtection metal back plateAnti-sag bracket4 Years Warranty (Online registration required) For in-depth features and specifications, please visit the official product page here. A Focus on 4K For our testing, due to the nature of the card being so high-end, we’re going to focus on 4K testing and we’ve tested 30 games in total, so a lot more than our original launch day coverage which we’ll cover when we look at the overall averages, which we’ll also cover and have data at 1080p and 1440p for overall averages as well, so there’s a lot of data to go through and whilst we’ll show as much as we can here today, the rest of that testing data will be put live for our Patreon members to look at, so definitely be sure to sign up and check that out for a better understanding. What Gigabyte Had To Say Ultra Durable certified highest-grade metal chokes, lower ESR solid capacitors, 2oz copper PCB, and lower RDS(on) MOSFETs, plus over-temperature design to deliver superior performance and longer system life. A fully automated production process ensures top quality of the circuit boards and eliminates sharp protrusions of the solder connectors seen on the conventional PCB surface. This friendly design prevents your hands from getting cut or inadvertently damaging components when making your build. We want you to experience the best service you have ever had. This is why, on top of our standard 3-year warranty, we would like to offer you an additional 1 year of protection to your graphics card free of charge. You can enjoy a 4-year warranty by registering on the website within 30 days of purchase." Video If you want to see our full video going through this, you can do so below. Packaging & Accessories The box hasn't changed much since the last generation of cards, albeit, I'm sure you hope to see this box on Christmas day, but are you on the naughty list? I do love that Gigabyte still does those classic PC gaming robot designs, a lot of brands have gone for more boring boxes, but Gigabyte boxes still look a bit more old-school cool to my eyes. You can see we have the Gaming OC 24G model, and that it's the RTX 4090. Around the back, it's straight to the facts, with details of their cooling system, backplate, and RGB. It's everything I want to know at a glance, and all easy to understand. A Closer Look So the first thing you’ll notice with the RTX 4090 Gaming OC is that it has the essence of what we’d expect with a few small tweaks on the design, now with larger fans, when compared to the previous generation, and what feels like a slightly more plasticy feeling to it. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s a pre-production model, but the 3090 Ti Gaming OC that I have here just feels a bit better in terms of the plastic used. Beyond that though, the key thing, like all 4090 models, is that the Gigabyte card is a beast in terms of size. I mean, it’s a chunky boy coming in at 340mm long, 165mm high and 75mm thick so the cooler protrudes beyond the triple slot design while the IO is actually only a dual slot. The other key noticeable thing is that it weighs a lot at 2285 grams but with any heavy product, it makes it feel more solid. I just wish there was maybe some metal on the shroud, but I guess that’s what allows Gigabyte to potentially upsell customers to a Master or Extreme-based card, so I still feel like you get a decent value for money prospect with the card even though it is now coming in at $1699, which is $100 over what the Founders Edition comes in at. Now, I mentioned that the fans are larger coming in at around 110mm, and do include a different rotation on the middle fan compared to the two end ones to provide the very best cooling capability. There is a lot more RGB on the 4090 than I would have expected, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, around the fans, as it can always be turned off, but what’s interesting is that it can be quite distracting by default and ramps up based on the fan speed, which is nice, but isn’t exactly subtle, but again, having the ability to change it or turn it off within the Gigabyte RGB Fusion software, kind of negates this. Around the back, we find a full-length backplate, with a large cutout for heat to dissipate from the extremely large finned heatsink. It all feels very solid, but I’m not entirely sold on the colour scheme. It’s not the first time Gigabyte has used this colour which is kind of blue/green, but with the front of the card being black, it just feels a bit mismatched. Other than that, there’s some large Gigabyte and GEFORCE RTX branding, which isn’t too over the top or in your face. The only other branding on the whole card is on the top with another GEFORCE RTX branded wording and the Gigabyte RGB logo, which again, can be controlled through software, but I don’t mind this, as it’s pretty typical of what we’ve come to expect from Gigabyte Gaming OC cards over the years. Also on the top is where we’ll find our 16-pin power connector with those 4 sense pins, and yes Gigabyte does include a 4 x 8-pin to 16-pin adapter cable, which won’t melt, and if you have any fears on that, I suggest you watch our video with JonnyGURU that goes through it in a lot more detail. It’s also worth noting that due to the power limit of 450 watts on this card, you can run the adapter just using three of the four connectors, with no issue, and the fourth is more for cards that surpass the spec set out by NVIDIA. Next to this is a OC/Silent BIOS switch to flip between the two BIOS modes depending on your use case and for all of our testing, we of course used the OC mode to maximise performance as we’d expect any keen gamer to do so. The end of the card sees both the front and the backplate merge into each other, which again, just looks a bit off due to the colouring to me, but does show us mounting holes for a support rail. On the opposite end, with the IO, as mentioned, it will take up two physical slots in your case, though the card protrudes much closer to 4 slots due to the large cooler. On the IO, we have some ventilation along with 3 DisplayPort 1.4a ports, and a single HDMI 2.1a port, which is the same as what we saw on the Ampere-based cards. A Closer Look - Tear Down Taking the cooler apart and taking a closer look, it’s a pretty standard affair. We have quite a large shroud that wraps around the heatsink, and has connections for the three fans, along with the RGB rings, and a separate connector for the RGB Gigabyte logo on top of the plastic shroud. Moving onto the heatsink, it's a thick boy and I think at this point, is the largest I’ve seen on any Gaming OC card, and is the main reason why the RTX 4090 is so thick. Though I’ve only had two RTX 4090’s in my possession, it’s safe to say that all 4090’s have large coolers, so it’s not like the Gaming OC is overly large when compared to the competition though I am eager to see how it compares to other higher-end models within Gigabyte’s lineup, like the Master version as you’d like to think they would have superior cooling solutions. The heatsink itself is made up of as many fins as they could fit in and comprises a vapour chamber and heatpipe design. Due to this, it’s actually split into two large areas which are separated between the ten copper heatpipes though only 8 of them stem from side to side, while 2 actually loop back into the area around the copper plate that will cool the GPU core. While the plate for the GPU is copper, the other surrounding cooling components look to be made from aluminium, including the various pieces of metal that will aid in keeping the memory and VRMs under control. The backplate also appears to be made from aluminium and isn’t the thickest I’ve ever seen, but it’s welcomed either way as it will help in reducing sag by giving some strength to the PCB itself and will assist in cooling as well and that’s evident from the thermal pads that sit between the backplate and the PCB itself to help the transfer of heat. There are a few cutouts, which seem like they serve no purpose other than for aesthetics, apart from the large cutout that I touched on earlier to help with the airflow. The PCB is actually quite a bit smaller than what you’d expect at 230mm long and 140mm in height, and straight away you’ll see that the PCB itself is jam-packed full of components. Around the CPU core, we find our Micron branded GDDR6X memory chips, of which NVIDIA has clearly learnt the error of their ways with all of them being on the front of the card. On both sides, there are a ton of power stages. 20 in fact to handle the GPU voltage while there are another four, one in each corner to help manage memory voltage so slightly up on the three-phase design on the Founders Edition 4090 from NVIDIA.. At the top right of the PCB, we see our 16-pin power connector, which as we know is rated for up to 600 watts of power draw and scattered around the board are various connectors for the triple fan cooler. For the specs of the card, Gigabyte has kept them the same as the NVIDIA Founders Edition, which doesn’t make complete sense to me as it’s called the gaming OC but in theory should be able to boost for longer due to the cooling being much bigger and beefier than what’s on the Founders Edition. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (GPU) Motherboard ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus HeroBIOS Version 1720 Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K Review Buy Now GPU Changes Per Review RAM Patriot Viper Venom 32GB (2x16GB) 6200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers AMD Graphics: 22.10.1NVIDIA Graphics: 521.90 Additional Hardware Nvidia PCAT Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. Assassin's Creed ValhallaCall Of Duty WarzoneControlCyberpunk 2077Dying Light 2F1 22Far Cry 6FortniteForza Horizon 5Horizon Zero DawnMarvel's Spider-Man RemasteredMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020Red Dead Redemption 2Shadow Of The Tomb RaiderWatch Dogs: Legion Resolutions 1080 (Full HD)14404K Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle, we now have the ability thanks to the ElmorLabs PMD-USB device that allows us to measure power draw directly through the EPS power connectors. We test at idle, during gaming load, of which we measure drawing a run of Cyberpunk 2077 and during Cinebench R23 at load too. Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too. Call Of Duty Warzone Warzone is the second main battle royale instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, following the "Blackout" mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018). Warzone differs from Black Ops 4 by reducing reliance on equipable gadgets and instead encouraging the accumulation of a new in-game currency called Cash. Available now on CallofDuty.com. So starting things off with some with Call Of Duty Warzone where we see a large 49% uplift in performance from the Ampere flagship 3090 Ti in the average FPS with a smaller, but still impressive 35% increase in the 1% lows. When comparing to the 6950 XT from AMD, there’s still a sizeable increase in performance for the 4090 of around 37% while the 1% low sits around 24% higher on the new Ada Lovelace GPU. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. It would be rude not to discuss Cyberpunk, and the fact that the RTX 4090 can run it, on ultra settings at 4K at a whopping 76 frames per second which is a huge 41% uplift compared to the 3090 Ti Gaming OC and a 68% performance improvement over the 6950 XT, making AMD look pretty terrible in comparison. Death Stranding From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes a genre-defying experience, now expanded in this definitive DIRECTOR’S CUT. As Sam Bridges, your mission is to deliver hope to humanity by connecting the last survivors of a decimated America. Can you reunite the shattered world, one step at a time? Available now on Steam. In Death Stranding at 4K, we see a similar story with the RTX 4090 Gaming OC sitting 37% ahead of the 3090 Ti, and with the 6950 XT from Sapphire ahead of the 3090 Ti, but still nowhere near the new NVIDIA 4090. Watch Dogs: Legion Build a resistance from virtually anyone you see as you hack, infiltrate, and fight to take back a near-future London that is facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. Recruit and play as anyone in the city. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set. Hack armed drones, deploy spider-bots and take down enemies using an Augmented Reality Cloak. Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities. Take your recruits online and team up with your friends as you complete missions and challenging endgame content. Available now on UPlay. Lastly, we see the RTX 4090 Gaming OC, again with a huge leap in performance over the 3090 Ti, by around 53% and an even stronger lead of 63% over the 6950 XT with the 1% lows suffering even more as the 4090 storms ahead of the 6950 XT by 77%. Overall Game Average FPS Testing a variety of games allows you to see how a particular piece of hardware performs in that title, but with the ability to look at overall game averages and how they perform across all titles, we can extrapolate the positioning of that hardware compared to similar hardware on the market. What is interesting is to look at the overall averages across the 30 games we’ve tested, starting with 1080p where we see a decent 7% uplift in performance over the 6950XT from Sapphire, which is nice to see, but it’s much less than what you’d expect, and that all comes down to the fact that the 4090 is such a powerful card, that it simply gets bottlenecked at 1080p. Moving up to 1440p and we can see that performance gap getting larger with a 21% performance improvement over the 6950XT, but is still being limited by our processor, even at this resolution. Then finally at 4K we see the sheer performance of the Gigabyte RTX 4090 with an uplift of 42% over the 3090 Ti and a larger 47% gain over the Radeon 6950 XT with the most interesting thing being the 1% lows that are around the same as the averages of both the 3090 ti and the 6950 XT. That’s some serious performance! Power Consumption Power consumption is measured at idle, during a Cinebench R23 run and during a gaming benchmark run of Cyberpunk 2077, which is a very CPU intensive game. By getting 3 performance metrics, it allows us to see a better picture of the average user and what they are typically going to see in terms of power draw for just the processor itself. Now the big one, and with all the talk of power before the launch being blown entirely out of proportion, we actually see the RTX 4090 Gaming OC using around 14% less power overall when compared to the 3090 Ti, so I guess that kind of shocked everyone. Temperatures Thermals are a key point to any GPU, as it allows it to boost for a prolonged amount of time and depending on the task that's being performed, thermals can be either higher or lower.. Lower temperatures in gameplay are a good indication we can overclock the card more. Higher temperatures mean the graphics cards are likely not hitting their peak boost clocks long enough and may need more cooling or even underclocking. Now with the RTX 30 series being quite warm, especially the RTX 3090 which seemed to struggle with heat more due to the design choice of memory placement, we have to talk about heat and to be fair, the Gaming OC does a pretty impressive job. We know that it has a lot more power in terms of physicality, and in terms of performance, but only manages to get around 2% warmer than the RTX 3090 Ti, so I’ll chalk that up as a big win. Acoustics The acoustic performance of a graphics card is very important, it's one thing for a graphics card to do a great job rendering your game, but if it sounds like a jet engine while it does it, it may detract from the gaming experience. Ideally, we're looking for lower noise here, while still delivering great cooling performance. Lower noise levels mean there's still overhead to push the cool harder while overclocking. More performance, and less heat, but along with temperatures, we have to talk about acoustics, and again, it’s pretty decent. At 45.2 decibels during gaming, it’s the loudest card we tested, but it’s only less than 1 decibel more than the 3090 Ti Gaming OC, which I never found to be overly loud anyway. As you’d expect, during idle desktop work, the fans will completely shut off, and I’d assume that during gaming, you’d have headphones on, so it kind of becomes a bit of a moot point. How Much Does It Cost? So the Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC. From our extensive testing, it’s definitely a huge contender and just from some of the Facebook groups and our own Discord chatter that I’ve seen, a lot of people have decided to plump for this particular model. I know some people were dead set on it, while others resorted to it after seeing the price of some of the more exotic models from MSI and ASUS, and not wanting to spend the extra, went for this, and that’s fine because the Gaming OC has always been a product that aims for those target customers. Gigabyte knows that it’s not the best on the market, and sometimes it is a little rough around the edges, but that’s ok because it’s generally reflected in the price. You can check for up-to-date stock and prices on Amazon US and UK here. Overview Obviously, I would have loved to have compared this to the Founders Edition from NVIDIA, but they didn't send us one, so feel free to rant about that in the comments section or on Twitter, not that I think they’d listen anyway, but with the same clock speed, it really comes down to the cooler, and if you think it’s worth the extra $100, and more importantly, because of how quickly all cards have gone out of stock, what you can get hold of at the time. Aesthetics Obviously with the Gaming OC compared to the likes of an FE card, you do get a decent amount of RGB, which while it doesn’t add any extra performance, it may help it tie in better with the rest of your system, compared to a Founders card which I have to admit, looks a lot more “business-like” and less “gamer”, but really that comes down to personal preference. A Worthy Investment? So, all in all, I think if you bought any RTX 4090 right now, apart from the big hole that it would leave in your wallet, you won’t be disappointed in the performance, and the Gaming OC will just improve on that ever so slightly. I think most of the Gaming OC comes down to personal preference with the style, or if you’re faced with it being the model that’s most readily available, then maybe you won’t have much of a choice, but even then, it’s not like it’s a bad choice. What's Next? Hopefully, Gigabyte will send us their Master or Waterblocked versions in the future, and we can do some fun comparisons there, especially with looking at value for money. We are also expecting some other models to come through from other brands, including getting the MSI Suprim X model back, and some other cool models from various AIB’s including some more expensive, but much more exotic models so make sure you’re subscribed for all of that good stuff. 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