Best RTX 4090 Graphics Cards 2023 (With Benchmarks)

The RTX 4090 is, as of February 2023, the most powerful consumer graphics card in the world, which comes from the Nvidia Ada Lovelace architecture.

With this graphics card, you can play almost any game running at 4K with all the settings cranked up to Ultra. No graphics card available right now on the market can hold a candle to its performance.

The RTX 4090 has a whopping 24 GB of GDDR6X memory which runs on a 384-bit bus. The card’s base clock is 2235 Mhz which boosts to 2520 MHz, and a memory clock of 1313 Mhz. The RTX 4090 is a very power-hungry card, and Nvidia suggests a PSU of 850 Watts for it to run.

If you want to buy a 4090, you are given a wide variety of choices from various board partners like MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, etc.

However, which is the Best RTX 4090? I managed to collect all the variants of the 4090 for you to test and have ended up with the list of the following. So without further ado, let us get right into it.

Key Points:

• In this article, I will go over some of the best RTX 4090 cards available on the market.
• I am also going to be discussing the clock speeds of the card and their cooling.
• Finally, the design of the cards and the features are going to be discussed.

Best GeForce RTX 4090 – Specs Comparison Table

A quick look at the best RTX 4090:

1. MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio (NeoGamr’s Pick)
2. ZOTAC Gaming RTX 4090 Trinity (Premium Pick)
3. GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 4090 MASTER (Enthusiast Pick)
4. MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio (Best Value)
5. Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC (Mid Range Beast)
6. MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid X (Best Cooling)

Best RTX 4090

Many variants of the RTX 4090 are available on the market now. The RTX 4090 is an expensive card, even at MSRP, so some due diligence is required before pulling the trigger on it. So here is my list of the top 6 RTX 4090 you can buy right now.

#1- MSI RTX 4090 Gaming Trio

I will begin my list of the best RTX 4090 with the MSI RTX 4090 Gaming Trio, which is a great contender for your next build. The card has some sleek and curvy aesthetics.

There are a lot of lines on it that give the card a “gamer” look. On the front, the card has three fins in the middle that dissect the middle fan embedded with RGB.

On the back, you have a backplate for the thermal protection of the PCB. The GeForce RTX and the MSI dragon logo are printed on the back.

On the top, you can also see the MSI logo embedded with RGB. A 16-pin connector is required to power this card.

Performance And Overclocking

The MSI RTX 4090 gaming Trio has the same boost clock as the reference RTX 4090. However, this is not where the story of this card ends.

The card has three fans with a triple slot design which, on paper, you can overclock, which is exactly what I did.

I was able to boost the card to 2700 Mhz after applying a slight overclock to it. The temperatures of the card also stayed manageable during the duration of my testing.

The card at idle hit 43 degrees centigrade, which was recorded during an hour of general use.

However, when I subjected the card to a rigorous session of Furmark, the temperature rose to just 67 degrees, which is ideal.

During these tests, I also managed to pull out my decibel meter and record the fan noise it made. Even though it was quiet to my ears, the decibel meter picked up 34 decibels of sound.

Features and Connectivity

The MSI RTX 4090 Gaming Trio is a triple slots card with three fans. Its dimensions are 337 x 140 x 77mm, which makes it just able to fit into a mid-sized case.

However, a larger case is recommended so that the card does not get hot on you, which will likely make it more prone to failure.

On the rear IO of the card, you can find an HDMI port and three DisplayPort. This card will allow you to run four monitors simultaneously.

#2- ZOTAC Gaming RTX 4090 Trinity

This generation of ZOTAC cards has refined their design, making them very efficient with very good airflow.

The ZOTAC Gaming RTX 4090 Trinity also has an excellent aerodynamic design. The edges of the card are chamfered, which promotes airflow in these graphics cards.

On the top of the card, you get the Zotac branding which is embedded in RGB. The GeForce RTX branding is also visible; however, it does not have any RGB.

On the back of the card, you get a backplate that also has chamfered edges. The Zotac logo on the backplate is embedded with RGB.

Performance And Overclocking

The ZOTAC Gaming RTX 4090 Trinity has a very small overclock of 1% from the factory, effectively making its boost clock 2535 instead of the reference card’s 2520 Mhz.

However, that is not the end of its performance. The quad slot design of the card with a lot of cooling on it gives you the ability to overclock the card without overheating it.

I was able to crank the card’s voltages to achieve an overclock of 2610 Mhz on my first try using the MSI afterburner. This speaks volumes of its potential.

On the temperature front, the card idled at around 42 degrees centigrade. However, once I started furmark on it, the temperatures increased by 67 degrees which is a good result.

While using the GPU at full load, the fans managed only to produce 33 decibels of sound which is phenomenal.

Features and Connectivity

The ZOTAC Gaming RTX 4090 Trinity is a very large quad slots card with 356 x 165 x 71 mm dimensions. This makes it so that you will need a very large case to fit this card, which would also warrant an upgrade to the case.

Despite the large size, Zotac only managed to give a single HDMI slot and three DisplayPort. If an additional HDMI slot were given here, this would have justified the quad slot design even more.

#3- GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 4090 MASTER

This generation of Gigabyte AORUS cards is arguably some of the most aesthetically pleasing cards on the market. The Gigabyte AORUS RTX 4090 Master is also one of these cards that takes advantage of this beautiful design language.

The card has three fans which have RGB embedded around the circumference. The front also has RGB embedded into it under the AORUS logo.

On the back of the card, you have a backplate to increase the card’s surface area and promote heat dissipation. The back plate also has the AORUS logo with RGB in it.

Performance And Overclocking

The Gigabyte AORUS RTX 4090 Master comes with a slight overclock of just 1% from the factory. This makes it so that this card has a boost clock of 2550 when compared to the reference 2520 Mhz.

However, I could easily achieve an overclock of 150 Mhz using MSI afterburner, which raised the clock speed to 2700 Mhz.

The temperatures of the card also stayed very well under control. At idle, the card was at 39 degrees centigrade, which increased to a temperature of 67 degrees during an hour of furmark.

The noise meter picked up only 30 decibels of sound, equating to even less noise than a whisper.

Features and Connectivity

The Gigabyte AORUS RTX 4090 Master is a quad slot card with 359 x 163 x 75 mm dimensions. This card will only fit in a large-sized case, so be ready to shell out more money for a case if you have a mid-sized or a smaller-sized case.

The rear IO of the card has one HDMI port and three DisplayPort. This makes it so that you can run three monitors using the card. An additional HDMI port would have been appreciated and justified the quad slot design even more.

#4- MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio

The next card, the MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio, is almost the same card as my first pick, which was the MSI RTX 4090 gaming Trio; however, the difference between them lies in the slight overclock which this card has from the factory making it perform slightly better.

The silicon on this card is arguably better as I achieved even better overclocks, which I will discuss later. Apart from that, the aesthetics and dimensions are all the same as the Gaming Trio.

Performance And Overclocking

The MSI RTX 4090 gaming X Trio has a slight overclock of 3% from the factory. This equates to the card having 2595 MHz at the boost clock when compared to the reference boost clock of 2520 Mhz.

However, I managed to overclock the card to a very decent and stable 2720 Mhz when I cranked some of the voltage sliders in the MSI afterburner.

The card’s temperatures at idle stayed at 43 degrees centigrade. While subjected to the fiery donut of death, AKA furmark, the temperatures remained at a constant 70 degrees, with the fan noise recorded at just 32 dBa.

Features and Connectivity

The MSI RTX 4090 is a quad slot card with 337 x 140 x 77mm dimensions. You will not be able to fit this card in a mid-sized case, and you will need to invest in a larger one.

The rear IO of this card has a single HDMI port and three DisplayPort, allowing you to run four monitors simultaneously while using this card.

#5- Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC

The next card on my list is the Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC. The front of the card looks pretty generic when it is not turned on.

However, when you plug it in, you can see that there are RGB lights around the circumference of the fan. The design, other than that, has nothing that draws attention.

The Top view of the card is also as generic as it can get with no creativity put in from Gigabyte. It has recycled the design from its older generation of cards here.

You get the Gigabyte logo which is RGB, and the GeForce RTX Logo embed. The card also has a backplate for better heat dissipation.

Performance And Overclocking

From the factory, the Gigabyte RTX 4090 gaming OC has been given a 1 percent overclock, which cranks its boost clock from 2520 Mhz to 2535 Mhz.

However, the card was ripe for overclocking, so I used MSI afterburner. I managed a very stable overclock of 2650 on my first try.

When it comes to the temperatures, I was pleasantly surprised at the result. At idle, the card managed 41-degree centigrade.

However, with the overclock active and furmark running in the background for 1 hour straight, the temperatures stayed at a stable 60-degree centigrade.

Features and Connectivity

The Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC has a quad-slot design with 340 x 150 x 75 mm dimensions. This makes it so that all mid-sized cases are out of the question, and a large-sized case only supports this card.

The card can support running four monitors simultaneously using the solitary HDMI port and three DisplayPort on the IO.

#6- MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid X

The final card on my list is the MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid, a water-cooled graphics card. This is the most unique RTX 4090 I have come across.

It is a dual-slot card with a single fan which does not take up a lot of space in your case. The single fan has a small RGB light embedded into it.

A backplate covers the back of the card for even better thermal efficiency. The SUPRIM and GeForce RTX logo is printed twice, once on the back and once on the top. This water-cooled card also includes a water cooler with two fans with it.

Performance And Overclocking

The MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid X comes with a slight overclock of 4% from the factory. This equates to the card having a boost clock of 2625 Mhz.

The water-cooling encouraged me, so I tried to overclock this GPU, and I succeeded in achieving a stable overclock of 2750.

When it comes to the card’s temperatures, the water cooling does its job very well. At idle, the card stayed at a temperature of 46 degrees centigrade.

However, when I ran furmark on it, the card only rose to 58 degrees centigrade. On the decibel meter, the card only produced 29 decibels, making it virtually silent.

Features and Connectivity

The MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM Liquid X is a small card with only 280 x 140 x 43 mm dimensions. However, it has two parts which include the water cooler as well.

You can fit this card in a mid-sized case, provided you also have space to mount the water cooler.

The rear IO of the card has an HDMI port and three DisplayPort. This allows you to run four monitors using this card simultaneously.

Picking The Best RTX 4090 Graphics Card

Almost every RTX 4090 you can buy right now falls under the margin of error with each other in performance.

Therefore you have to look for something else to consider while buying one. Here are some of the considerations I use while buying a GPU.

Temperatures and Cooling System

Almost all PC parts are going to get hot when they are running. Hotter components are also more prone to failure. Therefore you have to look for a GPU with a good thermally efficient design and a lot of cooling on it.

Therefore, GPU manufacturers install some good fans and give their products a design with good airflow. If you are considering buying a GPU, look up its thermal performance in the review to buy a thermally efficient card.

RGB and Aesthetics For a Perfect Look

Another thing that you should consider in your GPU purchase decision is the placement and inclusion of RGB lights.

For some, RGB lighting may be redundant; however, hardcore gamers love some RGB on their GPU. This gives the PC a unique look and amplifies the aesthetics of the overall setting.

Performance and Overclocking Potential

GPUs that come from board partners often have a slight overclock on them from the factory.

However, due to their multiple fans and cooling mechanisms, these board partner GPUs also have a lot of potential for overclocking, which can be tapped into by using simple software like MSI afterburner.

Look up our guide on how to overclock your variant of the RTX 4090 to unleash the full potential of your card.

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