RTX 5090 early benchmarks show underwhelming performance uplift over the RTX 4090

Early RTX 5090 benchmarks show moderate gains over RTX 4090.

: Nvidia's RTX 5090 benchmarks reveal modest improvements over the RTX 4090. Geekbench 5 shows 15-37% increases in various tests but not as significant as expected. The card includes a 32% increase in CUDA cores, yet improves by only 27% in CUDA API performance. Pricing for the RTX 5090 starts at $1,999, with availability beginning on January 30.

Nvidia's RTX 5090, announced at CES 2025, has shown only moderate performance improvements over its predecessor, the RTX 4090, in early benchmarks. Geekbench 5 results demonstrated a 15% increase in OpenCL scores and a 37% increase in Vulkan scores, marking a limited advancement given the generation leap some had anticipated.

In the CUDA API, the RTX 5090 scored 27% higher than the RTX 4090, despite having 32% more CUDA cores. Blender 3.6.0 benchmarks also revealed a 36% increase in performance, further indicating that the card's enhancements are notable but not revolutionary.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 will become available on January 30, priced at $1,999, alongside other releases like the RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti. The public anticipates a comprehensive review to assess its gaming performance beyond synthetic benchmarks, although initial impressions suggest only incremental gains.

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