I have some very sad news. Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 is no longer fast enough for the ultimate gaming experience. This is a truly devastating day for PC gaming. What hope do everyday buyers have when Nvidia's $4,700 model is no longer good enough? Maintaining 60 fps at ultra settings is off the table, even with upscaling, while path tracing remains a challenge. It's difficult to see a way forward for the RTX 5090. Even though this unit survived the 12VHPWR melting wars, it may be time to put it out of its misery.
Jokes aside, the RTX 5090 genuinely isn't fast enough for the type of gaming we'll be exploring here: gaming at resolutions beyond 4K. You'll see the results shortly, but the situation is particularly funny when you look back at September 2020.
Would you look at that? "The New Pinnacle Is Here," Nvidia proclaimed, because the GeForce RTX 3090 could deliver 8K HDR gaming. It was, according to the company, the world's first 8K gaming GPU.
"At 8K, detail is so crisp and clear that we can discern individual bricks and blades of grass, distant game elements are instantly recognizable, and from behind the shoulder of your player character, individual hairs, stitching on clothes and wrinkles on skin are appreciable." ... "8K enables you to view your games with unprecedented detail and clarity."
