Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: everything we know so far

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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has certainly had its share of ups and downs. Touted as the most powerful consumer-oriented GPU on the market before it even hit the shelves, it has encountered a few issues that delayed its release. So, while Nvidia did announce the superpowered GPU at its CES 2022 conference, we still have yet to see it in action.When Jeff Fisher took the stage at Nvidia’s CES 2022 conference, he said that we would have more information in late January. January is over and we still don’t have any more information about this incredibly powerful GPU. Luckily, the RTX 3090 Ti is more than a figment of our collective imaginations. Better yet, it looks like it has sorted out its issues so hopefully, it’s full speed ahead in production and will be released soon. And, because it is a premium card with a premium price that will be out of most user’s budgets, you should be able to easily get one despite the supply chain issues. That is, as long as you have the budget for it.Until that happens, however, we’ll continue to gather as many leaks, news, and rumors about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti that reaches our ears. Here’s everything you need to know about what could be Nvidia’s most powerful graphics card yet.Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: cut to the chaseWhat is it: An upgrade to Nvidia’s current top-of-the-line graphics cardWhen is it out: Perhaps by the end of February 2022How much will it cost? Unknown, but will likely start around $2,000/£2,000/AU$3,000, with some third-party, after-market cards selling for double that and more.(Image credit: Nvidia)Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti release dateWhile we got a glimpse at CES 2022, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti release date remains a matter of speculation, but there are some things we have heard that point to a release coming sooner rather than later.With production disruptions over the supply chain crisis and semiconductor shortage throughout 2021, it’s been generally surprising to see the typical two-year cadence of graphics card generation releases remain largely intact. The RTX 3080 was released in September 2020, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is expected to be announced in Q3 2022, which is roughly two years from the launch of the RTX 3080. The other card releases have tracked reasonably near where their predecessors were, but therein lies the leap we have to take: the RTX 3090 Ti has no predecessor, since there was no RTX 2090 or RTX 2090 Ti.The closest we get is the RTX Titan which, for a Turing card, squared up rather well against the RTX 3090 in terms of performance. The RTX Titan really wasn’t a consumer-oriented product, though. It was aimed at creative professionals and content producers who needed a substantial amount of graphics performance.With no real analog for the RTX 3090 in the Turing generation, all we can do is look at the calendar and see that the window for a release is closing before it cuts into the launch of the next-gen Lovelace cards.Some well known component leakers claim that while other Nvidia graphics cards might be seeing delays over the component shortages, the RTX 3090 Ti isn’t among them. This makes sense, since the RTX 3090 Ti is likely to have more limited production runs than cheaper graphics cards like the RTX 3050 and RTX 3070 Ti, so it isn’t as likely to be impacted by component supply issues.When Nvidia showed off the RTX 3090 Ti at CES 2022 on January 4, it didn’t reveal a release date, but promised more information later in the month.  But, that time has passed and we still haven’t received any updates. That means that rumors that it could go on sale in late January were a bit too optimistic. Hopefully, a February 2022 release date is still in the cards.Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti specsThere are two main differences between the RTX 3090 and the upcoming RTX 3090 Ti, according to reports. First, the GA102 GPU in the 3090 Ti is said to feature 10,752 CUDA cores, compared to the 10,496 cores for the base RTX 3090.What’s more, it will feature a different board design and memory layout, using 12 2GB modules instead of 24 modules at 1GB each. The VRAM on the RTX 3090 runs at about 19.5Gbps, while the memory speed on the faster Micron VRAM the 3090 Ti runs at about 21Gbps, which Nvidia confirmed at CES 2022. This could help push the card’s memory bandwidth above the 1TB/s mark, besting the RTX 3090’s 936GB/s. That huge increase in VRAM and memory bandwidth would be essential to improving framerates at the high end. Nvidia also confirmed that it will have 24GB of GDDR6X memory. This is the same as the RTX 3090, but it’ll have more bandwidth.By increasing the bandwidth for memory transfers into VRAM, higher resolution textures will load faster, which means individual frames can be drawn faster. This could mean the difference between playing Doom Eternal at 51fps in 8K, which the RTX 3090 averaged in our tests, and approaching, if not consistently clearing, 60fps in 8K in the same game.The only other major difference we expect to see is the card’s TDP. The RTX 3090 Ti might have as high as 450W TDP, which is 100W more than the RTX 3090. On the plus side, we also expect a different power connector, and the card will be able to leverage PCIe 5.0 where possible for even better performance.Nvidia still hasn’t shared any firm specs about the RTX 3090 Ti. At CES, Jeff Fisher did say that it will come with 40 shader teraflops, 78 RT teraflops and 320 tensor teraflops. That’s not much to go on, however.Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti performanceSpeaking of performance, it’s hard to know where the RTX 3090 Ti might come in relative to the RTX 3090, other than to say we expect it to be better than the base model.Without benchmarks though, it’s hard to say how much we can expect. If there is any metric that might be relevant with cards this powerful, it’s gaming performance in 8K.The RTX 3090 makes easy work of most 4K gaming, and we expect the RTX 3090 Ti to improve on that, but in 8K gaming, you might be able to consistently maintain 60fps on some major AAA titles with the RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 almost gets you there, but the RTX 3090 Ti just might be able to put you over the top. Until some benchmarks start leaking though, it’s hard to put a number to anything.Today’s best Nvidia RTX 3090 dealsShow More Deals