There is talk that the Nvidia RTX reaches a crazy clock speed of 2.75 GHz
The hype train of next-generation video cards is leaving the station. Rumors are coming in almost daily, which is an indicator that a launch is nearing. It'll be a while before we get actual test results, but if these latest rumors turn out to be accurate, the RTX 4090 in particular is going to be an absolute monster.
The latest update comes from serial Nvidia leaker Kopite7kimi. The key piece of information is the expected clock speeds of the RTX 4090. A base frequency of 2,235 MHz and 2,520 MHz boost clock speeds, which are significantly ahead of the RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition clocks of 1,670 and 1,860 MHz respectively. Keep in mind that the upcoming RTX 4090 Ti with full AD102 support will likely have an even higher clock speed and a higher TDP. The upcoming 4090 Ti is likely the source of the extreme TDP numbers that have been floating around for the past few months.
Attentive owners of RTX 30 series cards will know that they are often overclocked, and this seems to be the case with the RTX 4090. Kopite7kimi claims that the RTX 4090 can boost to at least 2750 MHz. This is an incredible number. Third-party cards can even hit the magic 3GHz level if their cooling and power supplies are up to par.
A TDP of 450W is, let's say, reasonable, but that's only if the card's performance turns out to be as good as these specs suggest. The 4090 will outperform the 3090 and 3090 Ti just with the extra cores and higher clock speeds, and that's without any architectural improvements. There is potential for 100% intergenerational development, although we personally think that is too high an expectation.
In addition to the RTX 4090, there are much larger RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 cards. An RTX 4080 with 10,240 cores and 16GB of 21Gbps GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus isn't really that different from an RTX 3090. The 4080 will definitely be well ahead in terms of performance. Its TDP of 420W is higher than I expected, given the 450W of the much faster 4090. If it's priced well enough, the 4080 will certainly be extremely popular.
The RTX 4070 is a little weird. A xx70 class card with a 160-bit bus looks out of place on a 2023/24 era card. The 18Gbit/s memory makes up for it, but 160-bit sounds very mid-range. With 7,168 cores, it will certainly outperform the RTX 3080, but is 10GB of memory enough as 4K gaming and large texture packs become more commonplace? Time will tell, but of the three cards leaked here, the 4070 looks a bit underwhelming. However, performance and price are what really matter, and the 4070 can surprise just like other RTX 40 series cards.
We won't have to wait long for the world to see the RTX 40xx series. Rumors about release dates are quite varied. We can expect to see the RTX 4090 first, and the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 - to arrive before the end of the year.