KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG review: Uncompromised 4K gaming with the new Nvidia flagship

We use the following system for the benchmarks below:

• Lian-Li O11 Dynamic
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
• Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master, BIOS: F8a
• Alphacool Eisbear 360 AiO
• Corsair RM 1000x Netzteil
• G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 2x 16 GB, EXPO (DDR5-6000 CL30-38-38-96)
• Corsair MP600 2 TB
• Crucial MX500 2 TB
• Microsoft Windows 11 Professional 64-Bit (Version 22H2)

In the synthetic tests, we observe an almost identical performance compared to the Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC, but our test unit still places slightly behind the Palit graphics card. Subjectively, both models offer the same speed. The performance increase in direct comparison to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is very large (with 90 compared to 57 points). At the same time, the Nvidia Titan RTX also does fairly well. Following the Quadro series, the graphics card is able to achieve a significantly better performance here in the render tests due to the driver optimizations.

Compared to AMD, the KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG is also easily ahead. The comparison with the Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT shows a performance advantage of 53% on average. However, with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the successor is already in sight. By mid-December, it should be here, and the next battle between the red and the green camp can begin.

The KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG is able to convert the high performance in the synthetic benchmarks also into a very high gaming performance. When it isn't limited by the CPU, a performance increase of more than 80% compared to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is possible. In the past, we have only rarely seen such a high performance increase between two GPU architectures. KFA2 and Palit are again at eye level, and we are unable to see any significant differences between the two models.

The special RTX 4000 features such as DLSS 3.0 including Frame Generation (FG) ensure an additional boost in many games. As an example, we can mention Cyberpunk 2077. In native 4K resolution and the Raytracing Ultra preset, even the KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG only reaches 44 FPS on average. But with DLSS activated, more than 100 FPS are no problem anymore. With this, Nvidia offers a great feature, which could really make the difference in the purchase decision in the near future. On the other hand, with FSR, AMD has a similar feature in the works. So in the end, it depends on the gaming manufacturers and whether they integrate these features in their games. You can find a list of the games that already support DLSS 3.0 or plan to do so in the future here.