Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 crushes RTX 4090 in VR: Up to 2.5x FPS in certain scenarios, roughly 50% more in others
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 witnessed quite a contentious launch - and that's putting it mildly. The RTX 5080, in particular, was a major disappointment, providing a borderline embarrassing generational improvement over its predecessor. The RTX 5090 fared better, but that was to be expected considering the 33% higher CUDA core count and VRAM. However, a recent YouTube analysis seems to hint at truly impressive generational uplift for the RTX 5090 in a very specific workload: ultra-high-res Virtual Reality.
Memory, cores, and bandwidth: What makes the RTX 5090 tick?
Before we dive into the juicy bits, let us first have a refresher on the Nvidia RTX 5090: 33% more CUDA cores than the RTX 4090, 575-watt TDP, and 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM on a 512-bit bus, allowing for a gargantuan ~79% improvement in memory bandwidth. The extremely fast memory bandwidth proves invaluable in extremely high-res VR environments, as we shall soon see. Note that there are a plenty of high-end VR headsets with ridiculously high per-eye resolution on the horizon, which is why @Omniwhatever enabled 400% virtual desktop (6144x6432) on his Quest 3 (currently $500 on Amazon) headset.
Starting off with Skyrim VR, the GeForce RTX 5090 demonstrated a 24.5% lead over the RTX 4090 - a modest improvement that is in line with what was portrayed by gaming benchmarks. However, at 300% resolution, the RTX 5090 managed an impressive ~50% improvement over the RTX 4090. In Outer Wilds VR, the RTX 5090 shines even brighter, with a very respectable 65% improvement at 400% resolution. The stupendously fast 1.792 TB/s memory bandwidth is showing its merit, for sure.
Red Matter 2: The GeForce RTX 5090's magnum opus
In Red Matter 2, the GeForce RTX 5090, simply put, puts the RTX 4090 to shame - at 400% resolution, the RTX 5090 pulls ahead of the RTX 4090 by a whopping 152%. Omniwhatever tested a whole bunch of other games as well on both the cards, and the RTX 5090 consistently managed truly impressive performance improvements. Of course, VR remains a very niche market even in 2025, even more so in the ultra-high-end segment - precisely where the RTX 5090 spreads its wings.
However, the RTX 5090 is also an enthusiast-grade card. The fact that it performs splendidly in an enthusiast-grade workload is great news for VR enthusiasts with deep pockets - that is, of course, contingent that the abysmal supply has better days ahead. Omniwhatever's excellent video has been embedded below, be sure to give it a watch.
Source(s)
Omniwhatever via YouTube
