ASUS has taken the wraps off its latest gem, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 OLED (UX6404). This sleek and compact 14.5-inch laptop marks the zenith of the creator-friendly Zenbook Pro series, catering to the needs of users who demand sophistication, portability, and robust performance for their creative endeavours and productivity tasks.
The ZenBook Pro 14 OLED comes with a 16:10 3K 120Hz OLED NanoEdge display, complete with Dolby Vision and HDR technology, which delivers an unparalleled visual experience. It’s PANTONE® Validated for colour accuracy and encompasses a cinematic 100% DCI-P3 gamut.
Under the hood, the Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is powered by the latest 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 H-series processor, coupled with studio-grade NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 graphics, a hefty 32 GB of high-speed DDR5 RAM, and a copious 1TB SSD.
The ASUS DialPad which was once only available with the ProArt Line makes its ZenBook debut on the ZenBook 14 Pro OLED allowing more intuitive control within creative apps. The laptop boasts a full set of I/O ports, including Thunderbolt 4™ USB-C®, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C®, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, HDMI® 2.1, and an audio combo jack. Moreover, the laptop provides a top-tier audio experience, thanks to the Harman Kardon-certified Dolby Atmos® speaker system and ASUS AI noise-cancelling audio technology, ensuring crystal-clear conference calls.
Furthermore, the laptop supports the optional ASUS Pen 2.0, an MPP 2.0 stylus with 4096 pressure levels and interchangeable tips, offering an unparalleled drawing and writing experience.
To keep these powerful components cool, ASUS has implemented the highly efficient ASUS IceCool Pro cooling system, featuring a dual-fan design and four external exhaust vents. Additionally, the laptop features WiFi 6E enhanced with ASUS WiFi Master Premium technology, ensuring rock-solid WiFi connections.
The ASUS ErgoSense keyboard, boasting a full-size 19.05 mm key pitch, 1.4 mm key travel, and 0.1 mm keycap relief, ensures a comfortable typing experience. Additionally, an anti-fingerprint and hydrophobic coating makes the ASUS ErgoSense touchpad easy to clean.
Pricing & Availability
The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 OLED (UX6404V) is set to make its debut in Malaysia, starting on September 19, 2023, with a price tag of RM10,999.
It will be available through all authorized ASUS dealers and the official ASUS e-store.
A co-branded electronics product is nothing new. In the case of MSI’s latest collaboration with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, the motorsport division of the Mercedes-Benz brand, the concept was explored years ago by Acer and even ASUS with luxury brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini. The MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport edition is technically the first product of its kind with the Mercedes-AMG badge though.
MSI’s Stealth 16 is a potent gaming laptop with rather powerful internals. You get Intel’s 13th generation Core i9 (up to) that is paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPU for smooth, responsive AAA gaming. You do need that kind of power when the display fitted on this 16-inch platform is a 4K 16:10 OLED panel. To keep everything running optimally, the MSI Cooler Boost 5 system with five heat pipes dissipating heat via dual fans should keep everything breezy and cool.
Of course, the internals have to be as powerful as the heart that lives inside the racer that is the Mercedes-AMG GT2, the official racecar that will borne the MSI branding on track. The exterior of the Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport edition is courtesy of Mercedes-AMG’s know how in material science. It is a magnesium-aluminium alloy chassis that is rigid, durable, yet lightweight; all the hallmarks of a great racecar. To pay homage to Mercedes-AMG, the chassis is finished in Selenite Grey design with AMG’s exclusive Rhombus patterns alongside an Mercedes-AMG Motorsport logo to show that this gaming laptop means business.
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Source: MSI
Alongside the exclusive design, the limited edition package will include an exclusive box design, for keepsakes, a matching mouse and mouse pad, an exclusively designed USB drive, a carrying pouch for the laptop, post cards, and a number of cable ties to complete the Mercedes-AMG experience. No you do not get a car when you buy the MSI Stealth 16 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport edition. Mercedes-Benz did not say anything about getting a free gaming laptop when you buy one of their AMG-line cars though. They also did not mention how much the laptop will be and when it will be available. If we have to guess, it will be expensive, and it should be available in the coming months. For more information on MSI’s latest products from Computex 2023, you can visit their website.
NVIDIA released their GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti not too long ago. No luck on NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 currently. Still, the two desktop class GPUs will be some of the most popular GPUs that NVIDIA will produce at this time. In that sense, you will find plenty of desktops built in 2023 coming with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4080 over the super high-end RTX 4090.
While it is uncommon, white PC builds can look sleek. We like that great white colour themed builds can look very clean and easily stands out in your room. It also automatically brightens your gaming environment. Pair it to decent RGBs and you have yourself an Instagram worthy build.
The thing is, if you have a white colour themed build, you are hard-pressed to upgrade it. Most modern GPUs do not come in any other colour than black. For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series, you do not have much of an option. You might be pleased to know that MSI is going to solve that upgrade problem for you. They already have the GAMING TRIO WHITE series GPUs. Now, they have even an even more powerful option for you.
Welcome to the GAMING X TRIO WHITE series GPUs from MSI. Ironically, there are currently only two GPUs within the series currently. You have a choice between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
This is not MSI’s first GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs. They have already made the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPUs. Unlike some of their other cards though, the two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs clad in white shrouds and triple fans are pretty standard in terms of specs.
They are still PCIe Gen 4 GPUs, so you want to make sure your motherboard can support it, to get the most out of the GPUs. The 9,728 CUDA cores found on the RTX 4080 variant clocks in at 2,610 MHz while the 7,680 CUDA cores from the RTX 4070 Ti clocks in at 2,760 MHz, both slightly higher than the standard GAMING TRIO WHITE GPUs. As the naming convention suggests, the RTX 3080 comes with 16GB of GDDR6X memory and the RTX 4070 Ti comes with 12GB of GDDR6X memory. They still draw up to 320W and 285W respectively.
The cooler is a large heatsink that is cooled by three TORX Fan 5.0 with rims that allows for more focused air flow for even more effective cooling on the GPU. The nickel-plated copper baseplate sitting right on top of the GPU chiplet is designed for even better heat dissipation and distribution from the GPU to the heatsinks for even more effective cooling. The GPUs even feature Dual BIOS for either a ‘quite’ operation, or extract maximum ‘performance’ from the GPU at the cost of noise. The metal backplate is a snazzy mix of frosty white and silver colour combination that not only reinforces the board, passively cools the back of the board, but also adds some flavour to your all-white build.
There is RGB, yes. They call it the Mystic Light and it sits on the shroud of the GPU. It syncs with your PC and other RGB arrays via Mystic Light Sync and Ambient Link. The GPU even comes with a matching support bracket for the GPUs, since these new GPUs are rather hefty.
ASUS has made a name for itself when it comes to desktop components. It should come as no surprise that the company also has a lineup of pre-built desktops. This year, the desktop lineup is more focused and streamlined. There are three new entries into their offerings this year with each one taking laser focus on a feature to champion.
ROG G22CH – Redefining “Small but Mighty”
When it comes to desktops, it’s generally been a battle between space and performance. However, with the ROG G22CH, ASUS is proving that both aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. The small 10L chassis small form factor PC packs a punch with the latest generation 13th Generation Intel Core processors with configuration supporting the Core i9-13900K. Together with this, the G22CH comes with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUS with up to 32GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.
Together with the power-packed internals, the G22CH is designed with a focus on airflow. The new pre-built desktop system supports both AIO liquid coolers and traditional air cooling for the CPU. It even features an internal power supply in its minute chassis. It’s also easy to upgrade and access with its toolless design.
ROG Strix G16CH – Made to Game
The ROG Strix G16CH is a mid-tower gaming desktop built for multitaskers. The system supports configurations that cap out with the Intel Core i7-13700KF and the NVIDIA RTX 4080 GPU. On the memory side of things, the setup supports up to 3TB of storage and a whopping 128GB of DDR4 RAM.
However, it’s not just about the insides, the Strix G16CH comes with some of the best ventilation-focused designs. The front panel and top exhaust allow for plenty of airflow. It’s also built to accommodate a high-performance 240mm liquid cooler for the CPU. It’s also built with all the signature ROG design cues including the ROG Slash aesthetic, an integrated headset holder and a reinforced double D ring strap.
ROG Strix G13CH – Air Flow for Maximum Cooling and Performance
The Strix G13CH follows suit with ASUS’s focus on better cooling and airflow with a redesign which marries both ROG’s signature style and improved airflow. It comes with configurations which support up to the Intel Core i&-13700 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPU. Complementing this is up to 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage.
Pricing and Availability
No pricing or availability has been announced just yet.
NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series GPUs are finally making their way to the mobile computing space, just as Intel’s 13th generation CPUs are also making their way to the mobile computing space. Alongside the new hardware, Ada Lovelace on mobile also comes with a slew of updates that was also brought along from the RTX 40 series for the desktop market. Alongside NVIDIA introducing the laptop market to Ada Lovelace, they also launched their new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Unsurprisingly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series for laptops focus more on the content creation aspect more than anything. To be fair, while gaming performance on a laptop has never been better with the RTX 40 series, content creators are the ones who will get the biggest bump in benefits with Ada Lovelace this time around. That said, there are still some interesting developments from NVIDIA for games with the new Max-Q Ada Lovelace architecture.
Thanks to some clever implementation for the Studio platform, NVIDIA brings RTX Remix made mostly for gamers. The technology allows more creative gamers to quickly create mods for older titles with full ray tracing technology to modernize those games. You even get enhanced details ad materials with DLSS3 and NVIDIA Reflex. All of these and you never needed to learn to code or knowledge to work in the 3D design space in the first place. NVIDIA is also bringing official RTX support to Portal Prelude, a Portal mod.
Back to the more content creator aspect of things. NVIDIA is introducing a new Studio driver to update their new and existing GPUs too. With The new Studio platform comes an improved NVIDIA Omniverse, a connected world where 3D artists can collaborate in real-time with the power of NVIDIA’s RTX engines. The have expanded the Omniverse with better support for Blender, a rather popular 3D rendering tool. Users can also experiment with regenerative 3D tools alongside Universal Scene Description assets added into Omniverse to create even more life like 3D scenes than ever before.
If you are more of a videographer, or a streamer, the new NVIDIA Studio suite offers improved NVIDIA Broadcast and Canvas apps. Broadcast new features a new eye-tracking and replacement tool that cleverly and naturally makes it look like you are actually looking into your webcam instead of your screen in both video conferences and game streams. Canvas allows you to work with 360-degree images that can be used as environment maps in 3D apps like Blender. On top of all of these, Ada Lovelace also comes with AV1 support which should allow for a more efficient video workflow in compatible apps.
If you are not into any of that, there are still some benefits to using NVIDIA’s RTX 40 and RTX 30 series GPUs. They are bringing their upscaling technology to the masses with RTX Video Super Resolution. The feature uses AI to improve videos from any sources, including your browser. The algorithm removes compression artifacts and upscales video resolutions to improve its sharpness and even overall detail so that you watch online contents at your display’s native resolution even if the YouTube video only offers up to 480p in resolution. The feature will only be available for Chrome and Edge browsers in February 2023, for now.
The other added benefit of Ada Lovelace is its power efficiency. That also means that gaming and studio class laptops can be made thinner with smaller and more power efficient fans. On top of enhanced battery life as well, the power bricks can be made smaller than ever.
Availability
NVIDIA has teased the first few laptops that will get their RTX 40 series treatment. They named the Razer Blade, MSI’s Stealth series, and ASUS’s Zenbook Pro series laptops for now. For now, NVIDIA has teased the availability of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and GeForce RTX 4090 series for mobile computing, but we are convinced you will see the likes of the GeForce RTX 4080, and GeForce RTX 4060 series Max-Q GPUs when laptop manufacturers release more details about their next-generation content creator and gaming laptops soon. More about Ada Lovelace architecture can be found on their website.
At NVIDIA’s next-generation GPU launch the last round, Jensen Huang unveiled two new flagship class GPUs; the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080. The range-topping GeForce RTX 4090 packs more Ada Lovelace architecture CUDA cores than the GPU it replaces and 24GB of GDDR6X RAM for performance like no other. The slightly lower end GPU, which is still a powerful flagship class GPU, the GeForce RTX 4080 packs just over half the CUDA cores of the flagship and about 16GB GDDR6X RAM.
Alongside these two GPUs, the team in green teased another GPU that is meant to be a more budget friendly version of the GeForce RTX 4080 with less CUDA cores and less RAM. For the longest time, the GPU is known as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. With a smaller potential asking price for it, the rumoured GPU is a highly anticipated one.
For CES 2023, they launched the GPU for US$ 799. Except, they did not launch the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. They launched the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ahead of the regular GeForce RTX 4070.
NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the exact same GPU that is the unlaunched GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. It packs 7680 CUDA cores, less than half of the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Its 12GB RAM RAM is also exactly half the top-of-the-line RTX 4090 flagship GPU. It is still a fast GDDR6X RAM that you get from the RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. In the grander scheme of things, the new GPU is targeted squarely as a mid-range GPU that should prove to be one of the more popular GPU choices for the more value conscious gamers.
In terms of features, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti packs the latest DLSS 3 algorithm for upscaling that is better than before. They also say that the RTX 4070 Ti is supposed to be a more powerful GeForce RTX 3090 Ti that was replaced by the GeForce RTX 4090. In NVIDIA’s benchmarks though, the newly launched GPU looks like it performs about the same as the RTX 3090 Ti in non DLSS titles. The benchmark has not accounted for the improved ray tracing performance from the Ada Lovelace architecture though. According to NVIDIA as well, the GPU is supposed to be more efficient than before too with 226W TDP.
Source: NVIDIA
The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will be available in the market worldwide 5th of January 2023 onward. NVIDIA suggests a starting retail price of US$ 799 (MYR 3520*). The pricing is really just a guideline though since they also mentioned that there will not be a Founders Edition GPU from NVIDIA for this one. In that case you can expect GPUs from board partners like ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, GALAX, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, KFA2, MSI, Palit, PNY, and ZOTAC. More information on their new GPU can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1=MYR 4.41 as of 04/01/2023 on xe.com
Acer’s s Swift lineup has been the cornerstone of the company’s thin and light laptops. This year, they’re taking their proven approach to thin and light laptops and supercharging it with more power and an even more premium build. It also looks like they’re streamlining the naming for the Swift family of laptops.
Acer Swift Go – The new Entry to Thin and Light
Acer’s new entry-level thin and light laptop – the Swift Go series – is looking to redefine its approach to thin and light machines. The new series makes its debut with two entries: the Swift Go 16 and the Swift Go 14. The new laptops bring the latest 13th-generation Intel Core processors with Intel’s Movidius VPU. The dedicated AI engine that comes with Intel Core and Movidius VPU gears the laptop for video collaboration and seamless integration.
The Swift Go 16 comes with a 16-inch, 3.2K OLED display with a 3000×2000 pixel resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate while the Swift Go 14 comes with a 2.8K OLED display with a 2880×1800 pixel resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate. Both come with 500-nit peak brightness with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. They also have TUV Rheinland Eyesafe display certification.
Acer Swift 14 – Portable Premium Style with Productivity Front and Center
The Acer Swift 14 continues the legacy of the Swift series with its premium build and lightweight portability. The Swift 14 comes with a fresh new design which highlights the double anodized CNC-machined aluminium body of the laptop accented by diamond cut edges. The new materials don’t add much heft to the laptop with the Swift 14 coming in at only 1.2kg in weight and a slender 14.95mm thin.
Keeping things sustainable, the Acer Swift 14 comes with an OceanGlass trackpad made of reclaimed abandoned ocean-bound plastics. The OceanGlass trackpad looks and feels premium fitting the overall design of the new Swift 14.
It’s not just about the aesthetics with the Swift 14, Acer is packing the latest 13th Generation Intel Core H processors. The Swift 14 comes with configurations topping out with the Intel Core i7. This is paired with up to 2TB of internal memory and 32GB of RAM. Intel’s Unison also comes integrated with the laptop. This allows users to collaborate across operating systems. T
The Swift 14 comes with a touch-enabled, 14-inch display. Users will be able to choose from two options: a WQXGA display with a 2560×1600 pixel resolution or a WUXGA display with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. Both options come with Corning Gorilla Glass for added durability and even come with antimicrobial properties.
To top things off, the Swift 14 comes with a 1440p, QHD webcam with temporal noise reduction (TNR) and is complemented with dual speakers with DTS Audio and Acer’s PurifiedVoice.
Acer Swift X 14 – The Compact Powerhouse
Acer is keeping its Swift X lineup in the new, streamlined Swift family. This year’s addition – the Swift X 14 – is continuing the lineups power packed ethos. The Swift X 14 comes with the latest 13th Generation Intel Core H processors with configurations topping out with support for the Intel Core i7. It comes with 2 PCIe 4.0 slots which support a combined maximum of up to 4TB of memory with up to 64GB of RAM.
Of course, like its predecessors, the Acer Swift X 14 comes with a discreet GPU. This year it’s the NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs. The X 14 will have configurations supporting up to the NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU at launch. The laptops come with NVIDIA Studio validation giving them access to stable Studio drivers. These drivers are also optimised to support the latest programs for content creation.
Of course, having such a powerful GPU necessitates good cooling. The new Swift X 14 comes with updated thermals that have better cooling than before. A larger fan draws in more air to keep the system cool. This works in tandem with the dual D6 copper heat pipes and the air-inlet keyboard to cool the system more efficiently.
The chassis has also been redesigned. The new, updated design allows for a larger battery for better, all-day battery life. It’s also sleeker and thinner than before. It’s designed to be more subtle and classy while being fully prepared for any workload.
It comes with a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 500 certified and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut. It also has a 500-nit peak brightness for added clarity. The laptop is also equipped with a 1080p FHD webcam which supports Acer’s PurifiedView, PurifiedVoice and AI noise reduction.
Yes, you read that right. You read Bionic Shark Fans, not Fins, and you are reading that right, it is not a typo. Now that we got that out of the way, let us talk about NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 as envisioned by Gigabyte.
NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series promises a lot of performance and power. The ADA Lovelace architecture, as they call it, is claimed to be miles ahead of its competition and is significantly more powerful than NVIDIA’s older 30 series GPUs. Of course, we are all waiting to see if that claim can be substantiated.
While we are waiting around though, NVIDIA’s board partners are not. One of them, GIGABYTE has started introducing new GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs for the market. They did away with not just one GPU offering; they are offering four variants of the GeForce RTX 4090 alone.
AORUS MASTER
Source: GIGABYTE
First up is the AORUS MASTER GPU. Like all the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 cards released by Gigabyte, the AORUS MASTER offers better cooling performance with up to 30% more static pressure while reducing noise by up to 3dB. All this is possible thanks to Gigabyte’s latest WINDFORCE bionic shark fan design, and the AORUS MASTER gets three of them lined with RGB rings to keep the card cool in all kinds of conditions. Those are on top of larger heatsinks over the previous generation GPUs.
The AORUS MASTER cards also offer an LCD read out at the side of the card. The read out allows you to personalise your PC’s look even further with your own graphics and what not. If not, you can access and monitor critical stats like power consumption, GPU temperature, and even its fan speed.
To ensure that the GPU always works at optimal temperature, it is not just about having bigger coolers. It is also about using the right components in the construction of the card. That is why Gigabyte opted for aerospace grade PCB alongside Dual BIOS and 24+4 power phase design underneath an upgraded metal backplate to keep every component running at lower temperatures. Of course, the back plate also adds some rigidity to the card to minimise GPU sagging for a better look overall.
GIGABYTE GAMING OC
Source: GIGABYTE
Then there is the GIGABYTE GAMING OC card. It is no AORUS, but it is still an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU which also means it packs a lot of power. It comes with the same WINDFORCE fan blade design as the AORUS MASTER. The WINDFORCE fans also uses graphene nano lubricant that is supposed to extend the fan’s life by up to 2.1 times compared to regular double ball bearing fans. The GAMING OC GPU also has three of the WINDFORCE fans that comes with the same RGB Halo from the AORUS MASTER GPU to keep everything cool alongside ULTRA DURABLE certified components. Dual BIOS should keep the card operating at lower noise levels.
GIGABYTE WINDFORCE
Source: GIGABYTE
Sometimes you do not need the extremities that the AORUS MASTER offers. You do need the flashy RGB that the GAMING OC card offers too. You just want something that works. That is the GIGABYTE WINDFORCE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 card.
It still packs the same WINDFORCE coolling system, which also means you should not be getting any less cooling performance with the entry-level GeForce RTX 4090 GPU from GIGABYTE. Like its more extreme brothers too, it has a large vapour chamber in direct contact with the GPU to keep everything cool and optimised. It even comes with Dual BIOS to keep things quiet when you need it to.
AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE
Source: GiGABYTE
The AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE is GIGABYTE’s answer to keeping the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 optimally cool in more extreme loads. It offers everything that the AORUS MASTER card offers, but with a slightly different cooling solution. Instead of relying on regular fan and heatsinks, it comes with a large water block and all-in-one aluminium radiator attached with three 120mm fans to keep things icy cold.
Space management with liquid cooling designs are usually quite complex. You want to think about the placement of the radiators, especially if you are also going with an all-in-one cooling solution for the CPU as well. To make things easier, the inlet and outlet ports are placed at the back of the card, so that it is easier to place the radiator. The pipes are also 460mm soft tubes to give you that extra flexibility in radiator placements.
GIGABYTE UD1000GM and UD850GM Power Supplies – PCIe 5.0 Empowerment
The new GPUs are rather power hungry with a quoted TDP of up to 450W. That is not even considering the spikes that the GPUs might go through from time to time. You need a power supply with a tonne of capacity. Since these are PCIe 5.0 cards too, you want your PSU to have PCIe 5.0 support out of the box for the best experience with the GPUs.
Introducing GIGABYTE’s UD1000GM and UD850GM 1000W and 850W power solutions made for PCIe 5.0 parts. As per PCIe 5.0 standards, the PSU offers a high-quality 16-pin connector that supports up to 600W of power output should your GPU need it. It is also a modular design with detachable cables for convenient cable management.
Price and Availability
There are no mentions on its local availability just yet. There are also no specific mentions on its pricing. You can expect the GPUs to be available once the reference cards from NVIDIA goes to market. You can also expect prices to be on the higher end of the scale compared to the reference cards with all the custom cooling solutions and components on their cards. More on GIGABYTE’s custom solutions for NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs can be found on their website.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 series, which they fondly refer to as the Ampere architecture processors, were rather potent. At its introduction, it presented the largest generation leap in performance from its predecessors. There were a lot of excitement for the Ampere built GPUs because of the generational gap presented between it, and the older GeForce RTX 20 series GPUs. Then there is the GeForce RTX 40 series that was just introduced by Jensen Huang last night.
NVIDIA calls it the Ada Lovelace, and it builds upon the technologies presented in its predecessor, the Ampere platform. It is even more capable in its real-time ray tracing functions. It also packs enough power to run an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm of its own for 3D rendering and processing. That also means this time, AI is involved in rendering the pixels you see on your display.
2X Performance
First up, you want to know how much faster the new RTX 40 series is compared to the RTX 30 series. In terms of ray tracing performance, the RTX40 is capable of up to 191 teraflops, nearly threefold of its predecessor. Its tensor cores are also capable of up to 1.32 petaflops, about five times the previous generation. But it is not just 3D rendering and ray tracing the gets the performance bump, you also get twice more NVENC decoders that allows the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series to half video workload times.
How NVIDIA achieved these numbers is a little technical, so we might have to explore that in a different story. In short though, it is not like NVIDIA slapped twice more cores into their chip. They did put more cores into their processing chip, but they have also improved their RT cores with 4nm architectures (hence Ada Lovelace architecture). That results in an improved energy and thermal efficiency of their chips in their GPUs which also means they can push their cores even more than before. That also means that ray tracing performance is doubled over whatever that came before. Thanks to the new Micro-Mesh Engine, the new cores can also generate textures in greater detail than ever before without taking up performance and storage resources.
DLSS 3.0
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), we think, was a rather clever technology when it was introduced. While plenty of electronic giants in the home entertainment industry spoke at lengths about how upscaling is the future of television, NVIDIA took it to the next level with DLSS in gaming. You could, for example, play your games in 4K resolution while the GPU only needs to render the graphics in 1080p Full HD, for example. DLSS 2.0 was a major upgrade to the clever feature and made DLSS properly good and reliable. DLSS 3.0 make DLSS a must have feature.
Where the previous iterations of DLSS lack is speed. While DLSS 2.0 was fast, it lagged behind when you compare it to playing games at native resolution. The AI still must take its time to render each texture from each frame and upscale them to whatever higher resolution you want your games to play in. DLSS 3.0 allows the GPU to now render entire frames for an improved gaming experience, much faster than before. This is thanks to a rather powerful and clever neural engine packed into the GPU.
Source: NVIDIA
2X Video Rendering
Like we pointed out earlier, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 is not just made for gaming. It is a powerful GPU made for the modern content creator too. For 3D artists, the added power and improved DLSS 3.0 makes rendering scenes and graphics on-site much faster than before. Ray tracing is much more accurate than before as well, allowing textures to be rendered more accurately and more lifelike over previous generation GPUS, and all of it can be done in real time, cutting production times.
Thanks to the inclusion of two eighth generation AV1 encoder, video editing suites gets an extra boost in power. That also means smoother real time rendering and scrubbing. It also means that videos gets rendered twice as fast now.
NVIDIA Broadcast also benefited from the dual encoders. Partners now have access to features like Face Expression Estimation, Eye Contact, and even more realistic Virtual Backgrounds. That also means you get better, more interactive video calls, or even better streaming graphics.
Introducing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080
Source: NVIDIA
For now, NVIDIA has only introduced the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 and high-end GeForce RTX 4080. They say that the GeForce RTX 4090 is about twice as fast as the RTX 3090 Ti while maintaining the same TDP at 450W. There are 76 billion transistors and 16,384 CUDA cores you can find on the silicon fitted on the flagship GPU. It is fitted with 24GB of the latest, fastest GDDR6X memory too.
The GeForce RTX 4080 packs up to 9,728 CUDA cores and up to 16GB of GDDR6S memory. There is also a 12GB edition with 7,680 CUDA cores and 12GB in GDDR6X memory. They say that the 16GB variant is twice more powerful than the current GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and more powerful than the current GeForce RTX 3090 Ti while maintaining a lower power consumption.
Price and Availability
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 will be available in select regions from the 12th of October 2022 onward. Prices will start at US$ 1,599, US$ 100 more than the RTX 3090 when it was launched. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB variant will retail for US$ 1,199 while the 12GB edition will go for US$ 899. Both NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 variants will be available only in November 2022. For more information on the new GeForce RTX 40 series, you can visit NVIDIA’s website.
