Alleged Nvidia RTX 4090 Rumors Hint at Higher Boost Clocks

Nvidia Ada Lovelace and GeForce RTX 40-Series
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Some new rumors are going around, concerning the key specifications of the graphics cards expected to spearhead the Ada Lovelace graphics architecture. Kopite7kimi has shared the latest rumors about the GeForce RTX 4090, 4080 and 4070 from their sources. The major new info nuggets center on the RTX 4090, which is now claimed to have base / boost clocks of 2,235 / 2,520 MHz. As ever with leaks, take them with a pinch of salt.

If correct, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 default GPU clock speeds are surprisingly high. The card which it succeeds, the GeForce RTX 3090, offered much lower GPU clocks; 1,395 / 1,695 MHz, for the reference design. Moreover, the new Ada Lovelace flagship will have nearly 6,000 more CUDA cores, faster memory (the same 24GB quota), but is expected to eat about 100W more, if the touted TDP is correct.

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Nvidia GeForce

RTX 4090

RTX4080

RTX4070

GPU

AD102-300-A1

AD103-300-A1

AD104-275-KX-A1

CUDA cores

16,384

10,240

7,168

Base / Boost (GHz)

2,235 / 2,520

NA

NA

Memory

24GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X, 384-bit

16GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X, 256-bit

10GB of 18 Gbps GDDR6, 160-bit

Power (W)

450

420

300

It must also be noted that, if our calculations are right, the compute performance of the RTX 4090 could be ~90 TFLOPs. That is a very significant step up from the ~36 TFLOPs of the RTX 3090. Moreover, the AD102 GPU is said by Kopite7kimi to be able to be coaxed up to 2,750 MHz.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is a 450W card, allegedly the same for the RTX 4090. Thus the cooling solutions won't be unlike any we have seen before, you can look at the current crop of RTX 3090 Ti cards to see the myriad of cooler sizes and types.

Whether Kopite7kimi's data is spot on remains to be seen. A report we published based on his data in mid-May offered slightly different specs for the RTX 4090, but we always say add some salt to these leak stories. Furthermore, it might even be the case that the actual retail GPU specs are currently fluid, with Nvidia and partners still deciding on enabled cores and clocks for shipping products.

We don't have many months to wait until Ada Lovelace architecture GPUs are launched, according to previous leaks. About a fortnight ago, we reported that Nvidia will open its RTX 40 gambit with the GeForce RTX 4090 is September, with the RTX 4080 in October, and RTX 4070 in November. That is quite a protracted rollout, and with no mention of the potential mainstream mega-selling RTX 4060.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    That is quite a protracted rollout, and with no mention of the potential mainstream mega-selling RTX 4060.

    Why would any company launch a low margin product when they have no reason to?
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Why would any company launch a low margin product when they have no reason to?
    Especially when there are probably plenty of Ampere GPU's still in the channel that need to be sold.
    Reply