Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
In October 2022 , when I firstreviewed the RTX 4090 , I called it “ both a complete barren of money and the most powerful graphics posting ever made . ” That ’s even more genuine now that it was more than a yr ago . The AI boom shortly after the launch of the RTX 4090 , combined with some outside restrictions on the GPU , hascaused prices to skyrocketto unattainable shoes , impress the affordability from improbable to essentially impossible .
But that ’s change . Reports betoken thatprices are easy dropping , go from a senior high school of $ 2,200 down to around $ 2,000 . That ’s still right smart above the GPU ’s lean price of $ 1,600 , but the flight now is at least irrefutable .
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Even with prices starting to shake off , the RTX 4090 is n’t deserving the money , and it might never be . That ’s o.k. . It has nothing to do with the execution of the GPU . The RTX 4090 represents the pinnacle of a aura product in a GPU stack , and although it ’s peachy to look at and salivate over the public presentation the GPU pass , it makes a lot less now than it did in 2022 .
Shifting value
When Nvidia first plunge the RTX 4090 , it did n’t look as crazy as it does today . Would you believe that it in reality provided abetter valuethan theRTX 4080 ? If you picked up an RTX 4090 around the time it was turn , you get one hell of a deal . It ’s hard to call a small-arm of hardware establish for playing video game that costs $ 1,600 a “ mountain , ” but at least Nvidia give buyers a compelling reason to spend that much money .
That ’s not the case today . Not only is the RTX 4090 still selling for above lean toll , with cost crop between $ 1,800 and $ 2,000 , the RTX 4080 is also much tacky . Nvidia ’s refreshedRTX 4080 Superoffers essentially identical performance to the al-Qaida model , but it occur in at a new toll of $ 1,000 . The economic value equation between the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 is much unlike today than it was a year ago , with the RTX 4080 getting cheaper and the RTX 4090 getting more expensive .
Around a class ago , the RTX 4090 was around 33 % more expensive than the RTX 4080 . Now , you ’ll spend double on the RTX 4090 . We normally see prices drop in a uniform direction as a generation draw to a ending , particularly for flagship modelling , but the unforeseen requirement for the RTX 4090 in AI work has caused it to stay at an inflated price that it still has n’t recovered from .
There was a narrow-minded window around the clip the RTX 4090 released where it made sense , but it ’s hard to justify now . Even if the carte du jour is able to drop back down to number price , the falling price of the RTX 4080 with its Super refresh still set a turgid price disruption between the two cards .
Prices are still dropping , and the RTX 4090 could gain list monetary value soon . Even then , the price fall on the RTX 4080 Super makes the $ 1,600 lean terms too high . I would hold off on buying the GPU unless you see a good example below listing cost , which does n’t seem likely any time shortly .
Again , none of this has to do with the performance for the RTX 4090 . It ’s a tremendous GPU , and if you come about to have $ 2,000 burning a hole in your scoop , you should pick one up . Just because something is affordable to you , though , does n’t stand for it ’s worth it . That ’s the situation the RTX 4090 is in as we go deeply into 2024 .
A cautionary tale
I buy an RTX 3090 at the height of the GPU shortage . I was able to score a deal on one for tilt cost about a year before the RTX 4090 would release , and I went for it . The $ 1,500 I spent on the lineup sounded a lot better than the $ 2,000 or more that the GPU was going for on the secondhand market . Last class , I sold the GPU for $ 800 on eBay , making out with about $ 650 after fee .
It ’s a sound monitor of how promptly personal computer ironware moves and how much note value you could suffer once a fresh propagation usher up . I would n’t want to be one of the few that pluck up anRTX 3090 Tiwhen it discharge , only for the card to be trounced by the RTX 4090 less than six months later . Now , even the $ 600RTX 4070 Superprovides closelipped to identical performance to the RTX 3090 — for a third of the price .
This is n’t novel , either . The $ 1,000 RTX 2080 Ti was the head honcho when it released in 2018 , but it was equal by the $ 500 RTX 3070 two years later . If you bought the RTX 2080 Ti ahead of time , it was nifty . But it made less and less sense to purchase as time went on , and the RTX 4090 is no different .
Halo products are destined to get outclassed , and that ’s not a problem . Those emptor in the first wafture have a status symbolisation they can hang on to for a few days , and hopefully something that will express them for several years beyond that . But , the more you spend on a GPU , the more likely it is that your card will lose its value when the next generation arrives . What honorable marketing is there for a company like Nvidia than saying its new $ 600 GPU can perform as well as one that used to cost $ 1,500 ?
The RTX 4090 is reaching that level . house point to Nvidia launching its next coevals of desktop graphics cards in 2025 , and even without a shred of evidence , I ’m willing to bet money that there will be some new grievous GPU that makes the RTX 4090 expect like tyke ’s play . Then the midrange visiting card will make out , and we ’ll be in the same berth we are now , ask “ that ’s what we call up a flagship was before ? ”
Only flagship for a time
I do n’t want you to entrust here with the impression that it ’s always a sorry melodic theme to spend up for flagship ironware . The idea of waiting for the next generation to upgrade is a cycle that you ’ll never break — of form , if you wait long enough , you ’ll be able to get better functioning for less money . you’re able to still bring some nuance to that idea , maintain in mind when novel hardware is likely to launch and let that guide your buying decision .
give Nvidia ’s normal cadence of GPU releases , we ’re probably looking at calendar month , not years , before the next generation . And by the time the RTX 4090 even achieve list cost , it will belike be too tardy to rightfully get any value out of it before the next ring GPU show up on store shelf .
