At Nvidia’s September 2022 GPU Tech Conference (GTC), Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, revealed the RTX 4090. It promised a change in the gaming industry of GPUs. On October 12, 2022, Nvidia released the new RTX 4090 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). It had the brand new ADA Lovelace architecture, which is a graphics processing unit (GPU) microarchitecture. However, it had a very steep price, but it brought higher quality in GPUs unseen before.
At first, it was seen as a revolutionary change for the gaming industry. However, upon seeing the price of the GPU to be a massive $1,599, some gamers decided not to buy the new GPU. And after the RTX 4090 sold out, its price could jump into the $3,000 range on sites such as StockX. This was caused by many scalpers buying the RTX 4090 en masse.
Another problem can be attributed to a global chip shortage, which could explain the high price. After all, the reason you can’t get a PS5 is because of the chip shortage. Much other stuff has also been affected by the chip shortage.
Another problem that gamers saw was its size. Compared to the RTX 3090 Ti, its predecessor, it was the size of Mount Everest. It could not fit in certain computer cases due to its size. Some gamers may have gotten some form of scammed by Nvidia after realizing that their new GPU can’t fit into their case.
A major issue the RTX 4090 had was its power supply connector. It melted. Many gamers were angry at Nvidia for this, and it is still a major issue.
However, we need to look deeper into what Nvidia is doing. They want to make big changes, as seen in their fall GTC. The RTX 4090 could be big since Nvidia is using a brand new architecture, which they don’t yet understand how to harness efficiently. This issue also applies to their power supply problem. Once again, they could not be efficient enough. A major problem with the RTX 4090 was efficiency. Hopefully, Nvidia can correct this in the future, especially with the other 40-series graphics cards.
The price of the RTX 4090 is high, but it is worth it. Take a look at this. An FPS (frames-per-second) average test was done on the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 4090. It was tested using Cyberpunk, a heavily demanding game. The RTX 3090 Ti had an average of 43 FPS, but the RTX 4090 had an average of 77 FPS. Keep in mind that all of the graphic settings were set to a high level.
Nvidia then released its RTX 4080 on November 16, 2022. Gamers hoped it wouldn’t be a disaster. And guess what? It was. But not primarily because of the same issue. It was because of a competitor. Its name is AMD (Advanced Micro Devices). AMD’s engineers came up with the AMD Radeon 7900 XT/XTX. The release date is soon, on December 13, 2022. They will cost $899 and $999, respectively. Compared to Nvidia’s RTX 4080 price of $1,199, the AMD Radeon 7900 XT/XTX may be seen as a cheaper, yet an equivalent alternative to the RTX 4080. Also, the RTX 4080 still has the same issues as its bigger brother, the 4090. Power supply connectors are melting, overheating, and mainly, their colossal size. As Nvidia begins to face another problem, they need to find a way to fix their problems, or else their other RTX 40 series will be commercial doom to them.
Let’s wrap it up. Nvidia is facing quite a lot of problems. Let’s list them out: Global chip shortage, engineering issues, efficiency problems, power connector problems, and design issues. It’s a lot, right? Well, there is hope, the Global chip shortage may end somewhat soon. And what about Nvidia’s current GPU issues? Well, every mistake is a lesson. Everybody in this world should know that. Nvidia will change for the better. They will learn not to leap too much on unknown grounds of technology. And if not, well, let’s just say that they may vanish.
But how about you? Maybe you read to learn why you can’t get the new GPUs. Well, here’s something. DON’T. It is a waste of money. Too many scalpers are infecting the GPU market. Design and engineering issues plague a once-dominant company. It is better to get an old GPU. It will be worth it. You will not need a bigger case, and your power supply won’t need a colossal wattage and power rating. An older GPU will make your PC way cheaper.
Nvidia is failing right now. If they don’t change, they may lose to other companies. However, only time will tell what happens, and we cannot see what comes ahead of us.