GIGABYTE - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card - Black

Let me preface this by saying that all of these current gen GPU's cost too much! With that said this card does exactly what its advertised to do. I came back to NVidia because their performance and driver support over the years are the best in the business. Size wise this card dwarfs my last gen XFX Speedster MERC 319 RX 6900 XT in both width and depth so be sure that your case and motherboard can handle such a large card. My build is in a Thermaltake Level 20 XT case on a MSI MEG Z790 ACE EATX motherboard so any card will fit. My mb is also mounted horizontally so no stress on the PCIE slot but if you mount it another way then you will have to consider using the card support bracket or placing it on a riser if your case supports one. The power draw can really creep up in the 450w+ range during stress testing so if your system's power supply is not in the recommended range you shouldn't buy one. I run an EVGA Supernova G2 1300w with 6 individual PCIE power rails for the GPU and 4 of them are supplying the power to this card using the supplied 4 to 1 12vhpwr adapter. The power connector is a fickle thing and you should be sure to plug it into the card while its outside the case. I thought I had it connected as it snapped when I initially seated it but I wiggled it a bit more while pushing down and it snapped again at which point the tiny little latch was over the notch fully which I verified by shining a flashlight onto it. If you never watched the Gamer's Nexus video on the melting connectors maybe you should before buying any 4090 card so you can fully understand the importance of completely engaging the power connector prior to powering up the system. Even 3rd party cables from well known companies are melting on the 12vhpwr connector so be informed before you make a costly mistake. I have included some of my Time Spy benchmarks so you can see a comparison between my old card and this one running on an Intel Z790 based system with Intel 13900K CPU. The cooling fans on the unit will stop even in the performance mode unless you disable fan stop in the gigabyte utility interface which is not very intuitive. The LED controls are even less useful and the lights stop with the fans and do not function like normal argb lights. I just use them as indicators to whether or not the fans are turning. My case has 19 Antec Prism X fans so temps are good even while gaming and benching. This card runs cooler than my old one but I can hear the fans spool up from time to time and they are quite loud at full rpm. I'm hoping that this setup will last me a couple of years which is why its seemingly overkill. Stock seems to be improving which is how I was able go purchase this card for 1 hour pickup at my local store. If you do buy one be sure the register your card immediately after purchase to get the 4 year warranty.