Explore the Epic Quest for 8K Gaming: Does the Nvidia RTX 4090’s swansong portend a GPU revolution?

The Nvidia RTX 4090: The Last Hurrah for a King?

We’re at the dawn of a new era in gaming, with Nvidia’s recent announcement of the RTX 5090. But before we bid farewell to the reigning champ, the RTX 4090, let’s see just how well it can handle the latest graphically intensive game: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Rough Specs

Bethesda’s recommended specs for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle list an Nvidia RTX 4090 as the minimum requirement for playing at full ray tracing at ultra settings. But is this just a sign of the times, or is the RTX 4090 finally showing its age?

Performance

With full ray tracing turned on, our RTX 4090 test rig managed 40fps at 8K resolution. That’s not too shabby, but we know the RTX 4090 is capable of more. Enabling DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and setting it to ‘Quality’ gave us a boost to 54fps. Changing to ‘Balanced’ mode bumped the frame rate up to 59fps without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

Frame Generation

But we didn’t stop there. Nvidia’s frame generation feature uses AI to generate additional frames based on the game you’re playing, inserting them seamlessly between real frames. We set it to ‘Performance’ mode, which renders the game at 1440p and upscales to 8K, and achieved 60fps with full ray tracing on medium. However, there was noticeable pop-in and visual artifacts, likely due to the strain on upscaling.

Conclusion: The Nvidia RTX 4090 Does Not Belong in a Museum… Yet

The RTX 4090’s performance in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s clear that the GPU is still capable of delivering excellent gaming performance, especially at 4K resolutions. On the other hand, the advanced graphical effects in the game have pushed the RTX 4090 to its limits, highlighting the need for further technological advancements.

With the RTX 5090 on the horizon, it seems that the future of gaming has arrived. Nvidia’s latest boasts of the new GPU’s capabilities, including its improved Multi Frame Generation feature, suggest that it will be the key to unlocking even more impressive graphics. So, while the RTX 4090 may have had its last hurrah, it’s still a beast of a graphics card that will continue to serve you well for years to come.

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