The Colorful RTX 4090 NB EV-X may be the very first third-party RTX 4090 (starts in brand new tab) photos card we have had into the test rig, and actually, I became astonished it is a great deal larger versus humongous Founders Edition with currently impressed me personally. The shock just lasted before MSI RTX 4090 Suprim X landed having an audible thud into the Computer Gamer workplace, but because that is a great deal larger nevertheless.
Thereis a explanation third-party variations associated with the very first Ada Lovelace generation GPU are apparently all delivery with photos card supports. Decide to try mounting this thing vertically within framework without one whileare looking at a powerful recipe for bending, and even shearing the PCI Express slot clean off your motherboard.
The Colorful RTX 4090 (starts in brand new tab), but is just a $1,600 mostly reference-clocked card in place of the in fact overclocked MSI, in order to forgive it being truly a little smaller. You merely need certainly to visit a 3.5-slot design if you should be actually pressing the energy, right? It can not quite determine what to phone this card, however. The retail field claims ‘Battle Ax’ the merchandise web page claims RTX 4090 NB EX-V, however additionally references a Battle Axe air conditioning array. That is axe. Having an ‘e’. Fun, eh?
But there’s nevertheless a significant, concrete feeling of value whenever picking right up this chonk boi of the photos card. The quantity of aluminium for the reason that heatsink array, poking from under the triple fan shroud, points towards latent energy inside this thing.
And it’s really a pretty restrained design from Colorful, and also maybe not that colourful. You are able to, obviously, replace the RGB logo design together with it through the iGame computer software, but that is about this. The very last Colorful card we tested ended up being its RTX 3080 iGame Advanced OC (starts in brand new tab), that was only a little outrageous, as you would expect. Not only into the angular RGB-lit shroud, but additionally in its push for aggressively overclocking the GPU at its heart which managed to get instead flaky at launch.
The RTX 4090 Battle Ax, but is solid, square, so far as dependable whilst the Nvidia Founders Edition.
RTX 4090 NB EX-V specifications
GPU: Nvidia AD102
Lithography: TSMC 4N
CUDA Cores: 16,384
Boost clock: 2,565MHz
Memory: 24GB GDDR6X
Memory rate: 21Gbps
TDP: 480W
Dimensions: 327 x 151.2 x 67.1mm (over 3 slot)
Price: $1,599.99
whenever We stated it had been mostly reference-clocked that is because its boost clock is 2,565MHz in place of the 2,520MHz associated with the Founders Edition card. Now, i understand some manufacturers would nevertheless phone that ‘overclocked’ therefore kudos to Colorful for maybe not spouting that line in virtually any of its advertising round the card.
Though i am maybe not planning to allow the ‘menacing luxury’ line pass without remark with regards to discusses that ‘diamond cutting design’ into the item description. In terms of luxury, the very last thing i would like that it is is menacing. It is up here with marketing your restaurant as providing ‘caustic gastronomy’.
Image 1 of 3
That apart, the AD102 GPU gets similar therapy as that into the RTX 4090 Founders Edition, frankly a phenomenal quantity of CUDA Cores, all third Gen RT Cores and 4th Gen Tensor Cores, additional cache, and 24GB of GDDR6X memory to phone its very own.
So yeah, nevertheless a complete monster of the photos card. If you wish to arrive at grips with all the brand new technology I currently gone into level with all the Ada Lovelace architecture (starts in brand new tab) into the FE review.
The energy aspect is in which it appears only a little various, nonetheless. Colorful, like other manufacturers, is suggesting 1000W energy materials the RTX 4090 (though MSI nevertheless claims an 850W PSU may be the minimal requirement), also it’s discussing the TGP as 480W, maybe not 450W much like Nvidia’s very own card.
Again, the 480W figure is really what MSI is suggesting for the RTX 4090 Suprim in overclocked ‘video gaming Mode’.
Synthetic performance
Image 1 of 3
All those specifications might have you anticipating the Colorful card to surpass the RTX 4090 Founders Edition into the benchmarking stakes. However you’d be incorrect. And possibly that is down seriously to the particular design of Nvidia’s very own board. Nvidia’s designers crafted the AD102 to manage plenty of energy going right through its 4N transistors, to the stage it’s in a position to strike the average 2,716MHz within our evaluation.
And section of which will be down seriously to the 20 stage energy design of its PCB, delivering a reliable movement of clean power towards GPU. This Colorful board, but is displaying a 14+3 energy stage design, that might explain why we are just seeing the average 2,577MHz into the test rig.
4K video gaming performance
Image 1 of 8
I became nevertheless in a position to overclock the chip to perform at a reliable 2,865MHz by upping the energy limitations and by hand adjusting the clock rate into the iGame computer software, but that took only a little work. Though it shows the energy design remains sufficient to acquire a significant performance out from the Colorful card. I’m nevertheless slightly unfortunate i really couldn’t effortlessly strike 3GHz, but I yet to correctly decide to try my hand at really overclocking the RTX 4090.
This reduced clock rate is indicative of reduced performance throughout the board the Colorful RTX 4090. But just with a fractional quantity, and it’s also nevertheless monumentally quicker versus RTX 3090 that arrived before it.
Power and thermals
Image 1 of 3
PCG test rig
CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard: Asus ROG Z690 Maximus Hero
Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB
RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-5600
Storage: 1TB WD Ebony SN850, 4TB Sabrent Rocket 4Q
PSU: Seasonic Prime TX 1600W
OS: Windows 11 22H2
Chassis: DimasTech Mini V2
Monitor: Dough Spectrum ES07D03
The energy and thermal needs of the third-party card is always a significant part of any choice where RTX 4090 to purchase. But it is all instead level regarding those metrics involving the Founders Edition and also the two AIB cards we have tested up to now. The Colorful may be the coolest-running, however additionally the slowest, this means its energy draw normally low in comparison.
It’s well worth noting your MSI card into the benchmarks above is operating at nearly similar rate whilst the Founders variation, often providing greater performance, but in fact appears slightly cuter when it comes to exactly what it demands regarding energy part.
Image 1 of 3
All those natural standard figures apart, the Colorful RTX 4090 remains a great car the majesty that’s DLSS 3 with Frame Generation. Which among the be noticed top features of the Ada GPUs, and may function as thing that saves the RTX 4080s from searching plenty weaker in comparison. Frame Generation is some amazing AI-based wizardry, and makes also CPU-limited games, particularly MS Flight Sim, absolutely—pardon the pun—fly.
And it appears great carrying it out. We’d get up to now to express that DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, at 4K also regarding Efficiency environment, appears markedly much better than operating the games we have tested at 4K indigenous.
So, the Colorful RTX 4090 Battle Ax remains really an RTX 4090, which means it’s really a mighty effective photos card. But Nvidia has engineered another amazing Founders Edition variation, which is distinguishable from partner cards, and ensures that when you have an option this is the someone to purchase. It’ll continually be $1,600 and I also’d constantly just take that more than any third-party variation, overclocked, water-cooled, or whatever.
