PC gamers everywhere are justifiably excited about the upcoming release of Nvidia’s new 30-series graphics cards. The powerful skew of hardware options offers roughly double the performance of the last generation at the same price point, a leap which is practically unheard of in graphics tech. Even for those who do not immediately jump up to purchase a brand new graphics card, the implications of a new hardware generation reach far and wide. Not only are the 30-series cards more powerful, they are packed with new features and technologies that have the potential to change more than PC gamers’ graphics settings.
Ray tracing is the big buzz word for these new graphics cards and the next console generation. If Nvidia’s performance numbers are to be believed, these cards can do real-time ray tracing reliably enough that game developers will be able to use the cutting-edge rendering technique as more than a gimmick, pushing the industry towards general adoption of ray-tracing. Likewise, the use of AI to upscale frames and boost frame rates is a major step forward. These upgrades are all well and good for gamers, but the new RTX 3090 in particular has some tech and features that are especially important to content creators too.
The Nvidia RTX 3090 is the most powerful card in the new lineup of GPUs, but it is not the “flagship” card. The 3080 is being pitched as the top-of-the-line product for hardcore gaming enthusiasts, meant to replace the spot of the 2080Ti. Why, then, is Nvidia also selling a far more powerful card- the 3090- that seems to be in a category of its own? Although it was announced alongside the 3070 and 3080 gaming-focused cards, the 3090 is actually meant to step into the role of a somewhat more obscure product that Nvidia also offers.
The 3090 is meant to replace the TITAN RTX, a card that is far more powerful than the 2080Ti, but that Nvidia itself claims is “designed for researchers, developers, and creators.” While enthusiasts can and do occasionally use TITAN cards for gaming, the TITAN RTX comes in at a whopping $2,500, dwarfing the already hefty $1,000-1,500 2080Ti. For all of that extra money, the TITAN offers 24GB of RAM and higher core counts, but is otherwise little more than a beefed-up 2080Ti. All of that extra RAM and bonus power actually doesn’t improve gaming performance all that much. It is aimed primarily at boosting AI processes, crunching massive datasets, and rendering for 3D animation and video production.
TITAN cards aren’t meant to be sold to individuals looking to play games at high resolutions, they’re aimed at companies, researchers, and professionals who can leverage the card for non-gaming performance. The 3090 was announced as a “TITAN-class card” right from the get-go, but it is also getting slightly different treatment, and very different pricing, from Nvidia despite that claim. One of the first showcases the 3090 was used for was 8K gaming, which shows that Nvidia is willing to lean into the 3090’s gaming prowess a lot more than they did for the TITAN.
At $1,500, the 3090 is a massive step down in pricing from TITAN cards to boot. The 3090 is nearly twice the price of the 3080, but it is actually not that much higher than a 2080Ti. That, combined with the slightly more gaming-focused push that Nvidia gave the card in their announcement suggest that the 3090 is meant to be relatively more accessible than the TITAN. The ones who will benefit most from that accessibility is a growing class of professionals in the gaming industry- content creators. While the 3090 will also be great for the same researchers and professionals the TITAN was aimed at, content creators will find massive benefits in a high-end GPU purpose built for running multiple programs at once, rendering video, and using content-focused tools to the maximum potential.
The most immediate benefit that the 3090 has for content creation is its massive 24GB of VRAM. That much VRAM won’t boost performance in individual games very much, as evidenced by the 3080’s 10GB (which is still more than enough.) What all that ram is useful for, though, is running multiple processes at once. Gaming, capturing footage, and streaming all at the same time, or running an 8K video render in the background while performing other tasks will be possible thanks to the 3090’s beefy specs. Individual YouTubers or creators for other platforms equipped with a 3090 will find rendering in 4K and 8K far more efficient and less time consuming.
There are certain other technologies that make it clear that the 3090 is aimed at creators too. The 8K gaming advertised in Nvidia’s reveal isn’t just focused on playing at 8K, it includes baked-in features for capturing and decoding game footage up to 8K as well. The extra RT cores and Tensor cores in the 3090 are also meant to be used for “AI acceleration of top creative apps” like high-end editing, 3D modeling, and rendering programs. And, with this launch, Nvidia will also be rolling out the Nvidia Broadcast app designed specifically for streamers on Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms.
The 3090 isn’t a magical device that makes things possible that weren’t before, but what it will do is reduce the cost of entry to professional-level content creation and make creators’ workflows a lot faster and more streamlined. The more creators who can produce 4K and 8K video, stream quality footage to their viewers, and cut down on rendering times with powerful, (somewhat) affordable hardware, the better. This new generation of graphics cards won’t just be a big leap in graphics technology for gamers, it will likely also usher in a big step up in the quality of content produced by individual entertainers in all corners of the internet.
The Nvidia RTX 3090 is set to launch September 24th.
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