Introduction

In a thrilling announcement made earlier this month at CES, NVIDIA unveiled its much-anticipated GeForce RTX 50 series, known as the "Blackwell" generation. Among the lineup, the spotlight shines on the formidable GeForce RTX 5090, the flagship graphics card set to make waves in the gaming and tech communities, with a retail price of $1999 USD. Following its arrival at Phoronix for Linux testing, enthusiasts are buzzing with excitement as we dive into the features of this state-of-the-art hardware.

Release and Features

Though the GeForce RTX 5090 won’t officially hit the market until January 30, the unboxing embargo has been lifted, allowing us to get a firsthand look at the Founder's Edition. While we eagerly await performance benchmarks, the details revealed so far make it clear that the RTX 5090 is not just another graphics card—it’s a powerhouse.

Boasting an astonishing 92 billion transistors, the RTX 5090 packs a staggering 21,760 CUDA cores and is equipped with 32GB of GDDR7 video memory, delivering an impressive memory bandwidth of 1.792 TB/s. Designed for maximum efficiency and speed, the GPU leverages PCI Express 5.0, and features HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1b with UHBR20 outputs. Additionally, it comes with next-gen technology, including 4th generation ray-tracing cores and 5th generation tensor cores, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming and rendering.

Power Requirements

However, such power comes with a cost—literally! The RTX 5090 also demands a hefty 575 Watts of graphics power. It's imperative to ensure you have a robust power supply to support this beast, especially for gaming enthusiasts aiming to utilize its full potential.

Design and Engineering

Visually, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founder's Edition is a stunning work of engineering. Its design is sleek and sophisticated, effectively managing nearly 600 Watts of power while being more compact compared to its predecessor, the RTX 4090. Even the packaging reflects NVIDIA’s commitment to quality, showcasing an over-engineered cardboard box that emphasizes the card's premium status.

Performance Expectations

Under the hood, NVIDIA’s innovations promise up to double the performance of the RTX 4090 when using technologies like DLSS 4 on Microsoft Windows 11. The gaming community is eager to see how well this card performs in Linux environments, especially with the increasing popularity of Steam Play (Proton), native Linux games, and GPU compute workloads.

Linux Driver Support

NVIDIA is expected to provide robust Linux driver support right at launch, with a focus on delivering performance parity to the corresponding Windows drivers. While it’s true that fully open-source options like Nouveau or the upcoming Rust-based NOVA kernel driver might offer alternative support, users seeking optimal performance will want to stick with NVIDIA's official driver stack for the best experience on the RTX 50 series.

Conclusion

As we gear up for the official launch of the RTX 5090, keep your eyes peeled for more in-depth performance evaluations under Linux. This flagship GPU is poised to redefine gaming graphics yet again, and we will ensure to keep you updated on the latest benchmarks that explore its full capabilities! Stay tuned!