NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE review: the new king of graphics cards for creatives

The 5090 Founders Edition is your new favourite graphics card - if you can afford it (and if you need all that power)

An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE graphics card
(Image: © Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Our Verdict

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE is quite simply the new peak for graphics cards. While some may look at the pure gigabyte VRAM figures and presume the leap from the previous 40-series isn't that big, they are wrong. With a host of new software features accompanying a vast upgrade in efficiency, such as neural rendering, mega geometry and DLSS 4, this new Blackwell-powered flagship card not only brings more power than before; it does so more slickly than ever. 3D artists, game developers and video editors with truly professional needs should put the 5090 at the top of a very short list - if the needs justify the near-$2,000 cost, of course.

For

  • Absolute monster performance
  • Not too loud
  • Host of revolutionary features

Against

  • More power than most non-pros need

Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

It's finally here. After much anticipation, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE, the first NVIDIA GeForce card of the full-on AI era, is here. Promising a paradigm shift in graphics processing, the 5090 FE (the FE stands for Founders Edition) is the flagship of an upcoming line of 50-series graphics cards from NVIDIA, with more power, more efficiency and more AI-ready features to take creative pros' work further than ever - at least that's the pitch.

But will it vault right to the top of the list of best graphics cards on the market, or have we been waiting in vain? I have had one for a couple of weeks to find out.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 - Cell 0 4070 Ti Super/16GB4080/16GB4090/24GB5090 FE/32GB
Release date:January 2024November 2022October 2022January 2025
Approx price:$859$1,299$1,499$1,939
CUDA cores:844897281638421760
Tensor (AI):70678013213352
Base clock (MHz):2340221022302010
Bus width:256256384512
Effective mem speed:21 GB/s22.4 GB/s21 GB/s28GB/s
Wattage draw:285W320W450W575W
Swipe to scroll horizontally
GEEKBENCH 6GPU OpenCL:376,919
UL PROCYONFlux AI Image Generation:4.145s/image
TOPAZ VIDEO AIEnhancement:142.79
Row 3 - Cell 0 Slowmo:362.44:
Row 4 - Cell 0 Combined:2274.93
PUGETBENCH for PHOTOSHOPOverall:10,974
Row 6 - Cell 0 General:101
Row 7 - Cell 0 Filter:120
PUGETBENCH for DAVINCI RESOLVEGeneral:13,695
Row 9 - Cell 0 GPU Effects:203
Row 10 - Cell 0 Fusion score:114
Row 11 - Cell 0 AI score:135
Row 12 - Cell 0 H.264 encoding:129.04fps
The Verdict
9.5

out of 10

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 FE is quite simply the new peak for graphics cards. While some may look at the pure gigabyte VRAM figures and presume the leap from the previous 40-series isn't that big, they are wrong. With a host of new software features accompanying a vast upgrade in efficiency, such as neural rendering, mega geometry and DLSS 4, this new Blackwell-powered flagship card not only brings more power than before; it does so more slickly than ever. 3D artists, game developers and video editors with truly professional needs should put the 5090 at the top of a very short list - if the needs justify the near-$2,000 cost, of course.

TOPICS
Erlingur Einarsson
Tech Reviews Editor

Erlingur is the Tech Reviews Editor on Creative Bloq. Having worked on magazines devoted to Photoshop, films, history, and science for over 15 years, as well as working on Digital Camera World and Top Ten Reviews in more recent times, Erlingur has developed a passion for finding tech that helps people do their job, whatever it may be. He loves putting things to the test and seeing if they're all hyped up to be, to make sure people are getting what they're promised. Still can't get his wifi-only printer to connect to his computer.