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Is the upgrade from nvidia 4080 to 4090 worth it?

mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
in The Commons

I'm looking at purchasing a Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IRX9H Laptop. I'm pleased enough with the specs: 14th gen i9 processor, 32 GB of RAM (Probably going to upgrade that) and the fact it has two 1TB SSD slots (definitely going to upgrade those).

But...

Is it worth paying to upgrade the NVIDIA GeForce 4080 12GB to the NVIDIA GeForce 4090 16GB?

I'm not saying that money isn't an issue, but I can afford the upgrade (about $800). So this isn't a question about whether the price/performance trade-off. The question is, will the extra speed and memory actually be helpful? I sometimes make VERY large outdoor scenes – with lots of geometry on the trees, grass and such – and have had issues with performance.

Not sure if this link will work here, but here's a link to the specs for the two computers:

 https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntk=all&sortby=match&N=4294967288+4294818187+4294803333&myStore=true

Comments

  • LeanaLeana Posts: 11,770

    Do you run out of VRAM with your current card often? If so, the extra VRAM can be useful.

  • oddboboddbob Posts: 396

    I'd do it for the extra vram as a high end laptop is going to be something to keep for a while. That said, I have a desktop 4090 which is somewhere around 30% faster with more vram and there are some scenes like you describe that can bring it to it's knees.

  • KenYanoKenYano Posts: 109

    Looks like the 5090 is going to be a monster. Just wait for that.

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,750

    The extra memory is no doubt very worth it if you create large scenes.  I have a laptop with a 4090 and I'm glad I got it. Just keep in mind that a laptop 4090 isn't a desktop 4090, it's actually equivalent to a desktop 4080 (hardware that is). But it's still the fastest laptop nVidia GPU, and is pretty efficient for performance vs electric consumption.

  • johnjohn808johnjohn808 Posts: 174
    edited September 29
    Extra VRAM is always good. I have a 3090. In my case, going from 4 to 8, then 16, and now 24gb of vram helped my creativity grow with each upgrade. Having that headroom to add more assets to the scene if a wild idea pops up is priceless to me. Having both would be nice, but Id give up speed for vram any day.
    Post edited by johnjohn808 on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,142

    I had read early the RTX 5090 was supposed to be out this fall but well, fall's hear and nothing. I have an RTX 4070 and based on it's performance I will probably only next upgrade when an RTX 6090 is for sale, but that could change to an RTX 5090 depending on the timing of the release of those two GPUs. 

  • mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
    KenYano said:

    Looks like the 5090 is going to be a monster. Just wait for that.

    My laptop died and I needed a new one now. Waiting wasn't an option.
  • mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
    I bit the bullet and bought the 4090. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.
  • TomhipTomhip Posts: 386

    KenYano said:

    Looks like the 5090 is going to be a monster. Just wait for that.

    Its probably going to cost like a monster and incure additional costs in monthly electricity bill too :D

  • mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,484
    edited November 3

    Tomhip said:

    KenYano said:

    Looks like the 5090 is going to be a monster. Just wait for that.

    It's probably going to cost like a monster and incur additional costs in monthly electricity bill too :D

    HAH! It definitely cost more to get the 4090, but I'm not using it to mine crypto. So far, the increased speed for raytracing does seem to be pretty significant and I'm happy with the purchase.

    Post edited by mmitchell_houston on
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