RTX 5090 finally back on top of GPU leaderboard, but it’s not the variant you expect
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Last week, PassMark’s video card benchmark leaderboard showed the RTX 5090 struggling against its last-gen competitor, the RTX 4090, with the latter sitting at the top with 23 more points. It wasn’t just the RTX 5090 that performed slower than expected, as the RTX 5070 Ti also couldn’t do much to dethrone the RTX 4070 GPUs. This made it seem like the RTX 50 series either struggled in 3D rendering or something was hindering their performance.
It turns out there was indeed an issue with the test. PassMark was using a 32-bit framework for testing, and for those who don’t know, Nvidia removed support for 32-bit applications on RTX 50 series GPUs, stating, “32-bit CUDA applications are deprecated on GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs.” Since then, PassMark has released a patch, updating the GPU Compute test to use 64-bit components, and the RTX 50 series GPUs have already taken their rightful positions on the leaderboard.
- GPU: GB202
- CUDA cores: 21,760
- VRAM: 32GB GDDR7
- Memory Bus width: 512-bit
- Base clock speed: 2010MHz
- Boost clock speed: 2410MHz
RTX 5090 takes the top spot, but it’s the 5090 D variant
According to the updated leaderboard, the RTX 5090 has shown a huge improvement compared to where it previously stood. The last time we reported on the GeForce RTX 5090 in this benchmark, its average PassMark score was 38,407, but it has now gone up to 38,827. For comparison, the RTX 4090 previously had an average score of 38,430 but currently sits at 38,421.
| Graphics card | Old PassMark score | New PassMark score |
|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 5090 D | N/A | 45,984 |
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 38,407 | 38,827 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | 38,430 | 38,421 |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | 31,326 | 31,853 |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | 31,811 | 31,824 |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | 31,754 | 31,738 |
Interestingly, while the RTX 5090 has taken the lead against the RTX 4090, it isn’t exactly at the top spot, or at least not the global RTX 5090. Instead, the top position is currently held by the China-only RTX 5090 D, which has outperformed the global 5090 by over 7,000 points. We aren’t exactly sure how the 5090 D has managed to create such a big gap, as both models have the same specifications aside from the 5090 D having reduced AI performance, which shouldn’t affect this benchmark in any way.
All RTX 50 series GPUs show improvements
Apart from the RTX 5090 GPUs, the RTX 5070 Ti has also shown gains, now sitting above the RTX 4070 and the RTX 4070 Ti Super with an average score of 31,853, a 527-point increase from its previous 31,326. This shows that while the RTX 50 series might struggle in 32-bit applications, as seen with older 32-bit PhysX games, its performance in 64-bit applications is worth keeping an eye on.
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