I. Introduction
When mentioning NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series graphics cards, I personally have a deep impression, mainly for the following three reasons:
- Solid performance, with noticeable improvements compared to the previous generation.
- High power consumption.
- Good performance and cost-effectiveness, but severely impacted by the mining boom, making it nearly impossible for consumers to buy at the original price.
Considering that some friends are keen on picking up old flagship models, this article will retest the gaming performance of the GeForce RTX 3090 for reference. Of course, running mainstream games smoothly is no problem, but the key focus will be on power consumption and temperature performance.
II. Parameter Review
The GeForce RTX 3090 was released on September 1, 2020, using the GA 102 GPU, based on the Ampere architecture, built on Samsung’s 8nm process, with 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 texture units, 112 raster units, 82 ray tracing cores, 82 multi-processor streaming units, 328 tensor cores, and a 6MB L2 cache.
The standard clock speed is 1395 MHz, with a boost clock of up to 1695 MHz. It comes with 24GB of GDDR6X memory, with a memory speed of 19.5 Gbps, a memory bus width of 384-bit, and a memory bandwidth of 936.2 GB/s. The power consumption is 350W, and the suggested retail price is $1499.
III. Test Platform Configuration
The main configuration is as follows:
Processor: Ryzen 5 7600X Motherboard: MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WiFi Memory: 32GB DDR5 6000MHz Graphics Card: GeForce RTX 3090 24GB Storage: [not specified] Operating System: Windows 10
IV. Game Tests (GeForce RTX 3090 in 2025)
The following tests were conducted on seven games, all at 1440P with maximum graphics settings.
The first game is God of War.
The average frame rate is 102 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 93 FPS, frame time is 9.1ms, CPU usage is 32%, power consumption is 66W, temperature is 65°C, memory usage is 11.7GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 7.1GB, power consumption is 386W, temperature is 66°C.
In this game, CPU usage is 32%, nearly one-third, memory usage is between 11GB and 12GB, the GPU is running at full load, and VRAM usage is slightly over 7GB.
The average frame rate is around 100 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate around 90 FPS, and the frame time is around 9ms. Performance is solid, but the high power consumption is a clear downside.
The second game is Alan Wake 2.
The average frame rate is 59 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 43 FPS, frame time is 23.4ms, CPU usage is 15%, power consumption is 45W, temperature is 47°C, memory usage is 10.5GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.1GB, power consumption is 380W, temperature is 55°C.
In this game, CPU usage is only around 15%, very light, memory usage is between 10GB and 11GB, the GPU is at full load, and VRAM usage is just over 9GB.
The average frame rate is around 60 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate around 40 FPS, and the frame time is around 23ms, which is relatively high, possibly indicating optimization issues.
The third game is Silent Hill 2.
The average frame rate is 76 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 57 FPS, frame time is 12.3ms, CPU usage is 25%, power consumption is 61W, temperature is 56°C, memory usage is 10.5GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 7.4GB, power consumption is 390W, temperature is 62°C.
In this game, CPU usage is around 25%, almost one-quarter, memory usage is between 10GB and 11GB, and the GPU is nearly at full load, with VRAM usage just over 7GB.
The average frame rate is over 70 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate over 50 FPS, and the frame time is around 12ms.
The fourth game is Horizon Forbidden West.
The average frame rate is 88 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 42 FPS, frame time is 8.0ms, CPU usage is 62%, power consumption is 84W, temperature is 80°C, memory usage is 11.1GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 10.9GB, power consumption is 390W, temperature is 66°C.
In this game, CPU usage reaches 62%, quite high, memory usage is around 11GB, the GPU is near full load, and VRAM usage is around 11GB.
The average frame rate is over 80 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate over 40 FPS, and the frame time is around 8ms.
The fifth game is Black Myth: Wukong.
The average frame rate is 63 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 52 FPS, frame time is 16.8ms, CPU usage is 22%, power consumption is 55W, temperature is 60°C, memory usage is 10.9GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 5.9GB, power consumption is 388W, temperature is 63°C.
In this game, CPU usage is only around 22%, nearly one-fifth, memory usage is around 11GB, the GPU is running at full load, and VRAM usage is around 6GB.
The average frame rate is around 60 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate around 50 FPS, and the frame time is around 17ms.
The sixth game is Ghostwire: Tokyo.
The average frame rate is 73 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 64 FPS, frame time is 13.5ms, CPU usage is 24%, power consumption is 55W, temperature is 60°C, memory usage is 11.6GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 7.7GB, power consumption is 394W, temperature is 64°C.
In this game, CPU usage is around 25%, almost one-quarter, memory usage is between 11GB and 12GB, the GPU is near full load, and VRAM usage is between 7GB and 8GB.
The average frame rate is around 70 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate around 60 FPS, and the frame time is around 13ms.
The seventh game is Cyberpunk 2077.
The average frame rate is 63 FPS, the minimum instantaneous frame rate is 51 FPS, frame time is 18.2ms, CPU usage is 49%, power consumption is 74W, temperature is 72°C, memory usage is 10.5GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 6.4GB, power consumption is 388W, temperature is 65°C.
In this game, CPU usage is around 50%, memory usage is between 10GB and 11GB, the GPU is at full load, and VRAM usage is just over 6GB.
The average frame rate is around 60 FPS, with the minimum instantaneous frame rate around 50 FPS, and the frame time is around 18ms.
V. Comparison Conclusion
Overall, as an old flagship from the previous two generations, the GeForce RTX 3090 still offers sufficient performance even by today’s standards. It is definitely worth considering in the second-hand market, provided that the quality is solid and the price-to-performance ratio is high.
However, its high power consumption remains a significant drawback. If you intend to purchase one, special attention must be given to the power supply and the cooling system for the graphics card.
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