Enlarge / The Nvidia RTX 4090 founders edition. If you can't tell, those lines are drawn on, though the heft of this $1,599 product might convince you that they're a reflection of real-world motion blur upon opening this massive box. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

The Nvidia RTX 4090 makes me laugh.

Part of that is due to its size. When a standalone GPU is as large as a modern video gaming console—it's nearly identical in total volume to the Xbox Series S and more than double the size of a Nintendo Switch—it's hard not to laugh incredulously at the thing. None of Nvidia's highest-end "reference" GPUs, previously branded as "Titan" models, have ever been so massive, and things only get more ludicrous when you move beyond Nvidia's "Founders Edition" and check out AIB options from third-party partners. (We haven't tested any models other than the 4090 FE yet.)

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  A gallery of size comparisons. 4090 vs. Xbox Series X gamepad. [credit: Sam Machkovech ]

After figuring out how to safely mount and run power to the RTX 4090, however, the laughs become decidedly different. You're going to consistently laugh with , not at , the RTX 4090, either in joy or excited disbelief.

Enlarge / We took our handsome pair of new Arc A700-series GPUs out for some glamour shots. While minding standard static-related protocols, of course. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

What's it like owning a brand-new Intel Arc A700-series graphics card? Is it the show-stopping clapback against Nvidia that wallet-pinched PC gamers have been dreaming of? Is it an absolute mess of unoptimized hardware and software? Does it play video games?

That last question is easy to answer: yes, and pretty well. Intel now has a series of GPUs entering the PC gaming market just in time for a few major industry trends to play out: some easing in the supply chain, some crashes in cryptocurrency markets, and more GPUs being sold near their originally announced MSRPs . If those factors continue to move in consumer-friendly directions, it will mean that people might actually get to buy and enjoy the best parts of Intel’s new A700-series graphics cards. (Sadly, limited stock remains a concern in modern GPU reviews. Without firm answers from Intel on how many units it's making, we’re left wondering what kind of Arc GPU sell-outs to expect until further notice.)

While this is a fantastic first-generation stab at an established market, it’s still a first-generation stab. In great news, Intel is taking the GPU market seriously with how its Arc A770 (starting at $329) and Arc A750 (starting at $289) cards are architected. The best results are trained on modern and future rendering APIs, and in those gaming scenarios, their power and performance exceed their price points.

Enlarge / Intel arrives at a crucial sub-$300 price for its medium-end GPU option. But will that bear out as a worthwhile price compared to its performance? (credit: Intel)

Intel's highest-end graphics card lineup is approaching its retail launch, and that means we're getting more answers to crucial market questions of prices, launch dates, performance, and availability. Today, Intel answered more of those A700-series GPU questions, and they're paired with claims that every card in the Arc A700 series punches back at Nvidia's 18-month-old RTX 3060.

After announcing a $329 price for its A770 GPU earlier this week, Intel clarified that the company would launch three A700 series products on October 12: The aforementioned Arc A770 for $329, which sports 8GB of GDDR6 memory; an additional Arc A770 Limited Edition for $349, which jumps up to 16GB of GDDR6 at slightly higher memory bandwidth and otherwise sports otherwise identical specs; and the slightly weaker A750 Limited Edition for $289.

A770 (16GB model) and A750 specs breakdown. (credit: Intel)

If you missed the memo on that sub-$300 GPU when it was previously announced, the A750 LE is essentially a binned version of the A770's chipset with 87.5 percent of the shading units and ray tracing (RT) units turned on, along with an ever-so-slightly downclocked boost clock (2.05 GHz, compared to 2.1 GHz on both A770 models).

Enlarge / The Arc A770 GPU, coming from Intel on October 12, starting at $329. (credit: Intel)

One week after Nvidia moved forward with some of its highest graphics card prices , Intel emerged with splashy news: a price for its 2023 graphics cards that lands a bit closer to Earth.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger took the keynote stage on Tuesday at the latest Intel Innovation event to confirm a starting price and release date for the upcoming Arc A770 GPU: $329 on October 12.

That price comes well below last week's highest-end Nvidia GPU prices but is meant to more closely correlate with existing GPUs from AMD and Nvidia in the $300 range. Crucially, Intel claims that its A770, the highest-end product from the company's first wave of graphics cards, will compare to or even exceed the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti , which debuted last year at $399 and continues to stick to that price point at most marketplaces.

Enlarge / Time to bust out the checkbook again, GPU lovers. The RTX 4090 is here (and it's not alone). (credit: Nvidia)

After weeks of teases, Nvidia's newest computer graphics cards, the "Ada Lovelace" generation of RTX 4000 GPUs, are here. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang debuted two new models on Tuesday: the RTX 4090, which will start at a whopping $1,599, and the RTX 4080 , which will launch in two configurations.

The pricier card, slated to launch on October 12, occupies the same highest-end category as Nvidia's 2020 megaton RTX 3090 (previously designated by the company as its "Titan" product). The 4090's increase in physical size will demand three slots on your PC build of choice. The specs are indicative of a highest-end GPU: 16,384 CUDA cores (up from the 3090's 10,496 CUDA cores) and 2.52 GHz of boost clock (up from 1.695 GHz on the 3090). Despite the improvements, the card still performs within the same 450 W power envelope as the 3090. Its RAM allocation will remain at 24GB of GDDR6X memory.

This jump in performance is fueled in part by Nvidia's long-rumored jump to TSMC's "4N" process, which is a new generation of 5 nm chips that provides a massive efficiency jump from the previous Ampere generation's 8 nm process.

Enlarge / Three new, yet largely familiar, GPUs are now available from AMD. (credit: AMD)

Starting today, AMD and a number of GPU makers will begin rolling out three new graphics cards in the Radeon 6000-series lineup. These new products add a "50" suffix to existing model numbers, and if you've followed AMD over the past few years, you can probably guess what that means.

The RX 6950XT, RX 6750XT, and RX 6660XT are heading to retailers today at suggested minimum prices of $1,099, $549, and $399, respectively. Each GPU comes with nearly identical specs to their "00" suffix predecessors, with the only difference between each being a factory-level boost to clock speeds and memory speeds.

Infinity Cache again—but also, very finite clock tweaks

In a press briefing ahead of today's announcements, AMD reps suggested that the gains are in part thanks to touch-ups on both the silicon and software levels, though for two of the GPUs, a wattage jump factors in, as well. The 6950XT now demands 335W TDP, up 35 W from its 6900XT predecessor, and we're at 180 W TDP for the 6650XT, which is a 20 W jump from the 6600XT .