GPU Frequency NV RTX 3090 FE
We need to find out what the default GPU clock speed of the video card is. With both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, the GPU frequency is dynamic. NVIDIA has GPU Boost, and AMD has its Game Clock and Boost Clock quoted frequencies. Typically, GPUs today can exceed the “Boost Clock” dynamically. We need to find out what it actually runs at, so we can compare the benefit of overclocking. To do this we will record the GPU clock frequency over time while playing a game. We use Cyberpunk 2077 for this with a very long manual run-through at “Ultra” settings recording GPU-Z sensor data.
In the graph above, the green bar represents the official GPU Boost clock on the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition which is 1695MHz. We can see from this graph that the GPU Boost clock speed while gaming is operating well above the official quoted GPU Boost clock. What we see here is that the frequency bounces between 1755MHz-1785MHz while gaming, with an average of around 1770MHz.
If you compare this clock speed to the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING OC that we reviewed you’ll find that it actually has a very similar clock speed, even though that was an OC card. The clock speed of 1770MHz average here is only 10MHz slower than the average 1780MHz clock speed on that card while gaming, therefore the Founders Edition is actually as fast as that OC card with its GPU Boost clock frequency. That’s very competitive.
When you compare this GPU Boost clock speed to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition you’ll find the RTX 3080 Ti running around 1800MHz on average. Therefore, the RTX 3080 Ti does run at a higher clock frequency and has an advantage in clock frequency compared to the RTX 3090.