NVIDIA RTX 5000 GPUs could be 60% faster - and 2.5x for RT - but may not arrive until Q2 2025

We're witnessing a fairly steady flow of rumors around NVIDIA's RTX 5000 GPUs of late - or whatever Blackwell ends up being called - and the latest batch comes from a YouTube leaker.

This is RedGamingTech (RGT) who has been tapping sources to get fresh info on purported specs for Blackwell graphics cards, as well as news on the likely release timeframe.

Obviously as with any rumor, take all this with plenty of seasoning, and the caveat that even if these are NVIDIA's current plans being relayed back accurately, the relevant specs and other details may change as Blackwell is further developed.

RGT tells us that Blackwell is likely to be capable of hitting faster clock speeds than Lovelace, and that 3GHz is achievable with boost clocks in NVIDIA's next-gen range (though which models will hit that, the leaker doesn't yet know).

As we've heard previously, the RTX 5090 will run with 192 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), and will have an architectural uplift over and above the Lovelace flagship (naturally).

All of this will add up to a generational 60% performance boost in rasterization, comparing GB102 to AD102, we are told.

Rays above all else?

Where NVIDIA is really focusing its efforts, though, is in ray tracing, where we can expect a jaw-dropping performance increase, at least if RGT is right.

The YouTuber has heard from sources that the performance target is a 2.5x increase, which is, of course, huge - though note that this is just a target (and a rumored one at that). There may well be some fancy bits of tech involved in achieving that, including Tensor cores having additional functionality of some kind, maybe pertaining to rumored denoising improvements.

• Read more: NVIDIA's RTX 3060 could be staying around as a budget option to tackle AMD's rival low-end GPUs
• Read more: Fed up with sky-high pricing for NVIDIA's RTX 4090? The GPU now seems to be falling in price

RGT further asserts that there will be a 2x increase in compute, assuming again that this is the RTX 5090 versus the RTX 4090.

This is what NVIDIA is supposedly aiming for performance-wise, anyway, and Team Green is set to employ GDDR7 RAM when it comes to the video memory for Blackwell (and that means even the lower-end next-gen graphics cards). For the full spec details, see the screenshot below.

2

Rumored Blackwell specs (Image Credit: RedGamingTech)

On the downside, power usage is going up with Blackwell, and the RTX 5090 could be pitching in at up to 520W, RGT believes (ouch).

The overall strategy seems to be that NVIDIA is doubling down on ray tracing, basically, and pushing that line as the future of gaming, furthering that advantage over AMD. Especially when you consider that RDNA 4 isn't going to be particularly strong in ray tracing, even though it will be a generational improvement (of course), or that's the latest rumor. RDNA 5 is where AMD is planning to make its real move to boost RT performance.

Finally, RGT imparts the latest gossip on the potential release date for RTX 5000 GPUs. One source is insistent that Blackwell will out this year, but several other sources are pointing to 2025 - and around Q2, not that early in the year. RGT seems to think a launch next year is the most likely prospect, something other rumors have suggested of late.

If we do get a Blackwell graphics card late in 2024, it'll almost certainly be a lone RTX 5090 release as the advance guard for NVIDIA.

Read more: NVIDIA and AMD GPU frame generation can be combined for 3x faster FPS - but it's a silly idea