Nvidia's RTX 4090 targets 300+ FPS at 1440p with low latency for competitive shooters

The PC gaming landscape is once again set for big changes with the launch of new hardware. As the next generation rolls in, many of us are adrift in dreams of upgrades. With some of the newest Nvidia cards officially launching this November, we're drooling over the potential boost that can come with new GPUs.

Depending on what you play and how, you might be interested in different advancements. For the shooter die-hards, Nvidia is making some pretty big promises when it comes to improvements in frame rate for some of the most popular games. For those chasing impossibly high FPS numbers, a new monitor may well be in need to keep up with these cards.

Nvidia is making some pretty big claims for its RTX 40 Series, stating that competitive players will actually benefit from something like a 27″ 1440p 360Hz monitor like the Alienware 34 QD-OLED monitor, which is one of our favourites in the category. The company says the new cards will deliver framerates of 360+ with latency as low as 10ms in optimised games, giving players a slight edge.

A graph on Nvidia's RTX 40 announcement page shows off some of these improvements to popular esports titles. The examples given are for the upcoming RTX 4090, paired with an Intel i9 running Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant at 1440P. Most were happily pulling over 400 FPS with under 10ms latency on the company's tests.

The demanding Apex Legends doesn't do quite as well as the other games. In the graph it's been capped at 300 FPS, which feels like it's falling short of Nvidia's 360 FPS claims. Still this is a pretty huge improvement over what I've ever achieved in Apex. That boost in performance likely wouldn't help a last-place champion like me, but for those into esports any advantage is key. 

Fortnite performs the best out of the bunch, but that's what you'd expect from a game optimised to work just about anywhere. If it can run on a Switch or even a phone, it's not too surprising. The graph shows Fortnite zooming along at an uncapped 601 FPS at 8.4 ms of latency. The speed at which kids dressed as a bear piloting another bear will turn into houses when you shoot them is going to be staggering. 

Rainbow Six Siege comes in a very healthy second with an uncapped framerate of 493 and only hitting 7.9 ms in the latency department. Valorant is next with 433 FPS at 8.2 ms, which might just help you rank up through the nerves. Overwatch, like Apex Legends, had its framerate capped but this time at 400 FPS and was hitting 8.6 ms latency. It'll be extra interesting to see how the upcoming Overwatch 2, which recently lost its lead hero designer, works with these cards.