--- title: Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that... description: Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs deliver only modest raw performance gains — around 30% for the flagship RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090 — while consuming significantly... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that GPUs barely got faster | daily.dev og:description: Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs deliver only modest raw performance gains — around 30% for the flagship RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090 — while consuming significantly... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ppvPLJzgx.png og:image:alt: Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that GPUs barely got faster og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that GPUs barely got faster **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs deliver only modest raw performance gains — around 30% for the flagship RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090 — while consuming significantly more power. The RTX 5080 even falls short of the previous generation's flagship in rasterization. Nvidia is compensating by heavily promoting software features like DLSS upscaling and Multi Frame Generation, which inflate perceived performance numbers. The underlying cause is semiconductor manufacturing stagnation: both generations use derivatives of TSMC's N5 node, with no major shrink in four years. Moving to 3nm for large GPUs is prohibitively expensive. The author argues that software tricks cannot substitute for genuine hardware improvements, and that gamers ultimately care about native performance gains when deciding to upgrade. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Nvidia's real gaming move isn't faster GPUs, it's the software that lets you skip buying one](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-s-real-gaming-move-isn-t-faster-gpus-it-s-the-software-that-lets-you-skip-buying-one-2fd9a49ii) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I wanted a faster GPU, but prices and driver updates made my old one look a lot better](https://daily.dev/posts/i-wanted-a-faster-gpu-but-prices-and-driver-updates-made-my-old-one-look-a-lot-better-4r1imzylk) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Nvidia accidentally made the RTX 50 series feel like a beta test for the RTX 60 series](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-accidentally-made-the-rtx-50-series-feel-like-a-beta-test-for-the-rtx-60-series-r7n2a8jgk) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that GPUs barely got faster","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx"},"datePublished":"2026-07-24T11:01:39.175Z","dateModified":"2026-07-24T11:18:46.327Z","description":"Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs deliver only modest raw performance gains — around 30% for the flagship RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090 — while consuming significantly...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5071cbc904a58625bd49e03399477b61?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5071cbc904a58625bd49e03399477b61?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-is-using-software-tricks-to-hide-the-fact-that-gpus-barely-got-faster-ppvpljzgx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"gaming,nvidia,gpu","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Nvidia is using software tricks to hide the fact that GPUs barely got faster"}]} ```