NVIDIA's RTX 5090 GPU has seen a few purported benchmarks aired at this point - hardly surprising as the reviews are almost here, if the grapevine is to be believed - and we've caught another, but this time it's a gaming-related effort.

Enthusiast gamers are hoping for a big leap with the NVIDIA RTX 5090 graphics card (Image Credit: Pexels)
Not an in-game benchmark, sadly, but nonetheless it's interesting to see a 3DMark result for the Blackwell flagship, albeit with all the usual caveats attached to any such rumors.
This comes from VideoCardz which has obtained 3DMark data from a few reviewers. We're told that the uplift for the RTX 5090 compared to the RTX 4090 is 33% in Time Spy, 36% in Fire Strike, and 46% in the other tests (Port Royal, Speed Way, and the newest effort, Steel Nomad - creeping over 50% in the latter).
That sounds impressive enough - for results not involving DLSS 4, certainly - but the catch is that synthetic benchmarks put the RTX 5090 in a better light than actual real-world testing.
While we don't get any figures for comparative in-game benchmarking, VideoCardz says that reviewers indicate that the rough overall level of performance gain for real-world gaming benchmarks is about 20% - but obviously take that assertion with even more salt. VideoCardz adds that this is just a vague average, and it can vary significantly from game to game (of course), but also with different resolutions and graphics settings.
A disappointing showing?
A generational increase of 20% is way below the weighty figures that the rumor mill put in our heads throughout the development of the Blackwell GeForce line-up. If you recall, the likes of 50% to 70% were mentioned for the gen-on-gen increase with the flagship RTX 5090.
What that might well reflect, however, is the performance boost seen when the RTX 5090 (and other Blackwell GPUs) get a huge increase from DLSS 4 and its new frame generation feature (MFG). In these scenarios, according to NVIDIA's own benchmarks, we're looking at a doubling of frame rates in some games (or even more); but this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison (with the frame generation seen in DLSS 3).
So, while a 20% uplift in gaming overall might sound a bit disappointing, it'll vary a fair bit, and there are going to be huge gains - as we've already seen - from DLSS 4 where it's supported.
Ultimately, we'll have to wait until the reviews come out - seemingly tomorrow - before we can get a more rounded picture of how the RTX 5090 shapes up versus the RTX 4090. Although we already know a couple of important points, of course: the new flagship uses a lot more power (575W, or more with higher-end third-party boards) and it'll damage your wallet a fair bit more, too.
There's no doubting it'll be the best gaming graphics card around for those who can afford it, though - or indeed find stock, which might be tricky if other chatter from the grapevine is correct.