On Thursday, NVIDIA announced the worldwide availability of its GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs, which are built on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. Alongside these launches, NVIDIA introduced new AI features in the NVIDIA Broadcast app and released the January NVIDIA Studio Driver update.
GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs roll out
The GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, first showcased at CES 2025, are now accessible globally. These GPUs incorporate fifth-generation Tensor Cores with FP4 support, which significantly reduces VRAM requirements for generative AI models while doubling performance.
For example, Black Forest Labs’ FLUX models on Hugging Face now require less than 10GB of VRAM at FP4 precision, compared to over 23GB at FP16. The RTX 5090 can generate images in just over five seconds, a substantial improvement from the 15 seconds on FP16 or 10 seconds on FP8 with the RTX 4090.
Both GPUs feature ninth-generation encoders and sixth-generation decoders, supporting 4:2:2 and enhancing encoding quality for HEVC and AV1. The fourth-generation RT Cores, combined with DLSS 4, ensure smooth 3D rendering.
- GeForce RTX 5090: Features 32GB of GDDR7 memory with 1,792 GB/sec bandwidth (a 77% increase over RTX 4090), three encoders, and two decoders, cutting export times by a third.
- GeForce RTX 5080: Equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 memory and 960 GB/sec bandwidth (a 34% increase over RTX 4080), along with two encoders and decoders for faster video editing.
NVIDIA Broadcast App Updates
The latest version of the NVIDIA Broadcast app introduces two beta AI effects: Studio Voice and Virtual Key Light. Studio Voice enhances microphone quality to match high-end microphones, and Virtual Key Light provides professional-looking lighting. These features require an RTX 4080 or higher and are aimed at streaming and podcasting, not gaming.
Additional updates include:
- Improved voice quality with Background Noise Removal.
- Enhanced Eye Contact with gaze stability and natural eye movements.
- Better foreground and background separation with Virtual Background.
- A refreshed user interface showing GPU utilization metrics and side-by-side camera previews.
Developers can leverage these effects using NVIDIA Maxine SDKs or NVIDIA NIM microservices.
Accelerating Creative Workflows
The RTX 50 Series GPUs support 4:2:2 hardware encoding and can decode up to 8K video at 75 fps or nine 4K streams at 30 fps per decoder. The RTX 5090’s three encoders and two decoders enable video exports that are 40% faster than with the RTX 4090 and four times faster than the RTX 3090.
Key enhancements include:
- Ninth-generation NVENC: A 5% improvement in video quality for HEVC and AV1 encoding.
- AV1 Ultra Quality Mode: Offers 5% more compression at the same quality level, available for RTX 40 Series users.
- Sixth-generation Decoder: Doubles the speed of H.264 decoding.
Applications like DaVinci Resolve and Filmora have integrated these technologies, significantly benefiting livestreamers on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, and Discord.
Availability
The January NVIDIA Studio Driver, which supports the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs, is now available. Users can download the NVIDIA app for automatic driver updates, including enhancements for RTX Video Super Resolution. The updated NVIDIA Broadcast app is also available starting January 30, 2025.