Get an RTX 3090 Ti for $999 (was $1999)
The discounted model is a Gigabyte Windforce X3 too, offering a robust thermal solution with three axial fans and a black, no-nonsense design. There’s a full complement of output ports - three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.1 - and plenty of ventilation to keep that fully-unlocked GA102 GPU as cool as possible.
The RTX 3090 Ti was reviewed by the lovely James just five months hence, where it was dubbed ’the graphics card [you want], but shouldn’t’. There’s plenty to love about its performance - the extra cores, higher boost clock and faster memory clocks translate into a meaningful uptick in performance over the already ludicrously fast RTX 3090, delivering excellent gaming results at 4K - and indeed, at any other resolution you care to name save 8K. It’s about 10%, all told, but this will vary somewhat by the game, scene, settings and resolution used for your testing.
In order to tame this beast, you’re recommended to possess at least a 750W power supply, with a roughly 450W draw for just the graphics card itself - amazing. The RTX 3090 Ti is also a massive thing, with this particular model measuring 13.03 inches long, 5.91 inches tall and 2.76 inches wide - a triple slot card in all but name, although its backplate is only two slots.
If you’ve got a big case and big power supply to keep it stocked, then this will be an awesome performer - but of course, there’s always the argument to wait for the next-generation cards to arrive. Even if they’re massively expensive and hard to find, as is likely, then we might see some even better prices on RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti units over the days, weeks and months that follow.