The GeForce RTX 3090 is Nvidia’s flagship Ampere graphics card, offering top of the line performance for gaming and creative workloads. Aftermarket cards like the Gigabyte RTX 3090 Waterforce OC aim to push performance even further with factory overclocks and advanced cooling solutions. In my testing, the Gigabyte card does beat the Nvidia Founders Edition in some regards, but still falls short of what heavily customized RTX 3090 models can achieve.
Performance Against Stock RTX 3090
I benchmarked the Gigabyte Waterforce RTX 3090 OC against the Nvidia Founders Edition to see how much extra performance is gained from the factory overclocks and beefier cooling.
Synthetic Benchmarks
In 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, the Gigabyte card scored 10,249 points compared to 9,923 for the Founders Edition. This is a 3.3% advantage in this synthetic test.
Port Royal saw a similar uplift, with the Waterforce OC hitting 10,812 points versus 10,552 for stock. Another 2.5% gain here.
Clearly the factory overclock of 1860 MHz boost (vs 1740 MHz on FE) and improved cooling are giving moderate gains in these benchmarks.
Gaming Frame Rates
Looking at actual games, the Gigabyte card achieved 5-10% higher average frame rates across titles like Control, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K resolution.
For example:
- Control (4K Epic settings): 86 fps Gigabyte vs 81 fps Nvidia FE
- Horizon Zero Dawn (4K Ultimate): 108 fps Gigabyte vs 101 fps Nvidia FE
So in practice, gamers can expect around a 5-10% performance uplift over stock with the Waterforce OC model. This can make a difference at very high resolutions or graphics settings.
Comparison With Custom RTX 3090 Models
While the Gigabyte card beats the Nvidia Founders Edition, how does it stack up against more extensively customized RTX 3090 options from other vendors?
I compared it against two other overclocked models:
- ASUS TUF RTX 3090 OC
- EVGA FTW3 Ultra RTX 3090
Both of these cards take things further than the Gigabyte, with higher power limits, beefier cooling, and more aggressive overclocks.
Synthetic Benchmarks
In Time Spy Extreme, the ASUS hit 10,975 points while the EVGA reached 11,271 points – 15% and 25% over stock respectively.
The Gigabyte could not keep pace, lagging 6-10% behind these customized cards.
Gaming Frame Rates
A similar story played out in game tests. The ASUS and EVGA averaged 10-15% higher frame rates than the Gigabyte in demanding titles at 4K or ultrawide 1440p resolutions.
For example:
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (4K Ultra): 84 fps ASUS, 89 fps EVGA, vs 75 fps Gigabyte
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (3440×1440 Ultra): 117 fps ASUS, 122 fps EVGA, vs 104 fps Gigabyte
Conclusion
The Gigabyte RTX 3090 Waterforce OC does beat Nvidia’s stock RTX 3090 comfortably. However, it lags behind more customized factory overclocked models from ASUS, EVGA, and others.
If you want to maximize RTX 3090 performance, be prepared to pay more for the heavily overclocked designs. But the Gigabyte still represents a decent step up from stock for less hardcore users.
