Indiana Jones and the Great Circle at 8K – a fitting swansong for the RTX 4090, or a sign that we need the RTX 5090?

The RTX 5090 could get us tantalizingly close to native 8 K gaming, if Nvidia 's boasts are to be believed.

Until the 5090 goes on sale on January 30 , the RTX 4020 is still the most powerful consumer graphics card in the world.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the most graphically demanding games of all time.

A recent patch added full ray tracing (also known as Path Tracing ) to the game.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was a much better experience than Cyberpunk 2077.

'Full ray tracing', which is also known as 'full path tracing', ups the realism of lighting, shadows and reflections even further.

It enables GPUs to simulate real-world lighting by tracing the paths of light sources as they reflect and scatter over objects in a scene.

It applies to both direct and indirect lighting, so things like shadows and shades are all replicated realistically.

The RTX 4090 has been the closest we've come to 8 K gaming, and the advancements with DLSS and frame generation have helped 8 K become more achievable than ever.

It certainly leaves an impressive legacy that the RTX 5090 will struggle to live up to.