NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 4070 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 504 GB/s |
| Shaders | 10496 | 5888 |
| Boost Clock | 1695 MHz | 2475 MHz |
| TDP | 350W | 200W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 5,117 | 3,862 |
| Best Price | $1,499 | $579 |
| Value Score | 18/100 | 51/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is 8% faster at 1440p ultra (106 fps against 97.8 fps). That is roughly one settings notch — enough to matter if you are chasing a specific refresh rate, not enough to rescue a bad price.
You pay a 159% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 ($1,499 against $579) to get 8% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 carries 24GB against 12GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 12GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 draws 150W less (200W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is 3 years newer (2023 versus 2020), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.