NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
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 4080 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 717 GB/s |
| Shaders | 10496 | 9728 |
| Boost Clock | 1695 MHz | 2505 MHz |
| TDP | 350W | 320W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 5,117 | 6,585 |
| Best Price | $1,499 | $1,199 |
| Value Score | 18/100 | 33/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers 130.4 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090's 106 fps, a 23% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is both faster and 25% cheaper at $1,199 versus $1,499. There is no scenario in this pairing where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 carries 24GB against 16GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 16GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is 2 years newer (2022 versus 2020), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.