NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
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 5070 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR7 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 672 GB/s |
| Shaders | 10496 | 6144 |
| Boost Clock | 1695 MHz | 2512 MHz |
| TDP | 350W | 250W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Blackwell 2.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 5,117 | 5,256 |
| Best Price | $1,499 | $549 |
| Value Score | 18/100 | 69/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is 8% faster at 1440p ultra (114 fps against 106 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.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is both faster and 173% cheaper at $549 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 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 5070 draws 100W less (250W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is 5 years newer (2025 versus 2020), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.