GeForce RTX 4090 vs RTX 3080
VS
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
AD102
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
GA102
We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB with 128 pipelines and 16384 shaders against the 2 years older RTX RTX 3080 10 GB that utilizes 68 pipelines and 8704 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Review
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
Value for money (Beta)
Key differences
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 4090
- Performs significantly better (up to 2.2x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
- 2.8x higher maximum theoretical performance (82.6 vs 29.8 TFLOPS)
- Shows 64% higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 177 vs 108 FPS
- Manufactured using a more efficient 5 nm process technology
Gaming Performance
Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutionsGames
| Forza Horizon 5 | 275 199 193 155 |
170 114 104 80 |
| The Witcher 3 | 292 268 191 101 |
189 165 116 63 |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 339 238 188 90 |
274 206 149 82 |
| Far Cry 6 | 203 179 170 104 |
145 138 114 72 |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 200 163 132 74 |
119 98 78 43 |
| CoD: Modern Warfare III | 266 263 219 151 |
152 145 110 73 |
| Ghost of Tsushima | 188 152 137 91 |
109 89 74 44 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 226 208 143 66 |
135 117 79 36 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 302 284 222 118 |
210 195 151 82 |
| 1080p High | 255 | 167 |
| 1080p Ultra | 217 | 141 |
| 1440p Ultra | 177 | 108 |
| 4K Ultra | 106 | 64 |
| Margin of Error | Low | Low |
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Time Spy | 36299 | 17664 |
| Solar Bay | 187525 | 85898 |
| Port Royal | 26127 | 11597 |
| Fire Strike | 72432 | 42472 |
| Wild Life Extreme | 85218 | 37900 |
| Night Raid | 195813 | 133004 |
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | 318.9 img/sec | 217.3 img/sec |
| Face Detection | 222.8 img/sec | 141.9 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | 14.2 Gpixels/sec | 8.19 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | 21 Gpixels/sec | 11 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | 23.9 Gpixels/sec | 8.43 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | 2.38 Gpixels/sec | 1.29 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | 1950 Gpixels/sec | 780.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | 48090.4 FPS | 22538.5 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Passmark Graphics
G3D Mark Score
| G2D Mark | 1303 | 1062 |
| DirectX 11 | 323 FPS | 207 FPS |
| DirectX 12 | 151 FPS | 99 FPS |
| GPU Compute | 25991 Ops/s | 14058 Ops/s |
Blender
Blender GPU
Recent User Tests
GeForce RTX 4090
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-10-06 (Devansh) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 394674 |
| 📘 2026-10-06 (Devansh) | Geekbench 7 OpenCL | 338129 |
| 📘 2026-04-03 (afroman420IU) | Cinebench 2024 | 32578 |
GeForce RTX 3080
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-06 (Henry) | Cinebench 2024 | 50695 |
Artificial Intelligence Tests
Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasksGeekBench 6 ML
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
| Image Classification (SP) | 15600 | 9439 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | 36657 | 25471 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | 48114 | 19892 |
| Face Detection (HP) | 78111 | 46956 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | 289639 | 104704 |
| Text Classification (SP) | 4074 | 2712 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | 6349 | 4828 |
| Object Detection (SP) | 21186 | 12153 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | 75599 | 36822 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | 601428 | 246005 |
| Framework | ONNX | ONNX |
| Backend | DirectML | DirectML |
Specifications
Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 3080General
| Vendor | Nvidia | Nvidia |
| Build | Discrete | Discrete |
| Released | September 20, 2022 | September 1, 2020 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1599 | $699 |
| Case | Desktop | Desktop |
| Purpose | Gaming | Gaming |
| Segment | High-end | High-end |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| GPU Codename | AD102 | GA102 |
| Rival Equivalent | - | - Radeon RX 6800 XT |
| Successor | - GeForce RTX 5090 | - GeForce RTX 5080 |
| Recommended CPU | - Intel Core i9 14900K or above | - Intel Core i7 12700K or above |
Desktop GPU rating (3rd and 31st place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | 2235 MHz | 1440 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2520 MHz | 1710 MHz |
| Shading Units | 16384 | 8704 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 512 | 272 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 176 | 96 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 128 | 68 |
| Tensor Cores | 512 | 272 |
| Ray-tracing Cores | 128 | 68 |
| L1 Cache | 128KB per cluster | 128KB per cluster |
| L2 Cache | 72MB shared | 5MB shared |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 444 GPixel/s | 164 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 1290 GTexel/s | 465 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| TGP | 450 W | 320 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | Samsung |
| Fabrication Process | 5 nm | 8 nm |
| Die Size | 609 mm² | 628 mm² |
| Transistor Count | 76.3 billion | 28 billion |
| Transistor Density | 125.29 MTr/mm² | 44.59 MTr/mm² |
Memory
| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR6X |
| Memory Size | 24 GB | 10 GB |
| Memory Clock | 2625 MHz | 1188 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | 21000 Mbps | 19000 Mbps |
| Bus | 384-bit | 320-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| DirectX | 12 | 12 |
| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| CUDA | 8.9 | 8.6 |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | DLSS 3 | DLSS 2 |
| DisplayPort | 1.4a | 1.4a |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 9