NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs. RTX 3090 Ti

NVIDIA has a ton of GPUs, with newer generation options coming in to compete with its older offerings. With multiple GPUs at similar prices, it can be confusing to pick the right one for you. NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 4080 alongside the RTX 4090 at the end of 2022. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is part of the previous generation of graphics cards but was released at the beginning of 2022. When shopping around for a powerful 4K GPU, which should you choose between the two? Here’s how the two GPUs stack up against each other.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs. RTX 3090 Ti: Price, specifications & availability

• 	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
  GPU Speed	2.21 GHz	1.56 GHz
  Interface	PCIe 4.0	PCIe 4.0
  Memory	16 GB GDDR6X	24 GB GDDR6X
  Power	320 W	450 W
  Boost Speed	2.51 GHz	1.86 GHz
  CUDA Cores	9728	10752

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 launched as the second-best GPU, replacing the RTX 3080 but comes with better performance than the RTX 3090 Ti. This is a similar story to the RTX 30 launch compared to older RTX 20 series cards. Unfortunately for consumers, NVIDIA has also increased the MSRP of its graphics cards, and you can expect to pay a fair chunk of change for the RTX 4080.

One would assume that the RTX 4080 at $1,199 for better performance than the $1,999 RTX 3090 Ti would be a good deal, but you have to look closer at what’s on offer. The RTX 3090 Ti had an inflated price at launch, and $1,200 for a GPU that isn’t the flagship is asking a lot from PC gamers. Neither GPU is a particularly great value proposition. A few months down the line now, RTX 4080 prices are still the same. On the other hand, RTX 3090 Ti stocks seem to be dwindling, leading to a price increase of several hundred dollars.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs. RTX 3090 Ti: Architecture differences

The specifications are very different between the two GPUs. The RTX 3090 Ti wins outright for RAM capacity, memory bandwidth, and core counts. NVIDIA has crammed the latest generation processing cores inside the RTX 4080 while using a much more efficient manufacturing process that allowed the company to lower power draw.

The newer NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built using the 4nm Ada Lovelace architecture. The RTX 3090 Ti was built on an older 8nm process with Ampere. The move to Lovelace brings with it 3rd-gen ray tracing cores, 4th-gen tensor cores, and far better efficiency. This allows NVIDIA to extract more performance without simply adding more cores and calling it a day.

The RTX 3090 Ti has a TDP of 450W whilst the RTX 4080 has a TDP of 320W, but the RTX 4080 is capable of boosting at considerably faster clock speeds. This architecture shift allows the RTX 40 cards to punch above their weight and appear slightly underpowered on paper.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs. RTX 3090 Ti: Performance

Going by SKU numbering, you’d naturally assume the RTX 3090 Ti would still hold enough power to decimate the RTX 4080 in games, but you’d be wrong in doing so. Ada Lovelace graphics cards from NVIDIA are exceptionally powerful with a more efficient platform and plenty of new tech to utilize. It has few stream processors, as well as RT cores, but still manages to come out on top.

Where the RTX 3090 Ti may have an edge is with its RAM capacity. 16GB is a lot of system memory for the GPU to work with, but the RTX 3090 Ti has 24GB. VRAM can quickly get eaten up by high-resolution textures and other data. Both GPUs should have enough for 4K gaming, but you will be able to load more higher-resolution textures on the older GPU before running out of space.

Here are some real-world FPS comparisons between the two GPUs, as per testing from Testing Games:

The RTX 4080 beats the 3090 Ti in pretty much every game tested here. The RTX 3090 may have an edge in certain memory-heavy compute applications like machine learning training, but when it comes to gaming, the RTX 4080 performs better.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs. RTX 3090 Ti: Which GPU should you buy?

If we were to recommend just one, we’d go with the RTX 4080. It’s the best GPU of the two. It has a newer architecture, lower power draw, is capable of running quieter, and comes with all the latest generation NVIDIA cores. With the current pricing trends, the RTX 4080 is also way cheaper and easier to acquire. If you want the very best performance, go with the RTX 4080, but we recommend shopping around and holding out for price drops.

Source: Nvidia

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition

This is the better pick for getting more for your money out of the two. It’s the better-performing GPU compared to the older RTX 3090 Ti.

The RTX 3090 Ti was a fantastic card at release, and can strike back in a few more demanding games at 4K with more high-res textures, as well as memory-heavy compute tasks. If you can get one for a price closer to its MSRP, it’s still a great GPU. Should you already own an RTX 3090 Ti, we’d recommend keeping it since it’s a fantastic 4K card and see what NVIDIA comes up with for the inevitable RTX 50 series.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti

This may be an older GPU and lose out to the RTX 4080 unless you’re loading super high-res textures, it may be possible to pay less for this Ampere flagship.