GeForce RTX 4070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 — Specs & Performance Compared
Verdict: The GeForce RTX 4070 leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks (9% in 3DMark Time Spy); the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 takes 3 (15% in 3DMark Steel Nomad). On llama3.1:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 generates 79.2 tokens/s (per LocalScore.ai) against 78.0 for the GeForce RTX 4070 (per kunalganglani.com LLM Benchmark Database), best community run on file for each.
Side-by-side GPU comparison of the GeForce RTX 4070 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. MSRP range: $599 · $699. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Price and availability subject to change.
Where to buy
A listing for each part; the current price and stock are on the retailer's page.
Specs side-by-side
| Spec | GeForce RTX 4070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 |
|---|---|---|
| vram gb | 12 | 10 |
| vram type | — | GDDR6X |
| tdp w | — | 320 |
| cuda cores | — | 8704 |
Synthetic benchmarks
Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from Overclocking.com, Wccftech, PC Guide, Moor Insights & Strategy, 3DMark, HWBOT, TopCPU.net and CpuTronic; each row links its sources, and where they differ the cell shows their median. Empty cells mean we don't yet have that benchmark on file for the SKU.
| Benchmark | GeForce RTX 4070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 |
|---|---|---|
| 3DMark DirectX Raytracing (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com |
51 fps | — |
| 3DMark DirectX Raytracing Feature Test (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com |
51 FPS | — |
| 3DMark Fire Strike (higher is better) Source: Overclocking.com |
37,790 points | — |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme (graphics score) (higher is better) Source: Wccftech |
— | 21,100 points |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra (graphics score) (higher is better) Source: Wccftech |
— | 10,100 points |
| 3DMark FireStrike Ultra (higher is better) Source: PC Guide |
9,880 points | — |
| 3DMark Port Royal (higher is better) Source: Moor Insights & Strategy, 3DMark, PC Guide, Wccftech |
11,040 points | 11,960 points |
| 3DMark Pure Ray Tracing Feature Test (average fps) (higher is better) Source: Wccftech |
— | 48 fps |
| 3DMark Speed Way (higher is better) Source: HWBOT, Overclocking.com, TopCPU.net, 3DMark |
4,423 points | 4,969 points |
| 3DMark Speed Way (graphics score) (higher is better) Source: Wccftech |
— | 4,500 points |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better) Source: 3DMark, CpuTronic |
3,853 points | 4,443 points |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12 graphics score) (higher is better) Source: 3DMark |
— | 4,442 points |
AI inference (tokens/sec)
Top community-reported tokens-per-second results for popular LLMs whose weights fit the card's memory, each linked to its source. See the per-SKU benchmark page for the full set including quantization and prompt length.
GeForce RTX 4070
- llama3.2:1b: 283.0 tok/s (LocalScore.ai)
- llama3.2:1b: 283.0 tok/s (LocalScore.ai (Mozilla Builders))
- llama2:7b: 92.3 tok/s (knightli.com llama.cpp GPU Benchmark Scoreboard)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- llama2:7b: 139.7 tok/s (llama.cpp GitHub Discussion #15013)
- llama2:7b: 139.7 tok/s (llama.cpp GitHub (CUDA performance scoreboard))
- llama2:7b: 139.7 tok/s (knightli.com)
Quick answers
Which is faster, the GeForce RTX 4070 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080?
The GeForce RTX 4070 leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks (9% in 3DMark Time Spy); the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 takes 3 (15% in 3DMark Steel Nomad).
Which is better for running local LLMs?
On llama3.1:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 generates 79.2 tokens/s (per LocalScore.ai) against 78.0 for the GeForce RTX 4070 (per kunalganglani.com LLM Benchmark Database), best community run on file for each.
What did the GeForce RTX 4070 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 cost at launch?
The GeForce RTX 4070 launched at a $599 MSRP and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 at $699. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.
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