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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 on all 7 shared benchmarks on file, by 1% to 26%, including 23% in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme (9,800 vs 7,950). On llama3:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 generates 111.7 tokens/s (per GitHub XiongjieDai/GPU-Benchmarks-on-LLM-Inference) against 109.6 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (per XiongjieDai/GPU-Benchmarks-on-LLM-Inference (GitHub)), best community run on file for each.

Side-by-side GPU comparison of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. Both released in 2020. MSRP range: $699 · $1,499. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.

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*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

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
vram gb 1024
vram type GDDR6XGDDR6X
tdp w 320350
cuda cores 870410496

Synthetic benchmarks

Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from WCCFTech, Moor Insights & Strategy, 3DMark, HWBOT, TopCPU.net, UL Benchmarks and Notebookcheck; 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.

BenchmarkNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
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 Port Royal (higher is better)
Source: Moor Insights & Strategy, 3DMark, HWBOT, WCCFTech		 11,960 points15,039 points
3DMark Pure Ray Tracing Feature Test (average fps) (higher is better)
Source: WCCFTech		 48 fps—
3DMark Speed Way (higher is better)
Source: HWBOT, 3DMark, TopCPU.net		 4,969 points5,075 points
3DMark Speed Way (graphics score) (higher is better)
Source: WCCFTech		 4,500 points—
3DMark Steel Nomad (higher is better)
Source: UL Benchmarks, 3DMark		 4,443 points5,229 points
3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12 graphics score) (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 4,442 points—
3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12 Graphics Score) (higher is better)
Source: 3DMark		 —5,112 points
3DMark Time Spy (higher is better)
Source: Moor Insights & Strategy, 3DMark		 15,477 points18,824 points
3DMark Time Spy (graphics score) (higher is better)
Source: WCCFTech		 17,800 points—
3DMark Time Spy Extreme (higher is better)
Source: Moor Insights & Strategy, Notebookcheck		 7,950 points9,800 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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 AI benchmarks →

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 AI benchmarks →

Quick answers

Which is faster, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 on all 7 shared benchmarks on file, by 1% to 26%, including 23% in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme (9,800 vs 7,950).

Which is better for running local LLMs?

On llama3:8b, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 generates 111.7 tokens/s (per GitHub XiongjieDai/GPU-Benchmarks-on-LLM-Inference) against 109.6 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (per XiongjieDai/GPU-Benchmarks-on-LLM-Inference (GitHub)), best community run on file for each.

What did the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 cost at launch?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 launched at a $699 MSRP and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 at $1,499. Street prices drift from launch pricing; the Where to buy section links current listings.

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