NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins 8 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 234.7% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by 454% (2.94 vs 16.28 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (155% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 runs 8 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 4, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 260.54 | -61% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 171.29 | -62% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 95.12 | -63% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 44.28 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 2.94 | 16.28 | -82% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 7.425 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 4.7 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0.43 | n/a |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is faster on 0 of 1; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 10.5 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 2.68x faster | $0.016 vs $0.027 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 finishes 1 of 1 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | $0.034 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | $0.155 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 4.56x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 24GB |
| Transistors | 12,000M | 76,300M |
| Die size | 276 mm² | 608.5 mm² |
| Transistor density | 43.5 M/mm² | 125.4 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 1008 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 2,520 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 450 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $1,599 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2022-10-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 8 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 234.7% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 fits 4 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by roughly 454% (2.94 vs 16.28 images/min) in our testing.
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