NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti wins 20 of 31 benchmarks, averaging 71.9% faster.
Both cards' numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Qwen3 14B, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti leads by 97% (82.77 vs 41.93 tok/s); the closest fight is MiniCPM5 2B (52% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: GeForce RTX 5060 Ti runs 38 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 20, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiniCPM5 2B tok/s | 304.63 | 200.58 | +52% |
| LFM2.5 2.6B tok/s | 320.54 | 188.2 | +70% |
| Granite 4.1 3B tok/s | 228.53 | 130.68 | +75% |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B tok/s | 222.47 | 128.01 | +74% |
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 206.45 | 134.96 | +53% |
| DeepSeek Coder 7B Instruct v1.5 tok/s | 164.84 | 87.21 | +89% |
| Llama 3 8B tok/s | 146.52 | 78.51 | +87% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 144.11 | 84.2 | +71% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 140.71 | 76.63 | +84% |
| Nemotron Nano 9B v2 tok/s | 107.7 | 58.98 | +83% |
| Ornith 1.5 9B tok/s | 125.18 | 68.96 | +82% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 88.43 | 48.66 | +82% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 78.31 | 45.06 | +74% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 82.77 | 41.93 | +97% |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Gemma 4 31B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5 images/min | 40.7 | 25.14 | +62% |
| SDXL Turbo images/min | 440.89 | 260.84 | +69% |
| Sana 1.6B images/min | 20.44 | 12.64 | +62% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 8.03 | 5.22 | +54% |
| DreamShaper XL Turbo images/min | 28.09 | 18.31 | +53% |
| Playground v2.5 images/min | 4.9 | 2.93 | +67% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 1.56 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 1.714 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is faster on 1 of 1; GeForce RTX 5060 Ti on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 12.8 min | 22.2 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 1.74x faster | $0.026 vs $0.045 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 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 3080 Ti | $0.121 |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | $0.121 |
Both rent for the same rate right now.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 16GB |
| Transistors | 28,300M | 21,900M |
| Die size | 628.4 mm² | 181 mm² |
| Process node | 8 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 45 M/mm² | 121 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 912.4 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,665 MHz | 2,572 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 180 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,199 | $429 |
| Release | 2021-06-03 | 2025-04-16 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 20 of 31 benchmarks in our suite with an average 71.9% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 12GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while GeForce RTX 5060 Ti has 16GB VRAM and a 180W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- For AI, yes, GeForce RTX 5060 Ti fits 1 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. 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 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti?
- Qwen3 14B: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti leads by roughly 97% (82.77 vs 41.93 tok/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti full review · GeForce RTX 5060 Ti full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings