NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 wins 17 of 27 benchmarks, averaging 12.4% 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 Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 leads by 113% (4.76 vs 10.16 images/min); the closest fight is Nemotron Nano 9B v2 (0% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 runs 35 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 14, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiniCPM5 2B tok/s | 272.23 | 312.75 | -13% |
| LFM2.5 2.6B tok/s | 279.55 | 307.16 | -9% |
| Granite 4.1 3B tok/s | 204.19 | 226.16 | -10% |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B tok/s | 189.44 | 198 | -4% |
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 184.08 | 201.76 | -9% |
| DeepSeek Coder 7B Instruct v1.5 tok/s | 141.63 | 143.42 | -1% |
| Llama 3 8B tok/s | 125.8 | 127.3 | -1% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 125.85 | 127.09 | -1% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 120.85 | 123.68 | -2% |
| Nemotron Nano 9B v2 tok/s | 91.15 | 91.27 | -0% |
| Ornith 1.5 9B tok/s | 107.51 | 109.71 | -2% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 76.61 | 78.94 | -3% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 69.93 | n/a |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 71.02 | 70.88 | 0% |
| 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 XL images/min | 4.76 | 10.16 | -53% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 3.07 | n/a |
| PixArt-Sigma XL images/min | 0 | 14.6 | 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 | 3.705 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | $0.109 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | $0.228 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 2.09x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 10GB | 16GB |
| Transistors | 28,300M | 45,900M |
| Die size | 628.4 mm² | 378.6 mm² |
| Process node | 8 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 45 M/mm² | 121.2 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ada Lovelace (AD103) |
| Memory bandwidth | 760 GB/s | 716.8 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,710 MHz | 2,505 MHz |
| TDP | 320 W | 320 W |
| Launch MSRP | $699 | $1,199 |
| Release | 2020-09-17 | 2022-11-16 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 17 of 27 benchmarks in our suite with an average 12.4% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB VRAM and a 320W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 has 16GB VRAM and a 320W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 fits 4 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. 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 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 leads by roughly 113% (4.76 vs 10.16 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 full review · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings