NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins 33 of 37 benchmarks, averaging 33.8% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in PixArt-Sigma XL, where NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by 110% (11.56 vs 24.27 images/min); the closest fight is Nemotron Nano 9B v2 (2% apart).
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| MiniCPM5 2B tok/s | 327.16 | 372.72 | -12% |
| LFM2.5 2.6B tok/s | 355.96 | 385.05 | -8% |
| Granite 4.1 3B tok/s | 249.52 | 276.62 | -10% |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B tok/s | 246.46 | 258.12 | -5% |
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 227.54 | 260.54 | -13% |
| DeepSeek Coder 7B Instruct v1.5 tok/s | 183.02 | 188.59 | -3% |
| Llama 3 8B tok/s | 162.78 | 167.69 | -3% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 161.02 | 171.29 | -6% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 156.47 | 164.32 | -5% |
| Nemotron Nano 9B v2 tok/s | 119.4 | 121.89 | -2% |
| Ornith 1.5 9B tok/s | 139.31 | 144.04 | -3% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 98.18 | 103.57 | -5% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 88.25 | 95.12 | -7% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 92.01 | 96.37 | -5% |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B tok/s | 167.97 | 188.23 | -11% |
| Qwen3.6 27B tok/s | 47.4 | 49.02 | -3% |
| Qwen3.8 27B tok/s | 46.54 | 48.01 | -3% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 226.19 | 259.61 | -13% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 tok/s | 230.33 | 263.17 | -12% |
| Gemma 4 31B tok/s | 43.49 | 45.08 | -4% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 42.18 | 44.28 | -5% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5 images/min | 43.77 | 80.14 | -45% |
| SDXL Turbo images/min | 456.11 | 652.11 | -30% |
| Sana 1.6B images/min | 21.84 | 41.47 | -47% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 8.42 | 16.28 | -48% |
| Playground v2.5 images/min | 5.39 | 9.96 | -46% |
| PixArt-Sigma XL images/min | 11.56 | 24.27 | -52% |
| FLUX.2 klein 4B images/min | 23.68 | 42.38 | -44% |
| Z-Image images/min | 0.7 | 1.17 | -40% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 4.35 | 7.24 | -40% |
| AuraFlow v0.3 images/min | 1.67 | 3.02 | -45% |
| 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 | 3.2 | 6.696 | -52% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.27 | 0.43 | -37% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is faster on 0 of 4; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 on 4.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 6.3 min | 3.8 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.65x faster | $0.024 vs $0.022 |
| 60-second AI short film | 9.9 min | 5.8 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.70x faster | $0.038 vs $0.033 |
| Full codebase review | 11.3 min | 10.5 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.08x faster | $0.043 vs $0.060 |
| Short social clips | 33.1 min | 21.5 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.54x faster | $0.126 vs $0.122 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 finishes 3 of 4 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | $0.229 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | $0.340 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is 1.48x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 24GB |
| Transistors | 28,300M | 76,300M |
| Die size | 628.4 mm² | 608.4 mm² |
| Process node | 8 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 45 M/mm² | 125.4 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 1008 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,860 MHz | 2,520 MHz |
| TDP | 450 W | 450 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,999 | $1,599 |
| Release | 2022-03-29 | 2022-10-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 33 of 37 benchmarks in our suite with an average 33.8% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- PixArt-Sigma XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by roughly 110% (11.56 vs 24.27 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti full review · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings