NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins 8 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 63.3% 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 118% (7.46 vs 16.28 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 32B (17% apart).
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 206.67 | 260.54 | -21% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 144.9 | 171.29 | -15% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 78.79 | 95.12 | -17% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 37.95 | 44.28 | -14% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 7.46 | 16.28 | -54% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 3.825 | 7.425 | -48% |
| 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 | 2.17 | 4.7 | -54% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.22 | 0.43 | -49% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is faster on 0 of 4; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 on 4.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 8.3 min | 5 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.66x faster | $0.010 vs $0.013 |
| Full codebase review | 12.7 min | 10.5 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.21x faster | $0.015 vs $0.027 |
| 60-second AI short film | 15.2 min | 7.9 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.91x faster | $0.017 vs $0.021 |
| 10 short social clips | 42.4 min | 22.7 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.87x faster | $0.049 vs $0.059 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 finishes 4 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 | $0.069 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | $0.155 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is 2.25x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 24GB |
| Transistors | 28,300M | 76,300M |
| Die size | 628.4 mm² | 608.5 mm² |
| Transistor density | 45 M/mm² | 125.4 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 1008 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,695 MHz | 2,520 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 450 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,499 | $1,599 |
| Release | 2020-09-24 | 2022-10-12 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 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 63.3% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has 24GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by roughly 118% (7.46 vs 16.28 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 full review · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings