NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs GeForce RTX 5080, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
GeForce RTX 5080 wins 33 of 44 benchmarks, averaging 29.9% faster.
GeForce RTX 5080's 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 LTX-Video (distilled), where GeForce RTX 5080 leads by 100% (2.17 vs 4.331 frames/s); the closest fight is Llama 3.1 8B (4% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 runs 52 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 34, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 5080 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 0.6B tok/s | 583.17 | 692.51 | -16% |
| Llama 3.2 1B tok/s | 632.21 | 726.57 | -13% |
| MiniCPM5 2B tok/s | 296.77 | 367.12 | -19% |
| LFM2.5 2.6B tok/s | 314.96 | 377.14 | -16% |
| Granite 4.1 3B tok/s | 227.46 | 253.62 | -10% |
| Nemotron 3 Nano 4B tok/s | 222.39 | 255.18 | -13% |
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 206.67 | 215.89 | -4% |
| DeepSeek Coder 7B Instruct v1.5 tok/s | 164.74 | 180.65 | -9% |
| Qwen2.5-7B tok/s | 156.51 | 173.49 | -10% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 7B tok/s | 156.52 | 173.53 | -10% |
| Llama 3 8B tok/s | 146.34 | 158.84 | -8% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 144.9 | 150.71 | -4% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 137.59 | 153.89 | -11% |
| Nemotron Nano 9B v2 tok/s | 108.86 | 119.94 | -9% |
| Ornith 1.5 9B tok/s | 124.77 | 138.12 | -10% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 85.77 | 96.61 | -11% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 78.79 | 81.97 | -4% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 81.11 | 87.02 | -7% |
| gpt-oss-20b tok/s | 231.97 | 265.35 | -13% |
| Gemma 4 26B A4B tok/s | 154.33 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 202.26 | 0 | n/a |
| Gemma 4 31B tok/s | 39.2 | 0 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 37.95 | 0 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5 images/min | 38.24 | 61.19 | -38% |
| SDXL Turbo images/min | 332.99 | 512.76 | -35% |
| Sana 1.6B images/min | 20.6 | 30.02 | -31% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 7.46 | 12.24 | -39% |
| Playground v2.5 images/min | 4.79 | 7.6 | -37% |
| PixArt-Sigma XL images/min | 10.9 | 16.22 | -33% |
| FLUX.2 klein 4B images/min | 21.26 | 0 | n/a |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 3.825 | 3.56 | +7% |
| 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 |
| Wan 2.1 1.3B frames/s | 0.341 | 0.452 | -25% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 2.17 | 4.331 | -50% |
| CogVideoX-2B frames/s | 0.241 | 0.361 | -33% |
| Stable Video Diffusion clips/min | 1.065 | 1.673 | -36% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.22 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (image to video) clips/min | 2.165 | 2.389 | -9% |
| Wan 2.2 TI2V-5B (image to video) clips/min | 0.605 | 0.959 | -37% |
| Stable Video Diffusion XT clips/min | 0.494 | 0.935 | -47% |
| CogVideoX-5B I2V clips/min | 0.15 | 0.257 | -42% |
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 2; GeForce RTX 5080 on 2.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 5080 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 12.7 min | 12.2 min | GeForce RTX 5080 1.04x faster | $0.030 vs $0.045 |
| Animate a batch of images | 33.1 min | 20.9 min | GeForce RTX 5080 1.59x faster | $0.079 vs $0.078 |
Renting by the hour, GeForce RTX 5080 finishes 1 of 2 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 | $0.143 |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | $0.223 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is 1.56x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 5080 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 16GB |
| Transistors | 28,300M | 45,600M |
| Die size | 628.4 mm² | 378 mm² |
| Process node | 8 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 45 M/mm² | 120.6 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Blackwell (GB203) |
| Memory bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 960 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,695 MHz | 2,617 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 360 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,499 | $999 |
| Release | 2020-09-24 | 2025-01-30 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or GeForce RTX 5080?
- GeForce RTX 5080 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 33 of 44 benchmarks in our suite with an average 29.9% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 5080?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has 24GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while GeForce RTX 5080 has 16GB VRAM and a 360W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 5080?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 fits 6 more of our 12 workloads than GeForce RTX 5080. 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 3090 and GeForce RTX 5080?
- LTX-Video (distilled): GeForce RTX 5080 leads by roughly 100% (2.17 vs 4.331 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 full review · GeForce RTX 5080 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings