NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 122.9% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in LTX-Video (distilled), where NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 leads by 272% (4.7 vs 17.47 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (19% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 runs 156 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 8, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 260.54 | 310.26 | -16% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 171.29 | 261.83 | -35% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 95.12 | 144.84 | -34% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 44.28 | 74.07 | -40% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 41 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.28 | 34.58 | -53% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 7.425 | 22.125 | -66% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 9.064 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 4.264 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 3.68 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 4.7 | 17.47 | -73% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.43 | 1.33 | -68% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is faster on 0 of 4; NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 on 4.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 5 min | 1.8 min | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 2.74x faster | $0.013 vs $0.040 |
| 60-second AI short film | 7.9 min | 2.5 min | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 3.19x faster | $0.021 vs $0.055 |
| Full codebase review | 10.5 min | 6.9 min | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 1.52x faster | $0.027 vs $0.154 |
| 10 short social clips | 22.7 min | 8 min | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 2.84x faster | $0.059 vs $0.178 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 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 4090 | $0.155 |
| NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 | $1.336 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is 8.62x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 80GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Hopper |
| Memory bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 3350 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,520 MHz | 1,980 MHz |
| TDP | 450 W | 700 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,599 | $30,000 |
| Release | 2022-10-12 | 2022-09-20 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 or NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3?
- NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 122.9% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP, while NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 has 80GB VRAM and a 700W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. 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 4090 and NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 leads by roughly 272% (4.7 vs 17.47 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 full review · NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings