NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins 13 of 17 benchmarks, averaging 38.1% faster.
NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation'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 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by 169% (6.696 vs 2.49 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 30B A3B (5% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation runs 69 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 17, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 260.54 | 242.09 | +8% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 171.29 | 157.15 | +9% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 164.32 | 151.98 | +8% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 103.57 | 96.49 | +7% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 95.12 | 86.43 | +10% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 96.37 | 88.73 | +9% |
| gpt-oss-20b tok/s | 286.23 | 260.6 | +10% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 259.61 | 247.25 | +5% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 44.28 | 40.79 | +9% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 13.5 | n/a |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 7.24 | 3.24 | +123% |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.28 | 9.96 | +63% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 0.49 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 0.89 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0.17 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 6.696 | 2.49 | +169% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.43 | 0.26 | +65% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is faster on 4 of 4; NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3.8 min | 8 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 2.09x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 5.8 min | 11.7 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 2.01x faster |
| Full codebase review | 10.5 min | 11.6 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.10x faster |
| Short social clips | 21.5 min | 34.8 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.62x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 48GB |
| Transistors | 76,300M | 76,300M |
| Die size | 608.4 mm² | 608.4 mm² |
| Process node | 4 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 125.4 M/mm² | 125.4 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 960 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,520 MHz | 2,460 MHz |
| TDP | 450 W | 285 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,599 | $6,500 |
| Release | 2022-10-12 | 2024-01-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 or NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 13 of 17 benchmarks in our suite with an average 38.1% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation has 48GB VRAM and a 285W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation fits 4 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 RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by roughly 169% (6.696 vs 2.49 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 full review · NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings