NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs NVIDIA RTX A6000, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins 6 of 9 benchmarks, averaging 42.5% 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 62% (16.28 vs 10.02 images/min); the closest fight is Llama 3.1 8B (37% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX A6000 runs 9 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 RTX A6000 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 260.54 | 184.34 | +41% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 171.29 | 124.87 | +37% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 95.12 | 68.51 | +39% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 44.28 | 32.18 | +38% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 15.73 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 16.28 | 10.02 | +62% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 7.425 | 5.4 | +38% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 2.164 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 1.05 | n/a |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is faster on 2 of 2; NVIDIA RTX A6000 on 0.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 5 min | 7.1 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.42x faster | $0.013 vs $0.039 |
| Full codebase review | 10.5 min | 14.6 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.39x faster | $0.027 vs $0.080 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 finishes 2 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 4090 | $0.155 |
| NVIDIA RTX A6000 | $0.330 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is 2.13x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA RTX A6000 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 768 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,520 MHz | 1,860 MHz |
| TDP | 450 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,599 | $4,650 |
| Release | 2022-10-12 | 2020-10-05 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 or NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 6 of 9 benchmarks in our suite with an average 42.5% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM and a 450W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX A6000 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and NVIDIA RTX A6000?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX A6000 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 A6000?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leads by roughly 62% (16.28 vs 10.02 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 full review · NVIDIA RTX A6000 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings