NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 vs NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 wins 14 of 16 benchmarks, averaging 104.9% 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 5090 leads by 320% (10.449 vs 2.49 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 30B A3B (39% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation runs 63 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 5090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 375.6 | 242.09 | +55% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 268.14 | 157.15 | +71% |
| Qwen3 8B tok/s | 243.91 | 151.98 | +60% |
| Gemma 4 12B tok/s | 151.54 | 96.49 | +57% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 149.75 | 86.43 | +73% |
| Qwen3 14B tok/s | 143.11 | 88.73 | +61% |
| gpt-oss-20b tok/s | 415.12 | 260.6 | +59% |
| Qwen3 30B A3B tok/s | 344.67 | 247.25 | +39% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 71.15 | 40.79 | +74% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 13.5 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 21.08 | 9.96 | +112% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 10.725 | 3.24 | +231% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 2.036 | 0.89 | +129% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0.17 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 10.449 | 2.49 | +320% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.588 | 0.26 | +126% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is faster on 3 of 4; NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 6.7 min | 11.6 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 1.74x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 9.3 min | 11.7 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 1.25x faster |
| 24-frame storyboard | 12.5 min | 8 min | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation 1.55x faster |
| Short social clips | 24.8 min | 34.8 min | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 1.40x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 32GB | 48GB |
| Transistors | 92,200M | 76,300M |
| Die size | 750 mm² | 608.4 mm² |
| Process node | 4 nm | 4 nm |
| Transistor density | 122.9 M/mm² | 125.4 M/mm² |
| Architecture | Blackwell (GB202) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 1792 GB/s | 960 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,407 MHz | 2,460 MHz |
| TDP | 575 W | 285 W |
| Launch MSRP | $1,999 | $6,500 |
| Release | 2025-01-30 | 2024-01-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 or NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 14 of 16 benchmarks in our suite with an average 104.9% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has 32GB VRAM and a 575W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation has 48GB VRAM and a 285W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. 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 5090 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 leads by roughly 320% (10.449 vs 2.49 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 full review · NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings