Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Vs 3090: Which One Should You Choose
Nvidia has finally launched its much-awaited RTX 4000 series of graphics cards, starting with 4090 and 4080. The giant claims that it’s twice as fast compared to 3090, with improved DLSS.
The card costs a whopping $1600 dollars, but considering the state of the GPU market right now, is buying 4090 the right thing, or should you settle on 3090? Here are all the differences between them.
GeForce RTX 4090 vs 3090: Differences
Some of the main differences between the 4090 and 3090 are the amount of CUDA cores, clock speeds, and exclusive features. 4090 makes a significant leap in its Tensor cores and Ray tracing cores, which the giant claims bump the gaming performance by 25%.
Besides that, DLSS 3 also brings a significant improvement over DLSS 2 in 3090. Instead of rendering every pixel and upscaling it prior, DLSS 3 now renders and upscales entire frames to provide much better upscaling performance.
Not to mention, 4090 has 62% more CUDA cores than 3090 (16,000 vs 10,000), which results in better graphics and better Ray Tracing, thanks to the next-gen Ray Tracing cores, which are 16 times better than 3090’s.
| | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 3090 |
| Price | $1,599 | $1,199 |
| NVIDIA CUDA Cores | 16,384 | 10,490 |
| Clock Speed | Boost: 2.52 GHz Base: 2.23 GHz | Boost: 1.70 GHz Base: 1.40 GHz |
| Memory | 24GB GDDR6X | 24GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Interface Width | 384-bit | 384-bit |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
| Tensor cores | 4th Generation | 3rd Generation |
| NVIDIA DLSS | DLSS 3 | DLSS 2 |
| Graphics Card Power | 450W | 350W |
| Required System Power | 850W | 750W |
| Required Power Connectors | 3x PCIe 8-pin cables | 3x PCIe 8-pin cables |
| Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | 1x HDMI 2.1 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| Max Resolution | 7680×4320 | 7680×4320 |
DLSS 3 Vs DLSS 2
To know how good DLSS 3 is on the 4090, here’s what Nvidia showcased at the event.
Here’s Microsoft Flight Simulator with Ray Tracing and DLSS on.
While it might seem like 4090 is leaps ahead of 3090, which it is, it makes absolutely no sense to buy a 4090 if you already own a 3090. Summing up, buy the 4090 if you have money to shell out and absolutely need DLSS 3, new Ray Tracing, and Tensor cores. Or else, just stick to your 3090.
Nvidia’s also going to launch its mid-range graphics card in the 4000 series in November; hence, it’s pretty evident that a lot of people are waiting for the same to launch for the 3000 series prices to drop. Hence, if you’re like most people, waiting for the price drops might be a great option.
What are your thoughts about the RTX 4090? Do you think it’s worth it to upgrade from a 3090? Let us know in the comments below.
