NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super
For running models locally, priced in Germany. At 64k context the first runs 22 models fully in memory, the second 10.
In short
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has more memory for models: 24 GB against 16 GB. At 64k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 runs 22 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super 10; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 holds Qwen 3.8 27B. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is about 1.3× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super (estimated, median across models). In Germany the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 costs 1.850 € at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super 1.100 € at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super is 750 € cheaper.
Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.
Specifications
| Spec | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 4080 Super |
| Memory | 24 GB GDDR6X | 16 GB GDDR6X |
| Memory bus | 384-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 936 GB/s | 736 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 71 TFLOPS | 104 TFLOPS |
| Software | CUDA | CUDA |
| Board power | 350 W | 320 W |
| PCIe generation | Gen 4 | Gen 4 |
| PCIe lanes | x16 | x16 |
What each runs
Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.
| Model | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | 28tok/sUD-Q4_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | 24tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B | 107tok/sUD-Q4_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | 27tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | 72tok/sUD-Q5_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B | 107tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| GLM 4.7 Flash | 53tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| gpt-oss 20B | 86tok/sMXFP4 | 68tok/sMXFP4 |
| Gemma 4 12B | 41tok/sQ8_0 | 32tok/sQ8_0 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | 50tok/sQ8_0 | 39tok/sQ8_0 |
| Gemma 3 27B | 26tok/sQ4_K_M | offload |
| Ministral 3 14B | 27tok/sQ6_K | offload |
| Qwen3 14B | 25tok/sQ6_K | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8B | 32tok/sQ8_0 | 31tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Qwen3 8B | 32tok/sQ8_0 | 31tok/sQ4_K_M |
| Phi-4 14B | 24tok/sQ5_K_M | offload |
| Qwen 3.5 4B | 87tok/sQ8_0 | 68tok/sQ8_0 |
| Ministral 3 8B | 32tok/sQ8_0 | 30tok/sQ5_K_M |
| Granite 4.2 8B | 29tok/sQ8_0 | offload |
| Gemma 4 E4B | 57tok/sQ8_0 | 45tok/sQ8_0 |
| LFM2.5 8B-A1B | 81tok/sQ8_0 | 64tok/sQ8_0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B | 38tok/sQ6_K | 30tok/sQ6_K |
| Qwen 3.5 122B-A10B | offload | won't run |
| Gemma 4 31B | offload | offload |
| Qwen3 Coder Next | offload | won't run |
| Mistral Small 4 119B | offload | offload |
| Qwen3 Next 80B-A3B | offload | won't run |
| Devstral Small 2 24B | offload | offload |
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B | offload | offload |
| Kimi Linear 48B-A3B | offload | offload |
| Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3B | offload | offload |
| Qwen3 32B | offload | offload |
| Mistral Small 3.2 24B | offload | offload |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B | offload | offload |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 5.3 Flash | won't run | won't run |
| Qwen 3.8 Flash Next | won't run | won't run |
| MiniMax M2.7 | won't run | won't run |
| Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B | won't run | won't run |
| gpt-oss 120B | won't run | won't run |
| GLM 4.5 Air | won't run | won't run |
| Llama 3.3 70B | won't run | won't run |
Questions
- Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super?
- Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 to run bigger models. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super to spend less.
- Which can run bigger models, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super?
- At 64k context the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 runs 22 of the models we track fully in memory and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super 10; only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 holds Qwen 3.8 27B.
- Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super?
- On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is about 1.3× as fast as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super (estimated, median across models).
- What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super?
- In Germany the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 costs 1.850 € at eBay and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super 1.100 € at eBay: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super is 750 € cheaper.
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