readygpu

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA Tesla P40

For running models locally, priced in the UK. At 128k context the first runs 9 models fully in memory, the second 9.

In short

Both have 24 GB of memory for models; the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 has 936 GB/s of bandwidth and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 346 GB/s. At 128k context both run the same 9 models we track fully in memory. On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is about 2.7× as fast as the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (estimated, median across models). In the UK the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 costs £1,707 at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 £1,856 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is £149 cheaper.

Updated . Speeds are estimates; how they are worked out.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

£1,707

Amazon

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NVIDIA Tesla P40

£1,856

Amazon

Add to build

Specifications

SpecNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090NVIDIA Tesla P40
GPUGeForce RTX 3090Tesla P40
Memory24 GB GDDR6X24 GB GDDR5
Memory bus384-bit384-bit
Memory bandwidth936 GB/s346 GB/s
FP16 compute71 TFLOPS11.8 TFLOPS
SoftwareCUDACUDA
Board power350 W250 W
PCIe generationGen 4Gen 3
PCIe lanesx16x16

What each runs

Estimated decode speed with the most precise quant that fits each one est.

ModelNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090NVIDIA Tesla P40
Gemma 4 26B-A4B63tok/sUD-Q4_K_M23tok/sUD-Q4_K_M
gpt-oss 20B62tok/sMXFP423tok/sMXFP4
Gemma 4 12B38tok/sQ8_014tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 9B42tok/sQ8_016tok/sQ8_0
Qwen 3.5 4B66tok/sQ8_024tok/sQ8_0
Ministral 3 8B25tok/sQ4_K_M9tok/sQ4_K_M
Gemma 4 E4B48tok/sQ8_018tok/sQ8_0
LFM2.5 8B-A1B46tok/sQ8_017tok/sQ8_0
Llama 3.1 8B25tok/sQ5_K_M9tok/sQ5_K_M
Qwen 3.8 27Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 122B-A10Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 27Boffloadoffload
Gemma 4 31Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 4 119Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 27Boffloadoffload
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3Boffloadoffload
GLM 4.7 Flashoffloadoffload
Devstral Small 2 24Boffloadoffload
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Kimi Linear 48B-A3Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 Coder 30B-A3Boffloadoffload
Gemma 3 27Boffloadoffload
Mistral Small 3.2 24Boffloadoffload
Ministral 3 14Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 14Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek R1 0528 Qwen3 8Boffloadoffload
Qwen3 8Boffloadoffload
Phi-4 14Boffloadoffload
Granite 4.2 8Boffloadoffload
DeepSeek V4 Flashwon't runwon't run
GLM 5.3 Flashwon't runwon't run
Qwen 3.8 Flash Nextwon't runwon't run
MiniMax M2.7won't runwon't run
Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Coder Nextwon't runwon't run
gpt-oss 120Bwon't runwon't run
GLM 4.5 Airwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 Next 80B-A3Bwon't runwon't run
Qwen3 32Bwon't runwon't run
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32Bwon't runwon't run
Llama 3.3 70Bwon't runwon't run

Questions

Which is better for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 for speed. Choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 to spend less.
Which can run bigger models, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
At 128k context both run the same 9 models we track fully in memory.
Which is faster for local AI, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
On the models both run fully in memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is about 2.7× as fast as the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (estimated, median across models).
What is the price difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and the NVIDIA Tesla P40?
In the UK the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 costs £1,707 at Amazon and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 £1,856 at Amazon: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is £149 cheaper.

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