GeForce RTX 3090 vs GeForce RTX 4090

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce RTX 4090, which comes with a core clock speed of 2235 MHz and a GDDR6X memory speed of 1325 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 4 nm design. It is comprised of 16384 SPUs, 512 TAUs, and 176 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce RTX 3090		350 Watts
GeForce RTX 4090		450 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce RTX 4090 should be a bit faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 in general. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1042432 MB/sec
GeForce RTX 3090		958668 MB/sec
	Difference: 83764 (9%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 4090 should be much (about 150%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce RTX 3090. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1144320 Mtexels/sec
GeForce RTX 3090		457560 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 686760 (150%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 4090 will be much (more or less 152%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce RTX 3090, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		393360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce RTX 3090		156240 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 237120 (152%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.