GeForce RTX 3090 vs GeForce RTX 4090

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce RTX 4090, which makes use of a 4 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 2235 MHz. The GDDR6X RAM works at a frequency of 1325 MHz on this particular model. It features 16384 SPUs as well as 512 TAUs and 176 Rasterization Operator 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

Performance-wise, the GeForce RTX 4090 should theoretically be a small bit better 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 is a lot (more or less 150%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce RTX 3090. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 4090 is the winner, by far. (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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.