3080 Ti vs 3090 – Which Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU is better?

What happens when you take the monstrous GeForce RTX 3080, add more VRAM, a better memory bus, and bump up the CUDA cores by 17%? You get a 3080 Ti. But what if that’s not enough either, and you want a graphics card that is pumping with performance-enhancing drugs? That’s how you end up buying an RTX 3090. So there’s no doubt that the 3090 is a superior video card, but is it the right choice for you? Do you even need that kind of processing power? We wanted to know too, and we wrote down our findings in this in-depth Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs 3090 comparison article. Go on and read it!

3080 Ti vs 3090 – Quick Comparison

With the 3080 Ti and the 3090, we’re looking at the top-end of the GPU spectrum, as these two cards are highly coveted and just as unavailable due to stock issues, silicon shortage, logistics problems, scalpers, and more. The only way you can get your hands on either one of these babies is by paying through your nose or waiting for a lottery-based system to pull up your number on NewEgg or official Nvidia channels.

Taking a closer look at the cards themselves, the 3080 Ti, as the name suggests, is a step up from the 3080, which is a monstrous 4K gaming GPU, to begin with. Nvidia took the 3080, increased the number of CUDA cores, and worked their magic on the memory bus, leading to a clear bump in frame rate and a 10% increase in overall performance while running benchmarks.

If gaming at max settings is your thing, look no further than the RTX 3090. Launched at the end of September 2020, the 3090 is the second-best graphic card that money can buy, with the top spot going to its newer, cooler brother — the recently launched 3090 Ti. The 3090 is built for games that have not been released yet because it can take on anything you throw its way with laughable ease. Whether you plan to use it for 3D modeling or video rendering, or infinite hours of 4K gaming, the 3090 will take it on with great enthusiasm. The card claims to be 8K ready, and we believe it — the release of this card firmly put arch-rival AMD in its place. 

Interestingly, the 3080 Ti almost matches the 3090 when it comes to CUDA cores. What else does it match, though? Let’s take a look at the specs in the table below.

Specs	RTX 3080 Ti	RTX 3090
Dimensions	285 mm x 112 mm x 40 mm	336 mm x 140 mm x 61 mm
GPU	GA102-225-A1	GA102-300-A1
CUDA Cores	10240	10496
RT Cores	80	82
Tensor Cores	320	328
TMUs	320	328
Memory	12GB GDDR6X	24GB GDDR6X
Base clock	1365 MHz	1395 MHz
Boost clock	1665 MHz	1695 MHz
Memory clock	19 Gbps	19.5 Gbps
Memory bus	384-bit	384-bit
Memory bandwidth	912.4 GB/s	936.2 GB/s
TDP	350W	350W

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

Pros

• Noise-free operation even under heavy workload
• Is clearly superior to the 3080
• Top-notch performance in 4K gaming

Cons

• Much more expensive than the RTX 3080
• As power-hungry as the 3090

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090

Pros

• The best that money can buy when it comes to consumer-grade graphic cards
• Can handle 8K gaming as well
• Relatively quiet and excellent cooling

Cons

• Extremely expensive and difficult to find
• Physically very large, may not fit easily into cases
• Takes up three slots on the motherboard

Key Specifications

Architecture

Both the 3080 Ti and the 3090 are built on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, moving away from the Turing architecture that Nvidia used earlier. The GPU consists of Graphics Processing Clusters, Texture Processing Clusters, Streaming Multiprocessors, Raster Operators, and memory controllers, with the streaming processors further split up into CUDA cores, RT cores, Tensor cores, Texture mapping units, and more. 

If that sounds like a lot of jargon, we’ve explained it better in the sections below! All you need to know is that both the 3080 Ti and the 3090 share the same Ampere architecture, making this round a tie!

If you like going deeper with technical specs and architecture and want to learn more about RTX cards, you’ll love this article we wrote about the differences between GTX and RTX cards.

Clock Speeds & Overclocking

The clock speeds of the 3080 Ti and the 3090 are not wildly different, as the 3080 measures 1365MHz at base, whereas the 3090 puts up 1395 MHz. Boosted, these numbers go up to 1665 MHz and 1695 MHz officially, but once again, reading user reviews online tells that some people have been able to keep the 3090 at 2 GHz stable. 

It is tricky because there are temperature and power limits, but with some experimentation, you should be able to get some pretty impressive overclocked numbers out of your 3090. Most third-party variants come factory-overclocked.

RTX 3080 Ti	Boost Clock	RTX 3090	Boost Clock
ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti GAMING OC	1,830 MHz	EVGA RTX 3090 KINGPIN	1,920 MHz
GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 3080 Ti XTREME	1,830 MHz	EVGA RTX 3090 KINGPIN Hydro Copper	1,920 MHz
MSI RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X	1,830 MHz	ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 GAMING OC	1,860 MHz
ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3080 Ti GAMING OC	1,815 MHz	ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 GAMING WHITE OC	1,860 MHz
GALAX RTX 3080 Ti HOF OC Lab Edition	1,815 MHz	ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 GUNDAM OC	1,860 MHz

The RTX 3090 offers just 1% better performance when both cards are overclocked according to user tests.

Remember that a lot of this is luck since different cards put up different numbers. In comparison, the 3080 Ti seems to hit some impressive overclocking numbers but not quite on the same level as the 3090. This round goes to the 3090!

In the same vein, here’s a great article we wrote about overclocking and the role of GDDR6 in boosting speeds.

Cores

This section is interesting because when it comes to CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) cores, the 3080 Ti almost matches the 3090 as it packs 10,240 compared to the 10,490 cores inside the 3090. While it may be an oversimplification to say that the number of cores equals superior performance, there is a strong link. And thanks to having 250 more CUDA cores, the 3090 wins this section!

VRAM & Memory Specs

When it comes to VRAM, the RTX 3090 flexes hard with its 24GB GDDR6X RAM specs, compared to the 12GB GDDR6X RAM that the 3080 Ti puts up. This is also why it’s so easy for the 3090 to take on high-resolution gaming and memory-heavy tasks such as rendering and working on 3D animation. In real-world scenarios, however, 24GB of VRAM is a bit unnecessary.

Interestingly, the memory bus on both of these cards is 384 bits, which is the amount of data it can transfer in each clock cycle. Of course, clock speed makes a difference here, and the result is that the 3090 delivers data transfer speeds of 936.2 GB/s, whereas the 3080 Ti follows closely with 912.4 GB/s. Once again, the 3090 trumps the 3080 Ti.

Shaders, RT Cores, and TMUs

As we’ve already told you about the CUDA cores, which take on all the computational hard work and shading loads, the 3090 leads with its 10,490 cores compared to the 3080 Ti’s 10,240. How about RT cores, though? RT cores or Ray Tracing cores brought a lot of immersiveness to gaming visuals by taking on the way light is reflected and rendered in real-time during gameplay. The 3090 has 82 RT cores, whereas the 3080 Ti has 2 less, at 80.

As for Tensor cores, which manage all your deep learning magic and use artificial intelligence to carefully balance excellent game resolution along with the best frame rate possible, the 3090 again takes the lead with 328 Tensor cores, with the 3080 Ti nipping at its heels with 320 Tensor cores. The 3090 also packs 328 TMUs or texture mapping units, which take on the duties of bringing 3D graphic models to life on your screen. In comparison, the 3080 Ti has 320 TMUs. 

Once again, we see the 3090 beat the 3080 Ti, but just barely!

Performance / Resolutions

The 3080 Ti built a strong reputation thanks to its ability to ace any 4K game that it took on, but the 3090 takes it one step further by being ready for 8K games whenever they make an appearance. As for benchmarks, the 3080 Ti does a terrific job of putting up numbers that are pretty close to what the 3090 delivers. 

The RTX 3090 has a miniscule Fps advantage of 1.5% on average at 1080p.

The RTX 3090 has a slightly higher FPS advantage at 1440p reaching 2.4%.

The difference is even larger at 4K, where the 3090 has a 3.6% advantage. But those are advertised benchmark results. User tests show the 3090 performing better by a flat 1% across the board. That includes effective speeds, average scores, and when overclocked (as mentioned).

You may notice a difference in performance during virtual reality games or if you insist on 120fps at 4K resolution, but for the most part, you’ll be just as happy gaming with the 3080 Ti as you would with the 3090 under the hood of your PC. That said, technically, the 3090 is superior in terms of performance and resolution.

Connectivity

The 3080 Ti and the 3090 both connect to the system using a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 interface, and both of these cards offer a single HDMI 2.1 output and three DisplayPort 1.4a outs. Also, note that the 3080 Ti is a dual-slot card, whereas the 3090 is a triple-slot card.

For fans of multi-GPU systems, the 3090 does support the quickly-disappearing SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology. For those who may be unaware, SLI tech lets users combine and upgrade graphics performance by linking multiple Nvidia cards to a single CPU. The technology itself is useless for gamers, but it can be useful for those who are into multi-GPU rendering. The 3080 Ti does not support SLI. This round is a tie!

TDP

The TDP value of a card tells you how much to expect from your power bill for the month. Jokes aside, TDP stands for Thermal Design Power, and this rating tells you how much power the card consumes while operating. Both the 3080 Ti and the 3090 stand at 350W, which is relatively high from a general point of view. But that’s the price you gotta pay for excellent graphics! This round is a tie as well.

3090 vs 3080 Ti – Standout Features

In our opinion, the 3090 is more suited for someone who needs an extremely high level of performance in real-time 3D rendering or virtual reality game development and to whom cost is not a factor. It really pushes the edge of what is considered consumer-grade and may not be necessary for your average gamer. There is no scenario where you would feel like you’re missing out if you own a 3080 Ti card while gaming. At least not yet! If you need further convincing about what’s required for a decent gaming rig, take a look at this comparison article we wrote about the 3070 Ti against the 3080.

But if you’re holding on to a blank check and want nothing but the best in life, then nothing can come between you and the 3090. Go ahead and get that bad boy and forget all about frame jitters, latency, tearing, and lag because those words will drop from your vocabulary forever! Or at least until 16K games make an appearance in a few years. But by then, the next generation of cards will be here, and we’re sure that they will outperform the 3090.

If you’d like to see how the 3080 Ti performed against the 3090 in games such as CYBERPUNK 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Forza Horizon 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Battlefield V, here’s a great video review:

Pricing & Availability

While there is a very low chance of you being able to find either of these immensely popular cards, we do have good news — Nvidia has decided to take the issue of unavailability seriously, and so have the third-party manufacturers, so this dry spell should be ending soon enough. We did a quick search on Amazon and were able to find a couple of links with competitive pricing.

Lowest price for the RTX 3080 Ti on Amazon (Range: $1,300 – $1,500)

Lowest price for the RTX 3090 on Amazon (Range: $1,700 – $1,799)

Note that the MSRP for the 3080 Ti during its launch was $1,199  and the RTX 3090 made its debut with a price tag of $1499.

Conclusion

The 3090 won almost all the rounds in this Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs 3090 article, but we knew that it was unbeatable at the start. All said and done, we would recommend the RTX 3080 for a very simple reason — price to performance ratio. The 3080 Ti is almost identical to the 3090 in every way, except for the VRAM specs and a few cores, but the price difference is too much to justify, in our opinion. So unless you have a very specific need for more VRAM, the 3080 Ti will be more than sufficient. If you have any thoughts about our conclusion or regarding either of the cards, we’d love to hear from you in the comments!