With the latest RTX 4090 hitting the market, you might be wondering whether you should let go of your RTX 3080 Ti and get the RTX 4090. To help you with the purchase decision, we will be doing an RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3080 Ti battle.
There are no doubts that the RTX 4090 is a superior GPU, but the main question is, is it worth spending the extra money to get those performance gains? And how much better is it exactly?
When we put the RTX 4090 against the RTX 3090, we saw that the former performed about 73% better on average. Additionally, in our RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3090 Ti comparison, the RTX 4090 again performed exceptionally well. Consequently, we can expect similar performance figures in this comparison as well.
Let’s get started!
Key Takeaways
- Since the RTX 4090 is based on a 4nm process node and a smaller die, it packs more power than ever. It has 1.7x more transistors than the RTX 3080 Ti, 6144 more CUDA cores, and up to 875 MHz higher clock speeds.
- Consequently, the RTX 4090 is miles ahead of the RTX 3080 Ti in gaming performance. On average, the RTX 4090 ran all 12 games with about 56.4% more FPS.
- Not only that, but the RTX 4090 also stayed about 21.6% cooler while consuming just ~1.5% more power. The Ada Lovelace GPU was more thermally efficient than the RTX 3080 Ti while performing significantly better.
- At the moment, you can pick up an RTX 4090 for about $2200. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 Ti is available on Amazon for $1050 to $1550, depending on the variant.
Comparison Table
To overview how different the RTX 4090 is when put next to the RTX 3080 Ti, let’s compare their fundamentals first.
| Technical Specs | RTX 4090 | RTX 3080 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | AD102 | GA102 |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 16384 CUDA cores | 10240 CUDA cores |
| Thermal design power (TDP) | 450 Watt | 350 Watt |
| Manufacturing process technology | 4 nm | 8 nm |
| Boost clock speed | 2520 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| Core clock speed | 2235 MHz | 1365 MHz |
| Memory Capacity | 24 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X |
| Memory speed | 21 Gbps | 19 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 1018 GB/s | 912.4 GB/s |
| Tensor cores | 576 | 328 |
Detailed Specifications
Now that we have an idea of how much better the RTX 4090 is than the RTX 3080 Ti on paper, we will be going over their detailed specifications to see the differences further.
GeForce RTX 4090 Specifications
- Release Date: Sep 20th, 2022
- Launch Price: 1,599 USD
- GPU Name: AD102
- Architecture: Ada Lovelace
- Process Size: 4 nm
- Transistors: 76,300 million
- Die Size: 608 mm²
- Number of CUDA Cores: 16384
- Base Clock: 2235 MHz
- Boost Clock: 2520 MHz
- Memory Capacity: 24 GB GDDR6X
- Memory Clock: 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective)
- Shading Units: 16384
- TMUs: 512
- ROPs: 176
- SM Count: 128
- Tensor Cores: 512
- RT Cores: 128
- L1 Cache: 128 KB (per SM)
- L2 Cache: 72 MB
Features
- DirectX: 12 Ultimate (12_2)
- OpenGL: 4.6
- OpenCL: 3.0
- Vulkan: 1.3
- CUDA: 8.9
- Shader Model: 6.6
Design
- Slot Width: Triple-slot
- TDP: 450 W
- Suggested PSU: 850 W
- Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
- Power Connectors: 1x 16-pin
- Board Number: PG139 SKU 33
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Specifications
- Release Date: May 31st, 2021
- Launch Price: 1,199 USD
- GPU Name: GA102
- Architecture: Ampere
- Process Size: 8 nm
- Transistors: 28,300 million
- Die Size: 628 mm²
- Number of CUDA Cores: 10240
- Base Clock: 1365 MHz
- Boost Clock: 1665 MHz
- Memory Capacity: 12 GB GDDR6X
- Memory Clock: 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective)
- Shading Units: 10240
- TMUs: 320
- ROPs: 112
- SM Count: 80
- Tensor Cores: 320
- RT Cores: 80
- L1 Cache: 128 KB (per SM)
- L2 Cache: 6 MB
Features
- DirectX: 12 Ultimate (12_2)
- OpenGL: 4.6
- OpenCL: 3.0
- Vulkan: 1.3
- CUDA: 8.6
- Shader Model: 6.6
Design
- Slot Width: Dual-slot
- TDP: 350 W
- Suggested PSU: 750 W
- Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
- Power Connectors: 1x 12-pin
- Board Number: PG132 SKU 18
Smaller Processor Packs More Power
As one would expect, the RTX 4090 is a completely redesigned GPU. It’s not just a refined version of the 30-series; it’s actually different from top to bottom. For starters, the RTX 4090 is based on a 4 nm fabrication process and a 608 mm² die.
In comparison, the RTX 3080 Ti is based on Samsung’s 8 nm process node and a 628 mm² die. Since the two GPUs are based on completely different technologies, the RTX 4090 packs massive upgrades in its smaller chip.
Take the number of transistors, for example. While the RTX 3080 Ti has 28 billion transistors, the RTX 4090 outnumbers it with a whopping 76 billion transistors. Consequently, the latest and greatest RTX 4090 also have a bunch more CUDA cores. The RTX 3080 Ti has 10240 CUDA cores, which was a lot back at the time of its release. But the RTX 4090 is in a different league with 16384 CUDA cores.
Not only that, but the base and boost clock speeds have also received huge bumps. While the RTX 3080 Ti has 1365 MHz and 1665 MHz base and boost frequencies, respectively, the RTX 4090 has 2235 MHz and 2520 MHz, giving it an up to 870 MHz increase.
Furthermore, the RTX 3080 Ti boasts its 12 GB GDDR6X memory capacity. But, the RTX 4090 has twice that with 24 GB GDDR6X. That’s not it; the RTX 4090 also has higher memory clock speeds with 1313 MHz, whereas the RTX 3080 Ti manages to clock at 1188 MHz in terms of memory speeds.
Everything Bumped Up, Including Power Consumption
From higher L2 cache capacity to more Tensor cores, RT cores, SM count, ROPs, TMUs, and shading units, no matter how you look at it, the RTX 4090 has better specifications than any other gaming GPU in existence.
Well, all of this comes at a cost, and here, the cost is a higher TDP. While the RTX 3080 Ti is rated at 350W, the RTX 4090 is rated at 450W. Consequently, the suggested PSU for the RTX 4090 is also 850W, which is bigger than RTX 3080 Ti’s 750W.
To power up this beast of a GPU, you will also need a new 12VHPWR/16-pin/PCIe Gen 5 power connector, which has its own ups and downs. For instance, there have been many reports of the 12VHPWR melting, and NVIDIA has asked AIBs to send back the damaged RTX 4090s for further analysis.
Since the RTX 4090 consumes a whole lot more power, it will also generate a lot of heat, right? Well, to counter that, NVIDIA has put a colossal cooler on top of it, making the RTX 4090 look absolutely enormous. While such a big cooler makes the GPU looks ridiculously huge, it actually works like a charm in bringing down the temperatures.
What’s New With The Ada Lovelace Microarchitecture?
NVIDIA 3rd-generation RTX GPUs are built on the Ada Lovelace microarchitecture. If we look at NVIDIA’s pattern of coming up with new architecture, it is quite clear that the company releases a new one every two years.
For example, back in 2018, NVIDIA released the GeForce RTX 16-series and the RTX 20-series based on the Turing architecture. After that, in 2020, we got the RTX 30-series based on the Ampere architecture. Similarly, now, after two years of the 30-series reign, it’s time for the RTX 40-series built on the Ada Lovelace microarchitecture.
NVIDIA has incorporated many new technologies in their latest Ada Lovelace microarchitecture, and in this section, we will discuss a few of them.
All-new Fourth-Generation Tensor Cores
NVIDIA describes its Ada Lovelace architecture as “Designed to deliver outstanding gaming and creating, professional graphics, AI, and compute performance.” As you can guess, NVIDIA is investing heavily in AI to increase the efficiency and performance of its GPUs.
For example, the Ada Lovelace architecture incorporates the next-gen Tensor cores that NVIDIA is claiming will provide up to 5X increased throughput. On top of that, since NVIDIA has moved to a better fabrication process in their Lovelace GPUs, the sheer number of Tensor cores contained in a chip has also increased.
All of these advancements have brought new AI technologies into existence, like DLSS 3. We know DLSS as an AI technology that uses algorithms to predict what the next pixel in a game is going to be. But, with DLSS 3, the prediction part has been turned up a notch as now the RTX 4090 will predict what the next frame is going to be.
DLSS 3 is no doubt a revolutionary technology, and its implementation will result in significantly higher performance figures.
New And Improved Ray Tracing Cores
Back with the Turing architecture, NVIDIA, for the first time, announced dedicated cores that were specifically aimed to handle intensive ray tracing tasks.
The third generation of these Ray Tracing (RT) Cores brings up to 2x more RT-TFLOP performance by increasing the ray-triangle intersection throughput two-fold.
Not only that, but these 3rd-gen RT Cores are also equipped with a new DMM (Displaced Micro-Mesh) Engine. In short, the DMM Engine allows the GPU to ray trace geometrically complex scenes in real-time by reducing the build time of the Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) by one-tenth, along with reducing the BVH storage space by up to 20x.
Along with the DMM Engine, these new RT Cores also have an all-new Opacity Micromap (OMM) Engine. To put things simply, the OMM Engine reduces the time it takes to ray trace the alpha-tested textures. These textures are most commonly used in fences, particles, and foliage.
Shader Execution Reordering (SER)
Ray tracing, at its core, is quite an inefficient task. Think for a second; light can strike from any direction in a game at any surface, and it will bounce back differently depending on all of those surfaces. So, it requires lots of different computation to render, and since GPUs are highly efficient in rendering similar shaders over and over again, lots of different shaders needing to be rendered turns out to be quite inefficient.
To counter this, NVIDIA has come up with a new technology called Shader Execution Reordering (SER). What SER does is it dynamically reorders these different shaders on the basis of similarity. As a result, the GPU workload contains batches of fairly similar shaders that can be rendered efficiently.
NVIDIA claims SER can increase the in-game FPS by up to 25% and up to 3x better shader performance in all ray tracing operations.
RTX 4090 Vs. RTX 3080 Ti: Gaming Benchmarks
After going through the detailed specifications of the two GPUs, it is clear as day that the RTX 4090 is miles ahead. But, the real difference lies in the gaming benchmarks, and to see how much better the RTX 4090 is in terms of sheer gaming performance, we will be analyzing its benchmark figures next to the RTX 3080 Ti.
Techno-Kitchen has paired the RTX 4090 and the RTX 3080 Ti in the following rig to test them out:
- Processor: Core i9-12900K @ 5.0 GHz
- RAM: DDR5 @ 6400 32-32 2×16
- GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4090 and MSI RTX 3080 Ti
- CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360
- Power Supply Unit: Super Flower 1000W
- Resolution: 1440p
The Witcher 3
Let’s start off our RTX 4090 Vs. RTX 3080 Ti benchmark analysis with the Witcher 3.
Right off the bat, the RTX 4090 leaves the RTX 3080 Ti to the dust with a whopping ~60.9% lead. On average, the RTX 4090 is running the Witcher 3 at 243 FPS, while the RTX 3080 Ti is running it at 151 FPS.
While the difference in the 1% lows cuts to half as compared to the average FPS, it is still significant as the RTX 4090 dropped to 172 FPS and the RTX 3080 Ti to 134 FPS.
Glancing over the temperature figures, it looks like the colossal cooler on top of the RTX 4090 is really working wonders here. That’s because the GPU is running at 60°C, which is about 25% cooler than the 3080 Ti running at 75°C.
Similarly, the RTX 4090 is also more power efficient when running the Witcher 3, as it is consuming 341.3W. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 351.5W, which is about 2.9% more.
Watch Dogs: Legion
Next up, we have Watch Dogs: Legion running with RTX enabled at the highest possible settings.
To no one’s surprise, the RTX 4090 yet again completely obliterates the RTX 3080 Ti with an even bigger lead of ~75.7%. Throughout the entire gameplay, the RTX 4090 ran at 116 FPS on average, and the RTX 3080 Ti at just 66 FPS.
The RTX 3080 Ti has relatively more stable 1% lows as the GPU dropped to just 64 FPS, while the RTX 4090 went all the way to 86 FPS.
While the difference in temperature has decreased to about 8%, the RTX 4090 is still running cooler at 62°C when compared to the RTX 3080 Ti, which is running at 67°C. It is really fascinating how efficient the RTX 4090 is while also being significantly more powerful.
Well, this time, the RTX 4090 is consuming more power at 398.8W. In comparison, the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 348.5W of power which puts it ~14.4% ahead in terms of power efficiency.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
Who doesn’t love Lara Croft’s adventures in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, right?
Well, the RTX 4090 is miles ahead in terms of sheer gaming performance. On average, the RTX 4090 is running Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 218 FPS. In comparison, the RTX 3080 Ti is running at mere 113 FPS, giving the RTX 4090 the biggest lead so far of a solid ~92.9%.
In the 1% lows, the RTX 4090 dropped to 262 FPS and the RTX 3080 Ti to about 185 FPS.
Just as we saw above, the RTX 4090 is yet again running cooler, and this time by about 12.1%, as it is running at 66°C, whereas the RTX 3080 Ti is running at 74°C.
The RTX 4090 seems to be building a reputation for higher power consumption, and it is understandable as the GPU is rated for a higher TDP. Overall, the RTX 4090 is consuming an outstanding 408.3W, and the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming about 17.2% less at 348.2W.
Red Dead Redemption 2
One of the most beautiful open-world games out there is Red Dead Redemption 2. Its extreme attention to detail is unlike any other game.
Here, the difference in average FPS has decreased to about ~24.8% as the RTX 4090 is running at 166 average FPS, and the RTX 3080 Ti is running at about 133 average FPS. Nevertheless, the RTX 4090 is still in the lead.
Similarly, there is a ~14.5% difference in the 1% lows because the RTX 4090 dipped to 118 FPS and the RTX 3080 Ti to about 103 FPS.
The temperature difference when running Red Dead Redemption 2 is the biggest we have seen so far, where the RTX 3080 Ti is running at a whopping 75°C while the RTX 4090 is about 33.9% cooler at 56°C.
Consequently, the RTX 4090 is also consuming about 12.8% less power at 305.7, whereas the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 345.1W. The reason behind the RTX 4090’s better thermal and power efficiency is that its usage is at around 74%, and the 3080 Ti’s usage is at around 95%.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
When it comes to battle royale games, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has its own fan base, and it is obvious for it to be included in our RTX 4090 Vs. RTX 3080 Ti guide.
On average, the RTX 4090 is running PUBG at a ridiculous 404 FPS. In comparison, the RTX 3080 Ti makes it to 239 FPS. Even though 239 FPS is not bad at all, the RTX 4090’s lead of about 69% puts the RTX 3080 Ti to shame.
It looks like the RTX 4090 really goes down from its average FPS in the 1% lows; here the GPU is running at 251 FPS. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 Ti is at 195 FPS.
As expected, the RTX 4090 is yet again running cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti, and this time by about 22.5%. Overall, the RTX 4090 is running at 62°C, and the RTX 3080 Ti at 76°C.
Despite its lower temperatures, the RTX 4090 is consuming ~5.2% more power than the 3080 Ti as it is taking in 367.1W while the 3080 Ti is consuming 347.9W.
Metro Exodus
Even though Metro Exodus was released in 2019, it is still a beautiful game to this date.
As expected, the RTX 4090 is running Metro Exodus at 153 average FPS, and the RTX 3080 Ti is running it at 87 average FPS. So, the latest-gen RTX 4090 yet again wins in the FPS section with a significant ~75.8% lead.
Things are not so different in the 1% lows either, where the RTX 4090 is ahead by about 50.7% more FPS as it went down to just 98 FPS. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 Ti went all the way to 65 FPS.
There is no doubt that the huge cooler that is attached to the RTX 4090 is working brilliantly. That’s because the RTX 4090 is again ~10% cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti as it is running at 67°C while the RTX 3080 Ti is at 74°C.
Similar to what we saw in the PUBG benchmarks, the RTX 4090 is consuming more power here as well, despite its lower temperature. This time, the difference in power consumption has bumped up to a hefty ~33.4% as the RTX 4090 is consuming 464.3W and the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 348W.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Next on the list is Horizon Zero Dawn, another beautiful game that makes it the perfect ground to test different GPUs.
Throughout the entire gameplay, the RTX 4090 ran Horizon Zero Dawn at an average of 210 FPS. In contrast, the RTX 3080 Ti ran at an average of 168 FPS. Overall, the RTX 4090 manages to stay ahead of the competition by a margin of ~25%.
The 1% lows are no different either, as the RTX 4090 dropped to 134 FPS and the RTX 3080 Ti to 115 FPS.
Here, the gigantic cooler of the RTX 4090 can be really seen in action as the GPU is running about 33.9% cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti. Yes, you read that correctly; the RTX 4090 is playing Horizon Zero Dawn at ~25% more FPS while staying ~33.9% cooler. While the RTX 3080 Ti is at 75°C, the RTX 4090 stays at a cool 56°C.
When we look over the CPU usage and the power consumption of the two GPUs, the difference in temperature makes sense. At 98% usage, the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 348.3W, which is about 18% more than the RTX 4090 as it is consuming 294.9W at 72% usage.
God Of War
Let’s see how well RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3080 Ti are able to handle Kratos’ adventures in God of War.
Without any surprises, the RTX 4090 leaves the RTX 3080 Ti in the dust with about 70.1% more FPS. On average, the RTX 4090 is running God of War at 211 FPS, and the RTX 3080 Ti is running it at 124 FPS.
Similarly, the RTX 4090 stays ahead in the 1% lows as well because it only dipped to 133 FPS, whereas the RTX 3080 Ti went all the way down to 92 FPS.
When we go over the thermals, it is evident that the RTX 4090 is the more efficient GPU. That’s because it is running at 67°C, which is about 13.4% cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti running at 76°C.
What’s not efficient about the RTX 4090 here is its power consumption, as the GPU is taking in 432W. In comparison, the RTX 3080 Ti is ~23.9% more power efficient because it is consuming 348.4W.
Far Cry 6
One of the most poorly optimized games out there is Far Cry 6, and that’s probably why the difference in performance is the smallest here.
Overall, the RTX 4090 stayed ahead of the RTX 3080 Ti by just 15.8%, which is the smallest difference in FPS we have seen so far. The RTX 4090 is running Far Cry 6 at 139 average FPS while the RTX 3080 Ti is running it at 120 average FPS.
The 1% lows are fairly similar as well because the RTX 4090 dropped down to 106 FPS and the RTX 3080 Ti to 89 FPS.
While the difference in performance is the smallest, we cannot say the same for the difference in thermal efficiency. That’s because the RTX 4090 is running at 53°C, which is about 37.7% cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti as it running at 73°C.
Similarly, the power efficiency is no different either, and it makes sense because the GPU usage for the RTX 4090 is just 65% while the RTX 3080 Ti is running at 99% usage. It looks like the i9-12900K is bottlenecking the beast RTX 4090 in Far Cry 6, which also explains the smallest FPS difference that we have seen so far.
All in all, the RTX 4090 is consuming 250.8W, and the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 341.4W, making the RTX 4090 a more power-efficient GPU with a ~36.1% margin.
Cyberpunk 2077
Similar to Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077 had also built a reputation for being poorly optimized. However, the game has improved a lot with its recent updates.
Well, this is the biggest performance difference we have analyzed so far, where the RTX 4090 is ahead by a whopping ~87.5% margin. On average, the RTX 4090 is running Cyberpunk 2077 at 90 FPS, while the RTX 3080 Ti makes it to just 48 FPS.
The difference in the 1% lows is even more as the RTX 3080 Ti dropped all the way down to 37 FPS, whereas the RTX 4090 still holds well at 72 FPS.
What’s most mind-blowing about the RTX 4090 is that it is running Cyberpunk 2077 by not only just ~87.5% more FPS, but it is also doing so while staying about 15.7% cooler. While the RTX 3080 Ti is running at 73°C, the RTX 4090 hovers at 63°C.
Since the RTX 4090 has a higher TDP of 450W, it is expected to consume more power. Here, the RTX 4090 is consuming 424.7W, which is about 19.8% higher than the RTX 3080 Ti as it is consuming 354.5W.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Coming up next is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a first-person competitive FPS game that was released over a decade ago.
At first glance, you might be surprised to note that there’s only a ~12.8% difference in the two FPS figures of the two GPUs, where the RTX 4090 is running at 674 average FPS, and the RTX 3080 Ti is at 597 average FPS. However, the considerably small performance difference makes sense as you go over the GPU usage; while the RTX 3080 Ti is running at 83% usage, the RTX 4090 is only at 57% usage.
Consequently, there is a massive difference in the thermal efficiency of the two GPUs as the RTX 4090 is running about 31.4% cooler at 54°C. Comparatively, the RTX 3080 Ti is running at 71°C, giving the thermal efficiency crown to the latest NVIDIA flagship GPU once again.
Not only that, but the RTX 4090 is also consuming about 45.8% less power at 231.8W. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 338W. All of this is a result of the RTX 4090’s significantly lower GPU usage.
Crysis Remastered
At last, we will analyze the gaming benchmarks of RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3080 Ti on Crysis Remastered.
This time, the difference in average FPS skyrockets as the RTX 4090 takes massive leaps forward by performing about 65.5% better. On average, while the RTX 3080 Ti can only make it to 87 FPS, the RTX 4090 is at a solid 144 FPS.
Similarly, in the 1% lows, the RTX 3080 Ti dropped to 80 FPS and the RTX 4090 to about 144 FPS.
On top of such huge performance gains, the RTX 4090 is also ~16.6% cooler at 66°C. For perspective, the RTX 3080 Ti, despite its inferior performance, is running at 77°C.
As you can likely guess, the RTX 4090 is consuming more power than the RTX 3080 Ti by about 20.6%. Overall, the RTX 3080 Ti is consuming 349.9W, and the RTX 4090 is consuming 422.1W.
Overall Gaming Performance
After thoroughly analyzing the RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3080 Ti benchmarks on 12 games, we can finally answer the question that by what margin the RTX 4090 stays ahead of the RTX 3080 Ti.
Well, the biggest performance difference was in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, where the RTX 4090 led with a ~92.9% margin. Similarly, the smallest performance difference was in CS:GO, as the RTX 3080 Ti only performed better by about 12.8% more FPS. However, one thing to keep in mind is that the RTX 4090 was bottlenecking a lot when playing CS:GO, likely due to the i9-12900K.
Overall, the RTX 4090 played the above 12 games with about 56.4% more FPS on average. The RTX 4090 is, without any doubt, a superior GPU, and it is clearly evident in its gaming performance as well.
However, one thing you should take into account is that if we eliminate all the bottlenecking issues, then the RTX 4090 will definitely lead by an even greater margin, as the GPU ran 6 of those 12 games with an FPS difference of more than 70%.
RTX 4090 Vs. RTX 3080 Ti: Which is More Efficient?
It was never in question that the RTX 4090 would perform better than the RTX 3080 Ti. The card basically packs double the power just on the spec sheet alone. However, what may take you by surprise is how efficient the RTX 4090 is.
If we take an average of the difference in thermals in all 12 games, the RTX 4090 stayed cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti with a massive ~21.6% lead. The RTX 4090 is known for its enormous cooler; the size basically makes some motherboards look small.
But such a huge cooler has definitely paid off, as it is doing its job tremendously well. A ~21.6% lead in thermal efficiency while running all games by about 56.4% more FPS is a huge deal.
Not only that, but the RTX 4090 achieved all of these figures by consuming pretty much the same power as the RTX 3080 Ti. In fact, the RTX 4090 only consumed ~1.5% more power. Even though the latest-gen NVIDIA GPU has a higher TDP, its lower power consumption comes off as a shock. We believe that by eliminating the bottlenecking issues, the power consumption will increase as well along with the overall gaming performance.
We are saying this because other than CS:GO and Far Cry 6, where the GPU usage of the RTX 4090 was considerably low, the graphics card was consuming a lot more power than the RTX 3080 Ti in most of the other games.
Is The RTX 4090’s High-Performance Worth It?
Depending on the variant, you can get an RTX 3080 Ti for somewhere around $1050-$1550. On the other hand, the all-new RTX 4090 is going upwards of $2200, with the Founders Edition going for around $2400.
So, there is a significant price difference between the two GPUs. However, if you go over how much better the RTX 4090 really is, especially when paired with the right components, its higher price is totally worth it.
Similarly, the RTX 3080 Ti, for the time being, is also providing good value for money. At around $1000 bucks less, the GPU ran all of our 12 games at 1440p and max settings with commendable FPS.
One thing you should consider when evaluating the price difference between the two GPUs is that the RTX 4090 will drive up the price of your overall rig as well. For instance, you will likely pair it with the latest and greatest i9-13900K. Similarly, you will also use a much bigger PSU (850W or more) to power such a beast gaming PC.
RTX 4090 Vs. RTX 3080 Ti: Which One Should You Go For?
The answer to that question completely depends on you. The RTX 4090 is a better GPU in all aspects, no matter how you look at it. But it also costs a whole lot more.
So, if you can afford it, and if you want the extreme performance that the GPU has to offer, then you should definitely go with it.
However, if you’re on a budget and you are not after the high-end gaming experience that the RTX 4090 provides, then you will be fine with the RTX 3080 Ti.
Keep in mind that once the RTX 4080 hits the market, it will definitely knock out the RTX 3080 Ti. So, unless you are looking for a graphics card urgently, you should hold on to it to see how well the other RTX 40-series GPU perform.
FAQs
Yes, in our RTX 4090 vs. RTX 3080 Ti comparison, we found that the RTX 4090 stayed about 21.6% cooler on average in the 12 games we analyzed.
Yes, the latest and greatest RTX 4090 is a power-hungry beast. Its recommended PSU is rated for 850W. So, unless you already have an 850+W PSU, you will have to upgrade.
Definitely, the RTX 4090 is an extremely powerful GPU, and when paired with the i9-13900K, you will have absolutely no issues in gaming on 4K.
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