NVIDIA RTX 3090 vs NVIDIA RTX 4090
Which graphics card is better for running local language models? Here is how the NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24 GB) compares against the NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB) in real memory headroom, supported model architectures, and generation speed.
NVIDIA · Ampere
24 GB VRAM
NVIDIA RTX 3090
- Memory Bandwidth: 936 GB/s (GDDR6X 384-bit)
- Fits fully in VRAM: 36 popular models
- Power Draw (TDP): 350W
- Largest recommended (Q4): 32B–34B
NVIDIA · Ada Lovelace
24 GB VRAM
NVIDIA RTX 4090
- Memory Bandwidth: 1008 GB/s (GDDR6X 384-bit)
- Fits fully in VRAM: 36 popular models
- Power Draw (TDP): 450W
- Largest recommended (Q4): 32B–34B
The AI Local Check Verdict: Which GPU should you buy for AI?
Both graphics cards share the exact same VRAM capacity (24 GB), meaning they can run the exact same parameter counts and quantization levels.
The deciding factor is memory bandwidth: The NVIDIA RTX 4090 leads with 1008 GB/s vs 936 GB/s (8.0% faster memory), resulting in noticeably faster inference.
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