NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super vs NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti
Which graphics card is better for running local language models? Here is how the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super (16 GB) compares against the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB) in real memory headroom, supported model architectures, and generation speed.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super
- Memory Bandwidth: 736 GB/s (GDDR6X 256-bit)
- Fits fully in VRAM: 34 popular models
- Power Draw (TDP): 320W
- Largest recommended (Q4): 20B–22B
NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti
- Memory Bandwidth: 912 GB/s (GDDR6X 384-bit)
- Fits fully in VRAM: 33 popular models
- Power Draw (TDP): 350W
- Largest recommended (Q4): 14B
The AI Local Check Verdict: Which GPU should you buy for AI?
The Classic Headroom vs Speed Trade-off: The NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super has 4 GB more VRAM, allowing it to fit larger models that cannot run locally on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti.
However, the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti has a higher memory bandwidth (912 GB/s vs 736 GB/s). For models that comfortably fit in 12 GB VRAM, the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti will generate tokens roughly 24.0% faster. Choose the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super if you prioritize model size flexibility, or the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti if you prioritize token generation speed on models up to 12 GB.
Models that fit on NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super, but NOT on NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti
These models run entirely in GPU VRAM on the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super, but require slow system RAM offload on the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti:
| Model | Size | Downloads | NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super | NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MaziyarPanahi/Qwen3-32B-GGUF | 32.76B | 259,844 | Fits in VRAM | Offload (Slow) |