GPU HEAD-TO-HEAD

NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super vs NVIDIA RTX 4090

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 4090 (24 GB) in real memory headroom, supported model architectures, and generation speed.

NVIDIA · Ada Lovelace 16 GB VRAM

NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super

  • Memory Bandwidth: 736 GB/s (GDDR6X 256-bit)
  • Fits fully in VRAM: 31 popular models
  • Power Draw (TDP): 320W
  • Largest recommended (Q4): 20B–22B
View all NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super models →
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
View all NVIDIA RTX 4090 models →

The AI Local Check Verdict: Which GPU should you buy for AI?

The NVIDIA RTX 4090 is the clear winner for local AI. It delivers 8 GB more VRAM and superior memory bandwidth (1008 GB/s vs 736 GB/s).

It unlocks larger parameter classes without system RAM offloading and generates tokens noticeably faster.

Models that fit on NVIDIA RTX 4090, but NOT on NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super

These models run entirely in GPU VRAM on the NVIDIA RTX 4090, but require slow system RAM offload on the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super:

Model Size Downloads NVIDIA RTX 4090 NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super
ggml-org/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3.5-Lightning-30B-A3B-GGUF 31.58B 274,796 Fits in VRAM Offload (Slow)
bartowski/Qwen_Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking-GGUF 81.32B 248,583 Fits in VRAM Offload (Slow)
unsloth/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B-GGUF 70.55B 201,777 Fits in VRAM Offload (Slow)
unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-Next-GGUF 79.67B 195,568 Fits in VRAM Offload (Slow)
bartowski/Hermes-3-Llama-3.1-70B-GGUF 70.55B 158,086 Fits in VRAM Offload (Slow)

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RTX 3060 12GB vs RTX 4060 8GB Compare VRAM & Models → RTX 4060 Ti 16GB vs RTX 4070 12GB Compare VRAM & Models → RTX 3090 24GB vs RTX 4090 24GB Compare VRAM & Models → RTX 4070 Super vs RTX 4070 Ti Super Compare VRAM & Models → RTX 5090 32GB vs RTX 4090 24GB Compare VRAM & Models → RTX 3060 12GB vs RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Compare VRAM & Models → AMD RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA RTX 4090 Compare VRAM & Models →