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GeForce RTX 4090 vs RTX 3050

GeForce RTX 4090
VS
GeForce RTX 3050
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
AD102
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
GA106

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB with 128 pipelines and 16384 shaders against the 8 months older RTX RTX 3050 8 GB that utilizes 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Gaming performance
  4. Benchmarks
  5. AI
  6. Specs
  7. Comments

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score

Value for money (Beta)

We use average GPU prices from all manufacturers by default. Enter the current price of a specific card for better accuracy.
Currency
24 GB GDDR6X
VS
8 GB GDDR6
18.4
(Bad)
Value Index
47.6
(Average)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of RTX 3050 over RTX 4090
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 4090
  • Performs significantly better (up to 6.6x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 9.1x higher maximum theoretical performance (82.6 vs 9.1 TFLOPS)
  • Shows 4.2x higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 177 vs 42 FPS
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 5 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
RTX 4090
vs
RTX 3050

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
275
199
193
155
92
53
43
26
The Witcher 3
292
268
191
101
90
70
49
24
Counter-Strike 2
339
238
188
90
139
101
72
31
Far Cry 6
203
179
170
104
76
66
49
25
Hogwarts Legacy
200
163
132
74
49
38
30
13
CoD: Modern Warfare III
266
263
219
151
59
49
35
22
Ghost of Tsushima
188
152
137
91
46
35
28
15
Cyberpunk 2077
226
208
143
66
48
45
26
11
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
302
284
222
118
80
73
49
25
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 255 75
1080p Ultra 217 59
1440p Ultra 177 42
4K Ultra 106 21
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 4090 +564%
42169
RTX 3050
6348
Time Spy 36299 6235
Solar Bay 187525 30191
Port Royal 26127 3546
Fire Strike 72432 15967
Wild Life Extreme 85218 12795
Night Raid 195813 74854
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 4090 +372%
316301
RTX 3050
67028
Background Blur 318.9 img/sec 110.4 img/sec
Face Detection 222.8 img/sec 64.4 img/sec
Horizon Detection 14.2 Gpixels/sec 2.87 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 21 Gpixels/sec 3.76 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 23.9 Gpixels/sec 2.89 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 2.38 Gpixels/sec 0.81 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 1950 Gpixels/sec 270.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 48090.4 FPS 9339.7 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
RTX 4090 +590%
32578
RTX 3050
4722

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
RTX 4090 +205%
38039
RTX 3050
12471
G2D Mark 1303 916
DirectX 11 323 FPS 90 FPS
DirectX 12 151 FPS 59 FPS
GPU Compute 25991 Ops/s 6415 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 22563 & 9379 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 4090 +699%
11681.51
RTX 3050
1462.18
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 8966 & 1092 samples
Add your GPU benchmark result

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 4090
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-03 (afroman420IU)Cinebench 202432578
Add View all (1)
GeForce RTX 3050
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitryCinebench 20244722
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitrySteel Nomad Light6237
Add View all (2)

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 4090 +263%
42962
RTX 3050
11848
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 4090 +179%
59636
RTX 3050
21368
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 4090 +301%
31670
RTX 3050
7905
Image Classification (SP) 15600 4958
Image Segmentation (HP) 36657 12747
Image Super Resolution (Q) 48114 9816
Face Detection (HP) 78111 22467
Pose Estimation (Q) 289639 41362
Text Classification (SP) 4074 2563
Machine Translation (HP) 6349 3721
Object Detection (SP) 21186 5929
Depth Estimation (Q) 75599 18361
Style Transfer (SP) 601428 84665
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 3050

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released September 20, 2022 January 27, 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $1599 $249
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment High-end Entry-level
Architecture Ada Lovelace Ampere
GPU Codename AD102 GA106
Successor - GeForce RTX 5090 -
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i9 14900K or above - Intel Core i5 12400 or above
Desktop GPU rating (3rd and 71st place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 2235 MHz 1552 MHz
Boost Clock 2520 MHz 1777 MHz
Shading Units 16384 2560
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 512 80
Render Output Units (ROPs) 176 32
Compute Units (Pipelines) 128 20
Tensor Cores 512 80
Ray-tracing Cores 128 20
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 128KB per cluster
L2 Cache 72MB shared 2MB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 444 GPixel/s 57 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 1290 GTexel/s 142 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 4090 +808%
82.6 TFLOPS
RTX 3050
9.1 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x8
TGP 450 W 130 W
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Fabrication Process 5 nm 8 nm
Die Size 609 mm² 276 mm²
Transistor Count 76.3 billion 12 billion
Transistor Density 125.29 MTr/mm² 43.48 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6X GDDR6
Memory Size 24 GB 8 GB
Memory Clock 2625 MHz 1750 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 21000 Mbps 14000 Mbps
Bus 384-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 4090 +351%
1010 GB/s
RTX 3050
224 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 8.9 8.6
Ray Tracing Yes Yes
DLSS DLSS 3 DLSS 2
DisplayPort 1.4a 1.4a

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
6 (54.5%)
5 (45.5%)
Total votes: 11

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