Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada vs GeForce RTX 4090

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada 20 GB with 48 pipelines and 6144 shaders against the 11 months older GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB that utilizes 128 pipelines and 16384 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

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
20 GB GDDR6
VS
24 GB GDDR6X
8.8
(Bad)
Value Index
18.4
(Bad)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of RTX 4090 over RTX 4000 Ada
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 4090
  • Performs significantly better (up to 2.9x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 3.1x higher maximum theoretical performance (82.6 vs 26.7 TFLOPS)
  • Shows 92% higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 177 vs 92 FPS
  • Includes 4 GB more video memory
  • Has 2.8x higher memory bandwidth: 1010 vs 360 GB/s
  • Features 320 more tensor cores for effective ML and AI workloads
  • Achieves 2.1x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (316K vs 151K)
  • Has 2.7x more shading units (16384 vs 6144)

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
149
98
91
63
275
199
193
155
The Witcher 3
177
143
103
54
292
268
191
101
Counter-Strike 2
253
201
135
80
339
238
188
90
Far Cry 6
131
123
101
58
203
179
170
104
Hogwarts Legacy
102
82
66
34
200
163
132
74
CoD: Modern Warfare III
126
119
88
56
266
263
219
151
Ghost of Tsushima
94
79
61
33
188
152
137
91
Cyberpunk 2077
112
96
64
30
226
208
143
66
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
175
157
119
65
302
284
222
118
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 147 255
1080p Ultra 122 217
1440p Ultra 92 177
4K Ultra 53 106
Margin of Error High 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
14674
RTX 4090 +187%
42169
Time Spy 14438 36299
Solar Bay 65875 187525
Port Royal 8974 26127
Fire Strike 37396 72432
Wild Life Extreme - 85218
Night Raid 158480 195813
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
151680
RTX 4090 +109%
316301
Background Blur 235.3 img/sec 318.9 img/sec
Face Detection 157.9 img/sec 222.8 img/sec
Horizon Detection 5.53 Gpixels/sec 14.2 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 7.44 Gpixels/sec 21 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 7.87 Gpixels/sec 23.9 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 1.58 Gpixels/sec 2.38 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 737.7 Gpixels/sec 1950 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 22409.2 FPS 48090.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
23646
RTX 4090 +61%
38039
G2D Mark 1110 1303
DirectX 11 203 FPS 323 FPS
DirectX 12 93 FPS 151 FPS
GPU Compute 11869 Ops/s 25991 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 1138 & 22563 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
4447.56
RTX 4090 +163%
11681.51
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 70 & 8966 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada
No benchmark results yet
GeForce RTX 4090
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-03 (afroman420IU)Cinebench 202432578

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
22372
RTX 4090 +92%
42962
GB6 ML Half Precision
35651
RTX 4090 +67%
59636
GB6 ML Quantized
17081
RTX 4090 +85%
31670
Image Classification (SP) 9717 15600
Image Segmentation (HP) 19365 36657
Image Super Resolution (Q) 29227 48114
Face Detection (HP) 40416 78111
Pose Estimation (Q) 105639 289639
Text Classification (SP) 3577 4074
Machine Translation (HP) 4193 6349
Object Detection (SP) 10820 21186
Depth Estimation (Q) 36574 75599
Style Transfer (SP) 200936 601428
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada and GeForce RTX 4090

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released August 9, 2023 September 20, 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $1250 $1599
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment High-end High-end
Architecture Ada Lovelace Ada Lovelace
GPU Codename AD104 AD102
Successor - - GeForce RTX 5090
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i7 14700K or above - Intel Core i9 14900K or above
Desktop GPU rating (35th and 3rd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1500 MHz 2235 MHz
Boost Clock 2175 MHz 2520 MHz
Shading Units 6144 16384
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 192 512
Render Output Units (ROPs) 80 176
Compute Units (Pipelines) 48 128
Tensor Cores 192 512
Ray-tracing Cores 48 128
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 128KB per cluster
L2 Cache 48MB shared 72MB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 174 GPixel/s 444 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 418 GTexel/s 1290 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
26.7 TFLOPS
RTX 4090 +209%
82.6 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x16
TGP 130 W 450 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
Die Size 294 mm² 609 mm²
Transistor Count 35 billion 76.3 billion
Transistor Density 119.05 MTr/mm² 125.29 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 GDDR6X
Memory Size 20 GB 24 GB
Memory Clock 2250 MHz 2625 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 18000 Mbps 21000 Mbps
Bus 160-bit 384-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
360 GB/s
RTX 4090 +181%
1010 GB/s

API

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

Cast your vote

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3 (42.9%)
4 (57.1%)
Total votes: 7

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