| PROS | PROS |
| High fps 4K gaming on one card. Leads ray tracing revolution in gaming. USB-C connectivity. | Best GPU performance on the market. Excellent cooling performance. Great value for creative professionals. Set it and forget it 4K gaming. |
| CONS | CONS |
| Few initial ray tracing-supported games. | Extremely expensive. Very large card. |
SPECS: NVIDIA RTX 3090 VS RTX 2080 TI
| RTX 2080 TI | RTX 3090 | |
| CUDA CORES | 4352 | 10496 |
| BASE CLOCK | 1350MHZ | 1400MHZ |
| BOOST CLOCK | 1545MHZ | 1700MHZ |
| TGP | 250 WATTS | 350 WATTS |
| MEMORY | 11GB GDDR6 | 24GB GDDR6 |
| MEMORY SPEED | 14 GBPS | 19.5 GBPS |
| MEMORY INTERFACE | 352-BIT | 384-BIT |
| MEMORY BANDWIDTH | 616 GB/S | 936 GB/S |
| ARCHITECTURE | TURING | AMPERE |
| RELEASED | SEP 2018 | SEP 2020 |
The 3090 has around 140% more CUDA cores and 117% more RAM than the 2080 Ti. The memory on the 3090 is also better, and it has faster base and boost clock speeds, so it’s basically better in every way, though it consumes more power.
TEST SYSTEM SPECS
1. Intel Core i7-10700K – BUY
2. MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK – BUY
3. Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB – BUY
4. Corsair RM850x White 80PLUS Gold 850W – BUY
5. RAM: 32GB (2×16) DDR4 3600MHz CL16 – BUY
6. CPU Cooler: Corsair iCue H150i RGB PRO – BUY
GRAPHICS CARD USED:
1. PNY GeForce RTX 3090 24GB XLR8 – BUY
2. MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ventus 11GB – BUY
PERFORMANCE: NVIDIA RTX 3090 VS RTX 2080 TI
I’ve got the newer 3090 shown by the orange bars, and the older 2080 Ti shown by the yellow bars. I have tested 8 games at 4K resolution with ultra settings of each game.
1. Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the games benchmark tool. At 4K the 3090 had a massive 30% lead.
2. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The game’s built-in benchmark was used to test Shadow of the Tomb Raider. With the highest setting set to 4K, the 2080 Ti was still providing above 60 FPS in this test, but it was no match for the 3090, which was around 44% ahead.
3. Resident Evil 3 Remake
The 3090 has a 43% advantage over the 2080 Ti in Resident Evil 3 Remake. In comparison to the 2080 Ti, the 3090 was able to run the game at 4K with above 90 FPS, making it a lot more playable.
4. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the built in benchmark. The 3090 was 27% faster than the 2080 Ti at 4K. I was surprised, when RTX 3090 was giving constant 60 FPS at 4K, which was not expected for me.
5. Cyberpunk 2077
I tested Cyberpunk 2077 with the game’s benchmark tool, and the 3090 offers some great improvements. We’re looking at a 22% increase in average frame rate over the 3090 at 4K.
6. Watch Dogs Legion
In Watch Dogs Legion, the 3090 was giving me 1% lows that were ahead of the average frame rate of the 2080 Ti at 4K. Like many other games, we’re around the 34% point in terms of average FPS improvement with the 3090 at 4K.
7. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
The games benchmark tool with Vulkan was used to test Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. The 2080 Ti was somewhere at 57 FPS at 4K, so even if you have a high-refresh 4K monitor, it’ll still be fairly good, but the 3090 offers significant gains, with a 40% higher average frame rate at this resolution.
8. Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. At 4K the 3090 is reaching a 33% higher average frame rate, even the 1% low from the 3090 is a fair amount ahead of the 2080 Ti’s average frame rate.
POWER DRAW: NVIDIA RTX 3090 VS RTX 2080 TI
When we looked at the overall system power consumption from the wall, the PC with the 3090 installed used roughly 22% more power, putting the system at over 500 watts.
I tested Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 here, and as we saw earlier, it was roughly 40% faster in terms of average FPS, so 22% more power from the wall for a 40% boost in FPS seems acceptable to me.
IS RTX 3090 IS WORTH FOR GAMING?
The 3090 isn’t specifically designed for gamers, but there’s no doubting that it’s a gaming beast. However, if you want to get the most out of it, you need play at higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K.
In many circumstances, if you’re a competitive 1080p gamer playing at competitive settings, your CPU will matter more than choosing a 3090 over a great but considerably less expensive GPU option.
CONCLUSION: NVIDIA RTX 3090 VS RTX 2080 TI
The RTX 3090 can offer significant gains in compute-intensive workloads, so it really comes down to what you want to run and, of course, your budget.
However, as we saw, this does not translate as well into gaming performance, though gaming performance was still a nice step up over the 2080 Ti at higher resolutions.
