GPU head-to-head · curated specs + live pool data

RTX 4090VSRTX 3060

NVIDIA · Ada Lovelace (RTX 40) · 2022 · halo

Still the king of the previous generation. Only surpassed by the 5090.

Full breakdown →
NVIDIA · Ampere (RTX 30) · 2021 · mid

The card that surprised everyone with 12 GB VRAM in a mid-range chip.

Full breakdown →

Specifications

RTX 4090RTX 3060
VRAM 12 GB GDDR6
Memory bus 192-bit
TBP 170 W
PCIe Gen 4
Local AI (Q4 fit) 14B · ~40 tok/s @8B

Live benchmark data

RTX 4090 102FPS avg · 2 runs
RTX 3060 98FPS avg · 5 runs

Not enough verified runs yet for a fair pool verdict — averages appear once each side has at least five.

Verdict — RTX 4090

If you already have one, keep it — it's still a top-tier card. If you're shopping used, weigh it against a new 5080; the used discount needs to be significant to justify the older architecture.

Verdict — RTX 3060

Aged surprisingly well because of that VRAM. Cheap on the used market and still competent for 1080p. Local LLM/Stable Diffusion crowd loves it for the VRAM/price ratio.

Other matchups

Own one of these? Benchmark it →