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

RTX 5090VSRTX 3060

NVIDIA · Blackwell (RTX 50) · 2025 · halo

The absolute ceiling — the only card that runs everything at 4K max with ray tracing native.

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NVIDIA · Ampere (RTX 30) · 2021 · mid

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

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Specifications

RTX 5090RTX 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 5090 no runs yet
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 5090

If you have to ask if it's worth it, it isn't — this card is for people who want max settings and don't care about the cost. Requires a monster PSU and a case that can fit it. The performance gap over the 5080 is smaller than the price gap.

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

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