GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q vs RTX 3080

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking26not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation46.30no data
Power efficiency14.02no data
ArchitectureAmpere (2020−2024)Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code nameGA102AD103
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date1 September 2020 (4 years ago)3 January 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$699 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores87049728
Core clock speed1440 MHz930 MHz
Boost clock speed1710 MHz1455 MHz
Number of transistors28,300 million45,900 million
Manufacturing process technology8 nm4 nm
Power consumption (TDP)320 Watt80 Watt
Texture fill rate465.1442.3
Floating-point processing power29.77 TFLOPS28.31 TFLOPS
ROPs96112
TMUs272304
Tensor Cores272304
Ray Tracing Cores6876

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 4.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x16
Length285 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 12-pinNone

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR6XGDDR6
Maximum RAM amount10 GB16 GB
Memory bus width320 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1188 MHz1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth760.3 GB/s448.0 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPortPortable Device Dependent
HDMI+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.56.7
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.03.0
Vulkan1.21.3
CUDA8.58.9

Pros & cons summary


Recency 1 September 2020 3 January 2023
Maximum RAM amount 10 GB 16 GB
Chip lithography 8 nm 4 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 320 Watt 80 Watt

RTX 4090 Max-Q has an age advantage of 2 years, a 60% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 300% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce RTX 3080 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
GeForce RTX 3080
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q
GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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4.2 6112 votes

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3.3 149 votes

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Questions & comments

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