NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.

nvidiaRTX 30

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Price
$499
Value Score
39/100
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nvidiaRTX 30

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

Price
$1,499
Value Score
18/100
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Benchmark Comparison

🖥️ 1080p GamingRTX 3090 +21%
98.8
125.5
🎮 1440p GamingRTX 3090 +27%
77.7
106
📺 4K GamingRTX 3090 +37%
44.4
70.7
💡 Ray TracingRTX 3090 +40%
34.1
57.2
ProductivityRTX 3090 +17%
141
169

Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.

Specifications

SpecGeForce RTX 3070GeForce RTX 3090
VRAM8GB GDDR624GB GDDR6X
Memory Bandwidth448 GB/s936.2 GB/s
Shaders588810496
Boost Clock1725 MHz1695 MHz
TDP220W350W
ArchitectureAmpereAmpere
3DMark Steel Nomad3,1685,117
Best Price$499$1,499
Value Score39/10018/100

Verdict

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090: Which Should You Buy?

This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 delivers 106 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070's 77.7 fps, a 36% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.

You pay a 200% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 ($1,499 against $499) to get 36% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the better value here.

Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 carries 24GB against 8GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 8GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 draws 130W less (220W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case.