NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
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
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3090 | Radeon RX 7800 XT |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 624 GB/s |
| Shaders | 10496 | 3840 |
| Boost Clock | 1695 MHz | 2430 MHz |
| TDP | 350W | 263W |
| Architecture | Ampere | RDNA 3.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 5,117 | 4,154 |
| Best Price | $1,499 | $499 |
| Value Score | 18/100 | 64/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is faster but costs more. The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 vs AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT: Which Should You Buy?
These two land on top of each other: 106 fps versus 105.8 fps at 1440p ultra, a 0% difference you will not notice in a game. The decision comes down to price, VRAM and power draw rather than speed.
You pay a 200% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 ($1,499 against $499) to get 0% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 carries 24GB against 16GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 16GB cards age badly; and the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT draws 87W less (263W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is 3 years newer (2023 versus 2020), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.