GeForce RTX 3090 vs GeForce RTX 3090 Ti for Local AI

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Which GPU is better for local AI workloads?

Both cards carry 24GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, so they load the same models: 30B-class at Q4 and 32B at tighter quantization. The Ti runs 10752 cores at 1008 GB/s with a 450W TDP, versus the 3090\u2019s 10496 cores, 936 GB/s, and 350W.

Spec comparison: what actually differs

The table below is computed live from our hardware database. Positive deltas favor the GeForce RTX 3090.

Specification	GeForce RTX 3090	GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	Difference
VRAM	24	24	—
Memory bandwidth	936	1008	-7%
Memory type	GDDR6X	GDDR6X	—
Memory bus	384	384	—
TDP	350	450	-22%
CUDA cores	10496	10752	-2%
Architecture	Ampere	Ampere	—
Launch MSRP	$1,499	$1,999	-25%
Street price	$1,499	$1,999	-25%

Specs from our sourced product database. See how we source data.

What about price?

Launch MSRP: $1499 (3090) versus $1999 (3090 Ti). Both EOL \u2014 check current used prices before buying.

Which one should you buy for LLMs and image generation?

NVIDIA · 2020

GeForce RTX 3090

Buy the used 3090 \u2014 the performance gap to the Ti is single-digit while used pricing usually favors the 3090 by more.

Full specs & benchmarks →

NVIDIA · 2022

GeForce RTX 3090 Ti

Buy the 3090 Ti only when its used price is within about 10% of the 3090, or when you want the higher factory power headroom.

Full specs & benchmarks →

Is it faster for LLM inference?

Token generation is within a few percent (936 versus 1008 GB/s) and both hold identical model sets in 24GB. The 3090\u2019s lower 350W TDP makes dual-GPU used builds easier to power and cool.

How does it handle image generation?

Both run SDXL and Flux in 24GB with room for batching, with the Ti marginally faster. Neither card supports the 40-series FP8 path.

Which AI models fit on each card?

Computed from our model VRAM database at Q4 quantization: GeForce RTX 3090 has 24 GB, GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has 24 GB.

Fit on both cards

K2 Horizon 36B A4B (MoVA) Ornith 1.5 35B A3B Qwen3.6-35B-A3B Nex N2.5 Mini K2 Horizon 32B Edge0 35B A3B (preview) Qwen-AgentWorld-35B-A3B Agnes 3.0 Flash DeepSeek R1-Distill 32B Qwen 3 32B Qwen2 5 Coder 32B Olmo 3 32B Think Gemma 4 31B IT Xing4.0-29B-A4B Qwen3 30B A3B Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct Granite 4.2 30B Qwen3.8-27B Qwen3.5-27B Qwen3.6-27B Gemma 3 27B Wan 2.2 (A14B & TI2V-5B) OUI 1 Gemma 4 26B A4B IT Mistral Small 3.2 24B Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct Magistral-Small-2509 Gpt Oss 20B Maple Preview Ling Mini 2.0 Deepseek R1 Distill Qwen 14B Qwen3 14B Confucius4-T3PO WebWorld-14B ContextPilot 14B Phi 4 Phi 3 Medium Ministral 3 14B Instruct Ministral 3 14B Reasoning Gemma 3 12B Mellum 2.1 Thinking FLUX.1 dev Gemma 4 12B IT Ornith 1.5 9B OxCoder 9B Gemma 2 9B K2 Horizon 7B NeoHorse 1 9B Ministral 3 8B Reasoning Ministral 3 8B Instruct Granite 4.2 8B LFM2.5 8B A1B Qwen 3 8B ALoDLM 8B Deepseek R1 Distill Llama 8B Llama 3.1 8B Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large Gemma 4 E4B IT Edge0 8B A1B (preview) Ling-3.0-tiny Qwen2 5 7B ZGCM-1 7B Mistral 7B V03 Gemma 4 E2B IT K2 Horizon 3.7B Gemma 3 4B Ministral 3 3B Reasoning NeoHorse 1 4B Nanbeige4.2 3B Spark X2.5 4B Qwen3 4B Ministral 3 3B Instruct Granite 4.2 3B Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 Llama 3 2 3B Granite Swash 3B A600M LFM2.5 2.6B MiniCPM5 2B Qwen3 1 7B Spark X2.5 1.7B Whisper large-v3 Llama 3 2 1B K2 Horizon 0.9B Coqui XTTS-v2 Qwen3 0 6B GPT-X3 150M

Q4_K_M-equivalent sizes; context and quantization choices shift real limits. Check each model page for full quantization tables.

Frequently asked questions

3090 vs 3090 Ti for local LLMs \u2014 which is faster?

The Ti, by roughly 3\u20137%, from 1008 versus 936 GB/s bandwidth and 256 more CUDA cores. Both hold the same 24GB model set.

Are used 3090s still good for AI in 2026?

Yes. 24GB of GDDR6X still loads 30B-class models at Q4, and 936 GB/s keeps decode interactive \u2014 more capacity than any new card near its used price.

Which needs more cooling?

The 3090 Ti. Its 450W TDP demands a strong cooler and PSU, while the 3090\u2019s 350W is easier to cool quietly, especially in multi-GPU rigs.