I’m in the process of building a new PC and I’m torn between getting the RTX 3090 (or Ti) and the RTX 5080. My primary use case is AI inference, but I also play a few games like DotA, Counter Strike, GTA V, Overwatch, and Call of Duty. I think the RTX 3090 would give me solid FPS at 2K for gaming, but I’m stuck on the AI side of things. The 3090 has more VRAM than the 5080, which is crucial for AI tasks, but the performance metrics seem to favor the 5080. I plan to work with stable diffusion and various local LLMs. There’s also the issue of availability—I can find the RTX 3090 at decent prices on eBay, while grabbing an RTX 5080 seems a bit more challenging with demand so high. Any insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
5 Answers
Dude, these are really different cards! In gaming, 5080 wipes the floor with 3090. For AI, 3090’s VRAM becomes crucial if you’re working with larger models, but gaming-wise, the 5080 and 4080 are just way better.
Honestly, if you can snag the 3090 for a good price, go for it! The 5080 might be the latest tech, but it’s only got 16GB, which isn’t enough for some AI tasks. The 3090’s extra VRAM makes it a better option for anything heavy on memory.
The RTX 5080 has slightly better memory bandwidth for inference, but in most cases, that’s not going to edge out an extra token per second for models fitting in 16GB. For gaming, the 5080 generally performs better, but the 24GB VRAM of the 3090 is still a big deal for AI tasks. If your AI models need more than 16GB of VRAM, like more complex 14B LLMs, definitely go with the 3090. Otherwise, consider the newer 5080, especially if you won’t exceed the 16GB limit.
For gaming at 2K, both cards are decent, but the 5080 will generally outperform the 3090. Just look out for cases where VRAM becomes an issue, as 16GB can fall short for certain games or models.
The 5080 will outperform the 3090 in both AI tasks and gaming most of the time. But if you know you’ll need 24GB of VRAM for your AI models, skip the 5080 and go with the 3090. It really depends on your specific needs.
