RTX 3090 vs 5090 Comparison: Is It Worth Upgrading?

01

Preface

For most general consumers, although the GeForce RTX 3090 was a flagship from two generations ago, its performance is still more than adequate today. It can easily outperform most new mid- to low-end products, making an upgrade unnecessary.

However, for productivity-focused users such as studio professionals, the situation is completely different. Higher performance means less time required to run high-load applications, leading to greater productivity. Compared to the gains it brings, the cost of a graphics card is less significant.

This article compares the gaming performance of the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 5090 to evaluate how much of a performance improvement the RTX 5090 offers and whether it is worth upgrading. It is intended as a reference for interested readers.

02

Specifications Comparison

The GeForce RTX 5090 was released on January 6, 2025, featuring the GB202-300-A1 GPU, manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 21,760 CUDA cores, 176 raster units, 680 texture units, 170 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), 680 tensor cores, 172 ray tracing cores, and 96MB of L2 cache.

Its base clock is 2017 MHz, with a boost clock of up to 2407 MHz. It is equipped with 32GB of GDDR7 memory, with a 512-bit memory bus, a memory speed of 28Gbps, and a bandwidth of 1.8TB/s. FP32 performance reaches 104.8 TFLOPS. Power consumption is 575W, and the suggested retail price is $1999.

The GeForce RTX 3090 was released on September 1, 2020, using the GA102 GPU based on the Ampere architecture and built with Samsung’s 8nm process. It has 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 texture units, 112 raster units, 82 ray tracing cores, 82 SMs, 328 tensor cores, and 6MB of L2 cache.

Its base clock is 1395 MHz, with a boost clock of up to 1695 MHz. It comes with 24GB of GDDR6X memory, a memory speed of 19.5Gbps, a 384-bit memory bus, and a bandwidth of 936.2 GB/s. Power consumption is 350W, and the suggested retail price is $1499.

03

Test Platform Configuration

The main configuration is as follows:

Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E CARBON
Memory: 32GB DDR5 6200 MHz
Graphics Cards: GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 3090
Storage: Two Samsung 970 SSDs
Operating System: Windows 10 22H2

04

Game Testing (RTX 3090 vs 5090 Comparison)

The following tests cover seven games, all run in 4K quality mode. In the image series below, the left side represents the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, and the right side represents the GeForce RTX 5090 platform.

Game 1: Ghostwire: Tokyo

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 50, Min FPS 43, Frame Time 20.3ms, CPU Usage 7%, Power 41W, Temp 53°C, RAM 11.5GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 8.4GB, GPU Power 356W, GPU Temp 63°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 116, Min FPS 99, Frame Time 9.0ms, CPU Usage 15%, Power 60W, Temp 61°C, RAM 10.5GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 9.9GB, GPU Power 536W, GPU Temp 55°C.

RTX 5090 has 66 FPS higher average, ~2.3× performance, with 56 FPS higher minimum FPS, 11ms lower frame time, and 180W higher power consumption but 8°C lower GPU temp.

Game 2: God of War

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 76, Min FPS 67, Frame Time 13.3ms, CPU Usage 10%, Power 45W, Temp 52°C, RAM 13.2GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 8.7GB, GPU Power 353W, GPU Temp 61°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 184, Min FPS 148, Frame Time 5.3ms, CPU Usage 24%, Power 57W, Temp 57°C, RAM 11.5GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 8.7GB, GPU Power 532W, GPU Temp 59°C.

RTX 5090 leads by 108 FPS average (~2.4×), 81 FPS minimum, 8ms lower frame time, with 179W higher GPU power and 2°C lower temp.

Game 3: Forza Horizon 5

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 68, Min FPS 59, Frame Time 15.2ms, CPU Usage 27%, Power 48W, Temp 50°C, RAM 12.9GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 10.2GB, GPU Power 349W, GPU Temp 60°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 183, Min FPS 163, Frame Time 5.5ms, CPU Usage 47%, Power 75W, Temp 58°C, RAM 11.7GB, GPU Usage 98%, VRAM 9.9GB, GPU Power 440W, GPU Temp 54°C.

RTX 5090 delivers 115 FPS higher average (~2.7×), 104 FPS minimum, 10ms lower frame time, 91W more power, and 6°C lower GPU temp.

Game 4: Horizon Forbidden West

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 58, Min FPS 47, Frame Time 17.0ms, CPU Usage 40%, Power 85W, Temp 72°C, RAM 11.8GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 9.8GB, GPU Power 352W, GPU Temp 61°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 130, Min FPS 98, Frame Time 9.1ms, CPU Usage 57%, Power 109W, Temp 69°C, RAM 10.9GB, GPU Usage 98%, VRAM 10.2GB, GPU Power 469W, GPU Temp 51°C.

RTX 5090 outperforms by 72 FPS average (~2.2×), 51 FPS minimum, 8ms lower frame time, 117W more power, and 10°C cooler GPU temp.

Game 5: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 37, Min FPS 29, Frame Time 27.6ms, CPU Usage 22%, Power 67W, Temp 65°C, RAM 17.1GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 9.9GB, GPU Power 352W, GPU Temp 64°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 80, Min FPS 55, Frame Time 9.1ms, CPU Usage 34%, Power 79W, Temp 59°C, RAM 15.1GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 10.0GB, GPU Power 461W, GPU Temp 55°C.

RTX 5090 is 43 FPS faster on average (~2.2×), 26 FPS higher minimum, 18ms lower frame time, with 109W more power and 9°C lower GPU temp. RTX 3090 lags noticeably in fluidity.

Game 6: Silent Hill 2

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 39, Min FPS 33, Frame Time 25.6ms, CPU Usage 9%, Power 45W, Temp 54°C, RAM 11.5GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 9.0GB, GPU Power 348W, GPU Temp 61°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 83, Min FPS 68, Frame Time 13.1ms, CPU Usage 18%, Power 64W, Temp 51°C, RAM 10.4GB, GPU Usage 97%, VRAM 8.9GB, GPU Power 453W, GPU Temp 50°C.

RTX 5090 posts 44 FPS better average (~2.1×), 35 FPS higher minimum, 12ms lower frame time, 105W more power, and 11°C cooler GPU temp. RTX 3090 shows latency issues.

Game 7: The Last of Us Part II

• RTX 3090: Avg FPS 50, Min FPS 39, Frame Time 19.6ms, CPU Usage 29%, Power 60W, Temp 54°C, RAM 12.3GB, GPU Usage 99%, VRAM 11.0GB, GPU Power 344W, GPU Temp 61°C.
• RTX 5090: Avg FPS 120, Min FPS 80, Frame Time 7.7ms, CPU Usage 47%, Power 76W, Temp 57°C, RAM 10.6GB, GPU Usage 98%, VRAM 12.2GB, GPU Power 467W, GPU Temp 57°C.

RTX 5090 improves by 70 FPS average (~2.4×), 41 FPS minimum, 12ms lower frame time, 123W higher GPU power, and 4°C lower GPU temp.

05

Conclusion

Overall, compared to the GeForce RTX 3090, the GeForce RTX 5090 demonstrates an overwhelming advantage across the board. It consistently utilizes roughly twice the CPU usage of its predecessor, uses about 1GB less system memory, consumes over 100W more power, and runs a few degrees cooler.

Based on the aggregated data, the overall performance of the GeForce RTX 5090 is approximately 2.33 times that of the GeForce RTX 3090—an improvement of 133%. This makes it a worthwhile upgrade. This is the final conclusion of the article, provided for reference only.

Related:

1. RTX 2060 SUPER vs 5060 Ti: Real Game Test Results
2. RTX 5060 vs Ryzen 5 5600: Gaming Bottleneck Check
3. Is RTX 5060 Ti Worth Upgrading from GTX 1660 SUPER?

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