Hardware comparisons
This index is part of /hardware. Each comparison below puts two options side by side and works through the same decision: which one holds the models you want to run, and what you trade away by picking the other.
Single card detail lives on the per card pages under GPUs for local AI. Whole machine recommendations live under build guides. These pages are most useful once you have narrowed the field to two.
Comparisons
- RTX 4090 vs RTX 5090: whether the jump from a 24 GB to a 32 GB frame buffer unlocks enough to justify the newer card.
- RTX 3090 vs RTX 4090: two cards in the same 24 GB memory class, and what the generation gap buys you when capacity is equal.
- M3 Max vs RTX 4090: a large pool of unified memory against a smaller pool of fast dedicated VRAM, which is the central trade in local AI hardware.
Every comparison starts with what fits
These pages are not scored on a general ranking. A card that is faster on paper is the wrong purchase if the model you care about does not fit on it, so each comparison resolves in this order.
First, capacity. Can each option hold the weights, at the quantization you are willing to run, plus the KV cache for the context window you need? If only one option clears that bar, the comparison is already over and the rest is detail. This is why a card with more memory and less compute often beats the reverse.
Second, speed at the size that fits. Where both options hold the model, memory bandwidth usually decides how quick generation feels, because inference is dominated by reading weights. Compute throughput shows up in prompt processing, image and video work, and fine-tuning.
Third, software. Which apps and model formats work, driver maturity, and how much setup work you are signing up for. Two cards with identical specifications are not equivalent if one of them needs more effort to get a given app working.
Fourth, everything else. Power draw, heat, noise, physical size, and whether you can add a second card later. These rarely decide the answer, but they decide whether you enjoy living with it.
Prices are left out on purpose. They change, and the ordering above holds regardless of what anything costs on the day you read it.