RTX 3070 vs RTX 3080: Specs, VRAM & Price
Short answer: choose the RTX 3080 when 12 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3070 when 8 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
The RTX 3070 has 8 GB of VRAM; the RTX 3080 has 12 GB.
You can rent both by the hour, no purchase required. RTX 3070 from $0.143/GPU/hr across 1 provider; RTX 3080 from $0.187/GPU/hr across 2 providers. The RTX 3070 is 24% cheaper at the entry rate.
RTX 3070
Good for inference and small-scale training workloads
RTX 3080
Good for inference and small-scale training workloads
Last updated: 2026-10-07 22:28:47 UTCRefreshes hourly
Specs side by side
| Spec | RTX 3070 | RTX 3080 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 8 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 760 GB/s |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
| Compute capability | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| Precisions in hardware | FP32, FP16, BF16, INT4 | FP32, FP16, BF16, INT4 |
| Peak FP16/BF16 tensor TFLOPS | 81.3 TFLOPS | 119 TFLOPS |
| Max board power (TDP) | 220W | 320W |
| Providers | 1 | 2 |
| Regions | 1 | 2 |
On-demand price
| Rate | RTX 3070 | RTX 3080 |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest per GPU/hr | $0.143/GPU/hr (cheapest overall) | $0.187/GPU/hr (cheapest overall) |
Which is better for AI: RTX 3070 or RTX 3080?
Choose the RTX 3080 when 12 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3070 when 8 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
RTX 3070 vs RTX 3080: common questions
Is the RTX 3070 or the RTX 3080 better for AI?
Short answer: choose the RTX 3080 when 12 GB of VRAM is the gating requirement. Choose the RTX 3070 when 8 GB is enough for the workload and the lower hourly rate points that way.
Is the RTX 3070 or the RTX 3080 cheaper to rent?
On Aquanode's live marketplace the RTX 3070 starts at $0.143/GPU/hr (median $0.143/GPU/hr across 1 provider) and the RTX 3080 starts at $0.187/GPU/hr (median $0.198/GPU/hr across 2 providers). The RTX 3070 is the cheaper of the two at the entry rate, by 24%.
What is the difference between the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3080?
The RTX 3070 has 8 GB of VRAM against the RTX 3080's 12 GB; both are Ampere parts; both run BF16, INT4 workloads in hardware. On price, the RTX 3070 lists from $0.143/GPU/hr and the RTX 3080 from $0.187/GPU/hr.
How widely available are the RTX 3070 and the RTX 3080?
1 provider list the RTX 3070 and 2 list the RTX 3080, across 1 and 2 regions respectively. 1 provider currently lists both models.
How much does 1,000 GPU-hours cost on the RTX 3070 vs the RTX 3080?
At the lowest rates listed today, 1,000 GPU-hours costs $143 on the RTX 3070 and $187 on the RTX 3080, a difference of $44 for the same runtime. Rates are per GPU per hour and update hourly.
How much VRAM does the RTX 3070 have compared to the RTX 3080?
The RTX 3070 has 8 GB of VRAM; the RTX 3080 has 12 GB.
Does the RTX 3070 or the RTX 3080 support NVLink?
Neither the RTX 3070 nor the RTX 3080 has a dedicated GPU-to-GPU interconnect.
How this comparison is calculated
Every price is normalized to a per-GPU hourly rate using the same pipeline as every other pricing surface on Aquanode, and only the cheapest qualifying offer per provider is shown. A dash means that provider does not currently list that GPU.
Architecture, compute capability and supported precisions come from each vendor's published datasheet for that generation, not from the marketplace feed. This page regenerates at most once per hour.
Memory bandwidth, tensor TFLOPS, NVLink/interconnect and max board power are the same verified-from-datasheet figures shown on each model's own RTX 3070 page and RTX 3080 page, which link the primary vendor source for that model. A dash here means Aquanode hasn't verified that figure from a primary source yet, never a guess.
Go further
Check what fits in each card's memory with the RTX 3070 VRAM calculator and the RTX 3080 VRAM calculator, or browse every model by generation in the GPU index.
More RTX 3070 comparisons
More RTX 3080 comparisons
Related reading: RTX 3070 pricing and specs, The NVIDIA Inception program, explained, Google Colab alternatives for dedicated GPU access, Free GPU credits for students and researchers, and RunPod volume disk vs. network volume, compared.
