AMD Radeon 680M vs AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and AMD Radeon 680M occupy vastly different corners of the GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data reflects that chasm. Across the three shared tests, the discrete RX 5700 XT claims two decisive victories, while the integrated 680M manages a single, albeit striking, win.

The most lopsided result comes in the modern DirectX 12 workload, 3DMark Steel Nomad. Here, the RX 5700 XT scores 2,134, dwarfing the 680M’s 378. That is a staggering 464.6% advantage for the discrete card. In practical terms, this means the RX 5700 XT delivers over five times the frame throughput in this demanding, current-generation API test. The 680M, by contrast, falls to a score that is barely a fraction of its rival’s output, underscoring the limits of an integrated graphics processor under heavy, sustained load.

The Vulkan test tells a similar story, though with a smaller margin. The RX 5700 XT posts 68,310, while the 680M manages 21,965. That translates to a 211% lead for the discrete Navi 10 part. While not as crushing as the Steel Nomad result, this still represents a more than threefold performance advantage, confirming that the RX 5700 XT’s raw shading and texture throughput dominate in low-overhead, compute-heavy workloads.

However, the 680M strikes back in Geekbench OpenCL. The integrated part scores 23,468, which is 59.4% higher than the RX 5700 XT’s 9,524. This is a curious inversion. OpenCL performance on the RX 5700 XT appears anomalously low relative to its other scores, likely reflecting driver or workload-specific inefficiencies from the older RDNA 1.0 architecture. The 680M, with its newer RDNA 2.0 design and higher base clock, capitalizes on this, delivering a clear win in this particular compute benchmark.

Looking at aggregate performance, the average benchmark score across all tested workloads favors the RX 5700 XT, which sits at 16,361. The 680M’s average is 15,270, a gap of roughly 7%. This places the RX 5700 XT at the 59th percentile of all GPUs, while the 680M sits at the 57th. Despite the OpenCL outlier, the overall picture is one of consistent dominance for the discrete card, with its wins in the heavier, more relevant gaming and Vulkan tests outweighing its single compute-based loss.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 5700 XT is the clear winner for any task that demands sustained, high-throughput graphics processing. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad and Vulkan victories make it the obvious choice for discrete gaming, particularly at higher resolutions and detail settings where memory bandwidth and raw pixel throughput matter. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s, provides a massive advantage over a system-shared memory setup. This card is built for dedicated graphics workloads, from modern AAA titles to GPU-accelerated rendering that leverages Vulkan.

The 680M, on the other hand, wins in the Geekbench OpenCL test, a result that hints at its efficiency in certain compute tasks. Its higher clock speeds—2000 MHz base and 2200 MHz boost—help it punch above its weight in this specific benchmark. This makes it a reasonable choice for light compute offload or for systems where power draw is a primary constraint. With a 50 W TDP, it is a fraction of the RX 5700 XT’s 225 W requirement, making it ideal for thin-and-light laptops or compact desktops where a discrete card is not feasible.

The data also suggests the 680M is a smarter pick for legacy API compatibility, though the FACT PACK does not provide direct scores for that comparison. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support is a generation ahead of the RX 5700 XT’s DirectX 12 (12_1), which could matter for future titles that require hardware features like ray tracing—the 680M includes 12 RT cores, while the RX 5700 XT has none. For pure gaming performance today, the RX 5700 XT wins decisively. For a power-efficient, feature-forward integrated solution, the 680M holds its ground in specific scenarios.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is a story of generational progression. The RX 5700 XT uses the Navi 10 chip built on RDNA 1.0, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process. It packs 10,300 million transistors into a 251 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 41.0M per mm². This is a mature, high-performance design focused on raw throughput for its era.

The 680M, by contrast, employs the Rembrandt+ chip on RDNA 2.0, moving to a smaller 6 nm TSMC node. It contains 13,100 million transistors on a 208 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 63.0M per mm². This newer architecture brings several key improvements. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), including hardware ray tracing via 12 dedicated RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the RX 5700 XT. The 680M also integrates 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, compared to the RX 5700 XT’s 2560 shaders, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs.

The compute capabilities differ significantly. The RX 5700 XT delivers 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the 680M manages 3.379 TFLOPS. In FP16, the RX 5700 XT hits 19.51 TFLOPS (2:1 rate), versus 6.758 TFLOPS for the 680M. Pixel and texture rates follow the same pattern: 121.9 GPixel/s and 304.8 GTexel/s for the RX 5700 XT, against 70.40 GPixel/s and 105.6 GTexel/s for the 680M. The RX 5700 XT’s raw compute dominance is clear, but the 680M’s newer RDNA 2.0 design offers features that the older card cannot match, such as ray tracing support and a more modern feature set.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal how fundamentally different these two products are. The RX 5700 XT is a discrete, dual-slot card with a 272 mm length, 111 mm height, and 36 mm width. It requires a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector and a 550 W suggested PSU. Its TDP is 225 W. The 680M is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no dimensions listed, no power connectors, and a mere 50 W TDP. It has no suggested PSU requirement.

Memory is another major divergence. The RX 5700 XT features 8 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 680M uses system-shared memory, with the bus width, size, and bandwidth all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." This means the 680M’s memory performance is entirely reliant on the host system’s RAM, a significant bottleneck compared to the dedicated VRAM of the RX 5700 XT.

Clock speeds also differ markedly. The RX 5700 XT has a base clock of 1605 MHz, a boost of 1905 MHz, and a game clock of 1755 MHz. Its memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The 680M has a higher base clock of 2000 MHz and a boost of 2200 MHz, but its memory clock is listed as "System Shared." The bus interface differs as well: the RX 5700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the 680M uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs for the RX 5700 XT include 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the 680M’s outputs are "Portable Device Dependent."

Production status and release timing also separate them. The RX 5700 XT is end-of-life, released on 2019-07-06, with a launch MSRP of 399 USD. The 680M is active, released on 2023-01-02, with no launch MSRP listed. The RX 5700 XT’s predecessor is Vega and its successor is Navi II; the 680M’s predecessor is Vega II IGP and its successor is Navi III IGP.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 16,361, compared to the AMD Radeon 680M’s 15,270.

Q: How large is the RX 5700 XT’s lead in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test?

A: The RX 5700 XT scores 2,134, which is 464.6% higher than the 680M’s 378.

Q: Is there any test where the 680M beats the RX 5700 XT?

A: Yes, in Geekbench OpenCL, the 680M scores 23,468, which is 59.4% higher than the RX 5700 XT’s 9,524.

Q: Does the 680M support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the 680M includes 12 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The RX 5700 XT has no RT cores and supports only DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: What is the difference in power consumption?

A: The RX 5700 XT has a TDP of 225 W, while the 680M has a TDP of 50 W.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The 680M has a transistor density of 63.0M / mm², compared to the RX 5700 XT’s 41.0M / mm².