AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark split between these two GPUs is decisively lopsided. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 wins 9 of the 10 recorded head-to-head tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile claims only a single victory. That one win, however, points to a meaningful distinction: the NVIDIA part takes the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 86,768 against 63,550, a 26.8% advantage. This suggests the RTX 3070 Mobile has a particular strength in Vulkan compute workloads, likely due to its driver optimization for that API rather than any raw hardware superiority.

Every other category favors the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700. The most dramatic gap appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where AMD scores 7,006 versus 2,380, a 194.4% lead. This is a modern DirectX 12 rasterization workload, and the result indicates that the R9700 is in a different performance class entirely for current-generation gaming and rendering tasks. The PassMark suite reinforces this pattern: AMD wins DirectX 9 by 126.9%, DirectX 11 by 97.1%, DirectX 10 by 37.2%, and DirectX 12 by 29.7%. The older API tests show the largest proportional gaps, suggesting the AMD card scales better across legacy compatibility layers as well.

Compute performance is another area where the R9700 dominates. In PassMark GPU Compute, AMD scores 15,300 against 6,827, a 124.1% lead. Geekbench OpenCL shows a narrower but still decisive 27.2% margin, with scores of 118,202 and 92,939. For users running OpenCL-based scientific or rendering workloads, the R9700 offers substantially more throughput. The PassMark G3D test, which aggregates general 3D rendering performance, shows AMD ahead by 76.2% with 26,979 versus 15,309. Even the 2D test, PassMark G2D, favors AMD by 92.8% with 1,236 versus 641, indicating faster desktop compositing and 2D acceleration.

The practical takeaway: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is a capable mobile GPU, but it only wins in Vulkan-specific scenarios. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 wins everywhere else, often by wide margins. For DirectX gaming, OpenCL compute, and general 3D workloads, the R9700 is the clear choice. For Vulkan-centric applications, the RTX 3070 Mobile has a niche advantage worth considering.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 has an average benchmark score of 23,315, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile averages 20,534. The R9700 sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, compared to the 65th percentile for the RTX 3070 Mobile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 scores 7,006 versus 2,380 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, a 194.4% advantage. In PassMark DirectX 12, AMD leads 83 to 64, a 29.7% margin.

Q: Is there any test where the NVIDIA GPU wins?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with 86,768 points against 63,550 for the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, a 26.8% lead. This is the only head-to-head test where NVIDIA comes out ahead.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has higher thermal design power?

A: The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 has a TDP of 300 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile has a TDP of 115 W. The R9700 is a desktop dual-slot card with a 1x 16-pin power connector, whereas the RTX 3070 Mobile is a portable device with no dedicated power connector.

Q: How do the GPUs compare in compute workloads?

A: In PassMark GPU Compute, the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 scores 15,300 versus 6,827 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, a 124.1% lead. In Geekbench OpenCL, AMD scores 118,202 versus 92,939, a 27.2% margin.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single margin in the entire comparison is the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 scores 7,006, which is 194.4% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile's 2,380. This test represents a modern DirectX 12 workload with heavy geometry and rasterization demands. The gap is so large that the R9700 effectively delivers nearly three times the frame throughput in this scenario. This is the headline result for anyone comparing these two GPUs for current-generation gaming or real-time rendering.

The PassMark suite provides a more granular view. In PassMark DirectX 9, AMD scores 363 against 160, a 126.9% lead. This older API still matters for legacy applications and certain emulation workloads. The DirectX 11 test shows AMD at 272 versus 138, a 97.1% margin. DirectX 10 shows AMD at 155 versus 113, a 37.2% lead. DirectX 12 shows AMD at 83 versus 64, a 29.7% margin. The pattern is clear: AMD wins every DirectX iteration, with the largest proportional gaps in the older APIs.

Compute benchmarks follow a similar trajectory. PassMark GPU Compute has AMD at 15,300 and NVIDIA at 6,827, a 124.1% advantage. This test exercises general-purpose GPU compute with floating-point operations, memory access patterns, and parallel execution. Geekbench OpenCL shows AMD at 118,202 and NVIDIA at 92,939, a 27.2% lead. While the OpenCL margin is smaller, it is still substantial. The Geekbench Vulkan test is the sole exception: NVIDIA scores 86,768 against AMD's 63,550, a 26.8% advantage. This suggests the RTX 3070 Mobile has better Vulkan driver optimization or hardware scheduling for that specific API.

The PassMark G3D test aggregates overall 3D rendering performance across multiple workloads. AMD scores 26,979 against 15,309, a 76.2% lead. The PassMark G2D test shows AMD at 1,236 versus 641, a 92.8% margin. Even in 2D operations, the R9700 is nearly twice as fast. Across all ten head-to-head benchmarks, the AMD card wins nine, with an average score of 23,315 compared to 20,534 for NVIDIA. The data is unambiguous: the R9700 is the superior performer in almost every measurable category.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ significantly in nearly every hardware specification. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 uses a Navi 48 chip built on TSMC's 4 nm process, containing 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile uses a GA104 chip on Samsung's 8 nm process, with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: AMD packs 151.0 million transistors per square millimeter, while NVIDIA achieves 44.4 million per square millimeter. The R9700 has roughly three times the transistor count on a smaller die, reflecting the newer process node.

Clock speeds differ substantially. The R9700 has a base clock of 1660 MHz and a boost clock of 2920 MHz, with a game clock of 2350 MHz. The RTX 3070 Mobile has a base clock of 1110 MHz and a boost clock of 1560 MHz. The memory clocks also differ: the R9700 runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), while the RTX 3070 Mobile runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clock differences contribute directly to the performance gap.

Memory configuration is another major divide. The R9700 has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use the same memory type and bus width, but the R9700 has four times the capacity and 43.9% more bandwidth. For large datasets, AI workloads, or high-resolution textures, the R9700 has a clear advantage.

Shader resources also differ. The R9700 has 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 raster output pipelines. The RTX 3070 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. Despite having fewer shading units, the R9700 achieves higher fill rates: 373.8 GPixel/s pixel rate and 747.5 GTexel/s texture rate, versus 124.8 GPixel/s and 249.6 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. The R9700 also has 64 ray tracing cores, compared to 40 for the RTX 3070 Mobile, and the R9700 has no tensor cores while the RTX 3070 Mobile has 160.

Power and physical specifications diverge as well. The R9700 has a TDP of 300 W, is dual-slot, uses a 1x 16-pin power connector, and requires a 700 W power supply. The RTX 3070 Mobile has a TDP of 115 W, uses no power connector, and has no suggested PSU. The R9700 is 267 mm long, 111 mm high, and 40 mm wide. The RTX 3070 Mobile has no recorded dimensions. The R9700 uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the RTX 3070 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the R9700 has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1a, while the RTX 3070 Mobile is listed as portable device dependent.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is fundamental. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 uses RDNA 4.0 architecture, a generation explicitly designed for Radeon Pro Navi products. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile uses Ampere architecture, part of the GeForce 30-series mobile lineup. These are entirely different design philosophies: RDNA 4.0 focuses on high clock speeds and efficient rasterization, while Ampere emphasizes balanced compute and ray tracing with dedicated tensor cores.

The process node difference is stark. AMD uses TSMC's 4 nm process, while NVIDIA uses Samsung's 8 nm process. This two-generation node gap explains much of the performance difference. The R9700 packs 53,900 million transistors into 357 mm², achieving a density of 151.0 million transistors per square millimeter. The RTX 3070 Mobile packs 17,400 million transistors into 392 mm², achieving only 44.4 million per square millimeter. The R9700 has over three times the transistor density, enabling its higher clock speeds and larger memory interface.

The R9700 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, with 64 ray tracing cores. The RTX 3070 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, with 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores. The shading unit count favors NVIDIA, but the R9700's higher clocks and newer architecture deliver better real-world throughput. The R9700 achieves 47.84 TFLOPS FP32 and FP16 (1:1), while the RTX 3070 Mobile achieves 15.97 TFLOPS for both. That is a 199.4% advantage in raw floating-point throughput for AMD.

The R9700 has no tensor cores, while the RTX 3070 Mobile has 160. This means NVIDIA has dedicated hardware for AI acceleration and DLSS-style workloads. The R9700 relies on its general-purpose shaders for such tasks. For users who specifically need tensor core acceleration, the RTX 3070 Mobile has an architectural advantage. However, the R9700's FP32 throughput is so high that it may still handle many compute tasks faster without dedicated tensor hardware.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The API surface is identical, but the underlying implementations differ. The R9700's RDNA 4.0 architecture is newer, released in 2025, while the RTX 3070 Mobile's Ampere architecture dates to 2021. The R9700 is still active in production, while the RTX 3070 Mobile is end-of-life. The R9700 has a launch MSRP of 1,299 USD, while the RTX 3070 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP. These architectural differences explain the benchmark results: the R9700's newer process, higher clocks, and larger memory capacity give it a decisive edge in nearly every workload, while the RTX 3070 Mobile retains a niche Vulkan advantage.