AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data contains a single benchmark entry for each card, and they do not share a common test. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB was measured in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, scoring 4791. The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 was measured in Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 3977. Because these are different workloads, a direct win/loss tally cannot be established from the database; the two cards never appear in the same test. What the data does show is placement relative to other GPUs. The RTX 3080 12 GB sits at the 28th percentile among all GPUs, while the HD 6850 X2 sits at the 24th percentile. That four-point gap in percentile rank suggests the NVIDIA card holds a higher overall standing, but the gap is modest when viewed against the entire GPU population.

The RTX 3080 12 GB wins in the modern, DirectX 12-heavy segment. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad result reflects a card designed for contemporary rendering pipelines, with support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The HD 6850 X2 wins in legacy compute scenarios. Its Geekbench OpenCL score, while lower in absolute terms, indicates that this older architecture can still execute general-purpose compute tasks, though it lacks modern API coverage such as Vulkan and DirectX 12 Ultimate. For users running current games or GPU-accelerated applications that rely on ray tracing or tensor operations, the RTX 3080 12 GB is the only option with those features. For users with older software that never moved past DirectX 11, the HD 6850 X2 remains functional, but the data gives no indication it outperforms the NVIDIA card in any shared benchmark.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB has an average benchmark score of 4791, while the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 has an average score of 3977. The difference is 814 points, or roughly 20.5% in favor of the NVIDIA card, though this comparison mixes two different benchmark suites.

Q: How do their percentile ranks compare?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB sits at the 28th percentile among all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 28% of the database. The HD 6850 X2 sits at the 24th percentile. The NVIDIA card ranks four percentile points higher.

Q: What are the closest rivals for each card?

A: For the RTX 3080 12 GB, the nearest rival is the AMD Radeon R5 M255 with an average score of 4788, a delta of 0.1%. The NVIDIA GeForce 940MX scores 4844, which is 1.1% higher. For the HD 6850 X2, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K2000 at 3964, a 0.3% delta, followed by the NVIDIA GeForce 830M at 3957.

Q: Do the two cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The RTX 3080 12 GB supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the HD 6850 X2 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0). The NVIDIA card also supports Vulkan 1.4, whereas the AMD card has no recorded Vulkan support.

Q: What memory configurations do they carry?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, yielding 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The HD 6850 X2 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 134.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor count?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB uses 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. The HD 6850 X2 uses 1,700 million transistors on a 255 mm² die. The NVIDIA chip packs about 16.6 times more transistors.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database does not contain any head-to-head benchmark results for these two cards. The only recorded metrics are a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4791 for the RTX 3080 12 GB and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 3977 for the HD 6850 X2. Because these tests measure different aspects of performance, no direct comparison of frame rates or compute throughput is possible from the provided data.

However, the nearest rival data offers context. The RTX 3080 12 GB's score of 4791 is 0.1% above the AMD Radeon R5 M255 (4788) and 1.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (4844). The HD 6850 X2's score of 3977 is 0.3% above the NVIDIA Quadro K2000 (3964) and 0.5% above both the NVIDIA GeForce 830M and AMD Radeon R5 M420 (3957 and 3956, respectively). These deltas are small, suggesting that each card sits tightly within its own performance cluster.

The absolute difference between the two cards' scores is 814 points. If one assumes the 3DMark Steel Nomad and Geekbench OpenCL scales are roughly comparable, the RTX 3080 12 GB leads by about 20.5%. But that assumption is not testable with the available data. What is clear is that the RTX 3080 12 GB belongs to a much later generation, with a release date of January 2022 versus September 2011 for the HD 6850 X2. The gap in transistor count, memory bandwidth, and shading units is enormous, and the benchmark scores reflect that generational chasm even when the specific tests differ.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. The RTX 3080 12 GB has 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines. The HD 6850 X2 has 960 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA card also includes 70 ray tracing cores and 280 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the AMD card.

Memory is a major differentiator. The RTX 3080 12 GB uses 12 GB of GDDR6X with a 384-bit bus and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth. The HD 6850 X2 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus and 134.4 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card's memory clock is listed at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective, while the AMD card runs at 1050 MHz with 4.2 Gbps effective.

Power requirements differ substantially. The RTX 3080 12 GB has a TDP of 350 W, uses a single 12-pin power connector, and recommends a 750 W power supply. The HD 6850 X2 has a TDP of 254 W, uses two 8-pin connectors, and recommends a 600 W power supply. Despite the lower TDP, the AMD card requires two connectors versus one.

The bus interface and display outputs also differ. The RTX 3080 12 GB uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the HD 6850 X2 uses PCIe 2.0 x16. The NVIDIA card outputs via 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The AMD card outputs via 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.1. Physical dimensions are only recorded for the RTX 3080 12 GB: 285 mm length, 112 mm height, and 40 mm width. No dimensions are listed for the HD 6850 X2.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is defining. The RTX 3080 12 GB uses the GA102 chip on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The HD 6850 X2 uses the Barts chip on the TeraScale 2 architecture, fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC. The process node difference alone, 8 nm versus 40 nm, explains much of the transistor density disparity: 45.1 million transistors per square millimeter versus 6.7 million.

Transistor counts reflect this. The GA102 packs 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. The Barts chip has 1,700 million transistors on a 255 mm² die. The NVIDIA die is about 2.5 times larger and carries roughly 16.6 times more transistors. The resulting compute throughput is equally lopsided: the RTX 3080 12 GB delivers 30.64 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the HD 6850 X2 delivers 1.536 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card also supports FP16 at 30.64 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the AMD card has no recorded FP16 capability.

The RTX 3080 12 GB includes dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, which are absent from the Barts design. Its API support spans DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The HD 6850 X2 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4, with no Vulkan. The architecture generations are also separated by their predecessors and successors: the RTX 3080 12 GB follows the GeForce 20 and precedes the GeForce 40, while the HD 6850 X2 follows Evergreen and precedes Southern Islands.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion for anyone choosing between these two cards. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is a modern, high-end GPU with a 28th percentile rank, 30.64 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan. Its benchmark score of 4791 in 3DMark Steel Nomad places it in a cluster with low-end mobile GPUs like the R5 M255 and 940MX, which is unusual for a card with its specifications, but that is what the recorded data shows.

The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 is a legacy dual-GPU card from 2011 with a 24th percentile rank, 1.536 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, and support only up to DirectX 11.2. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 3977 places it near the NVIDIA Quadro K2000 and GeForce 830M. For any modern workload, the RTX 3080 12 GB is the only card with the necessary API support, memory capacity, and compute resources. For a user running software that predates DirectX 12 and Vulkan, the HD 6850 X2 could still function, but the database provides no evidence that it outperforms the NVIDIA card in any scenario.

Users who need ray tracing, tensor operations, or high-bandwidth memory should select the RTX 3080 12 GB. Users who are constrained to legacy DirectX 11 applications and have a 600 W power supply could consider the HD 6850 X2, but they would be accepting a 16.6-times-smaller transistor budget and a 134.4 GB/s memory bandwidth ceiling. The verdict, based strictly on the recorded measurements, is that the RTX 3080 12 GB is the superior card by every quantitative metric available.