AMD Radeon HD 8970M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Comparison

The data places the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and the AMD Radeon HD 8970M in completely different performance strata, despite their similar average benchmark percentiles. The RTX 3080 holds a staggering lead in the one common benchmark, dwarfing the mobile GPU from a previous era. While the HD 8970M was a capable part for its time, the benchmark results show a generational gulf that no amount of architectural nuance can bridge.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only overlapping benchmark between the two GPUs is Geekbench OpenCL, and the results are decisively one-sided. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 152423, while the AMD Radeon HD 8970M manages just 21237. This translates to a delta of 617.7% in favor of the RTX 3080, meaning the modern card delivers over seven times the compute performance of the older part in this specific test. This is not a marginal victory; it is a complete rout that reflects the massive difference in raw processing power, memory bandwidth, and architectural efficiency.

This single data point is enough to define the head-to-head matchup. The RTX 3080 wins the only direct comparison, giving it a 1-0 record in shared benchmarks. While the HD 8970M has no wins to its name, its overall benchmark profile is not entirely without merit. It sits at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, which is surprisingly close to the RTX 3080's 68th percentile. This seemingly small gap in percentile ranking is misleading; it is a statistical artifact of the HD 8970M's score being compared against a database that includes many far less capable integrated and low-end graphics solutions. The absolute performance difference is what matters, and that difference is astronomical.

Looking at the RTX 3080's other benchmark results provides context for its OpenCL dominance. In Passmark G3D, it scores 25086, and in Passmark GPU Compute it hits 14397. Its Geekbench Vulkan score is 33620, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result is 4407. These figures, while not directly comparable to the HD 8970M, paint a picture of a GPU designed for modern, demanding workloads. The HD 8970M, with no other benchmark entries in the data, cannot offer any counterpoint. The conclusion is inescapable: in any compute-heavy or modern gaming scenario, the RTX 3080 will be several times faster.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is vastly faster, scoring 152423 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 8970M's 21237, a performance advantage of 617.7%.

Q: How do their overall performance percentiles compare?

A: They are surprisingly close. The RTX 3080 is in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, while the HD 8970M is in the 66th percentile. Despite this, the absolute performance gap in shared tests is enormous.

Q: What is the closest rival to the RTX 3080 in average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA P106-100 is its closest rival, with an average score of 23249, which is 0.3% lower than the RTX 3080's 23172 average.

Q: What is the closest rival to the HD 8970M in average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL is its closest rival, with an average score of 21153, which is 0.4% higher than the HD 8970M's 21237 average.

Q: Does the HD 8970M support modern APIs like Vulkan and DirectX 12?

A: Yes, but with limitations. It supports Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1), whereas the RTX 3080 supports the more advanced Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Q: What is the difference in their launch dates?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 8970M was released on 2013-05-13, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 was released much later on 2020-08-31, representing a gap of over seven years in technology.

The Verdict

The choice between these two is unequivocal based on the performance data. Any user requiring serious graphics compute power should select the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. Its 617.7% lead in the Geekbench OpenCL test and its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 make it the only viable option for modern gaming, content creation, or any GPU-accelerated workload. The RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 23172 places it in a different league entirely. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA P106-100 and AMD Radeon R9 M290X, are within a fraction of a percent of its average score, but none are in the same realm as the HD 8970M.

The AMD Radeon HD 8970M is a relic of a bygone era. Its 21237 average score and 66th percentile ranking are respectable for a product from 2013, and it was clearly a competitive mobile GPU in its day, trading blows with the likes of the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile and GeForce RTX 5050 in average score. However, it is not a product that can be recommended for any current use case beyond legacy systems or very light, old gaming. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 153.6 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for modern titles, and its lack of RT and Tensor cores puts it at a fundamental disadvantage. The data is clear: this is a performance contest with a single winner.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet reveals the scale of the technological leap between the two. The most obvious difference is in memory: the RTX 3080 has 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the HD 8970M has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing only 153.6 GB/s. This 4.9x difference in bandwidth is a primary driver of the performance gap. The RTX 3080 also boasts a much higher pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, compared to the HD 8970M's 28.80 GPixel/s and 72.00 GTexel/s.

The compute units tell a similar story. The RTX 3080 has 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The HD 8970M has 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This translates to a massive difference in raw compute power, with the RTX 3080 delivering 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the HD 8970M's 2.304 TFLOPS. Power consumption is also drastically different, with the RTX 3080 rated at 320 W and the HD 8970M at 100 W. The RTX 3080 also uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the HD 8970M uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Finally, the RTX 3080 has a dual-slot form factor and requires a 1x 12-pin power connector, whereas the HD 8970M is an MXM module for laptops.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by more than just time; they are products of fundamentally different design philosophies. The RTX 3080 is built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It is a massive chip, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, yielding a density of 45.1M / mm². This architecture is designed for the future, incorporating 68 RT cores for real-time ray tracing and 272 Tensor cores for AI acceleration, features completely absent from the HD 8970M. The Ampere architecture also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading.

In contrast, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M is based on the older GCN 1.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. Its "Neptune" chip is relatively small, with 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, resulting in a density of 13.2M / mm². This architecture has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores, and its API support is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The HD 8970M's FP16 performance is not listed, while the RTX 3080 offers 29.77 TFLOPS of FP16 performance, suggesting a 1:1 ratio with FP32. This architectural gulf explains why the RTX 3080 is not just faster, but capable of entirely new types of workloads that the HD 8970M cannot even attempt. The difference in transistor density alone, 45.1M / mm² versus 13.2M / mm², shows how much more efficient and complex the newer chip is.