AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data draws a very clear line between these two accelerators. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is the dominant performer, winning the only shared benchmark by a staggering 154.4% margin. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI25, while still a capable card in its own right, is a legacy product from a different era. The RTX 3090 Ti should be the choice for anyone needing maximum compute throughput, modern API support, or a display output for workstation use. The MI25 is strictly for legacy deployments or scenarios where its specific HBM2 memory characteristics are required, but the data shows it is outclassed in raw performance. The RTX 3090 Ti also holds a higher percentile ranking at 95 versus the MI25's 90, reinforcing its place higher up the GPU hierarchy.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the available benchmark results, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti wins in every measurable category. The database shows a single head-to-head test, Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 3090 Ti scores 174,441 against the MI25's 68,562. This is not a close contest; it is a decisive victory for the Ampere card.

However, the MI25 has its own niche. Its architecture is built for compute, not graphics. It has no display outputs, making it a pure accelerator. For a system that needs a dedicated compute node without any video output requirements, the MI25 could be a fit. Its dual-slot, 267 mm length also makes it physically smaller than the RTX 3090 Ti's 336 mm triple-slot design. The MI25 also draws less power, with a 300 W TDP versus the 450 W TDP of the RTX 3090 Ti, which could be a factor in dense, power-constrained server environments. But in terms of performance, the RTX 3090 Ti is the clear winner.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The RTX 3090 Ti uses the GA102 chip based on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. It packs 28,300 million transistors onto a 628 mm² die. In contrast, the MI25 uses the Vega 10 chip based on AMD's GCN 5.0 architecture, built by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm process. It has 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die.

This leads to a massive difference in transistor density: 45.1M per mm² for the Ampere chip versus 25.3M per mm² for the GCN chip. The RTX 3090 Ti is also a much more feature-rich silicon. It includes 84 dedicated ray tracing cores and 336 tensor cores, which are completely absent from the MI25 (listed as null). This means the RTX 3090 Ti supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads, while the MI25 relies purely on its shader array.

The core configurations differ wildly. The RTX 3090 Ti has 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The MI25 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. This core advantage is reflected in the fill rates: the RTX 3090 Ti achieves 208.3 GPixel/s and 625.0 GTexel/s, while the MI25 manages 96.00 GPixel/s and 384.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is also stark: 40.00 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card versus 12.29 TFLOPS for the AMD card. Interestingly, the MI25 has a 2:1 FP16 ratio, giving it 24.58 TFLOPS in FP16, while the RTX 3090 Ti has a 1:1 ratio at 40.00 TFLOPS, meaning the NVIDIA card is still faster even in the MI25's preferred precision.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is significantly faster. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, it scored 174,441 versus the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25's 68,562, a difference of 154.4%.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 support ray tracing?

A: No. The database lists the RT cores as null for the MI25. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has 84 RT cores.

Q: Can the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 be used as a display adapter?

A: No. Its display outputs are listed as "No outputs". The RTX 3090 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 has a TDP of 300 W and requires a 700 W power supply. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has a TDP of 450 W and requires an 850 W power supply.

Q: How much memory do these cards have, and what type?

A: The NVIDIA card has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, providing 436.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti ranks in the 95th percentile, while the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 ranks in the 90th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only overlapping benchmark in the database is Geekbench OpenCL. The results are lopsided. The RTX 3090 Ti scores 174,441, while the MI25 scores 68,562. This translates to a 154.4% delta, meaning the RTX 3090 Ti is more than 2.5 times faster in this test. This is the sole head-to-head data point, and it is a decisive one.

Looking at the broader database context, the RTX 3090 Ti's average benchmark score is 131,938. This places it in the 95th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA L4 (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation (2.4% behind), the NVIDIA A10M (2.4% behind), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 (2.6% behind). This shows the RTX 3090 Ti is sitting in a tightly contested performance band at the top tier.

The MI25's average benchmark score is 68,562, placing it in the 90th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Arc A770 (0.4% ahead), the NVIDIA CMP 90HX (0.6% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (1.9% behind), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (2.0% behind). While the MI25 is still a solid performer, it is competing in a much lower performance class. The 154.4% gap between these two cards is the defining statistic of this comparison.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification field. The process node is a major split: the NVIDIA card uses 8 nm silicon from Samsung, while the AMD card uses 14 nm from GlobalFoundries. This results in different transistor counts (28,300 million vs 12,500 million) and die sizes (628 mm² vs 495 mm²).

The memory subsystems are completely different. The RTX 3090 Ti uses 24 GB of GDDR6X with a 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The MI25 uses 16 GB of HBM2 with a 2048-bit bus and 436.2 GB/s bandwidth. The clock speeds also differ: the RTX 3090 Ti has a base clock of 1560 MHz and boost of 1860 MHz, while the MI25 has a base of 1400 MHz and boost of 1500 MHz.

Compute resources are vastly different. The RTX 3090 Ti has 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 84 RT cores, and 336 tensor cores. The MI25 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and no RT or tensor cores. This leads to different pixel and texture rates, as well as FP32 and FP16 performance.

Power and physical dimensions also differ. The RTX 3090 Ti has a 450 W TDP, is triple-slot, 336 mm long, 140 mm tall, 61 mm wide, and uses a single 16-pin power connector. The MI25 has a 300 W TDP, is dual-slot, 267 mm long, 111 mm tall, uses two 8-pin connectors, and has no width listed. The PCIe interface differs too: the RTX 3090 Ti uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the MI25 uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

API support is another differentiator. The RTX 3090 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the MI25 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The release dates are far apart: the RTX 3090 Ti launched on January 26, 2022, while the MI25 launched on June 26, 2017. The RTX 3090 Ti has a launch MSRP of 1,999 USD; the MI25 has no recorded MSRP.