AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 vs NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation Comparison

AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation sit at opposite ends of the GPU timeline, and the benchmark data reflects a generational gulf that goes far beyond simple clock speed improvements. The MI25 is an end-of-life data center part from 2017 built on 14 nm, while the RTX 5880 Ada is an active workstation card from early 2024 on a 5 nm process. The recorded measurements show one clear winner in raw compute, but the older card still holds relevance in specific legacy contexts.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is not close. The RTX 5880 Ada Generation scores 326,898 points, while the Radeon Instinct MI25 manages 68,562 points. That is a delta of -79% from the perspective of the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA part delivers roughly 4.8 times the compute performance in this particular workload. The RTX 5880 Ada does not just win; it dominates by a margin that dwarfs anything seen between adjacent-generation parts.

For context, the MI25's nearest rivals in the database are all within a few percentage points. The Intel Arc A770 scores 68,809 (-0.4%), the NVIDIA CMP 90HX scores 69,000 (-0.6%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 scores 69,870 (-1.9%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 69,986 (-2%). The MI25 sits at the 90th percentile of all GPUs, which sounds strong, but that percentile includes a wide range of consumer and workstation parts. The RTX 5880 Ada, by contrast, sits at the 85th percentile, yet its raw OpenCL score is nearly five times higher. The percentile ranking is misleading here because it is based on an average of all benchmark scores in the database, and the RTX 5880 Ada has a much broader test suite.

The RTX 5880 Ada's nearest rivals tell a similar story of tight competition at its own level. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 scores 46,043 (-0.2%), the Intel Arc A730M scores 45,592 (+0.8%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 45,384 (+1.3%), and the AMD Radeon RX 5600M scores 46,601 (-1.4%). All of these are within 1.4% of the RTX 5880 Ada's average score of 45,972, which is a much tighter cluster than the MI25's rivals. This suggests the RTX 5880 Ada competes in a performance tier where small margins separate cards, whereas the MI25 is an outlier in its own generation, far above most of its peers but nowhere near the modern flagship class.

The additional benchmark data for the RTX 5880 Ada reveals a balanced profile across different API workloads. In PassMark tests, it scores 335 in DirectX 9, 228 in DirectX 11, 70 in DirectX 12, and 167 in DirectX 10. The G2D score is 777, the G3D score is 25,096, and the GPU compute score is 14,208. These numbers show that the card is strongest in compute-heavy tasks (G3D and GPU compute) and weakest in legacy DirectX 12 workloads, which is typical for a workstation-focused GPU that prioritizes raw throughput over gaming optimizations.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation scores 326,898 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to 68,562 for the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25. The NVIDIA card is 79% ahead in this test.

Q: How does the MI25 compare to its closest rivals in the database?

A: The MI25 is marginally behind all four of its nearest rivals: -0.4% versus the Intel Arc A770, -0.6% versus the NVIDIA CMP 90HX, -1.9% versus the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200, and -2% versus the NVIDIA Quadro P6000. These are all sub-2% differences.

Q: What is the RTX 5880 Ada's best and worst PassMark result?

A: Its best PassMark result is the G3D score of 25,096, and its worst is the DirectX 12 score of 70. The compute score is 14,208, which is substantial but not as high as the G3D figure.

Q: Are these cards in the same production status?

A: No. The MI25 is end-of-life, while the RTX 5880 Ada is active. The MI25 was released in 2017, and the RTX 5880 Ada was released in 2024.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The RTX 5880 Ada has 14,080 shading units, while the MI25 has 4,096. The NVIDIA card also has 440 texture mapping units and 176 render output units, versus 256 TMUs and 64 ROPs for the AMD card.

Q: Is the RTX 5880 Ada's memory bandwidth significantly higher?

A: Yes. The RTX 5880 Ada has 864.0 GB/s bandwidth across a 384-bit bus with 48 GB of GDDR6 memory. The MI25 has 436.2 GB/s across a 2048-bit bus with 16 GB of HBM2 memory.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for anyone needing maximum compute performance today: the RTX 5880 Ada Generation is the clear winner. Its OpenCL score of 326,898 versus 68,562 is a 79% advantage, and it brings 48 GB of memory, 14,080 shading units, and modern API support including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4. The MI25 is not competitive in raw performance, and its end-of-life status means no further optimization or driver investment.

However, the MI25 is not without a niche. Its 90th percentile ranking among all GPUs shows it was a strong part in its era, and its 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus delivers 436.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is still respectable for certain memory-bound legacy workloads. The RTX 5880 Ada's average benchmark score of 45,972 is lower than its OpenCL score would suggest, because the PassMark tests include older DirectX workloads where it underperforms. The MI25 has only one benchmark entry, so its average equals its OpenCL score of 68,562, which is actually higher than the RTX 5880 Ada's average. This is an artifact of test selection, not a real performance comparison.

For a builder assembling a new workstation, the RTX 5880 Ada is the only rational choice. For someone maintaining an existing MI25 deployment where the card is already installed and working, the data shows no urgent reason to replace it if the workloads are limited to OpenCL compute that fits within 16 GB of memory. The MI25's 12.29 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is still meaningful for some scientific computing tasks, but the RTX 5880 Ada's 69.27 TFLOPS is a different class entirely.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The MI25 uses 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 436.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5880 Ada uses 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 864.0 GB/s. The AMD card has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has 14,080 shading units, 440 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The MI25's base clock is 1400 MHz with a boost of 1500 MHz, while the RTX 5880 Ada has a lower base of 975 MHz but a much higher boost of 2460 MHz.

Memory clocks also differ: the MI25 runs at 852 MHz with 1704 Mbps effective, while the RTX 5880 Ada runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective. The MI25 has no display outputs, making it a pure compute accelerator, while the RTX 5880 Ada has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. The MI25 uses 2x 8-pin power connectors and suggests a 700 W PSU, while the RTX 5880 Ada uses a single 16-pin connector and suggests a 600 W PSU. Both are dual-slot cards with identical physical dimensions: 267 mm in length and 111-112 mm in height.

The TDP figures are close: 300 W for the MI25 and 285 W for the RTX 5880 Ada. The bus interface differs, with PCIe 3.0 x16 on the AMD card and PCIe 4.0 x16 on the NVIDIA card. The MI25 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, while the RTX 5880 Ada supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is the core reason for the performance disparity. The MI25 is built on GCN 5.0 architecture using a Vega 10 chip, manufactured on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. It contains 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.3 million per mm². The RTX 5880 Ada uses Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD102 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, yielding a density of 125.3 million per mm². The newer process allows nearly four times the transistor density, which directly enables the higher core counts and clock speeds.

The MI25 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, reflecting its 2017-era GCN design. The RTX 5880 Ada has 110 ray tracing cores and 440 tensor cores, which are critical for modern workstation workloads in rendering, AI inference, and machine learning. The FP16 performance tells a similar story: the MI25 achieves 24.58 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio (half the FP32 rate), while the RTX 5880 Ada achieves 69.27 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio. This means the NVIDIA card does not sacrifice FP16 performance, which is essential for mixed-precision compute.

The MI25's FP32 throughput is 12.29 TFLOPS, while the RTX 5880 Ada reaches 69.27 TFLOPS, a 5.6x difference. Pixel rate and texture rate follow suit: the MI25 manages 96.00 GPixel/s and 384.0 GTexel/s, while the RTX 5880 Ada reaches 433.0 GPixel/s and 1,082.4 GTexel/s. The RTX 5880 Ada also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading that the MI25 cannot access. Vulkan support is newer on the NVIDIA card (1.4 versus 1.3), and the PCIe interface is one generation ahead.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5880 Ada wins in every head-to-head benchmark recorded, and the victory margins are enormous. Its 326,898 OpenCL score is 79% higher than the MI25's 68,562. It wins in shading unit count (14,080 versus 4,096), memory capacity (48 GB versus 16 GB), memory bandwidth (864.0 GB/s versus 436.2 GB/s), FP32 throughput (69.27 TFLOPS versus 12.29 TFLOPS), and FP16 throughput (69.27 TFLOPS versus 24.58 TFLOPS). It also wins on ray tracing and tensor core availability, neither of which the MI25 has.

The MI25's only advantages are contextual. Its HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus offers a wider interface, which can benefit certain memory-latency-sensitive applications, though the RTX 5880 Ada's higher bandwidth likely overcomes this. The MI25 also has a higher base clock (1400 MHz versus 975 MHz), but the RTX 5880 Ada's boost clock of 2460 MHz more than compensates. The MI25's 90th percentile ranking versus the RTX 5880 Ada's 85th percentile is a statistical quirk based on different benchmark suites, not a real performance advantage.

For practical use cases, the RTX 5880 Ada is the pick for any modern workload: rendering, AI training, simulation, or high-resolution video processing. The MI25 remains viable only for legacy OpenCL compute jobs that were originally written for GCN hardware and do not require more than 16 GB of memory. The MI25's lack of display outputs means it cannot drive monitors, while the RTX 5880 Ada supports four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, making it a flexible workstation card for both compute and visualization. The production status difference seals the decision: one card is actively supported, the other is end-of-life.