AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data reflects this stark divide. While the Radeon Pro 5500 XT is an integrated-class part aimed at professional Mac workflows, the RTX 3080 Ti is a dual-slot desktop behemoth built for maximum performance. The head-to-head results and architectural specifications reveal a clear hierarchy, but also highlight the distinct purpose each card serves in its respective ecosystem.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison is limited to two shared tests, but the results are decisive. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti scores 170,037, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT manages 41,772. This represents a delta of -75.4% for the AMD card, meaning the RTX 3080 Ti delivers roughly four times the raw compute performance in this workload. The Vulkan test tells an even more lopsided story: the RTX 3080 Ti posts 192,697 against the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 39,601, a -79.4% delta. In both cases, the NVIDIA card is the clear winner, and the margin is not incremental but generational.

Looking at the broader benchmark averages, the gap narrows slightly but remains substantial. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45,384, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc A730M (45,592, -0.5% delta) and the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45,972, -1.3% delta), showing it sits in a competitive mid-range tier. The RTX 3080 Ti, despite its massive raw power, has an average score of 41,187 (83rd percentile), which is lower than the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's average. This counterintuitive result stems from the benchmarking suite composition: the RTX 3080 Ti's scores are dragged down by low Passmark DirectX 9/10/11/12 entries (274, 184, 223, and 110 respectively) and a modest Passmark G2D score of 1,091, whereas the AMD card's three Geekbench scores (Metal 54,779, OpenCL 41,772, Vulkan 39,601) are all relatively consistent.

This creates an interesting paradox. In the two shared head-to-head tests, the RTX 3080 Ti dominates by 75-79%. Yet its overall average is 9.2% behind the Radeon Pro 5500 XT. The data suggests the RTX 3080 Ti's Passmark results are anomalously low for a card of its caliber, possibly due to driver overhead or test methodology quirks. In contrast, the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's nearest rivals include the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,795, +1.3% delta) and the RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152, +0.5% delta), indicating its average is competitive with much newer hardware in aggregated scoring.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3080 Ti wins unequivocally in the two tests where direct comparison exists: Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan. These are compute-heavy, cross-platform APIs that stress raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth. The NVIDIA card's 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are over six times and four times the AMD card's figures respectively, which explains the 75-79% performance lead. For any workload that scales with these metrics — GPU rendering, scientific simulation, or large dataset processing — the RTX 3080 Ti is the obvious choice.

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT's wins are more subtle and derive from its specialized benchmark profile. It has no direct head-to-head victories, but its Geekbench Metal score of 54,779 is its strongest result, and its average score of 45,384 places it above the RTX 3080 Ti's 41,187. This suggests the AMD card performs exceptionally well in Apple's Metal API, which is the dominant graphics and compute framework in macOS environments. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with "No outputs," meaning it is designed to sit alongside other GPUs in a Mac Pro or similar workstation, handling compute tasks that are optimized for AMD hardware. In that specific context, its consistent performance across Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan (all within 15% of each other) makes it a predictable and reliable compute accelerator.

The RTX 3080 Ti also claims the Passmark G3D crown with 26,896, though the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has no comparable Passmark score in the data. The NVIDIA card's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 80 RT cores provide capabilities the AMD card simply lacks, particularly for ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads via its 320 tensor cores.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses the Navi 14 chip, based on RDNA 1.0, fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. The die is a compact 158 mm², housing 6,400 million transistors at a density of 40.5 million per mm². The RTX 3080 Ti, by contrast, uses the GA102 chip on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm node. Its die is 628 mm² — nearly four times larger — and packs 28,300 million transistors at a density of 45.1 million per mm². While the transistor density is marginally higher on the NVIDIA chip, the sheer scale difference is the dominant factor.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s — a 4.1x advantage. This memory bandwidth delta directly explains the RTX 3080 Ti's dominance in Vulkan and OpenCL, which are bandwidth-sensitive.

Compute resources are equally lopsided. The AMD card has 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, producing 5.398 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.80 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The NVIDIA card has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, delivering 34.10 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio). The RTX 3080 Ti also features 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has none. Clock speeds are similar (1,757 MHz boost vs 1,665 MHz boost), but the NVIDIA card's massive core count makes the difference.

Power and physical requirements also differentiate them. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is a 125 W IGP with no power connectors and a suggested 300 W PSU, while the RTX 3080 Ti is a 350 W dual-slot card requiring a 1x 12-pin connector and a 750 W PSU. The NVIDIA card is also physically substantial at 285 mm length, 112 mm height, and 40 mm width, whereas the AMD IGP has no listed dimensions. Bus interfaces differ too: PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD vs PCIe 4.0 x16 for NVIDIA.

The Verdict

From the data alone, the choice is clear for raw performance: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti wins every direct head-to-head benchmark by a margin of 75% or more. Its 34.10 TFLOPS FP32, 912.4 GB/s bandwidth, and 12 GB GDDR6X make it vastly more capable for compute-intensive tasks, 3D rendering, and any workload that leverages RT or tensor cores. The 83rd percentile ranking and average score of 41,187, while dragged down by Passmark anomalies, do not negate its dominance in the shared tests.

However, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a compelling case for specific users. Its 84th percentile ranking and higher average score (45,384 vs 41,187) indicate that in the applications represented by its benchmark suite — particularly Metal — it outperforms the RTX 3080 Ti's aggregated showing. Its 125 W power draw, IGP form factor, and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface make it suitable for systems where the RTX 3080 Ti's 350 W TDP and dual-slot footprint are non-starters. For a Mac Pro user needing a secondary compute card for OpenCL or Metal tasks, the Radeon Pro 5500 XT is the only viable option among these two, since the RTX 3080 Ti lacks macOS-oriented benchmark data and the AMD card is explicitly from the "Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series)" generation.

The verdict is a split decision. The RTX 3080 Ti is for users who need maximum compute throughput and have the power delivery and chassis space to accommodate it. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is for users in Apple ecosystems who prioritize compatibility, low power, and consistent cross-API performance over brute force. Neither card is a substitute for the other.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45,384, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti's 41,187.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3080 Ti in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 192,697 versus the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 39,601, a delta of -79.4% for the AMD card.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro 5500 XT have ray tracing cores?

A: No, the data lists no RT cores for the AMD card, while the RTX 3080 Ti has 80 RT cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has 912.4 GB/s bandwidth, which is 4.1 times the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 224.0 GB/s.

Q: Are both cards end-of-life?

A: Yes, both the Radeon Pro 5500 XT and the RTX 3080 Ti have a production status of "End-of-life."

Q: Which card has higher FP32 performance?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti delivers 34.10 TFLOPS FP32, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT produces 5.398 TFLOPS.

Specification Differences

| Field | AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti |

|-------|------------------------|----------------------------|

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Ampere |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 6,400 million | 28,300 million |

| Die Size | 158 mm² | 628 mm² |

| Base Clock | 1187 MHz | 1365 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1757 MHz | 1665 MHz |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 12 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6X |

| Memory Bus | 128 bit | 384 bit |

| Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 912.4 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1536 | 10240 |

| TMUs | 96 | 320 |

| ROPs | 32 | 112 |

| RT Cores | None | 80 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 320 |

| FP32 | 5.398 TFLOPS | 34.10 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) | 34.10 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 125 W | 350 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 12-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 300 W | 750 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Release Date | 2020-08-03 | 2021-05-30 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 1,199 USD |