AMD Radeon Pro 555 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data in the database draws a stark contrast between these two GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 share only three common benchmark results, and in each one, the NVIDIA card is decisively ahead.

The largest gap appears in the Geekbench OpenCL test. The GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929 points, while the Radeon Pro 555 manages only 11,682. That is a delta of 481.5%, meaning the NVIDIA card delivers nearly six times the raw compute performance in this particular workload. This is a massive margin, one that clearly separates a desktop flagship from a mobile integrated part.

Vulkan results tell a similar story, though the gap is less extreme. The GTX 1080 Ti posts 40,511 points against the Radeon Pro 555's 12,303, a 229.3% advantage. This indicates that in modern cross-platform graphics APIs, the NVIDIA card holds a decisive edge in both geometry throughput and shading power.

The closest result comes in the Geekbench Metal test. Here, the GTX 1080 Ti scores 30,624, while the Radeon Pro 555 scores 16,236, an 88.6% lead. While still a substantial victory, this is the smallest margin between the two cards, suggesting that Metal's optimization for AMD hardware narrows the gap somewhat. Still, the NVIDIA card nearly doubles the AMD part's output even in this scenario.

Overall, the head-to-head record is 3 wins for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and 0 wins for the AMD Radeon Pro 555. The database shows a clear sweep, with the NVIDIA card dominating every shared test.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the clear winner in all workloads measured. Its victories span compute-heavy OpenCL tasks, the Vulkan API, and Apple's Metal framework. There is no benchmark in the shared set where the AMD Radeon Pro 555 comes out ahead.

For users prioritizing raw compute power, the GTX 1080 Ti is the obvious choice. Its OpenCL score of 67,929 is 481.5% higher than the Radeon Pro 555's score, meaning tasks like scientific simulations, video encoding, and GPU-accelerated data processing will see immense speedups. The FP32 throughput of 11.34 TFLOPS versus 1,305.6 GFLOPS reinforces this performance gap.

In gaming or graphics rendering, the Vulkan results are telling. A 229.3% lead in Vulkan suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti can handle high-resolution textures, complex shaders, and heavy post-processing effects without breaking a sweat. The Radeon Pro 555, with 12,303 points, is more suited for basic 1080p gaming or light creative work.

The Metal result, where the GTX 1080 Ti leads by 88.6%, shows that even in Apple's optimized API, the NVIDIA card remains superior. However, this is the smallest margin, so users locked into Metal-specific workflows will see a relatively less punishing gap.

The AMD Radeon Pro 555 does have one clear functional advantage: it is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 75W TDP. This means it can operate inside a portable device without requiring a power connector, making it suitable for laptops or compact desktops. The GTX 1080 Ti, by contrast, is a dual-slot card with a 250W TDP, requiring both a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector, and a 600W power supply. For mobile productivity or battery-sensitive usage, the Radeon Pro 555 is the only viable option.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 15,548, while the AMD Radeon Pro 555 has an average of 13,407. This puts the NVIDIA card ahead by roughly 16%.

Q: How does the GTX 1080 Ti compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon R9 M380, which averages 15,521 points, a delta of just 0.2% ahead. It also sits close to the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15,679, or -0.8% relative) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (15,290, or +1.7% relative). The GTX 580 is also within 1.7%.

Q: How does the Radeon Pro 555 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon Pro 555's closest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 8950M, which scores 13,376, a 0.2% difference. The AMD Radeon RX 5500M (13,356, +0.4%) and AMD FirePro M6100 (13,354, +0.4%) are also near. The NVIDIA P106-090 is slightly ahead at 13,470, a -0.5% delta.

Q: In which specific benchmark does the GTX 1080 Ti have the largest lead over the Radeon Pro 555?

A: The largest margin is in Geekbench OpenCL. The GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929 versus 11,682 for the Radeon Pro 555, a lead of 481.5%.

Q: Which card supports a newer version of Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti supports Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD Radeon Pro 555 supports Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA card also supports DirectX 12 (12_1) compared to the AMD's DirectX 12 (12_0).

Q: What is the form factor of each GPU?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti is a dual-slot, 267 mm long, 112 mm high, and 40 mm wide card. The Radeon Pro 555 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no physical dimensions listed, tailored for portable devices.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ substantially in every core specification.

Process and Foundry: The GTX 1080 Ti is built on a 16 nm process at TSMC, while the Radeon Pro 555 uses a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries.

Transistors and Die Size: The GTX 1080 Ti packs 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, giving a density of 25.1M/mm². The Radeon Pro 555 has 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, with a density of 24.4M/mm².

Memory: The GTX 1080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus, yielding 484.4 GB/s bandwidth and an effective 11 Gbps speed. The Radeon Pro 555 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 81.60 GB/s bandwidth and an effective 5.1 Gbps speed.

Shading Units, TMUs, and ROPs: The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 render output units. The Radeon Pro 555 has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs.

Clock Speeds: The GTX 1080 Ti has a base clock of 1481 MHz and a boost clock of 1582 MHz. The Radeon Pro 555 has no listed base or boost clock, only a memory clock of 1275 MHz.

Bandwidth and Rates: The GTX 1080 Ti delivers 484.4 GB/s memory bandwidth, a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s. The Radeon Pro 555 delivers 81.60 GB/s bandwidth, 13.60 GPixel/s, and 40.80 GTexel/s.

Compute Performance: The GTX 1080 Ti achieves 11.34 TFLOPS FP32 and 177.2 GFLOPS FP16 (1:64 ratio). The Radeon Pro 555 achieves 1,305.6 GFLOPS FP32 and 1,305.6 GFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio).

Power and Connectivity: The GTX 1080 Ti has a 250W TDP, a dual-slot form factor, and requires 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin connectors, plus a 600W suggested PSU. The Radeon Pro 555 has a 75W TDP, is an IGP, uses no connectors, and has no suggested PSU. The GTX 1080 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon Pro 555 uses PCIe 3.0 x8.

Display Outputs: The GTX 1080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Radeon Pro 555 has display outputs that are "Portable Device Dependent."

API Support: The GTX 1080 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon Pro 555 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

Release and Status: Both are end-of-life. The GTX 1080 Ti released on 2017-03-09, the Radeon Pro 555 on 2017-06-04. The GTX 1080 Ti had a launch MSRP of 699 USD.

Architecture Differences

The underlying architectures are from different generations and have different design philosophies.

The GTX 1080 Ti uses the NVIDIA GP102 chip, based on the Pascal architecture. Pascal is a mature, high-performance desktop architecture designed for serious compute and gaming. The GTX 1080 Ti is part of the GeForce 10-series, with a predecessor in GeForce 900 and the successor in GeForce 20.

The Radeon Pro 555 uses the Polaris 21 chip, based on the GCN 4.0 architecture. This is a mobile-oriented design, built for the "Radeon Pro Mac (500 Series)" generation. It has no listed predecessor or successor.

The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shaders, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, which are 4.7x, 4.7x, and 5x the counts of the Radeon Pro 555's 768 shaders, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, respectively. This massive parallel resource difference is the core reason for the benchmark gaps.

The memory architecture differs as well. The GTX 1080 Ti uses GDDR5X with a 352-bit interface, while the Radeon Pro 555 uses GDDR5 with a 128-bit interface. This translates to a 6x difference in memory bandwidth (484.4 vs 81.60 GB/s), which is critical for high-resolution texturing and compute.

The transistor density is similar (25.1M/mm² vs 24.4M/mm²), but the GTX 1080 Ti uses a larger die (471 mm²) to house far more transistors (11,800M vs 3,000M). The GTX 1080 Ti's process node is 16 nm, while the Radeon Pro 555 is 14 nm, a minor difference but not enough to compensate for the scale.

The FP16 support also differs: the GTX 1080 Ti has a 1:64 ratio, meaning FP16 is severely limited, while the Radeon Pro 555 has a 1:1 ratio, meaning it can do full-rate FP16. However, the Radeon Pro 555's FP16 throughput (1,305.6 GFLOPS) is still lower than the GTX 1080 Ti's FP32 throughput (11.34 TFLOPS), so the NVIDIA card remains faster in absolute terms even when the AMD card uses its native FP16.

The GTX 1080 Ti offers higher API support, with Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12_1, while the Radeon Pro 555 has Vulkan 1.3 and DirectX 12_0. The GTX 1080 Ti also has a wider PCIe interface (x16 vs x8), which reduces data transfer bottlenecks in multi-GPU setups.

Finally, the power envelope is a major architectural differentiator. The GTX 1080 Ti is a high-power, high-performance desktop card (250W, dual-slot), while the Radeon Pro 555 is a low-power, 75W integrated GPU for portable devices. This fundamental design goal explains why the NVIDIA card dominates in performance, but the AMD card wins in efficiency and portability.