AMD Radeon Pro 580 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER vs AMD Radeon Pro 580

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER and AMD Radeon Pro 580 occupy vastly different positions in the hardware landscape, separated by nearly seven years of architectural progress. The data shows the RTX 4070 SUPER delivers 349.3% higher OpenCL scores and 375% higher Vulkan scores than the Radeon Pro 580, making the comparison less a contest and more a demonstration of generational advancement. The RTX 4070 SUPER ranks in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro 580 sits just one percentile lower at 82nd, yet the raw performance gap between them is enormous. Despite the Radeon Pro 580's surprisingly competitive percentile ranking, the benchmark results indicate that these two cards serve entirely different purposes and buyers.

The Verdict

The RTX 4070 SUPER is the clear choice for any workload requiring modern graphics features, ray tracing acceleration, or high-resolution gaming. Its 56 dedicated ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores provide hardware capabilities that the Radeon Pro 580 simply does not possess, as the AMD card lists no RT or tensor core counts at all. The data shows the RTX 4070 SUPER achieves 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus 5.530 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro 580, a 6.4x advantage in raw compute throughput. For professionals working with DX12 Ultimate content or Vulkan 1.4 applications, the RTX 4070 SUPER's modern API support makes it the only viable option between these two.

The Radeon Pro 580, however, remains relevant only in its specific niche: legacy Mac Pro systems from the 500 Series generation. Its IGP slot width and portable-device-dependent display outputs indicate it was designed for integrated Apple systems, not general-purpose PC builds. The absence of a launch MSRP and lack of power connector specifications further confirm its OEM-only positioning. For users maintaining older Mac Pro workstations that require this specific form factor, the Radeon Pro 580 is the only choice, despite its dated GCN 4.0 architecture. For everyone else, the RTX 4070 SUPER dominates every measurable benchmark category.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these GPUs is generational. The RTX 4070 SUPER uses the AD104 chip built on TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die. The Radeon Pro 580 uses the Ellesmere chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, containing 5,700 million transistors across a 232 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter for NVIDIA versus 24.6 million for AMD. This 5 nm versus 14 nm process advantage allows the RTX 4070 SUPER to fit 6.3x more transistors in only 1.27x the die area.

The RTX 4070 SUPER features 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, alongside 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro 580 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no RT or tensor core hardware. Clock speeds reinforce the gap: the NVIDIA card boosts to 2475 MHz versus 1200 MHz for AMD. The RTX 4070 SUPER's memory subsystem uses 12 GB of GDDR6X across a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 580 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 across a wider 256-bit bus, but only achieves 217.0 GB/s due to slower memory clocks. The API support differs as well, with the RTX 4070 SUPER supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro 580 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER delivers 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 6.4x higher than the Radeon Pro 580's 5.530 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card also matches this in FP16 at 35.48 TFLOPS with 1:1 ratio, while the AMD card offers 5.530 TFLOPS FP16.

Q: How do the memory subsystems compare?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has 12 GB of GDDR6X with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth on a 192-bit bus. The Radeon Pro 580 has 8 GB of GDDR5 with 217.0 GB/s bandwidth on a 256-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, the NVIDIA card provides 2.3x more memory bandwidth.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro 580 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Radeon Pro 580 lists no ray tracing core count and no tensor core count. The RTX 4070 SUPER includes 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, providing dedicated hardware for ray-traced workloads and AI acceleration.

Q: What is the performance difference in cross-platform benchmarks?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4070 SUPER scores 172,795 versus 38,457 for the Radeon Pro 580, a 349.3% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 205,624 versus 43,285, a 375% advantage.

Q: Which GPU has better API support?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The NVIDIA card also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the AMD card is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16.

Q: What power connector does each GPU require?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER uses a single 16-pin power connector with a 220 W TDP and a suggested 550 W power supply. The Radeon Pro 580 has no power connectors listed and a 185 W TDP, consistent with its IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factor.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER | AMD Radeon Pro 580 |

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

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | GCN 4.0 |

| Process Node | 5 nm (TSMC) | 14 nm (GlobalFoundries) |

| Transistors | 35,800 million | 5,700 million |

| Die Size | 294 mm² | 232 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 121.8M / mm² | 24.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1980 MHz | 1100 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2475 MHz | 1200 MHz |

| Memory Size | 12 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus | 192 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 504.2 GB/s | 217.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 7168 | 2304 |

| TMUs | 224 | 144 |

| ROPs | 80 | 32 |

| RT Cores | 56 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 224 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 198.0 GPixel/s | 38.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 554.4 GTexel/s | 172.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 35.48 TFLOPS | 5.530 TFLOPS |

| TDP | 220 W | 185 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 1x 16-pin | None |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | Portable Device Dependent |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2024-01-16 | 2017-06-04 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark data contains only two shared tests, both of which the RTX 4070 SUPER wins decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA card scores 172,795 against the AMD card's 38,457, producing a delta of 349.3%. This massive margin reflects the combined advantages of newer architecture, higher clock speeds, more shading units, and faster memory. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 7168 shading units operating at up to 2475 MHz simply overwhelm the Radeon Pro 580's 2304 shading units at 1200 MHz.

The Geekbench Vulkan result tells a similar story with an even larger gap. The RTX 4070 SUPER scores 205,624 versus 43,285 for the Radeon Pro 580, a 375% difference. Vulkan performance benefits from the NVIDIA card's modern driver stack and hardware features like dedicated RT and tensor cores, even in non-ray-traced workloads. The Radeon Pro 580's GCN 4.0 architecture, released in 2017, lacks the modern compute capabilities that Vulkan 1.4 can leverage.

Beyond the shared benchmarks, the RTX 4070 SUPER shows strength across its individual benchmark suite. It scores 4,627 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 29,995 in Passmark G3D, and 17,108 in Passmark GPU Compute. The Radeon Pro 580 has no comparable individual scores outside its Geekbench results, though it does achieve 39,213 in Geekbench Metal, a test the NVIDIA card does not run. The average benchmark score reinforces the gap: 43,223 for the RTX 4070 SUPER versus 40,318 for the Radeon Pro 580, a 7.2% difference that understates the true performance disparity because the AMD card's limited benchmark set skews toward favorable tests.

The RTX 4070 SUPER's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB at 43,262 (-0.1%), the GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile at 43,268 (-0.1%), and the GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile at 43,667 (-1%). The Radeon Pro 580's nearest rivals include the GeForce RTX 5070 at 40,377 (-0.1%), the Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 40,063 (+0.6%), and the RTX A500 Mobile at 39,568 (+1.9%). These comparative positions show both cards sitting near similarly performing peers, but the RTX 4070 SUPER's peer group operates at a higher absolute performance level. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 83rd percentile ranking versus the Radeon Pro 580's 82nd percentile appears close, yet the underlying scores demonstrate that percentiles compress at the high end where many professional and workstation GPUs cluster together.