AMD Radeon Pro 580X vs NVIDIA TITAN RTX Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The data splits these two cards cleanly by workload type. The AMD Radeon Pro 580X wins nowhere in the recorded head-to-head benchmarks, while the NVIDIA TITAN RTX wins both tests outright. That makes the segmentation simple: the TITAN RTX is the dominant compute and graphics performer in every measurable category, while the Radeon Pro 580X sits in a lower performance tier entirely.

The Radeon Pro 580X does hold one distinction: it posts an average benchmark score of 38,706, which is higher than the TITAN RTX's average of 31,676. This is because the two cards were tested across different suites. The AMD card's three recorded tests (Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan) all land in the 36,000 to 40,000 range, while the TITAN RTX's ten tests include several legacy DirectX and Passmark results that drag its average down. In the two tests they share, the TITAN RTX leads by massive margins.

For users prioritizing compute-heavy workloads like OpenCL acceleration, the TITAN RTX is the clear pick. For those locked into AMD's Metal ecosystem on Apple MPX platforms, the Radeon Pro 580X offers respectable absolute scores, but it does not compete with the TITAN RTX on raw output. The percentile rankings reinforce this: the Radeon Pro 580X sits at the 82nd percentile against all GPUs, while the TITAN RTX sits at the 76th, a gap driven by the different benchmark pools rather than by direct performance parity.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The NVIDIA TITAN RTX is dramatically faster. It scores 144,858 in Geekbench OpenCL, versus 36,426 for the AMD Radeon Pro 580X, a 74.9% lead for NVIDIA.

Q: How do the cards compare in Vulkan graphics?

A: The TITAN RTX wins again, scoring 136,073 versus 40,115 for the Radeon Pro 580X, a 70.5% advantage.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The NVIDIA TITAN RTX has 24 GB of GDDR6, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580X has 8 GB of GDDR5.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The TITAN RTX packs 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, while the Radeon Pro 580X has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The TITAN RTX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon Pro 580X supports DirectX 12 (12_0).

Q: How many shading units does each card have?

A: The TITAN RTX has 4,608 shading units, exactly double the 2,304 shading units of the Radeon Pro 580X.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two shared benchmarks tell a one-sided story. In Geekbench OpenCL, the TITAN RTX delivers a score of 144,858 against the Radeon Pro 580X's 36,426. The delta of 74.9% means the TITAN RTX is nearly four times faster in this test. This is not a marginal win; it is a generational gap. The same pattern holds in Geekbench Vulkan, where the TITAN RTX scores 136,073 and the Radeon Pro 580X scores 40,115, a 70.5% deficit for AMD.

These results align with the raw specifications. The TITAN RTX has double the shading units (4,608 versus 2,304), more than double the texture mapping units (288 versus 144), and triple the render output units (96 versus 32). Its FP32 throughput of 16.31 TFLOPS is nearly triple the Radeon Pro 580X's 5.530 TFLOPS. The memory subsystem also favors NVIDIA: 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth against 218.9 GB/s, and a 384-bit bus versus 256-bit.

Interestingly, the Radeon Pro 580X's average benchmark score of 38,706 exceeds the TITAN RTX's 31,676. This is a statistical artifact of the test selection. The AMD card only ran three modern API benchmarks, all of which scored well. The TITAN RTX ran ten tests, including Passmark DirectX 9 (223), DirectX 10 (147), and DirectX 11 (189), which are legacy workloads that drag down its average. In the only directly comparable tests, the TITAN RTX dominates.

The nearest rivals for each card further illustrate the positioning. The Radeon Pro 580X's closest competitors are the GeForce MX570 A (0% delta), the GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (0.9% above), and the GeForce MX570 (1.1% above). These are all mobile or low-power parts. The TITAN RTX's nearest rivals include the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell (0.5% above) and the Quadro M5000 (1.5% below), which are professional workstation cards. This shows the Radeon Pro 580X competes in a lower tier despite its higher percentile ranking.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro 580X | NVIDIA TITAN RTX |

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

| Process node | 14 nm | 12 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 5,700 million | 18,600 million |

| Die size | 232 mm² | 754 mm² |

| Base clock | 1100 MHz | 1350 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1200 MHz | 1770 MHz |

| Memory size | 8 GB | 24 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory bus | 256 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 218.9 GB/s | 672.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 2304 | 4608 |

| TMUs | 144 | 288 |

| ROPs | 32 | 96 |

| RT cores | None | 72 |

| Tensor cores | None | 576 |

| FP32 performance | 5.530 TFLOPS | 16.31 TFLOPS |

| FP16 performance | 5.530 TFLOPS (1:1) | 32.62 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 185 W | 280 W |

| Slot width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Bus interface | Apple MPX | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 2x HDMI 2.0b | 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C |

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

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Release date | 2019-03-17 | 2018-12-17 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 2,499 USD |

The TITAN RTX is larger in every physical dimension: 267 mm long, 116 mm tall, and 35 mm wide, while the Radeon Pro 580X has no recorded dimensions. The NVIDIA card requires a 600 W suggested PSU, while the AMD card has no suggested PSU listed.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is fundamental. The Radeon Pro 580X uses GCN 4.0 with the Ellesmere chip, a design dating back to AMD's 2016-era Polaris family. The TITAN RTX uses Turing with the TU102 chip, NVIDIA's dedicated ray tracing and AI generation. This is visible in the hardware features: the TITAN RTX has 72 RT cores and 576 tensor cores, while the Radeon Pro 580X has none of either.

The process technology differs as well. The AMD card is built on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm node, while the TITAN RTX uses TSMC's 12 nm node. Despite the smaller node, the TITAN RTX's die is 754 mm², more than three times the size of the Radeon's 232 mm². Transistor density is nearly identical at 24.6M per mm² for AMD and 24.7M per mm² for NVIDIA, meaning the TITAN RTX's massive advantage comes from sheer die size, not density.

Memory architecture also diverges. The Radeon Pro 580X uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, while the TITAN RTX uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus. The NVIDIA card's FP16 throughput of 32.62 TFLOPS is double its FP32 rate of 16.31 TFLOPS, indicating a 2:1 ratio. The AMD card runs FP16 at 5.530 TFLOPS, a 1:1 ratio with FP32. This makes the TITAN RTX far more capable for mixed-precision workloads.

The API support differs meaningfully. The TITAN RTX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro 580X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The TITAN RTX's predecessor is the GeForce 10 series and its successor is the GeForce 30 series, while the Radeon Pro 580X has no recorded predecessor or successor.

The Verdict

The data supports one conclusion: the NVIDIA TITAN RTX is the superior card in every directly comparable benchmark. Its OpenCL score of 144,858 and Vulkan score of 136,073 dwarf the Radeon Pro 580X's 36,426 and 40,115, respectively. The 74.9% and 70.5% deltas are not close, and they reflect the underlying hardware asymmetry: triple the transistors, triple the FP32 throughput, triple the memory bandwidth, and double the shading units.

The Radeon Pro 580X should only be chosen by users who specifically require its Apple MPX bus interface and dual HDMI 2.0b outputs, or who operate in a Mac ecosystem where Metal performance matters. Its Geekbench Metal score of 39,577 is respectable, but the TITAN RTX does not have a recorded Metal benchmark to compare against. For anyone running OpenCL, Vulkan, or DirectX workloads, the TITAN RTX is the only rational choice.

The TITAN RTX also offers future-proofing through DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, along with 24 GB of memory, which is triple the Radeon's capacity. Its 2,499 USD launch MSRP reflects the workstation-class positioning, but the benchmark data shows the performance gap justifies it. Users who need RT cores or tensor cores have no option on the AMD side, as those features do not exist on the Radeon Pro 580X.

For compute density, the TITAN RTX delivers 16.31 TFLOPS of FP32 from a 280 W TDP, while the Radeon Pro 580X delivers 5.530 TFLOPS from 185 W. The efficiency ratio favors NVIDIA: 58.3 GFLOPS per watt versus 29.9 GFLOPS per watt. The Radeon Pro 580X's only statistical advantage, its higher average benchmark score and percentile ranking, comes from a restricted test pool and does not survive direct comparison.

The verdict is unambiguous: the TITAN RTX wins on raw performance, memory capacity, API support, and feature set. The Radeon Pro 580X is an older, lower-tier part that happens to fit a niche Apple MPX slot. For general-purpose compute and modern graphics, the NVIDIA TITAN RTX is the definitive choice.