AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 represent two distinct generations of mobile graphics, separated by a wide gulf in both time and performance intent. The RTX 3080 Mobile is a high-end Ampere-based part aimed at gaming laptops, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 is a professional-oriented GCN chip found in Apple MacBook Pro systems. The benchmark data shows a decisive performance advantage for the NVIDIA part in every shared test, with the AMD card offering a different feature set and power profile.

Where Each One Wins

The performance split between these two GPUs is not a matter of nuance; it is a one-sided affair based on the available data. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile wins both of the head-to-head benchmark comparisons featured in the data, leaving the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 with zero victories. This means that for any compute or graphics workload measured by Geekbench, the RTX 3080 Mobile is the clear choice. The RTX 3080 Mobile also holds a substantial advantage in raw throughput metrics, such as pixel rate and texture rate, which translates to better performance in traditional 3D rendering tasks.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, however, does hold a niche advantage in its power efficiency and physical design. With a TDP of 75 W compared to the RTX 3080 Mobile’s 115 W, the AMD part is designed for thinner, cooler systems. Furthermore, its IGP slot width indicates it is integrated directly onto the motherboard, whereas the NVIDIA part's slot width is not specified, suggesting it may be a more modular MXM-style design. For users prioritizing battery life and compactness over raw speed, the Radeon Pro Vega 16’s lower power draw is a tangible benefit, though it comes at a significant performance cost. In terms of API support, the RTX 3080 Mobile has an edge with DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, making the NVIDIA card more future-proof for newer game titles.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process technologies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on Samsung’s 8 nm process node, with a chip designated GA104. This is a modern, high-transistor-count design, packing 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die, yielding a density of 44.4M / mm². In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 uses the older GCN 5.0 architecture on GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm process, with a chip designated Vega 12. The AMD card’s transistor count and die size are not listed in the data, but the larger process node suggests a less dense design.

The core configurations differ dramatically. The RTX 3080 Mobile boasts 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It also includes dedicated hardware for modern features: 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro Vega 16 is far more modest, with 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, and it lacks dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores entirely. This structural difference is the primary driver of the performance gap. The memory subsystems also diverge sharply. The NVIDIA part uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD part uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a much wider 1024-bit bus, but due to lower clocks, it achieves lower bandwidth at 307.2 GB/s. The RTX 3080 Mobile also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data reveals an extraordinary performance gap in favor of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 3080 Mobile scores 104831 points, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 scores 18268 points. This is a delta of 473.9%, meaning the NVIDIA card is nearly five times faster in this compute workload. The data indicates that this is not a close contest; it is a generational and segment-wide obliteration of the AMD part’s compute capability.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story. The RTX 3080 Mobile scores 104066 points, compared to 21832 points for the Radeon Pro Vega 16. The delta is 376.7%, indicating the NVIDIA card is over four and a half times faster in Vulkan graphics and compute tasks. While the AMD card’s scores are respectable for its class, they are simply in a different league than the RTX 3080 Mobile. Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the RTX 3080 Mobile’s average benchmark score is 23628, placing it at the 69th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z with an average score of 23736, a delta of -0.5%, showing the RTX 3080 Mobile is just slightly behind that desktop flagship. The Radeon Pro Vega 16, with an average score of 23250, sits at the 68th percentile, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA P106-100 at 23249, a delta of 0%. Despite the massive individual test losses, the average scores are closer, but this is due to a limited set of benchmarks for the AMD card.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is significantly faster, scoring 104831 points compared to the Radeon Pro Vega 16’s 18268 points, a 473.9% advantage.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The Radeon Pro Vega 16 has no ray tracing cores listed in its specifications, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile includes 48 dedicated RT cores.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two GPUs?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 has 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus. The NVIDIA card achieves higher bandwidth at 448.0 GB/s versus 307.2 GB/s for the AMD part.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 has a lower TDP of 75 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile has a TDP of 115 W, indicating the AMD card is designed for more power-efficient systems.

Q: Which GPU has better API support for modern games?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the performance percentile ranking of each GPU?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile is at the 69th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 is at the 68th percentile, based on their average benchmark scores.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. The NVIDIA chip, GA104, contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, whereas the AMD chip’s transistor count and die size are not listed. Clock speeds differ, with the RTX 3080 Mobile running at a base of 1110 MHz and a boost of 1545 MHz, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 runs at a base of 815 MHz and a boost of 1190 MHz. Memory clocks also differ, with the NVIDIA card at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) and the AMD card at 1200 MHz (2.4 Gbps effective).

The core configuration is drastically different: the RTX 3080 Mobile has 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3080 Mobile includes 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, which are absent from the AMD part. Pixel and texture rates are higher on the NVIDIA card, at 148.3 GPixel/s and 296.6 GTexel/s, respectively, versus 38.08 GPixel/s and 76.16 GTexel/s for the AMD card. FP32 performance is 18.98 TFLOPS for the RTX 3080 Mobile, compared to 2.437 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro Vega 16, and FP16 performance is 18.98 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 4.874 TFLOPS (2:1). The TDP is 115 W for the NVIDIA part and 75 W for the AMD part. The RTX 3080 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The AMD card is listed with an IGP slot width, while the NVIDIA card has no specified slot width. Finally, the RTX 3080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, while the Radeon Pro Vega 16 supports DirectX 12 (12_1).