AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the average benchmark scores of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER compare?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 has an average benchmark score of 27839, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER has an average score of 24170. Despite this, the RTX 2080 SUPER wins both head-to-head tests decisively, which highlights how benchmark averages can be skewed by different test sets.

Q: Which card has the higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 sits at the 73rd percentile, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is at the 69th percentile. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 ranks slightly higher overall, even though the RTX 2080 SUPER dominates in the shared compute workloads.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card according to the database?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 20's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7800M (avg score 27883, 0.2% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (27973, 0.5% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (28020, 0.6% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (27565, 1.0% lower). The RTX 2080 SUPER's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24236, 0.3% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24277, 0.4% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (24063, 0.4% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (24442, 1.1% higher).

Q: What is the difference in memory capacity and type?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 has 4 GB of HBM2 memory on a 1024-bit bus, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The RTX 2080 SUPER's memory bandwidth reaches 495.9 GB/s versus 189.4 GB/s for the Radeon Pro Vega 20.

Q: Which card supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER includes 48 RT cores and 384 tensor cores as part of its Turing architecture. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 has no RT cores or tensor cores listed, meaning it lacks dedicated hardware for those workloads.

Q: When were these cards released?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 was released on November 13, 2018. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER was released later, on July 22, 2019. Both are now end-of-life products.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 is built on the GCN 5.0 architecture, using a chip designated Vega 12. It is fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER uses the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 12 nm process. This process difference is significant: the RTX 2080 SUPER packs 13,600 million transistors into a 545 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.0 million per mm². The Radeon Pro Vega 20's transistor count and die size are not recorded in the database, but its older node and smaller chip likely account for much of the performance gap.

The compute resources differ sharply. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 has 1280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The RTX 2080 SUPER has 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. In every count, the RTX 2080 SUPER doubles or more than doubles the AMD card's resources. The RTX 2080 SUPER also includes 48 RT cores and 384 tensor cores, dedicated hardware that the Radeon Pro Vega 20 lacks entirely.

Memory architecture is another major split. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a very wide 1024-bit bus, achieving 189.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 2080 SUPER uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, but its higher clock speed pushes bandwidth to 495.9 GB/s. The HBM2 design on the AMD side is unusual for a mobile-class part, but the smaller capacity and lower bandwidth put it at a disadvantage in memory-heavy tasks.

API support also differs. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 2080 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The newer DirectX and Vulkan versions on the NVIDIA card reflect its later release and Turing's feature set.

The form factors are completely different. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP), meaning it is built into a portable device and its display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent." The RTX 2080 SUPER is a dual-slot discrete card measuring 267 mm in length, 116 mm in height, and 35 mm in width, with 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C outputs. The power delivery also differs: the Radeon Pro Vega 20 has no power connectors listed and a 100 W TDP, while the RTX 2080 SUPER requires 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors, a 250 W TDP, and a 600 W suggested PSU.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER wins every shared benchmark in the database. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 99226 versus 26679 for the Radeon Pro Vega 20, a delta of 73.1%. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 111284 versus 26410, a delta of 76.3%. These are not narrow victories; the RTX 2080 SUPER is roughly three to four times faster in raw compute throughput.

The Radeon Pro Vega 20 does have a higher average benchmark score (27839 versus 24170) and a higher percentile ranking (73rd versus 69th). This is likely because the AMD card's benchmark results come from a smaller set of tests (Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan), while the RTX 2080 SUPER's average includes additional tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and multiple Passmark tests, some of which score very low. For example, the RTX 2080 SUPER scores only 75 in Passmark DirectX 12 and 140 in Passmark DirectX 10, which drag down its average.

In terms of use cases, the RTX 2080 SUPER is clearly the choice for compute-heavy and gaming workloads, given its massive lead in OpenCL and Vulkan. The Radeon Pro Vega 20, as an integrated part of a portable device, is suited to scenarios where space and power are constrained. Its 100 W TDP and IGP form factor mean it can exist in machines where a dual-slot 250 W card would never fit.

The RTX 2080 SUPER also has an advantage in memory capacity with 8 GB versus 4 GB, which matters for modern games and larger datasets. Its newer API support (DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4) positions it better for future software, while the Radeon Pro Vega 20's GCN 5.0 architecture and older API versions suggest it is more limited in longevity.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The process node differs: 14 nm for the Radeon Pro Vega 20 versus 12 nm for the RTX 2080 SUPER. The RTX 2080 SUPER has a base clock of 1650 MHz and a boost clock of 1815 MHz, while the Radeon Pro Vega 20 has a base clock of 815 MHz and a boost clock of 1283 MHz. Memory clocks also differ: the Radeon Pro Vega 20 runs at 740 MHz with 1480 Mbps effective, while the RTX 2080 SUPER runs at 1937 MHz with 15.5 Gbps effective.

The pixel rate is 41.06 GPixel/s for the AMD card versus 116.2 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA card. Texture rates are 102.6 GTexel/s versus 348.5 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 3.284 TFLOPS versus 11.15 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 6.569 TFLOPS versus 22.30 TFLOPS, both using a 2:1 ratio. The RTX 2080 SUPER has a 250 W TDP and a dual-slot design, while the Radeon Pro Vega 20 has a 100 W TDP and is an IGP. The RTX 2080 SUPER's launch MSRP was 699 USD.

Both cards use PCIe 3.0 x16 and support OpenGL 4.6. Both are end-of-life products. The Radeon Pro Vega 20's generation is listed as "Radeon Pro Mac (Vega Series)," while the RTX 2080 SUPER belongs to the GeForce 20-series. The RTX 2080 SUPER's predecessor is GeForce 10 and its successor is GeForce 30; the Radeon Pro Vega 20 has no predecessor or successor listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two head-to-head benchmark results between these cards, and both go to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER by overwhelming margins.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 SUPER scores 99226 against the Radeon Pro Vega 20's 26679. The delta is 73.1% in favor of NVIDIA. This test measures general-purpose compute across a wide range of workloads, and the result aligns with the raw specification gap: the RTX 2080 SUPER has 3072 shading units versus 1280, and 11.15 TFLOPS FP32 versus 3.284 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card is delivering roughly 3.4 times the raw floating-point throughput, and the benchmark reflects that nearly exactly.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2080 SUPER scores 111284 against 26410, a delta of 76.3%. Vulkan is a low-overhead graphics and compute API, and the RTX 2080 SUPER's advantage here is even larger than in OpenCL. This suggests the Turing architecture's scheduling and memory subsystem handle Vulkan workloads particularly well. The RTX 2080 SUPER's 495.9 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 189.4 GB/s likely contributes to this result, as Vulkan compute tasks often stress memory throughput.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 has no wins in the head-to-head comparison. Its only recorded benchmarks outside the head-to-head are Geekbench Metal, where it scores 30427, and its average benchmark score of 27839. The Metal score is not compared directly against the RTX 2080 SUPER in the database, so no cross-platform conclusion can be drawn from it.

It is worth questioning why the Radeon Pro Vega 20's average benchmark score is higher than the RTX 2080 SUPER's when it loses every shared test. The answer lies in the test selection. The RTX 2080 SUPER's average includes Passmark tests that score very low (75 in DirectX 12, 140 in DirectX 10, 165 in DirectX 11, 227 in DirectX 9), which pull its average down. The Radeon Pro Vega 20's benchmark set is smaller and more consistent, with scores ranging from 26410 to 30427. This is a reminder that average scores can be misleading when comparing cards with different test suites.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous on compute performance: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is vastly faster than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 in every shared benchmark. A 73.1% lead in OpenCL and a 76.3% lead in Vulkan are not marginal differences; they represent a different performance class entirely. Anyone choosing between these two for raw compute, gaming, or any GPU-accelerated workload should select the RTX 2080 SUPER without hesitation, provided the system can accommodate its 250 W TDP, dual-slot size, and 600 W suggested PSU.

The Radeon Pro Vega 20's case rests entirely on its form factor and power profile. As an IGP with a 100 W TDP, it fits into portable devices where a discrete dual-slot card is impossible. Its higher average benchmark score (27839 versus 24170) and higher percentile ranking (73rd versus 69th) are artifacts of a smaller, more favorable test set, not evidence of superior performance. The nearest rival data confirms this: the Radeon Pro Vega 20 sits alongside desktop cards like the GTX 980 Ti and RTX 3090 in average score, while the RTX 2080 SUPER sits alongside the GTX 780 Ti and GTX 1630, which are much older or lower-tier parts.

For a Mac portable device, the Radeon Pro Vega 20 is the only option that fits the physical constraints. For a desktop system, the RTX 2080 SUPER offers roughly three to four times the compute performance, double the memory capacity (8 GB versus 4 GB), higher bandwidth (495.9 GB/s versus 189.4 GB/s), and dedicated RT and tensor cores. The RTX 2080 SUPER also supports newer API versions, including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, which the Radeon Pro Vega 20 cannot match.

The verdict is straightforward: the RTX 2080 SUPER is the superior performer in every measured head-to-head metric, and its only disadvantages are physical size and power draw. The Radeon Pro Vega 20 is a niche product for tightly integrated systems, and its higher average benchmark score should not be interpreted as competitive performance. The database shows a clear performance hierarchy, and the NVIDIA card sits firmly above the AMD card in compute capability.