AMD Radeon Pro W6800X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Comparison

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture of two very different products aimed at different workloads. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is the raw performance king, with its average benchmark score of 131,938 placing it in the 95th percentile of all GPUs. However, the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X, despite having a lower average score of 160,671 (a figure that sits in the 97th percentile), actually outperforms the RTX 3090 Ti in that specific aggregate metric—a counterintuitive result driven by the different benchmark suites each card was subjected to.

The only direct head-to-head comparison available is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 3090 Ti scores 174,441 against the W6800X's 124,498. That is a 28.6% deficit for the AMD card, a decisive margin in favor of NVIDIA. For users whose priority is raw compute throughput in OpenCL workloads, the RTX 3090 Ti is the unequivocal choice based on this data.

Yet the W6800X is not without its own arguments. Its 32 GB of GDDR6 memory is 8 GB larger than the RTX 3090 Ti's 24 GB of GDDR6X, which is a significant advantage for large dataset handling and high-resolution texture work. The AMD card also draws substantially less power, with a 200 W TDP versus the NVIDIA card's 450 W TDP, making it a far more efficient solution for sustained professional workloads. The verdict is simple: choose the RTX 3090 Ti for maximum OpenCL compute performance and raw FP32 throughput; choose the Radeon Pro W6800X for larger memory capacity, lower power draw, and a more compact physical footprint in a Mac-centric ecosystem.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X has a higher average benchmark score of 160,671, placing it in the 97th percentile, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti's average score of 131,938, which sits in the 95th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the direct Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti dominates, scoring 174,441 versus the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X's 124,498. This represents a 28.6% advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Q: Which card offers more memory, and what is the type?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X offers more memory, with 32 GB of GDDR6, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has 24 GB of faster GDDR6X memory. The NVIDIA card compensates with a wider 384-bit bus, achieving 1.01 TB/s bandwidth versus the AMD card's 512.0 GB/s.

Q: What are the power consumption differences between the two?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X has a significantly lower TDP of 200 W, requiring a 550 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has a much higher TDP of 450 W, with a suggested PSU of 850 W.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock speed?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X has a higher boost clock of 2087 MHz, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti's boost clock of 1860 MHz. The AMD card also has a higher base clock at 1800 MHz versus 1560 MHz.

Q: Are these cards still in production?

A: No, both the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti are marked as end-of-life products in the data.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X is based on the Navi 21 chip using the RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 7 nm process node. It houses 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 51.5M per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti uses the GA102 chip with the Ampere architecture, built by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This larger chip contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, resulting in a lower transistor density of 45.1M per mm².

The compute configurations are starkly different. The NVIDIA card features 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs, along with 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores. The AMD card has a much leaner setup with 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, plus 60 RT cores. This discrepancy explains the massive difference in raw compute throughput: the RTX 3090 Ti delivers 40.00 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the W6800X delivers 16.03 TFLOPS. Interestingly, the FP16 performance tells a similar story with different ratios: the NVIDIA card achieves 40.00 TFLOPS in FP16 with a 1:1 ratio, while the AMD card reaches 32.06 TFLOPS using a 2:1 ratio.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring modern API compatibility. However, the NVIDIA card's tensor cores are a notable architectural feature absent from the AMD card, indicating a stronger focus on AI and deep learning acceleration. The AMD card’s RDNA 2 architecture, meanwhile, is optimized for power efficiency, evidenced by its lower TDP and higher clock speeds despite fewer compute units.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal distinct positioning for each card. The most obvious difference is memory capacity: the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X comes with 32 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus. This results in a bandwidth disparity, with the NVIDIA card achieving 1.01 TB/s against the AMD card's 512.0 GB/s.

Clock speeds favor AMD in terms of frequency, with a base clock of 1800 MHz and boost clock of 2087 MHz, versus the NVIDIA card's 1560 MHz base and 1860 MHz boost. The memory clock also differs, with the AMD card running at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and the NVIDIA card at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The effective data rate is higher on the NVIDIA card, but the raw clock is lower.

Physical dimensions and power requirements are major differentiators. The AMD card is a quad-slot design measuring 267 mm in length and 120 mm in height, using an Apple MPX power connector and bus interface. The NVIDIA card is a triple-slot design, larger overall at 336 mm in length, 140 mm in height, and 61 mm in width, using a single 16-pin power connector and a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The TDP gap is significant: 200 W for AMD versus 450 W for NVIDIA, with suggested PSUs of 550 W and 850 W respectively.

Display outputs also differ: the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 4x Thunderbolt, while the NVIDIA card provides 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Finally, the launch MSRP differs, with the AMD card at 2,799 USD and the NVIDIA card at 1,999 USD. The NVIDIA card was released later, on 2022-01-26, compared to the AMD card's 2021-08-02 release date.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data provides a single, direct comparison point, but it is a decisive one. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti scores 174,441, while the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X scores 124,498. The delta is -28.6% for the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA card is roughly 40,000 points ahead. This is a substantial victory for NVIDIA in a compute-oriented workload that is common in professional rendering and simulation.

Beyond the direct comparison, the broader benchmark suites tell a more nuanced story. The AMD card’s average benchmark score of 160,671 is higher than the NVIDIA card’s 131,938, but these averages are not directly comparable because they are drawn from different test sets. The AMD card’s two benchmarks are Geekbench Metal (196,844) and Geekbench OpenCL (124,498), both of which are compute-focused. The NVIDIA card’s benchmarks include 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (5,741), Geekbench OpenCL (174,441), and Geekbench Vulkan (215,633), which includes gaming and graphics workloads.

The NVIDIA card’s Vulkan score of 215,633 is particularly strong, but there is no equivalent Vulkan score for the AMD card in the data to make a direct comparison. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score for the NVIDIA card indicates strong graphics performance, but again, no comparable data exists for the AMD card. The only true head-to-head is the OpenCL test, where NVIDIA wins decisively.

Looking at the nearest rivals, the AMD card’s average score of 160,671 sits just above the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB (162,504, -1.1%) and the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 (164,894, -2.6%). The NVIDIA card’s average score of 131,938 is closer to the NVIDIA L4 (131,072, +0.7%) and the RTX 4000 Ada Generation (135,218, -2.4%). This contextualizes the two cards: the W6800X is competing with high-end workstation accelerators, while the RTX 3090 Ti is in a different class of consumer-prosumer hardware. The data shows that in raw compute, the RTX 3090 Ti is the more powerful of the two, but the W6800X’s higher average aggregate score, driven by its Metal performance, suggests it holds its own in Apple-centric workflows.