AMD Radeon R9 M295X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and AMD Radeon R9 M295X represent two entirely different eras of GPU design, separated by four years of architectural evolution. The data shows a decisive victory for the Turing-based card, with the RTX 2080 Ti delivering 460.7% higher Geekbench OpenCL scores and 356.9% higher Vulkan scores than the GCN 3.0-based mobile part. The R9 M295X, a 2014-era MXM module, simply cannot compete with the 2018 flagship desktop GPU in raw compute throughput, though its 74th percentile ranking versus the RTX 2080 Ti's 75th shows both cards sit surprisingly close in overall GPU hierarchy standings.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the superior performer, winning both head-to-head tests by massive margins. Its average benchmark score of 29,783 places it within 0.5% of the RTX 5070 Mobile and 1% of the RX 6800, while the R9 M295X's 28,580 average sits 0.6% above the Quadro RTX 8000 and 1.4% below the RX 470. The RTX 2080 Ti is for anyone needing desktop-class 4K gaming, ray tracing, or AI workloads — its 68 RT cores and 544 tensor cores are features the R9 M295X lacks entirely. The R9 M295X, meanwhile, is a legacy mobile part for older Apple systems or MXM-based laptops, where its 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus provides 160.0 GB/s bandwidth — a fraction of the RTX 2080 Ti's 616.0 GB/s. If you need modern API support, the RTX 2080 Ti's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 far exceed the R9 M295X's DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170. Choose the RTX 2080 Ti for any serious workload; the R9 M295X only makes sense if you're stuck with its specific MXM-B (3.0) form factor.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is generational. The RTX 2080 Ti uses the TU102 chip on TSMC's 12 nm process, packing 18,600 million transistors into a 754 mm² die with a transistor density of 24.7M per mm². The R9 M295X uses the Amethyst chip on TSMC's older 28 nm node, with just 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die at 13.7M per mm² density. This three-fold transistor advantage translates directly into compute resources: the RTX 2080 Ti has 4,352 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 88 ROPs, versus 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs on the R9 M295X. The RTX 2080 Ti also introduces dedicated hardware the AMD part completely lacks — 68 RT cores for ray tracing and 544 tensor cores for AI acceleration. Clock speeds differ drastically: the RTX 2080 Ti runs at 1350 MHz base and 1545 MHz boost, while the R9 M295X has no base or boost clock listed, only a 1250 MHz memory clock. Memory configurations are equally divergent: the NVIDIA card uses 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus, achieving 616.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD card uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus at 160.0 GB/s. The RTX 2080 Ti's FP32 throughput of 13.45 TFLOPS dwarfs the R9 M295X's 2.961 TFLOPS, and the NVIDIA card even doubles its FP16 output to 26.90 TFLOPS, whereas the AMD card maintains a 1:1 ratio at 2.961 TFLOPS. Power delivery also differs fundamentally: the RTX 2080 Ti is a dual-slot desktop card requiring 2x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU, while the R9 M295X is an MXM module with no power connectors, drawing its power directly from the host laptop.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2080 Ti wins every scenario where raw compute matters. Its 13.45 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.90 TFLOPS FP16 make it ideal for 3D rendering, scientific simulation, and machine learning inference — tasks that leverage its tensor cores. The 616.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 11 GB frame buffer support high-resolution textures and large datasets that would exhaust the R9 M295X's 4 GB capacity. For gaming, the RTX 2080 Ti's 136.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 420.2 GTexel/s texture rate enable smooth 4K gameplay, while its RT cores provide hardware-accelerated ray tracing that the GCN 3.0 architecture cannot perform. The R9 M295X, with its 23.14 GPixel/s and 92.54 GTexel/s rates, is confined to 1080p or lower settings on modern titles. However, the R9 M295X holds one practical advantage: its MXM-B (3.0) form factor and portable-device-dependent display outputs mean it can be dropped into compatible laptops, whereas the RTX 2080 Ti's 267 mm length, 116 mm height, and 35 mm width require a full desktop chassis. The AMD card's 250 W TDP matches the RTX 2080 Ti's, but without external power connectors, it's constrained by the laptop's thermal and power delivery limits. In legacy API scenarios, the R9 M295X's Geekbench Metal score of 33,790 shows it can handle Apple's Metal framework, but that's irrelevant for the RTX 2080 Ti, which has no Metal benchmark in the data.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti averages 29,783 across all benchmarks, while the R9 M295X averages 28,580. The NVIDIA card's nearest rival is the RTX 5070 Mobile at 29,928 (−0.5% delta), while the AMD card's closest competitor is the Quadro RTX 8000 at 28,421 (+0.6% delta).

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between the two cards?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 Ti scores 128,171 versus the R9 M295X's 22,858, a 460.7% advantage. This is the single largest delta in the head-to-head data.

Q: Do both cards support modern DirectX versions?

A: No. The RTX 2080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the R9 M295X only supports DirectX 12 (12_0). The NVIDIA card also supports Vulkan 1.4 versus the AMD card's Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: How do their memory subsystems compare?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus with 616.0 GB/s bandwidth. The R9 M295X has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth — a 3.85x bandwidth difference.

Q: Which card has more shading units and texture units?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti has 4,352 shading units and 272 TMUs. The R9 M295X has 2,048 shading units and 128 TMUs, so the NVIDIA card has roughly 2.1x the shading units and 2.1x the texture units.

Q: Are either of these cards still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life. The RTX 2080 Ti was released on 2018-09-19 with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, and the R9 M295X was released on 2014-11-22.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains two benchmarks, and the RTX 2080 Ti wins both by overwhelming margins. The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the NVIDIA card scoring 128,171 against the AMD card's 22,858, a delta of 460.7%. This is not a close contest — the RTX 2080 Ti's TU102 chip with 18,600 million transistors simply processes far more parallel work per cycle than the Amethyst chip's 5,000 million transistors. The OpenCL result reflects the architectural chasm: 4,352 shading units versus 2,048, 272 TMUs versus 128, and 13.45 TFLOPS versus 2.961 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. Even the R9 M295X's own nearest-rival comparison shows how far behind it sits — its 28,580 average score is 1.4% below the RX 470, a card that was itself a mid-range desktop part, not a flagship.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story, with the RTX 2080 Ti scoring 132,930 against the R9 M295X's 29,091, a 356.9% delta. Vulkan performance scales with raw compute and memory bandwidth, and the RTX 2080 Ti's 616.0 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s gives it a 3.85x bandwidth advantage that directly feeds its 68 RT cores and 544 tensor cores. The R9 M295X has no RT or tensor cores, so it must rely solely on its 2,048 shaders and 32 ROPs — a configuration that yields just 23.14 GPixel/s pixel fill rate versus the RTX 2080 Ti's 136.0 GPixel/s. While the R9 M295X does have a Geekbench Metal score of 33,790, there is no corresponding Metal benchmark for the RTX 2080 Ti in the data, so no direct comparison can be made on Apple's graphics API. The overall win count is 2–0 in favor of the RTX 2080 Ti, and the deltas are so large that no workload in the tested suites would favor the AMD card. For users comparing these GPUs, the decision is not about trade-offs — it's about whether you need a 2018 desktop flagship or a 2014 mobile module. The RTX 2080 Ti is in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, while the R9 M295X sits at 74th, but that 1-percentile difference masks the fact that the AMD card's average is propped up by its Metal score, which has no NVIDIA counterpart. In every shared test, the RTX 2080 Ti delivers between 3.5 and 4.6 times the performance.