AMD Radeon R9 M395X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded database contains a single direct head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs, and it is a decisive result. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti scores 128,171 points against the AMD Radeon R9 M395X's 17,829 points. That is a delta of 618.9%, meaning the RTX 2080 Ti delivers more than seven times the raw compute throughput of the R9 M395X in this workload. This is not a marginal gap; it is a generational chasm that defines the entire comparison.

For context, the RTX 2080 Ti's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 29,783, placing it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile at 29,928 (0.5% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at 29,945 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30,095 (1% higher). It also sits just 2% above the AMD FirePro W8000, which scores 29,211. The R9 M395X, by contrast, averages 25,891 across its two recorded benchmarks, placing it in the 71st percentile. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W7100 at 25,856 (0.1% lower), the AMD FirePro D700 at 25,842 (0.2% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT at 26,011 (0.5% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile at 25,740 (0.6% lower). The percentile gap is small, only 4 points, but the absolute performance gap in the head-to-head test is enormous.

The RTX 2080 Ti also has a much broader benchmark footprint. The database lists ten separate results for it, spanning DirectX 9 through DirectX 12, compute workloads, and 2D graphics. The R9 M395X has only two recorded results, both in OpenCL and Metal. This means the RTX 2080 Ti's average score is computed from a wider range of tests, which can pull the average down if any specific test is weak. Indeed, its Passmark DirectX 12 score is only 84, while its Passmark DirectX 9 score is 235. The R9 M395X's average is based on just two tests, one of which, Geekbench Metal at 33,953, is not even part of the head-to-head comparison. The OpenCL score of 17,829 is the only common metric, and there the RTX 2080 Ti is overwhelmingly ahead.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2080 Ti wins the only direct comparison available, but the broader benchmark suite reveals where it excels and where the R9 M395X might hold its own in specific scenarios. Looking at the RTX 2080 Ti's individual results, its strongest performance comes in Geekbench Vulkan with a score of 132,930, followed by Geekbench OpenCL at 128,171. These are compute-heavy, modern API workloads that leverage the Turing architecture's parallel throughput. Its Passmark G3D score of 21,548 and Passmark GPU Compute score of 10,056 further indicate strong general 3D rendering and compute capability. The Passmark G2D score of 927 is comparatively modest, suggesting that 2D desktop workloads are not where this card differentiates itself.

The R9 M395X, despite its low OpenCL score, shows a relatively strong Metal result at 33,953. This is notable because Metal is a low-level graphics API optimized for Apple platforms, and the R9 M395X was commonly deployed in portable systems. The fact that its Metal score is nearly double its OpenCL score suggests that the GCN 3.0 architecture benefits significantly from Metal's explicit control and reduced overhead. However, there is no Vulkan or DirectX result recorded for the R9 M395X, so its performance in those APIs cannot be quantified from the database.

In terms of architectural features, the RTX 2080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the R9 M395X supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RTX 2080 Ti also includes dedicated ray tracing cores (68) and tensor cores (544), which the R9 M395X lacks entirely. These features do not show up in the head-to-head benchmark, but they are decisive for modern workloads that use ray tracing or AI-accelerated features. The R9 M395X has no such hardware, so any game or application that relies on these features will simply not run at comparable quality or performance.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is in a completely different performance class than the AMD Radeon R9 M395X. In the only shared benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 Ti leads by 618.9%. That is not a competitive margin; it is a multi-generational leap. The RTX 2080 Ti has 4,352 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 88 ROPs, compared to the R9 M395X's 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The pixel rate is 136.0 GPixel/s versus 23.14 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 420.2 GTexel/s versus 92.54 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 13.45 TFLOPS versus 2.961 TFLOPS. Every raw compute metric favors the RTX 2080 Ti by a factor of roughly 4.5 to 5.8.

The R9 M395X is an end-of-life mobile-class part from 2015, built on a 28 nm process with 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die. The RTX 2080 Ti is a 2018 desktop flagship built on 12 nm with 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die. The process node advantage alone, 12 nm versus 28 nm, explains much of the efficiency and density gap. Transistor density is 24.7M per mm² for the RTX 2080 Ti versus 13.7M per mm² for the R9 M395X. The RTX 2080 Ti also has significantly more memory bandwidth: 616.0 GB/s from 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus, versus 160.0 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. That is a 3.85x bandwidth advantage, which directly impacts high-resolution texturing and compute-heavy workloads.

Who should pick which? The RTX 2080 Ti is the only rational choice for any workload that demands modern API support, high frame rates, or compute acceleration. The R9 M395X is viable only in legacy systems where the MXM form factor and 75 W TDP are hard requirements, and where the workload is limited to older DirectX 11 or Metal-optimized content. The R9 M395X's TDP of 75 W is one-third of the RTX 2080 Ti's 250 W, and its MXM module slot is a portable form factor, so there is a use case for low-power, small-footprint systems. But for raw performance, the RTX 2080 Ti wins every measurable category.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 2080 Ti than the R9 M395X in the shared OpenCL benchmark?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti scores 128,171 versus 17,829 for the R9 M395X, which is a 618.9% advantage.

Q: Does the R9 M395X have any benchmark where it outperforms the RTX 2080 Ti?

A: No. The only shared test is Geekbench OpenCL, and the RTX 2080 Ti wins that test. The R9 M395X has no recorded win in any head-to-head comparison.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti has an average score of 29,783 across ten recorded tests, while the R9 M395X averages 25,891 across two recorded tests.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals in the database?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti is 1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and 0.5% behind the RTX 3070 Ti, while being 2% ahead of the AMD FirePro W8000. The R9 M395X is 0.5% behind the RX 6750 XT and 0.6% ahead of the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti includes 68 dedicated ray tracing cores and 544 tensor cores. The R9 M395X has no ray tracing or tensor core hardware.

Q: What are the memory configurations?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus with 616.0 GB/s bandwidth. The R9 M395X has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent different generations, different process nodes, and entirely different design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is built on the Turing architecture using the TU102 chip, fabricated by TSMC on a 12 nm process. It contains 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.7M per mm². The AMD Radeon R9 M395X uses the GCN 3.0 architecture with the Amethyst chip, also fabricated by TSMC but on a 28 nm process. It packs 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die, for a density of 13.7M per mm². The RTX 2080 Ti has more than three times the transistors and double the die area.

The compute resources are heavily skewed toward the RTX 2080 Ti. It has 4,352 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 88 ROPs, compared to 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs on the R9 M395X. The RTX 2080 Ti also includes specialized hardware in the form of 68 RT cores for ray tracing and 544 tensor cores for AI acceleration. The R9 M395X has no equivalent hardware. The pixel rate is 136.0 GPixel/s versus 23.14 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 420.2 GTexel/s versus 92.54 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 13.45 TFLOPS versus 2.961 TFLOPS. The RTX 2080 Ti's FP16 rate is 26.90 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the R9 M395X is 2.961 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

Memory is another major differentiator. The RTX 2080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus, delivering 616.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The R9 M395X uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the RTX 2080 Ti versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) for the R9 M395X. Bus width, memory type, and effective speed all favor the RTX 2080 Ti.

The feature sets also diverge. The RTX 2080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The R9 M395X supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RTX 2080 Ti also has a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, dual-slot cooling, 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a 600 W suggested PSU. The R9 M395X is an MXM module with no power connectors and a 75 W TDP, designed for portable systems. The RTX 2080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C outputs, while the R9 M395X's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent." The RTX 2080 Ti is 267 mm long, 116 mm tall, and 35 mm wide, while the R9 M395X has no recorded dimensions.

In terms of power, the RTX 2080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, while the R9 M395X is rated at 75 W. This is a 3.33x difference, which reflects the RTX 2080 Ti's desktop positioning and the R9 M395X's mobile origins. The RTX 2080 Ti was released on 2018-09-19 with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, while the R9 M395X was released on 2015-05-04 with no recorded MSRP. Both are end-of-life products. The RTX 2080 Ti's predecessor is the GeForce 10 series and its successor is the GeForce 30 series. The R9 M395X's predecessor is the Solar System series and its successor is Polaris Mobile. The database records the RTX 2080 Ti as a dual-slot card, while the R9 M395X is an MXM module, which further confirms their different target platforms.