AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell Comparison
AMD Radeon RX 470
RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell
FAQ
Q: How does the AMD Radeon RX 470 compare to the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?
A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell scores 2,374.5, which is 64.5% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 470's 842. This is the largest relative gap among the three shared benchmark tests.
Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score, and what does the percentile data show?
A: The AMD Radeon RX 470 has a higher average benchmark score of 28,996, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell averages 25,269, placing it in the 70th percentile, despite winning every head-to-head test.
Q: What explains the difference in average scores despite the NVIDIA card winning all direct comparisons?
A: The benchmark suites differ. The AMD card has recorded scores from 3DMark, Geekbench Metal, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. The NVIDIA card includes additional Passmark tests (DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute), which pull its average downward. Its Passmark G3D score is 20,049, but its DirectX 12 score is only 80.
Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?
A: The AMD Radeon RX 470 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 211.2 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell has 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.
Q: What are the power requirements for each card?
A: The AMD Radeon RX 470 has a 120 W TDP, requires a 1x 6-pin power connector, and suggests a 300 W PSU. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell has a 70 W TDP, requires no power connectors, and suggests a 250 W PSU.
Q: Which GPU has the higher FP32 compute throughput?
A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell delivers 17.03 TFLOPS, which is over three times the 4.940 TFLOPS of the AMD Radeon RX 470.
The Verdict
The data presents a clear performance hierarchy, but the choice depends on the workload context. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell wins all three shared benchmark tests decisively. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 2,374.5 versus 842, a 64.5% advantage. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 106,087 versus 33,568, a 68.4% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 113,865 versus 39,884, a 65% advantage.
However, the AMD Radeon RX 470 holds a higher average benchmark score (28,996) and a higher percentile rank (74th versus 70th). This discrepancy arises from the different benchmark sets recorded for each card. The NVIDIA card's Passmark results, particularly the low DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores, reduce its average. The AMD card has no Passmark entries.
For users focused on modern DirectX 12 workloads, especially those represented by 3DMark Steel Nomad, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell is the superior choice by a substantial margin. For general-purpose compute via OpenCL and Vulkan, the NVIDIA card also leads by a wide gap. The AMD Radeon RX 470, being end-of-life, offers no path forward for new professional workloads. The NVIDIA card is active in production, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, and includes hardware ray tracing and tensor cores. The AMD card lacks both. The verdict is straightforward: the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell is the stronger GPU for every shared benchmark, while the AMD card's higher average score reflects a less demanding test suite rather than actual superiority.
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The head-to-head data shows a clean sweep for the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell, with three wins out of three tests. The largest margin is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the NVIDIA card scores 106,087 against the AMD card's 33,568, a 68.4% delta. This indicates a massive advantage in OpenCL compute throughput, which aligns with the NVIDIA card's 17.03 TFLOPS FP32 performance versus 4.940 TFLOPS for the AMD card.
In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 113,865 versus 39,884, a 65% delta. This is the NVIDIA card's highest absolute score among the three tests, suggesting strong Vulkan API performance. The AMD card's best head-to-head result is its Vulkan score of 39,884, which is still far behind the NVIDIA card's lowest head-to-head score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12.
The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the NVIDIA card at 2,374.5 versus 842, a 64.5% delta. While this is the smallest percentage gap, it is still a decisive victory. The absolute score difference of 1,532.5 points indicates that the NVIDIA card is roughly 2.8 times faster in this specific DX12 workload.
The AMD Radeon RX 470 does not win a single recorded head-to-head test. Its nearest rivals in the database, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (delta 0.4%), Intel Arc A370M (delta -0.6%), and AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH (delta -0.7%), are all within 1% of its average score of 28,996. This places the RX 470 in a tightly contested performance band, but that band is far below the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell's territory.
The NVIDIA card's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (delta -1.4%), AMD Radeon Pro W5700 (delta -1.8%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile (delta -1.8%). Its average score of 25,269 is within 2% of these competitors, showing that the RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell sits in a different performance class than the RX 470, despite the percentile overlap.
Specification Differences
The two cards differ across nearly every major specification. The AMD Radeon RX 470 uses a 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell uses a 5 nm process from TSMC. The transistor counts differ substantially: 5,700 million for AMD versus 21,900 million for NVIDIA. Die size also differs, with the AMD card at 232 mm² and the NVIDIA card at 181 mm². Transistor density is 24.6M per mm² for AMD versus 121.0M per mm² for NVIDIA.
Clock speeds show the NVIDIA card operating at higher frequencies. The AMD base clock is 926 MHz with a boost of 1206 MHz. The NVIDIA base clock is 982 MHz with a boost of 1957 MHz. Memory clocks also differ: the AMD card runs at 1650 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA card runs at 1125 MHz (18 Gbps effective).
Memory configuration diverges sharply. The AMD card has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 211.2 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card offers four times the capacity but uses a narrower bus, yet still achieves 36% more bandwidth.
Compute unit counts favor NVIDIA. The AMD card has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has 4,352 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Pixel rate is 38.59 GPixel/s for AMD versus 93.94 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rate is 154.4 GTexel/s for AMD versus 266.2 GTexel/s for NVIDIA.
Power and physical specifications differ as well. The AMD card has a 120 W TDP, requires a 1x 6-pin connector, and suggests a 300 W PSU. The NVIDIA card has a 70 W TDP, requires no power connectors, and suggests a 250 W PSU. The AMD card is 240 mm long, 95 mm high, and 35 mm wide. The NVIDIA card is 167 mm long, 69 mm high, and 20 mm wide. Both are dual-slot.
The bus interface differs: PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD versus PCIe 5.0 x8 for NVIDIA. Display outputs also differ: the AMD card has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the NVIDIA card has 4x mini-DisplayPort 2.1b.
Architecture Differences
The AMD Radeon RX 470 is built on GCN 4.0 architecture with the Ellesmere chip, part of the Arctic Islands (RX 400) generation. It uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. The architecture supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. It has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores. FP16 performance is 4.940 TFLOPS, identical to its FP32 rate, indicating a 1:1 ratio.
The NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell is built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB206 chip, part of the Blackwell PRO W (x000) generation. It uses a 5 nm process from TSMC. The architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. It includes 34 ray tracing cores and 136 tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks entirely. FP16 performance is 17.03 TFLOPS, again a 1:1 ratio with FP32.
The transistor density difference is stark: 24.6M per mm² for AMD versus 121.0M per mm² for NVIDIA. This reflects the process node advancement from 14 nm to 5 nm. The NVIDIA card packs 21,900 million transistors onto a smaller die of 181 mm², while the AMD card fits only 5,700 million transistors onto a larger 232 mm² die.
The generation gap is also evident in API support. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which includes features like ray tracing and mesh shaders, while the AMD card only supports DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support is 1.4 for NVIDIA versus 1.3 for AMD. The NVIDIA card's memory type, GDDR7, is a newer generation than the AMD card's GDDR5.
The production status differs: the AMD card is end-of-life, released in August 2016, while the NVIDIA card is active, released in August 2025. The AMD card's predecessor is Pirate Islands, and its successor is Polaris. The NVIDIA card's predecessor is Workstation Ada, with no successor listed. These architectural differences explain the performance gap observed in the benchmark data.