AMD Radeon RX 480 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Comparison

FAQ

Q: How large is the performance gap between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and the AMD Radeon RX 480 in the recorded benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti wins all three shared benchmark tests. The largest margin is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the NVIDIA card scores 5077 versus 966 for the RX 480, a delta of 425.6%. In Geekbench OpenCL the gap is 347.5% (170037 vs 37998), and in Geekbench Vulkan it is 319.2% (192697 vs 45968).

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

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41187, while the RX 480 averages 33997. This places the NVIDIA card at the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, versus the 78th percentile for the AMD card.

Q: Which cards are the closest competitors to each model according to the database?

A: For the RTX 3080 Ti, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.8% higher average score), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (1.2% lower), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (1.7% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (2.0% higher). For the RX 480, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7950 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 560 XT (0.4% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (0.4% higher), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB (0.5% lower).

Q: Do the two cards support the same DirectX and Vulkan versions?

A: No. The RTX 3080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 480 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Q: What are the memory configurations of the two cards?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 480 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has a transistor density of 45.1M per mm², compared to 24.6M per mm² for the RX 480. The NVIDIA chip packs 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, while the AMD chip has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3080 Ti wins every shared benchmark in the database, so the use-case split is largely one-sided in its favor. However, the nature of the wins tells a more nuanced story about where each card excels relative to its own architecture generation.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, a modern DirectX 12 workload, the RTX 3080 Ti demonstrates a dominant lead of 425.6%. This test stresses full feature-set utilization including ray tracing and mesh shaders, areas where the Ampere architecture with dedicated RT cores and Tensor cores is designed to excel. The RX 480, built on GCN 4.0, has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware, so its score of 966 reflects a much older feature set struggling with contemporary workloads.

Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan results show the RTX 3080 Ti leading by 347.5% and 319.2% respectively. These compute-oriented benchmarks benefit enormously from the RTX 3080 Ti's 10,240 shading units versus 2,304 on the RX 480, as well as its 320 texture mapping units versus 144. For users running GPU compute tasks such as rendering, physics simulation, or machine learning inference, the RTX 3080 Ti is categorically faster.

The RX 480 still holds relevance in legacy scenarios. Its PassMark DirectX 9 score of 274, DirectX 10 score of 184, and DirectX 11 score of 223 are recorded in the database, though the RTX 3080 Ti has higher scores in those same tests (274 vs 1091 for G2D, 110 vs 223 for DX12, etc.). The RX 480's 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU make it a lower-power option, and its 8 GB GDDR5 memory is sufficient for older titles. For users with aging power supplies or compact systems, the RX 480 remains a functional choice, but the benchmark data shows no workload where it outperforms the RTX 3080 Ti.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies separated by five years of GPU evolution. The RTX 3080 Ti uses the GA102 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process, featuring the Ampere architecture. The RX 480 uses the Ellesmere chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, featuring the GCN 4.0 architecture.

The most significant architectural divergence is the inclusion of dedicated hardware on the RTX 3080 Ti: 80 RT cores for ray tracing and 320 Tensor cores for AI-accelerated workloads. The RX 480 has no such units, relying entirely on its 2,304 shading units for all processing. This explains the massive delta in modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads, as the RTX 3080 Ti can offload ray traversal and denoising to dedicated hardware.

The RTX 3080 Ti also supports a wider feature set: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus DirectX 12 (12_0) on the RX 480. This difference matters for variable rate shading, mesh shaders, and other DX12 Ultimate features. The Vulkan support also differs, with 1.4 on the NVIDIA card versus 1.3 on the AMD card.

The memory subsystem reflects a generational leap. The RTX 3080 Ti uses GDDR6X, a newer and faster memory type, while the RX 480 uses GDDR5. The NVIDIA card's 384-bit bus is 50% wider than the RX 480's 256-bit bus, and the effective memory clock is 19 Gbps versus 8 Gbps. This results in a 3.6x bandwidth advantage (912.4 GB/s vs 256.0 GB/s), which directly impacts texture-heavy and high-resolution workloads.

The PCIe interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 3080 Ti versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RX 480. This doubles the theoretical bandwidth to the CPU, though the practical impact varies by workload.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | AMD Radeon RX 480 |

|----------------|----------------------------|--------------------|

| Process Node | 8 nm | 14 nm |

| Transistors | 28,300 million | 5,700 million |

| Die Size | 628 mm² | 232 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 45.1M / mm² | 24.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1365 MHz | 1120 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1665 MHz | 1266 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 19 Gbps effective | 8 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 12 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 912.4 GB/s | 256.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 10240 | 2304 |

| TMUs | 320 | 144 |

| ROPs | 112 | 32 |

| RT Cores | 80 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 320 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 186.5 GPixel/s | 40.51 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 532.8 GTexel/s | 182.3 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 34.10 TFLOPS | 5.834 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 34.10 TFLOPS (1:1) | 5.834 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 350 W | 150 W |

| Power Connectors | 1x 12-pin | 1x 6-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 750 W | 450 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Length | 285 mm | 240 mm |

| Height | 112 mm | 95 mm |

| Width | 40 mm | 35 mm |

| Release Date | 2021-05-30 | 2016-06-28 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The shared benchmark suite contains three tests, and the RTX 3080 Ti wins all of them. The deltas are substantial, ranging from 319.2% to 425.6%.

3DMark Steel Nomad DX12: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 5077 versus 966 for the RX 480, a delta of 425.6%. This is the largest relative gap in the shared suite. Modern DX12 workloads with ray tracing and advanced geometry processing are where the Ampere architecture's dedicated RT cores and 10,240 shading units demonstrate their full advantage. The RX 480's GCN 4.0 architecture, with only 2,304 shading units and no RT acceleration, is not competitive in this scenario.

Geekbench OpenCL: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 170037, while the RX 480 scores 37998, a delta of 347.5%. OpenCL compute workloads scale strongly with shading unit count and memory bandwidth. The RTX 3080 Ti has 4.4x more shading units and 3.6x more memory bandwidth, which aligns closely with the observed performance delta. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory also allows larger working sets without spilling to system memory.

Geekbench Vulkan: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 192697 versus 45968 for the RX 480, a delta of 319.2%. This is the smallest relative gap among the three tests, though still a massive margin. Vulkan's lower overhead can benefit older architectures relative to their DX12 performance, but the raw hardware advantage of the RTX 3080 Ti remains decisive. The 320 TMUs versus 144 on the RX 480 contribute to texture-heavy Vulkan workloads.

The average benchmark score reinforces this picture: the RTX 3080 Ti averages 41187, which is 21.1% above the RX 480's 33997. The percentile ranking shows 83rd versus 78th, meaning the RTX 3080 Ti sits above the RX 480 in the overall GPU distribution.

The nearest rival data provides context for each card's standing. The RTX 3080 Ti's closest competitor is the NVIDIA Tesla M40 at 41897 (1.7% higher), followed by the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870 (0.8% lower). The RX 480's closest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB at 34154 (0.5% higher), with the AMD Radeon HD 7950 at 33951 (0.1% lower). The RTX 3080 Ti sits in a tighter competitive cluster near the top of its performance tier, while the RX 480 anchors a lower band of mid-range cards.

The recorded data shows no benchmark where the RX 480 outperforms the RTX 3080 Ti. The architecture gap, spanning five years of GPU development, is reflected in every metric from raw compute throughput to memory bandwidth to feature support. For users comparing these two cards, the RTX 3080 Ti is categorically superior in all measured scenarios, and the RX 480 should only be considered for legacy systems or applications where its lower power draw and smaller physical footprint are priorities.