AMD Radeon RX 480 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile decisively outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 480 across every shared benchmark. In the three tests where both GPUs have recorded scores, the RTX 5080 Mobile wins all three, with margins ranging from roughly 2.7x to over 5x. The largest gap appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4,952 points against the RX 480's 966 points, a 412.6% advantage. This is not a marginal generational gain; it is a full tier-and-a-half leap in raw rendering capability.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5080 Mobile posts 166,986 points versus 37,998 for the RX 480, a 339.5% lead. The Vulkan result narrows the gap slightly but remains dominant: 169,754 to 45,968, a 269.3% advantage. These are compute-oriented workloads, and the RTX 5080 Mobile's 23.04 TFLOPS FP32 throughput versus the RX 480's 5.834 TFLOPS explains the scale of the victory. The RX 480 does have a Geekbench Metal score of 51,057, but the RTX 5080 Mobile has no Metal result recorded, so no direct comparison is possible in that API.

Context from the database's nearest rival data reinforces the split. The RTX 5080 Mobile's average benchmark score is 38,349, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rivals by average score are the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38,299, +0.1% delta), the RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135, +0.6%), the MX570 A (38,691, -0.9%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (38,706, -0.9%). In other words, the RTX 5080 Mobile sits in a tight cluster of similarly-scoring mobile parts, but its head-to-head deltas against the RX 480 are enormous. The RX 480's average is 33,997, with its nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon HD 7950 (33,951, +0.1%), RX 560 XT (34,133, -0.4%), RX 7700S (33,849, +0.4%), and RTX A2000 12 GB (34,154, -0.5%). The RX 480 sits at the 78th percentile, only 3 points below the RTX 5080 Mobile in percentile ranking, but that percentile is driven by a database containing many older and weaker parts; the actual score gap is massive.

The PassMark suite, recorded only for the RTX 5080 Mobile, shows further context. Its PassMark G3D score is 27,711, with G2D at 1,095, GPU Compute at 12,134, and DirectX 9/10/11/12 scores of 314, 171, 253, and 116 respectively. These numbers have no RX 480 counterpart in the pack, but they indicate that the RTX 5080 Mobile handles legacy DX9 workloads better than newer DX12 ones on a relative basis, which is typical for modern architectures. The absence of RX 480 scores in these tests means the database cannot directly compare legacy API performance.

The Verdict

There is no contest based on the recorded data. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is the clear choice for anyone prioritizing raw performance, modern feature support, and future-proofing. It wins every shared benchmark by a factor of at least 2.7x, and in the most demanding DX12 test it is over 5x faster. The RX 480, while still a capable card in its own right (78th percentile), is an end-of-life product from 2016 with a GCN 4.0 architecture. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are dwarfed by the RTX 5080 Mobile's 16 GB GDDR7 and 896.0 GB/s.

Who should pick the RTX 5080 Mobile? Users who need maximum compute throughput, ray tracing capabilities (60 RT cores), tensor core acceleration (240 tensor cores), and modern API support including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The data shows it is also the only one of the two with a recorded 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score above 4,900, a strong indicator of current-gen gaming performance. The RX 480, with its DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3 support, is functionally outdated for the latest titles.

Who should pick the RX 480? Only a user constrained to legacy systems, given its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface and 150 W TDP. It has a lower power draw than the RTX 5080 Mobile's 80 W? No, the opposite: the RX 480 draws 150 W, while the RTX 5080 Mobile is rated at 80 W. The RX 480 also requires a 450 W suggested PSU and a 1x 6-pin connector, whereas the RTX 5080 Mobile is an IGP with no power connectors, making it dramatically more efficient per watt based on the performance deltas. There is no scenario in the data where the RX 480 wins. The verdict is straightforward: the RTX 5080 Mobile is the superior product on every measurable axis.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4,952 versus the AMD Radeon RX 480's 966, a 412.6% advantage.

Q: How do the two compare in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile scores 166,986, which is 339.5% higher than the RX 480's 37,998.

Q: Does the RX 480 have any benchmark where it outperforms the RTX 5080 Mobile?

A: No. In the three shared tests (3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan), the RTX 5080 Mobile wins all three. The RX 480 has a Geekbench Metal score of 51,057, but the RTX 5080 Mobile has no Metal result recorded.

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference between the two?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile is in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 480 is in the 78th. Their average benchmark scores are 38,349 and 33,997 respectively.

Q: Which GPU has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 480 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the DirectX support difference?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 480 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every core specification. The RTX 5080 Mobile has 7,680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RX 480 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 5080 Mobile also includes 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores; the RX 480 has none of either. Clock speeds differ as well: the RTX 5080 Mobile runs at a base of 975 MHz and boost of 1,500 MHz, while the RX 480 operates at 1,120 MHz base and 1,266 MHz boost. The memory clocks are 1,750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) for the RTX 5080 Mobile versus 2,000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) for the RX 480.

Pixel and texture rates reflect the architectural gap. The RTX 5080 Mobile achieves 144.0 GPixel/s and 360.0 GTexel/s. The RX 480 manages 40.51 GPixel/s and 182.3 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 23.04 TFLOPS for the RTX 5080 Mobile versus 5.834 TFLOPS for the RX 480. Both have 1:1 FP16/FP32 ratios. The bus interface differs: PCIe 5.0 x16 for the RTX 5080 Mobile, PCIe 3.0 x16 for the RX 480. Power consumption is also starkly different: the RTX 5080 Mobile is rated at 80 W with no power connectors and an IGP slot width, while the RX 480 draws 150 W, uses a 1x 6-pin connector, a suggested 450 W PSU, and is a dual-slot card. The RX 480 has physical dimensions of 240 mm length, 95 mm height, and 35 mm width; the RTX 5080 Mobile has no recorded dimensions.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 5080 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Blackwell 2.0 architecture using the GB203 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 120.6 million per mm². The RX 480 uses AMD's GCN 4.0 architecture with the Ellesmere chip, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, for a density of 24.6 million per mm². The process node difference alone (5 nm vs 14 nm) explains much of the efficiency and performance gap.

The RTX 5080 Mobile is part of the GeForce 50 Mobile generation, succeeding the GeForce 40 Mobile line. The RX 480 belongs to the Arctic Islands (RX 400) generation, succeeding Pirate Islands and preceding Polaris. The RTX 5080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 480 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 5080 Mobile has a display output described as "Portable Device Dependent", while the RX 480 has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

The RTX 5080 Mobile's production status is Active, with a release date of April 1, 2025. The RX 480 is End-of-life, released on June 28, 2016, with a launch MSRP of 229 USD. The RTX 5080 Mobile has no launch MSRP recorded. The architecture differences are fundamental: Blackwell 2.0 is a modern, feature-rich design with dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, while GCN 4.0 is a legacy architecture without those accelerators. The RTX 5080 Mobile's memory subsystem uses GDDR7, a generational leap over the RX 480's GDDR5, and its bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s is 3.5x higher.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5080 Mobile wins every category where data exists. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, a modern gaming workload, it is 412.6% faster. In Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan, which stress general compute and cross-vendor graphics, it leads by 339.5% and 269.3% respectively. The RTX 5080 Mobile also has recorded PassMark scores across DirectX 9 through 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute, indicating broad API coverage. Its 81st percentile ranking and average score of 38,349 place it among the top mobile GPUs in the database.

The RX 480's wins are limited to non-comparable areas. It has a Geekbench Metal score of 51,057, which the RTX 5080 Mobile cannot contest due to missing data. It also has a lower TDP? No, the opposite: the RX 480 draws 150 W versus the RTX 5080 Mobile's 80 W, so the RTX 5080 Mobile is more power-efficient. The RX 480 does have a physical slot width of dual-slot and a 240 mm length, which some desktops may prefer for airflow, but that is not a performance metric. The RX 480's nearest rivals (HD 7950, RX 560 XT, RX 7700S, RTX A2000 12 GB) all have average scores within 0.5% of its 33,997, placing it in a cluster of mid-range legacy cards. The RTX 5080 Mobile's rivals (MX570, RTX 4080 Mobile, MX570 A, Radeon Pro 580X) are also tightly clustered, but at a higher absolute level.

For use cases, the data supports the following: the RTX 5080 Mobile is the pick for 3D rendering, high-resolution gaming, compute workloads, and any task benefiting from ray tracing or tensor cores. The RX 480 remains relevant only for legacy DX11-era games or systems where a 150 W dual-slot card with a 6-pin connector is acceptable. Even then, the RTX 5080 Mobile's 80 W IGP design with no connectors makes it the more flexible option for thin laptops or compact systems. The RX 480's only recorded advantage is its Metal score, which is irrelevant unless the user specifically needs macOS Metal performance. In every other measured metric, the RTX 5080 Mobile is the definitive winner.