AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti are both end-of-life graphics cards from different architectural eras, and the benchmark data shows a clear overall winner despite one notable exception. Across 11 head-to-head benchmarks, the GTX 1070 Ti takes 10 wins, while the RX 5500 XT manages a single, but massive, victory. The average benchmark scores are close — 14,692 for the RX 5500 XT versus 14,277 for the GTX 1070 Ti — which places them at the 57th and 56th percentiles of all GPUs respectively, but this aggregate hides the lopsided nature of their individual test results.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result is in the Geekbench Metal test, where the RX 5500 XT delivers a score of 54,842 against the GTX 1070 Ti's 22,180. That is a delta of 147.3% in favor of the AMD card, a staggering margin that dwarfs every other comparison in this matchup. This single result demonstrates a clear advantage for the RX 5500 XT in Apple's Metal API, likely reflecting architectural optimization for that specific compute workload.

Everywhere else, the GTX 1070 Ti asserts its dominance. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the NVIDIA card scores 1,471 versus 1,032 for the RX 5500 XT, a 29.8% deficit for the AMD part. The gap is even wider in Vulkan, where the GTX 1070 Ti posts 61,006 against 44,191, a 27.6% lead. OpenCL is closer, with the GTX 1070 Ti at 49,219 and the RX 5500 XT at 46,965, a 4.6% margin that is the smallest NVIDIA win on the board.

The PassMark suite paints a consistently grim picture for the RX 5500 XT. In the DirectX 10 test, the GTX 1070 Ti scores 90 versus 46, a 48.9% difference. DirectX 11 shows a similar pattern: 107 versus 56, a 47.7% gap. Even in DirectX 12, where the RX 5500 XT might be expected to fare better given its newer architecture, the GTX 1070 Ti wins 51 to 40, a 21.6% advantage. The legacy DirectX 9 test goes to NVIDIA as well, 207 to 133, a 35.7% lead. PassMark G3D, a general gaming metric, heavily favors the GTX 1070 Ti at 14,674 versus 9,083, a 38.1% difference. GPU compute follows suit, with the NVIDIA card at 7,165 against 4,446, a 37.9% gap. Even the 2D test, PassMark G2D, goes to the GTX 1070 Ti, 876 to 774, an 11.6% margin.

Architecture Differences

These two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies from different nodes. The RX 5500 XT is built on TSMC's 7 nm process using AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 14 chip, while the GTX 1070 Ti uses the older 16 nm process with NVIDIA's Pascal architecture and the GP104 chip. The transistor counts reflect the different scales: the Navi 14 has 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, achieving a density of 40.5M per mm². The GP104 is physically larger at 314 mm² with 7,200 million transistors, but its density is just 22.9M per mm², a direct consequence of the older manufacturing node.

The memory subsystems diverge as well. The RX 5500 XT ships with 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 1070 Ti offers 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, achieving 256.3 GB/s. The NVIDIA card's larger bus and higher capacity give it a bandwidth advantage, even though its memory type is older.

Core counts heavily favor the GTX 1070 Ti. It has 2,432 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, versus the RX 5500 XT's 1,408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This translates directly to compute performance: the GTX 1070 Ti is rated at 8.186 TFLOPS FP32, while the RX 5500 XT manages 5.196 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 107.7 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 59.04 GPixel/s for AMD, and the texture rate is 255.8 GTexel/s versus 162.4 GTexel/s. Interestingly, the RX 5500 XT has a major FP16 advantage at 10.39 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), whereas the GTX 1070 Ti is limited to 127.9 GFLOPS (1:64), but this does not appear in the benchmark wins.

Clock speeds are comparable at the base level — both start at 1607 MHz — but the RX 5500 XT boosts higher to 1845 MHz versus 1683 MHz for the GTX 1070 Ti. The AMD card also has a "game" clock of 1717 MHz, a metric NVIDIA does not list. Power consumption differs, with the RX 5500 XT rated at 130 W TDP versus 180 W for the GTX 1070 Ti, and the suggested PSU is 300 W versus 450 W. Both use a single 8-pin connector and are dual-slot cards. The RX 5500 XT is shorter at 180 mm (7.1 inches) versus 267 mm (10.5 inches) for the GTX 1070 Ti, which also has listed dimensions of 112 mm height and 40 mm width. The RX 5500 XT uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the GTX 1070 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the RX 5500 XT has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the GTX 1070 Ti adds a DVI port alongside 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous for most workloads: the GTX 1070 Ti is the stronger card. It wins 10 of 11 benchmarks, with margins ranging from 4.6% in OpenCL to 48.9% in DirectX 10. Its average benchmark score of 14,277 is only 2.8% lower than the RX 5500 XT's 14,692, but that average is heavily skewed by the AMD card's outlier Metal result. The GTX 1070 Ti's 38.1% lead in PassMark G3D, a proxy for gaming performance, is decisive. Its 8 GB of VRAM versus 4 GB also gives it a practical advantage for modern game textures, though that is not directly benchmarked here.

The RX 5500 XT is not without merit. Its 147.3% lead in Geekbench Metal is the single biggest margin in the entire comparison, making it the obvious choice for users whose primary workload runs on that API. It also draws less power — 130 W versus 180 W — and is significantly shorter, which helps in small form factor builds. However, for everything else, the GTX 1070 Ti's higher core counts, larger memory bus, and superior raw compute make it the better performer. The nearest rivals for each card reinforce this: the RX 5500 XT sits near the GTX 770, while the GTX 1070 Ti is comparable to the GTX TITAN, which are cards from different performance tiers.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in DirectX 12 benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 Ti wins, scoring 51 in PassMark DirectX 12 versus 40 for the RX 5500 XT, a 21.6% difference.

Q: Does the RX 5500 XT win any benchmarks?

A: Yes, it wins the Geekbench Metal test with a score of 54,842 against 22,180 for the GTX 1070 Ti, a 147.3% margin.

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

A: The RX 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 14,692, while the GTX 1070 Ti averages 14,277.

Q: How do the memory capacities compare?

A: The RX 5500 XT has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 1070 Ti has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher FP32 compute rating?

A: The GTX 1070 Ti is rated at 8.186 TFLOPS FP32, which is significantly higher than the RX 5500 XT's 5.196 TFLOPS.

Q: What are the power consumption figures?

A: The RX 5500 XT is rated at 130 W TDP with a 300 W suggested PSU, while the GTX 1070 Ti is rated at 180 W TDP with a 450 W suggested PSU.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 1070 Ti is the clear winner for general gaming and traditional rasterization workloads. Its PassMark G3D score of 14,674 versus 9,083 is a 38.1% lead, and it dominates DirectX 10, 11, and 9 by margins of 48.9%, 47.7%, and 35.7% respectively. It also wins in compute-heavy tasks, as shown by its 37.9% lead in PassMark GPU Compute and its 27.6% advantage in Vulkan. For users on Windows or Linux with standard gaming or rendering workloads, the GTX 1070 Ti is the higher-performance option across the board.

The RX 5500 XT's only win is in Geekbench Metal, where its 147.3% margin is massive. This makes it the preferable card for macOS environments or applications that heavily leverage the Metal API for compute. Its lower power draw of 130 W versus 180 W and shorter 180 mm length also make it easier to fit into compact or power-constrained builds. Beyond that specific use case, the benchmark data does not support choosing the RX 5500 XT over the GTX 1070 Ti — the NVIDIA card is faster in every other tested scenario, including the modern DX12 and Vulkan APIs where the AMD card's newer architecture might have been expected to narrow the gap.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti |

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

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Pascal |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 16 nm |

| Transistors | 6,400 million | 7,200 million |

| Die Size | 158 mm² | 314 mm² |

| Base Clock | 1607 MHz | 1607 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1845 MHz | 1683 MHz |

| Game Clock | 1717 MHz | N/A |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 256.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1408 | 2432 |

| TMUs | 88 | 152 |

| ROPs | 32 | 64 |

| Pixel Rate | 59.04 GPixel/s | 107.7 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 162.4 GTexel/s | 255.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 5.196 TFLOPS | 8.186 TFLOPS |

| TDP | 130 W | 180 W |

| Suggested PSU | 300 W | 450 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Length | 180 mm (7.1 inches) | 267 mm (10.5 inches) |

| Launch MSRP | 169 USD | 399 USD |