AMD Radeon RX 5700 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile and AMD Radeon RX 5700 represent two distinct approaches to high-performance graphics, separated by architecture generation and intended platform. Benchmark data shows a clear overall winner, yet the AMD card secures specific victories that reveal its enduring strengths. Across ten head-to-head tests, the NVIDIA mobile part claims eight wins, while the AMD desktop card takes two, resulting in an average benchmark score of 23518 for the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile against 22170 for the RX 5700. This places the NVIDIA part in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, slightly above the RX 5700’s 67th percentile, indicating a meaningful but not overwhelming performance gap.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive NVIDIA victories come in API-specific and compute workloads. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile scores 100027 against the RX 5700’s 64166, a 55.9% advantage that highlights the efficiency of NVIDIA’s driver stack and Ampere architecture in modern graphics APIs. Similarly, Geekbench OpenCL shows a 52.3% lead, with scores of 106022 versus 69603, demonstrating superior general-purpose compute throughput. The PassMark DirectX 11 test reinforces this pattern, where NVIDIA wins 153 to 101, a 51.5% margin, suggesting that the mobile part handles legacy DirectX workloads with far greater ease.

In the demanding 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile scores 2572 against 1862 for the RX 5700, a 38.1% win that indicates substantial rasterization performance headroom. PassMark DirectX 10 follows with a 42.5% advantage (124 vs 87), and DirectX 12 shows a 35.2% lead (73 vs 54). The PassMark G3D test, a composite gaming metric, gives NVIDIA a 23.8% win (17727 vs 14314), while PassMark GPU Compute shows a 15.1% edge (7504 vs 6517). These results paint a picture of consistent NVIDIA superiority across both synthetic and practical workloads, with the smallest win in compute still representing a solid double-digit margin.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700’s two wins are narrow but notable. In PassMark DirectX 9, it scores 209 against NVIDIA’s 196, a 6.2% margin that suggests better optimization for older API titles. The more significant victory comes in PassMark G2D, where AMD scores 877 versus 783, a 10.7% lead that reflects faster 2D rendering and desktop composition tasks. While these wins are isolated, they demonstrate that the RX 5700 retains strengths in specific legacy and non-3D workloads, even against a much newer architecture.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is the clear choice for modern gaming and compute-heavy applications. Its dominance in Vulkan and OpenCL benchmarks indicates strong performance in current titles that leverage these APIs, as well as in productivity workloads such as video encoding or scientific simulations that rely on general-purpose GPU compute. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result further cements its position for DirectX 12 games, which represent the vast majority of contemporary AAA releases. With an 8 GB GDDR6 memory configuration and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, it matches the RX 5700’s memory subsystem while delivering significantly higher shading throughput, making it the superior option for high-resolution gaming with demanding visual effects.

The RX 5700, despite being older and less powerful overall, wins in two specific areas. Its PassMark DirectX 9 score of 209 against 196 suggests better compatibility or optimization for older games that still rely on DirectX 9, which could matter for players with extensive legacy libraries. The G2D win, 877 versus 783, indicates snappier 2D performance for desktop use, image editing, or other non-3D tasks. However, these wins are narrow and do not offset the substantial 3D performance deficit. For users primarily engaged in modern gaming or GPU-accelerated compute, the RX 5700’s advantages are unlikely to be relevant; for those with specific older titles or 2D-focused workflows, its wins offer a small but tangible benefit.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is built on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture using an 8 nm Samsung process, featuring the GA104 chip with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. It includes 46 dedicated ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI features like DLSS, which are absent from the RX 5700. The Ampere design also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX 5700 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1), meaning the NVIDIA part can execute features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading that the AMD card cannot.

The RX 5700 employs AMD’s RDNA 1.0 architecture on a 7 nm TSMC process, using the Navi 10 chip with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die. This process advantage gives AMD a higher transistor density per mm² (41.0M versus 44.4M for NVIDIA, though NVIDIA’s absolute count is much higher). The RDNA 1.0 design has no ray tracing or tensor cores, relying entirely on traditional shader units. Its FP16 performance is rated at 15.90 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile achieves 16.60 TFLOPS with a 1:1 FP32/FP16 ratio, indicating superior compute flexibility on the NVIDIA side. The AMD card’s lack of dedicated AI hardware means it cannot accelerate machine learning tasks as efficiently, though its raw FP32 performance of 7.949 TFLOPS is respectable for its era.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ substantially in their specification sheets, reflecting their different target platforms. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile has 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, while the RX 5700 has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. This translates to a pixel rate of 135.4 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 110.4 GPixel/s for AMD, and a texture rate of 259.4 GTexel/s versus 248.4 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA card’s FP32 throughput of 16.60 TFLOPS is more than double the AMD card’s 7.949 TFLOPS, explaining its dominant compute benchmark results.

Clock speeds also differ significantly, though the comparison is complicated by the mobile versus desktop context. The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile runs at a 915 MHz base clock and 1410 MHz boost, while the RX 5700 operates at 1465 MHz base and 1725 MHz boost, with a game clock of 1625 MHz. Despite lower clocks, the NVIDIA card’s far higher shader count allows it to outperform the AMD card. Power consumption shows a dramatic split: the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile has a 115 W TDP and no power connectors (drawing power through the motherboard), while the RX 5700 has a 180 W TDP, requires a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector, and suggests a 450 W PSU. The AMD card is a dual-slot design measuring 268 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 36 mm in width, while the NVIDIA card’s dimensions are portable-device dependent. Both feature 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 1750 MHz memory clock, but the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile supports PCIe 4.0 x16, as does the RX 5700. Display outputs differ: NVIDIA lists “Portable Device Dependent” while AMD provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile has an FP32 rating of 16.60 TFLOPS, which is more than double the RX 5700’s 7.949 TFLOPS. This is reflected in the Geekbench OpenCL score, where NVIDIA leads 106022 to 69603, a 52.3% advantage.

Q: Does the RX 5700 support ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 5700 has no ray tracing cores, while the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile includes 46 dedicated RT cores. Additionally, the NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the AMD card is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: What is the power requirement difference?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile has a 115 W TDP and requires no external power connectors, while the RX 5700 has a 180 W TDP, needs a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector, and recommends a 450 W PSU.

Q: Which GPU wins in DirectX 9 games?

A: The RX 5700 wins in PassMark DirectX 9, scoring 209 against the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile’s 196, a 6.2% margin. This suggests better optimization for older DirectX 9 titles.

Q: How do their memory configurations compare?

A: Both GPUs have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. However, the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile achieves significantly higher performance despite identical memory specs, indicating superior memory controller efficiency.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each GPU?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti Mobile’s closest competitor is the RTX 3080 Mobile, with a delta of -0.5% in average score. The RX 5700’s nearest rival is the RX 6700S, with a delta of 0.1%. These figures place both GPUs in a similar performance tier, though the NVIDIA card sits slightly higher overall.