AMD Radeon RX 5700 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile decisively outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 5700 in the aggregate, winning 8 of 10 head-to-head benchmark comparisons. The average benchmark score of 23,628 for the RTX 3080 Mobile places it 6.6% above the RX 5700's 22,170, though both cards sit in a similar performance tier, with the NVIDIA part at the 69th percentile and the AMD part at the 67th percentile of all GPUs. The RTX 3080 Mobile's closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile at a 0.5% delta, while the RX 5700's nearest competitor is the AMD Radeon RX 6700S at a 0.1% delta, indicating that the RX 5700 is more tightly bunched with its direct peers.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive victory for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where it scores 104,066 against the RX 5700's 64,166, a commanding 62.2% advantage. This is followed by a 50.6% lead in Geekbench OpenCL, with scores of 104,831 versus 69,603. These compute-oriented results show the NVIDIA architecture's strength in modern, parallel workloads that leverage low-level graphics APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test also heavily favors the RTX 3080 Mobile, with a score of 2,644 versus 1,862, a 42% margin that reflects a substantial lead in contemporary DirectX 12 gaming performance.

In the PassMark suite, the RTX 3080 Mobile maintains consistent leads across most DirectX versions. The DirectX 11 test shows a 44.6% advantage (146 vs 101), while DirectX 10 shows a 37.9% lead (120 vs 87) and DirectX 12 shows a 33.3% advantage (72 vs 54). The PassMark G3D score, which represents overall 3D graphics performance, gives the RTX 3080 Mobile a 14% lead (16,321 vs 14,314), and the GPU Compute test shows an 11.6% advantage (7,276 vs 6,517). These results indicate that the NVIDIA part's dominance is not limited to a single API but spans the entire modern graphics stack.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 secures two notable wins. In PassMark DirectX 9, it scores 209 against the RTX 3080 Mobile's 170, an 18.7% advantage, suggesting that legacy DirectX 9 titles may run better on the AMD hardware. The other AMD victory comes in the PassMark G2D test, which measures 2D graphics performance, where the RX 5700 scores 877 versus 637, a 27.4% margin. This 2D win is interesting given the RX 5700's lower overall 3D scores, and it may reflect differences in memory bandwidth allocation or display output handling between the two architectures.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent fundamentally different design philosophies from their respective manufacturers. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is built on the GA104 chip using the Ampere architecture and Samsung's 8 nm process node, while the AMD Radeon RX 5700 uses the Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture on TSMC's 7 nm node. The process node difference is significant: AMD's 7 nm process is more advanced than NVIDIA's 8 nm, allowing the RX 5700 to fit 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die (41.0M per mm²), whereas the RTX 3080 Mobile packs 17,400 million transistors on a much larger 392 mm² die (44.4M per mm²).

Clock speeds differ substantially, with the RX 5700 running a 1,465 MHz base and 1,725 MHz boost clock, compared to the RTX 3080 Mobile's 1,110 MHz base and 1,545 MHz boost. The AMD card also has a defined game clock of 1,625 MHz, which the NVIDIA part lacks. Despite the lower clocks, the RTX 3080 Mobile delivers far higher theoretical throughput due to its massive compute resource allocation. It features 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, compared to the RX 5700's 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. This translates to an FP32 performance of 18.98 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA part versus 7.949 TFLOPS for the AMD part.

The RTX 3080 Mobile also includes dedicated ray tracing cores (48) and tensor cores (192), which the RX 5700 lacks entirely, as it offers no hardware-accelerated ray tracing or AI acceleration features. Memory configurations are identical in capacity and type—both have 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth—but the NVIDIA part achieves higher pixel and texture rates (148.3 GPixel/s and 296.6 GTexel/s versus 110.4 and 248.4, respectively). Power consumption tells a contrasting story: the RTX 3080 Mobile is rated at 115 W with no power connectors (portable device dependent), while the RX 5700 is a dual-slot desktop card drawing 180 W via 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. The NVIDIA part supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX 5700 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1), and both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is the clear choice for modern, API-forward workloads. Its 62.2% lead in Vulkan and 50.6% lead in OpenCL indicate that applications leveraging these interfaces will see dramatic performance gains. The 42% advantage in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 reinforces that this is the superior card for current-generation DirectX 12 gaming titles. The RTX 3080 Mobile's consistent 33-45% leads across PassMark DirectX 10, 11, and 12 tests further cement its position as the stronger all-around 3D performer for contemporary software. Its hardware ray tracing and tensor cores also provide capabilities that the RX 5700 cannot match, making it the only option for ray-traced gaming or DLSS-style AI upscaling workloads.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700's wins are more specialized but still relevant. Its 18.7% advantage in PassMark DirectX 9 suggests that older titles or applications with legacy rendering pipelines may run better on this hardware. The 27.4% lead in the G2D test indicates that 2D graphics operations, such as desktop compositing or certain productivity applications, are handled more efficiently by the AMD card. Additionally, the RX 5700's higher base and boost clocks (1,465 MHz and 1,725 MHz versus 1,110 MHz and 1,545 MHz) may provide better responsiveness in clock-bound scenarios, even if the RTX 3080 Mobile's raw throughput is superior.

The RX 5700 also wins on efficiency of design in one respect: despite having nearly half the shading units, it posts a PassMark G3D score of 14,314, which is only 14% behind the RTX 3080 Mobile's 16,321. This indicates that AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture extracts more performance per compute unit than NVIDIA's Ampere design in certain legacy workloads. However, the RTX 3080 Mobile achieves its performance at a lower TDP (115 W versus 180 W), making it more power-efficient in absolute terms for the performance delivered.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile for anyone prioritizing modern gaming and compute performance. It wins 8 of 10 direct comparisons, with an average score advantage of 6.6%, and its leads are largest in exactly the areas that matter most for current and future software: Vulkan (62.2%), OpenCL (50.6%), and DirectX 12 (33.3-42%). The RTX 3080 Mobile's architectural advantages—hardware ray tracing, tensor cores, and nearly 2.4x the FP32 throughput of the RX 5700—make it the superior investment for users who play recent titles or run GPU-accelerated applications. Its lower TDP of 115 W versus 180 W is an additional benefit, especially in thermally constrained environments.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 is the pick only for a narrow set of use cases. Its 18.7% win in DirectX 9 and 27.4% win in G2D make it the better choice for users whose software library is dominated by legacy titles or 2D-centric workloads. The RX 5700's 7 nm process node and higher clock speeds (1,725 MHz boost versus 1,545 MHz) also make it a more compact, dual-slot design with a defined game clock of 1,625 MHz. However, for the overwhelming majority of users, the RTX 3080 Mobile's superior performance across modern APIs, its dedicated ray tracing hardware, and its higher percentile ranking (69th versus 67th) make it the clear winner. There is no benchmark category where the RX 5700's victories outweigh the RTX 3080 Mobile's dominance in the areas that define contemporary GPU performance.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 23,628, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 5700's 22,170, a difference of approximately 6.6%.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3080 Mobile in Vulkan performance?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile scores 104,066 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 62.2% higher than the RX 5700's 64,166.

Q: Does the AMD RX 5700 have any benchmark wins over the RTX 3080 Mobile?

A: Yes, the RX 5700 wins in PassMark DirectX 9 (209 vs 170, an 18.7% advantage) and PassMark G2D (877 vs 637, a 27.4% advantage).

Q: What are the process node differences between the two GPUs?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile uses Samsung's 8 nm process, while the RX 5700 uses TSMC's 7 nm process. The RX 5700's 7 nm node is more advanced, allowing for a smaller die size of 251 mm² versus 392 mm².

Q: Do both cards have the same memory configuration?

A: Yes, both GPUs feature 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has hardware ray tracing capabilities?

A: Only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile has dedicated ray tracing cores (48 RT cores) and tensor cores (192). The AMD Radeon RX 5700 has no ray tracing or tensor core hardware.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile | AMD Radeon RX 5700 |

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

| Architecture | Ampere | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process Node | 8 nm | 7 nm |

| Foundry | Samsung | TSMC |

| Transistors | 17,400 million | 10,300 million |

| Die Size | 392 mm² | 251 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 44.4M / mm² | 41.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1110 MHz | 1465 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1545 MHz | 1725 MHz |

| Game Clock | N/A | 1625 MHz |

| Shading Units | 6144 | 2304 |

| TMUs | 192 | 144 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 48 | N/A |

| Tensor Cores | 192 | N/A |

| Pixel Rate | 148.3 GPixel/s | 110.4 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 296.6 GTexel/s | 248.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 18.98 TFLOPS | 7.949 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 18.98 TFLOPS (1:1) | 15.90 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 115 W | 180 W |

| Slot Width | N/A | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | N/A | 450 W |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Dimensions (LxHxW) | N/A | 268 mm x 111 mm x 36 mm |

| Release Date | 2021-01-11 | 2019-07-06 |

| Launch MSRP | N/A | 349 USD |