AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary records an average benchmark score of 26553, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 records 23172. The AMD card sits at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 3080 sits at the 68th percentile.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3080's average score of 23172 is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276). These rivals are all essentially tied, with deltas ranging from -0.3% to -0.4%.

Q: Which GPU wins in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary wins geekbench_vulkan with a score of 74281, which is 120.9% higher than the RTX 3080's score of 33620.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The AMD card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 8704 shading units, compared to 2560 on the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Q: Does the RTX 3080 support hardware ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RTX 3080 has 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The AMD card has no RT cores or tensor cores listed.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary uses the Navi 10 chip built on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 uses the GA102 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung.

The transistor counts differ dramatically. The AMD chip contains 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 41.0M per mm². The NVIDIA chip contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, giving a density of 45.1M per mm². The NVIDIA die is more than twice the physical size of the AMD die.

The compute configurations are vastly different. The AMD card has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Additionally, the RTX 3080 includes dedicated hardware for ray tracing (68 RT cores) and AI acceleration (272 tensor cores), neither of which the AMD card possesses.

Clock speeds favor AMD. The RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary runs at a base clock of 1680 MHz, a game clock of 1830 MHz, and a boost clock of 1980 MHz. The RTX 3080 runs at a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, with no game clock listed. Despite lower clocks, the NVIDIA card achieves much higher throughput due to its larger core count.

Memory technology also differs. The AMD card uses GDDR6 at 14 Gbps effective, while the NVIDIA card uses GDDR6X at 19 Gbps effective. The NVIDIA card has a wider 320-bit bus versus 256-bit, resulting in substantially higher bandwidth.

The power delivery requirements differ as well. The AMD card has a TDP of 225 W with a suggested PSU of 550 W, while the NVIDIA card has a TDP of 320 W with a suggested PSU of 700 W. The AMD card uses a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connector setup, while the NVIDIA card uses a single 12-pin connector.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data shows NVIDIA winning 8 of 9 benchmark comparisons. The only AMD victory comes in the Vulkan compute test, where the RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary scores 74281 versus 33620 for the RTX 3080, a 120.9% advantage. This is the single largest performance gap in either direction.

The largest NVIDIA win is in the OpenCL benchmark. The RTX 3080 scores 152423 versus 77161 for the AMD card, a 49.4% difference. This is closely followed by the GPU compute test, where the RTX 3080 scores 14397 versus 7923, a 45% difference.

In the DirectX 11 benchmark, the RTX 3080 scores 207 versus 116 for the AMD card, a 44% difference. The DirectX 10 test shows a 42.4% gap, with scores of 170 versus 98. The DirectX 12 benchmark shows a 34% difference, with scores of 100 versus 66. The DirectX 9 test shows the smallest DirectX gap at 15.1%, with scores of 258 versus 219.

The 3D graphics test (passmark_g3d) shows the RTX 3080 scoring 25086 versus 16437, a 34.5% difference. Even the 2D test favors NVIDIA, with scores of 1054 versus 941, a 10.7% difference.

The wins total 8 for the NVIDIA card and 1 for the AMD card. The AMD card's Vulkan result is an outlier in an otherwise consistent NVIDIA dominance across both compute and graphics workloads.

The Verdict

The data clearly favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for most workloads. It wins 8 out of 9 head-to-head benchmarks, with particularly large advantages in OpenCL compute (49.4% ahead), GPU compute (45% ahead), and DirectX 11 (44% ahead). The RTX 3080 also has a substantial lead in the 3D graphics test, scoring 34.5% higher.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary has a higher average benchmark score (26553 versus 23172) and a higher percentile ranking (72nd versus 68th). This is driven by its exceptional Vulkan performance, which is more than double the NVIDIA card's score. However, the AMD card loses in every other recorded test.

For users prioritizing Vulkan-based workloads or applications that leverage that API, the AMD card offers a significant advantage. For everything else, the RTX 3080 delivers consistently higher performance, especially in compute-heavy tasks and DirectX titles.

The RTX 3080 also brings hardware ray tracing and tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks entirely. This makes the NVIDIA card more capable for future-facing workloads that utilize these features.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD RX 5700 XT 50th Anniv. | NVIDIA RTX 3080 |

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

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Ampere |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 10,300 million | 28,300 million |

| Die Size | 251 mm² | 628 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 41.0M / mm² | 45.1M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1680 MHz | 1440 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1980 MHz | 1710 MHz |

| Game Clock | 1830 MHz | None |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 10 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6X |

| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 320 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 448.0 GB/s | 760.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2560 | 8704 |

| TMUs | 160 | 272 |

| ROPs | 64 | 96 |

| RT Cores | None | 68 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 272 |

| Pixel Rate | 126.7 GPixel/s | 164.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 316.8 GTexel/s | 465.1 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 10.14 TFLOPS | 29.77 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 20.28 TFLOPS (2:1) | 29.77 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 225 W | 320 W |

| Power Connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 1x 12-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | 700 W |

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

| HDMI | 2.0b | 2.1 |

| Length | 272 mm | 285 mm |

| Release Date | 2019-07-06 | 2020-08-31 |

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 wins in the majority of scenarios. Its FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS is nearly triple the AMD card's 10.14 TFLOPS. Its texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s both substantially exceed the AMD card's 316.8 GTexel/s and 126.7 GPixel/s. The 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth is 69.7% higher than the AMD card's 448.0 GB/s.

For DirectX gaming across all versions (9, 10, 11, and 12), the RTX 3080 leads by margins ranging from 15.1% to 44%. For OpenCL compute workloads, it leads by 49.4%. Its GPU compute performance is 45% higher. The RTX 3080 also has hardware ray tracing and tensor cores, making it the only choice for those workloads.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary wins in one specific area: Vulkan compute. Its 74281 Vulkan score is 120.9% higher than the RTX 3080's 33620. This single result drives its higher average benchmark score and percentile ranking. The AMD card also uses less power (225 W versus 320 W), requires a smaller PSU (550 W versus 700 W), and has a shorter physical length (272 mm versus 285 mm).

For users whose primary applications are Vulkan-based, the AMD card is the clear winner. For all other workloads, the RTX 3080 provides superior performance. The average benchmark scores present a nuanced picture: the AMD card ranks higher overall (26553 versus 23172) despite winning only one head-to-head test, which highlights how dependent the ranking is on the specific benchmark suite used.