AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP are both end-of-life graphics cards, but they represent fundamentally different approaches to the budget segment. The GTX 1630 is a modern, efficient Turing-based part, while the RX 580 2048SP is a larger, older GCN architecture card with significantly more raw compute hardware. Benchmark data from the database shows a clear performance hierarchy, with the AMD card winning both head-to-head tests, but the analysis of architecture and specifications reveals a more nuanced picture for potential buyers.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 has an average benchmark score of 24277, placing it in the 70th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has a lower average score of 23061, placing it in the 68th percentile.

Q: How does the GTX 1630 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1630's average score is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, with a delta of just 0.2%. It is 0.4% ahead of the RTX 2080 SUPER and 0.9% ahead of the RX 6800S, while trailing the RX 6600 XT by 0.7%.

Q: What is the performance gap in the head-to-head tests?

A: The RX 580 2048SP wins both recorded benchmarks. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 29668 against the GTX 1630's 24858, a delta of -16.2% for the NVIDIA card. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens substantially, with the AMD card scoring 38666 versus 23695, a -38.7% delta.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has a slightly higher transistor density of 24.6M / mm², compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630's 23.5M / mm².

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The GTX 1630 features 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, providing 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 580 2048SP also has 4 GB of memory, but it is GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: How do their power requirements differ?

A: The GTX 1630 has a TDP of 75 W and requires no power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The RX 580 2048SP has a TDP of 150 W, requires a single 8-pin power connector, and its suggested PSU is 450 W.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on entirely different architectures from different generations. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 is based on the TU117 chip using the Turing architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It packs 4,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP utilizes the Polaris 20 chip with the older GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured by GlobalFoundries on a larger 14 nm process. This chip contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die.

The compute resources are starkly different. The GTX 1630 is configured with 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 raster output units (ROPs). The RX 580 2048SP is a much wider design, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This explains the massive difference in theoretical throughput: the AMD card delivers 5.259 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 164.4 GTexel/s, while the NVIDIA card offers 1.828 TFLOPS and 57.12 GTexel/s. The pixel rate also favors AMD, at 41.09 GPixel/s versus 28.56 GPixel/s for NVIDIA.

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The GTX 1630 uses a 64-bit memory bus with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory running at an effective 12 Gbps, yielding 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 580 2048SP uses a 256-bit bus with 4 GB of GDDR5 at an effective 7 Gbps, quadrupling the bus width and providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, matching its FP32 throughput, whereas the GTX 1630 achieves FP16 at a 2:1 ratio. Both cards lack dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. API support is close, with both supporting DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6, but NVIDIA supports Vulkan 1.4 while AMD is limited to Vulkan 1.3.

The Verdict

The data directs different users to different cards. If the priority is raw computational performance and memory bandwidth, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is the clear choice. It wins both head-to-head benchmark tests, with a particularly dominant 38.7% lead in the Vulkan test. Its 224.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 5.259 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are far superior on paper, and the average benchmark score, while lower overall, reflects a different set of workloads.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 should not be dismissed. Its average benchmark score of 24277 is actually 5.3% higher than the AMD card's 23061, despite losing the two direct comparisons. This suggests the GTX 1630 performs better in other, untested workloads. For users with a constrained power budget, the GTX 1630 is the obvious pick: its 75 W TDP requires no power connectors and only a 250 W PSU, whereas the RX 580 2048SP demands a 150 W TDP, an 8-pin connector, and a 450 W PSU. The NVIDIA card is also a single-slot solution at 145 mm in length, while the AMD card is dual-slot and stretches to 241 mm.

In short, the RX 580 2048SP is for users who need maximum fill rate and bandwidth and can accommodate its power and size requirements. The GTX 1630 is for users who prioritize efficiency, compactness, and better performance in the specific benchmarks where it scores higher, such as the OpenCL and Vulkan tests that contribute to its higher average.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two cards differ in nearly every major category. The process node is a key difference: the GTX 1630 uses a 12 nm process from TSMC, while the RX 580 2048SP uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. The transistor counts also differ, with AMD packing 5,700 million transistors versus NVIDIA's 4,700 million.

Clock speeds are lower on the AMD card, which has a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1284 MHz, compared to the GTX 1630's 1740 MHz base and 1785 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ, with the NVIDIA card running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) and the AMD card at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). The memory bus width is the most dramatic difference: 64-bit for NVIDIA versus 256-bit for AMD, resulting in bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s.

The compute unit counts are heavily skewed toward AMD, which has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, versus NVIDIA's 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. This translates into a massive FP32 performance gap: 5.259 TFLOPS for AMD versus 1.828 TFLOPS for NVIDIA. The FP16 rates also differ, with AMD achieving 5.259 TFLOPS (1:1) and NVIDIA reaching 3.656 TFLOPS (2:1).

Power and physical specifications are polar opposites. The GTX 1630 has a TDP of 75 W, is single-slot, uses no power connectors, and has a suggested PSU of 250 W. Its dimensions are 145 mm in length, 69 mm in height, and 18 mm in width. The RX 580 2048SP has a TDP of 150 W, is dual-slot, requires a single 8-pin connector, and needs a 450 W PSU. Its length is 241 mm, while height and width are not specified. Display outputs are similar, but AMD offers three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs plus one HDMI 2.0b and one DVI, while NVIDIA provides one DVI, one HDMI 2.0, and one DisplayPort 1.4a. DirectX support differs slightly, with NVIDIA supporting 12_1 and AMD supporting 12_0, though both support OpenGL 4.6.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data shows a decisive victory for the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP in both recorded tests. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD card scores 29668, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 scores 24858. This represents a 16.2% advantage for AMD, a substantial margin that aligns with its 2.87x higher FP32 throughput and 2.33x higher memory bandwidth.

The Geekbench Vulkan test reveals an even more lopsided result. The RX 580 2048SP scores 38666, which is 63.2% higher than the GTX 1630's 23695. This 38.7% delta is one of the larger gaps seen in comparable head-to-head matchups. The AMD card's 164.4 GTexel/s texture rate and 41.09 GPixel/s pixel rate likely contribute to this dominance in graphics-heavy workloads.

Despite these losses, the GTX 1630's overall average benchmark score of 24277 exceeds the RX 580 2048SP's 23061 average. This means that in the broader set of benchmarks used to calculate the average, the NVIDIA card performs better, even though it loses the two specific tests recorded here. The GTX 1630's nearest rival is the GTX 780 Ti, with a delta of only 0.2%, while the RX 580 2048SP sits close to the Intel Arc B580, with a delta of 0.2%. The performance landscape is fragmented: the AMD card wins the compute-heavy tests, but the NVIDIA card holds its own in the aggregate score, making the choice dependent on the specific applications a user runs.