AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Comparison

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data positions these two GPUs in starkly different performance tiers. In the three shared tests, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile wins every contest with margins that range from substantial to overwhelming.

The most lopsided result appears in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 3080 Mobile scores 104,831 against the RX 580 2048SP's 29,668. That is a delta of 253.3% — the mobile Ampere part delivers more than three times the raw compute throughput in this workload. The gap is nearly as large in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12: the NVIDIA card posts 2,644 versus 849 for the AMD card, a 211.4% advantage. Even in Geekbench Vulkan, typically a more balanced cross-vendor test, the RTX 3080 Mobile leads 104,066 to 38,666, translating to a 169.1% edge.

The RTX 3080 Mobile also holds the advantage in average benchmark score, though the aggregate numbers are closer than the head-to-head results might suggest. The NVIDIA part averages 23,628 across its full benchmark suite, while the RX 580 2048SP averages 23,061. That difference is only about 2.5%, which is notable given how lopsided the individual comparisons are. The explanation lies in the benchmark sets: the AMD card's average is drawn from only three tests, while the NVIDIA card's average includes ten tests, several of which (Passmark DX9 at 170, DX10 at 120, DX11 at 146, DX12 at 72, and G2D at 637) are legacy or 2D-oriented workloads that drag down its aggregate.

Looking at the nearest-rival data adds context. The RTX 3080 Mobile sits within 1% of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 (deltaPct -1) and the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (deltaPct 1.3), while edging out the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile by 0.5%. The RX 580 2048SP, meanwhile, trades blows with the Intel Arc B580 (deltaPct 0.2) and the NVIDIA RTX 2080 (deltaPct 0.7), but trails the NVIDIA P106-100 by 0.8%. Both GPUs occupy the 68th-69th percentile among all GPUs in the database, which suggests that despite the enormous head-to-head gaps, the AMD card's sparse benchmark set happens to land near the same overall percentile ranking.

The compute-centric nature of the RTX 3080 Mobile's dominance deserves emphasis. In OpenCL, the NVIDIA card's 104,831 score reflects its 18.98 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 192 tensor cores, while the AMD card's 29,668 aligns with its 5.259 TFLOPS FP32 figure. The 3DMark result, at 211.4% delta, tracks closely with the 3.61x difference in raw FP32 performance. Vulkan shows the smallest margin at 169.1%, which may indicate that AMD's GCN architecture handles draw-call overhead relatively efficiently, narrowing the gap somewhat from the theoretical compute disparity.

# The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for anyone prioritizing raw performance: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is the superior GPU by every measured benchmark. It wins all three head-to-head tests, with deltas ranging from 169.1% to 253.3%. In absolute terms, the RTX 3080 Mobile delivers 18.98 TFLOPS FP32, 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 8 GB of GDDR6, versus the RX 580 2048SP's 5.259 TFLOPS, 224.0 GB/s, and 4 GB of GDDR5. The NVIDIA part also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card tops out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

However, the RX 580 2048SP is not without its own merits in specific contexts. Its average benchmark score of 23,061 is within 2.5% of the RTX 3080 Mobile's 23,628, meaning that in the broader database context, these cards are ranked nearly equivalently. The AMD card's 150 W TDP is higher than the NVIDIA card's 115 W, but it is a desktop part with a dual-slot cooler and a 1x 8-pin power connector, whereas the RTX 3080 Mobile is a mobile chip with no specified power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs. The RX 580 2048SP is also physically smaller at 241 mm length compared to the mobile part's unspecified dimensions, and it offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, which are fixed and known versus the NVIDIA card's variable outputs.

For a gamer or compute user who needs maximum performance in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, or Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 3080 Mobile is the decisive pick. The data shows no scenario where the RX 580 2048SP wins a head-to-head test. For a user constrained by the specific output requirements or the fixed desktop form factor, the RX 580 2048SP offers a viable, if substantially slower, alternative — but the benchmark evidence gives no reason to prefer it on performance grounds.

# FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile wins decisively with a score of 104,831 compared to the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP's 29,668, a delta of 253.3%.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3080 Mobile in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile scores 2,644 versus 849 for the RX 580 2048SP, making it 211.4% faster in that test.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two cards?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile averages 23,628 across its benchmark suite, while the RX 580 2048SP averages 23,061 — a difference of roughly 2.5% in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: Does the RX 580 2048SP win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. In the three shared tests (3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan), the RX 580 2048SP loses all of them to the RTX 3080 Mobile.

Q: How do the two cards compare on DirectX and Vulkan support?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 580 2048SP supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The RTX 3080 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 580 2048SP has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

# Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification category. The RTX 3080 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, while the RX 580 2048SP uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. Transistor density reflects the process gap: 44.4M per mm² for the NVIDIA chip versus 24.6M per mm² for the AMD chip.

Clock speeds tell a mixed story. The RX 580 2048SP has a higher base clock at 1168 MHz versus 1110 MHz, but the RTX 3080 Mobile boosts higher at 1545 MHz versus 1284 MHz. Memory clocks are identical at 1750 MHz, but the effective data rates differ: 14 Gbps for the GDDR6 on the NVIDIA card versus 7 Gbps for the GDDR5 on the AMD card.

The compute configuration is heavily lopsided. The RTX 3080 Mobile contains 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, plus 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores. The RX 580 2048SP has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no RT or tensor cores. Pixel rate is 148.3 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA card versus 41.09 GPixel/s for the AMD card; texture rate is 296.6 GTexel/s versus 164.4 GTexel/s; FP32 is 18.98 TFLOPS versus 5.259 TFLOPS.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The RTX 3080 Mobile has a 115 W TDP with no power connectors, while the RX 580 2048SP has a 150 W TDP with a 1x 8-pin connector and a suggested PSU of 450 W. The AMD card is dual-slot and 241 mm long; the NVIDIA card's dimensions are not specified. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for the NVIDIA part versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the AMD part. Display outputs are portable-device-dependent on the RTX 3080 Mobile, whereas the RX 580 2048SP offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Release dates differ by nearly two and a half years: the RTX 3080 Mobile launched on 2021-01-11, while the RX 580 2048SP launched on 2018-10-14. Both are end-of-life. The NVIDIA card's predecessor is GeForce 20 Mobile with no successor listed; the AMD card's predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega.

# Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The RTX 3080 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, a design that introduces dedicated ray tracing hardware and tensor cores for AI acceleration. The RX 580 2048SP uses AMD's GCN 4.0 architecture, which predates those features entirely. The RTX 3080 Mobile's 48 RT cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and its 192 tensor cores provide AI compute capabilities — neither of which exists on the RX 580 2048SP, which lists null values for both RT and tensor core counts.

The process node difference is significant: 8 nm for the NVIDIA chip versus 14 nm for the AMD chip. This directly contributes to the transistor density gap of 44.4M per mm² versus 24.6M per mm². The NVIDIA die is both physically larger (392 mm² versus 232 mm²) and contains more than three times as many transistors (17,400 million versus 5,700 million).

Memory architecture also reflects the generational divide. The RTX 3080 Mobile uses GDDR6 with an effective data rate of 14 Gbps, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 580 2048SP uses GDDR5 at 7 Gbps effective, yielding 224.0 GB/s. Both use a 256-bit memory bus, but the newer memory technology doubles the bandwidth on the NVIDIA card. The RTX 3080 Mobile also carries twice the memory capacity at 8 GB versus 4 GB.

API support shows the feature-set evolution. The RTX 3080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders and variable-rate shading, plus Vulkan 1.4. The RX 580 2048SP is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The FP16 and FP32 rates are identical within each card (1:1 ratio), but the absolute values differ enormously: 18.98 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card versus 5.259 TFLOPS for the AMD card.

The power efficiency story is notable. Despite delivering roughly 3.6 times the FP32 throughput, the RTX 3080 Mobile has a lower TDP at 115 W versus 150 W for the RX 580 2048SP. This is consistent with the architectural and process-node advantages, though the comparison is complicated by the fact that one is a mobile part and the other is a desktop card. The bus interface also differs, with PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 3080 Mobile versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RX 580 2048SP, which can matter for data transfer in compute workloads, though the benchmark data does not isolate this variable.