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

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP across every shared benchmark. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the NVIDIA part scores 2869 against 849 for the AMD card, a 237.9% advantage. That is the largest relative margin in the comparison, indicating that the Ampere architecture handles modern DirectX 12 workloads with far greater efficiency.

Compute-oriented workloads tell a similar story. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile records 117866 points, while the RX 580 2048SP manages 29668, translating to a 297.3% delta. This is the single biggest win for NVIDIA in the entire dataset. The gap reflects not just raw shading throughput but also the presence of dedicated tensor cores and ray tracing hardware, which the Polaris chip lacks entirely.

The Vulkan result narrows the margin somewhat, but only in relative terms. The NVIDIA GPU posts 107502, compared to 38666 for AMD, a 178% difference. Vulkan's lower overhead helps the older GCN architecture close part of the distance, yet the absolute gap remains enormous. Across all three head-to-head tests, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile wins 3 out of 3, with no benchmark where the RX 580 2048SP takes the lead.

Looking at the broader database context, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile holds an average benchmark score of 25740, placing it at the 71st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 at 25726 (0.1% ahead), the AMD FirePro D700 at 25842 (0.4% behind), and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 25633 (0.4% ahead). The RX 580 2048SP, by contrast, averages 23061, sitting at the 68th percentile. Its closest competitors are the Intel Arc B580 at 23021 (0.2% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 at 23172 (0.5% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 at 22895 (0.7% ahead). The 2679-point average gap between the two reviewed cards is larger than any single rival delta on either list, reinforcing that this is not a close matchup.

# Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different eras and design philosophies. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile uses the GA103 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process, with 22,000 million transistors packed into a 496 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The RX 580 2048SP uses the Polaris 20 chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, with 5,700 million transistors across a 232 mm² die, for a density of 24.6 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA chip is nearly four times larger in transistor count and more than twice the physical area, allowing it to field 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operations units. The AMD part offers 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

The architectural split is even more pronounced in specialized hardware. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The RX 580 2048SP has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, relying purely on its GCN 4.0 shader array. This is a generational divide: Ampere is designed for hybrid rendering pipelines that mix rasterization, ray tracing, and compute, while Polaris predates those workloads entirely.

Memory subsystems differ as well. The NVIDIA card uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on the same 256-bit bus width, but only reaches 224.0 GB/s. That 288 GB/s gap is substantial in texture-heavy scenes or large data sets. Clock behavior also favors the newer part in raw terms: the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile boosts to 1260 MHz versus 1284 MHz for the RX 580 2048SP, but the NVIDIA GPU's vastly wider execution resources make the lower clock irrelevant.

The process node difference explains some of the efficiency gap. Samsung's 8 nm process is denser than GlobalFoundries' 14 nm, allowing more transistors in a similar power envelope. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile carries a 115 W TDP, while the RX 580 2048SP is rated at 150 W. Despite consuming 35 W more, the AMD card delivers only a fraction of the performance, underscoring how much architectural efficiency has improved. The NVIDIA chip also uses PCIe 4.0 x16, compared to PCIe 3.0 x16 on the AMD board, which matters for data transfer in bandwidth-sensitive workloads.

# Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile wins every benchmark in the shared dataset, so the use-case split is heavily lopsided. The NVIDIA GPU is the clear choice for DirectX 12 gaming, as its 237.9% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad demonstrates. That test stresses modern rendering features, including mesh shaders and variable rate shading, where Ampere's architecture has dedicated paths. The RX 580 2048SP still runs the test, but its GCN 4.0 design has to emulate or fall back on older pipelines, which explains the massive delta.

For compute-heavy applications like OpenCL workloads, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile's 297.3% advantage makes it the only viable option. The tensor cores accelerate matrix operations, while the 7424 shading units dwarf the 2048 on the AMD card. Anyone running machine learning inference, video encoding, or scientific simulations should look exclusively at the NVIDIA part. The RX 580 2048SP's 5.259 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is less than a third of the NVIDIA card's 18.71 TFLOPS, and there is no tensor hardware to compensate.

The Vulkan results offer the only area where the RX 580 2048SP does not lose quite as badly. Its 178% deficit is smaller than the OpenCL gap, suggesting that GCN 4.0 handles low-level APIs relatively better than compute abstractions. Still, a 178% loss is not a win. The AMD card remains usable for Vulkan titles at lower settings, but the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile will simply render those same games faster and at higher quality.

For users constrained by physical space or power delivery, the RX 580 2048SP has one advantage: it is a dual-slot card with a 241 mm length and a single 8-pin connector, making it easier to fit in older or smaller cases. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, as a mobile part, has no standard slot width or power connector, since it depends on the laptop's own cooling and power design. That flexibility is not a performance win, but it is a practical consideration for system builders.

# Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, while the RX 580 2048SP uses 14 nm from GlobalFoundries. Transistor counts are 22,000 million versus 5,700 million, and die sizes are 496 mm² versus 232 mm². The NVIDIA GPU has 7424 shading units, 232 TMUs, and 96 ROPs; the AMD GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile includes 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores; the RX 580 2048SP has neither.

Memory configurations are starkly different. The NVIDIA card comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD card has 4 GB of GDDR5 and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use a 256-bit bus, but the memory type and amount set them far apart. Clock speeds are 810 MHz base and 1260 MHz boost for NVIDIA, versus 1168 MHz base and 1284 MHz boost for AMD. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA and 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) for AMD.

Power and physical specs also diverge. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile is rated at 115 W TDP with no standard power connector, while the RX 580 2048SP draws 150 W and requires a single 8-pin connector. The AMD card suggests a 450 W power supply, and its display outputs include 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The NVIDIA mobile part lists display outputs as portable device dependent. Bus interfaces are PCIe 4.0 x16 for NVIDIA and PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD.

API support shows another generational step. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 580 2048SP supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The DirectX 12_2 feature level is exclusive to the NVIDIA part, enabling hardware ray tracing and mesh shaders in compatible titles.

# FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile scores 2869, which is 237.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP's 849.

Q: Does the RX 580 2048SP support ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 580 2048SP has no ray tracing cores. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile includes 58 dedicated RT cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile delivers 512.0 GB/s from 16 GB of GDDR6, while the RX 580 2048SP provides 224.0 GB/s from 4 GB of GDDR5.

Q: How does the OpenCL performance compare?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile scores 117866 in Geekbench OpenCL, a 297.3% advantage over the RX 580 2048SP's 29668.

Q: Is the power draw significantly different?

A: Yes, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile is rated at 115 W TDP, lower than the RX 580 2048SP's 150 W TDP.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile has 7424 shading units, compared to 2048 on the RX 580 2048SP.

# The Verdict

The data points to a single conclusion: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile is in a different performance class entirely. Its average benchmark score of 25740 places it 2679 points above the RX 580 2048SP's 23061, and it wins every shared test by margins between 178% and 297%. The 71st percentile rank for NVIDIA versus 68th for AMD understates the gap because the percentile scale compresses the high end, but the raw scores tell the real story.

Users who need maximum performance in DirectX 12, OpenCL, or Vulkan should choose the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile without hesitation. Its 16 GB memory and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for large textures and compute buffers. The 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores add capabilities that the AMD card simply cannot match, even with driver optimizations. The 115 W TDP is also lower than the AMD card's 150 W, meaning the faster GPU can run in thinner laptops with less power draw.

The RX 580 2048SP is not without merit for specific users. Its 150 W TDP and 241 mm length fit into desktop cases with modest power supplies (450 W suggested). The 4 GB GDDR5 memory is enough for older games or light productivity at 1080p. The dual-slot cooler and standard 8-pin connector make installation straightforward. For anyone building a legacy system or upgrading an aging prebuilt, the AMD card works. But the benchmark data does not support choosing it over the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile when both are available.

The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile's nearest rivals in the database are all within 0.5% of its average score, indicating it sits in a tight cluster of high-end parts. The RX 580 2048SP, by contrast, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 2080, cards that are themselves several generations old. That positioning confirms the AMD part belongs to an earlier era of GPU design.

For gaming, the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile is the only rational pick from this comparison. For compute, the same is true. For legacy compatibility or constrained power budgets, the RX 580 2048SP remains a functional option. The database records show a 3-0 sweep in head-to-head benchmarks, and no amount of architectural nostalgia changes that result.