AMD Radeon RX 6800 vs NVIDIA CMP 70HX Comparison

The NVIDIA CMP 70HX and AMD Radeon RX 6800 are both end-of-life products that land in the same performance tier, with the data showing a near-tie in average benchmark scores—the CMP 70HX averages 30,476 points against the RX 6800's 30,095 points, a margin of just 1.3%. Both sit at the 75th percentile of all GPUs, meaning they outperform roughly three-quarters of the database, yet their two available head-to-head tests split decisively in opposite directions, making the choice between them entirely dependent on the workload in question.

Where Each One Wins

The CMP 70HX takes the win in the OpenCL compute test, scoring 25,135 versus the RX 6800's 24,508, a 2.6% advantage. This is a narrow but real edge in general-purpose GPU compute workloads that leverage OpenCL, where the NVIDIA card's architecture extracts slightly more throughput from its processing units. For users running compute tasks that scale well with OpenCL, the CMP 70HX is the safer pick, though the margin is not dramatic.

The RX 6800 dominates the Vulkan test by a massive margin: it scores 115,107 against the CMP 70HX's 35,817, a 68.9% deficit for the NVIDIA card. This is not a close contest—the AMD card is roughly 3.2 times faster in this specific API test. Vulkan is commonly used in modern game engines and cross-platform graphics, so the RX 6800 is clearly the stronger choice for gaming-oriented or Vulkan-based workloads. The head-to-head record is one win each, but the magnitude of the RX 6800's Vulkan victory far outweighs the CMP 70HX's modest OpenCL edge.

Looking at the broader benchmark suite, the RX 6800 has a much wider range of tests available, including DirectX 9/10/11/12, Metal, and compute benchmarks. Its Passmark G3D score of 22,067 and GPU compute score of 10,864 suggest strong overall graphics performance, while its Geekbench Metal score of 153,635 indicates excellent performance in Apple's Metal API. The CMP 70HX only has two recorded benchmarks, so the data available for it is limited, but in those two tests it holds its own in OpenCL while losing badly in Vulkan.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The CMP 70HX uses the GA104 chip on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The RX 6800 uses the Navi 21 chip on AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die. The AMD chip is larger and denser, with a transistor density of 51.5M per mm² versus the NVIDIA's 44.4M per mm².

Both cards have 3,840 shading units, but the RX 6800 doubles the texture mapping units (240 versus 120) and has 96 raster output units versus the CMP 70HX's 64. The RX 6800 also has double the ray tracing cores (60 versus 30), while the CMP 70HX includes 120 tensor cores that the AMD card lacks entirely. These structural differences explain the performance divergence—the RX 6800's extra TMUs and ROPs give it higher fill rates, with a pixel rate of 202.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 505.2 GTexel/s, versus the CMP 70HX's 89.28 GPixel/s and 167.4 GTexel/s.

Clock speeds also favor AMD significantly. The RX 6800 runs at 1700 MHz base and 2105 MHz boost, with a game clock of 1815 MHz, while the CMP 70HX operates at 1365 MHz base and 1395 MHz boost. This clock advantage, combined with the higher fill rates, produces a large FP32 throughput gap: 16.17 TFLOPS for the RX 6800 versus 10.71 TFLOPS for the CMP 70HX. The RX 6800 also supports FP16 at 32.33 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the CMP 70HX manages only 10.71 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards face off in just two recorded tests, and each wins one. Starting with Geekbench OpenCL, the CMP 70HX scores 25,135 against the RX 6800's 24,508, a 2.6% delta in NVIDIA's favor. This is a narrow victory, suggesting that in raw compute throughput without vendor-specific optimizations, the two architectures are very close, with the CMP 70HX holding a slight edge.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a completely different story. The RX 6800 scores 115,107, while the CMP 70HX manages only 35,817, resulting in a 68.9% delta in AMD's favor. This is an enormous gap—the RX 6800 is more than triple the performance of the CMP 70HX in this API. Vulkan is known for its low-overhead design and is widely used in modern games, so this result strongly indicates that the RX 6800 is the superior card for gaming and graphics-intensive applications.

The average benchmark scores from the nearestRivals data confirm these two cards are in the same tier. The CMP 70HX sits at 30,476, just 0.1% above the RX 6700's 30,433 and 1.8% above the RTX 3070 Ti's 29,945. The RX 6800's 30,095 is 0.5% above the RTX 3070 Ti and 1% above the RTX 2080 Ti's 29,783, but 1.1% below the RX 6700. Neither card has a decisive overall performance lead, which makes the benchmark-specific results all the more important.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 70HX wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 25,135 versus the AMD RX 6800's 24,508, a 2.6% advantage.

Q: How does the Vulkan performance compare between the two?

A: The AMD RX 6800 is dramatically faster in Vulkan, scoring 115,107 against the CMP 70HX's 35,817, representing a 68.9% lead for AMD.

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of these two cards relative to all GPUs?

A: Both cards sit at the 75th percentile of all GPUs, with the CMP 70HX averaging 30,476 points and the RX 6800 averaging 30,095 points.

Q: Do both cards have the same number of shading units?

A: Yes, both have 3,840 shading units, but the RX 6800 has 240 texture mapping units and 96 ROPs, while the CMP 70HX has 120 TMUs and 64 ROPs.

Q: Which card has more ray tracing hardware?

A: The AMD RX 6800 has 60 ray tracing cores, double the 30 found on the NVIDIA CMP 70HX.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The CMP 70HX has 8 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus with 608.3 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 6800 has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: pick the AMD Radeon RX 6800 for graphics-oriented tasks, and pick the NVIDIA CMP 70HX only if OpenCL compute is your primary workload. The RX 6800's 68.9% Vulkan advantage is overwhelming and directly relevant to modern gaming and graphics applications, while its higher FP32 throughput (16.17 TFLOPS versus 10.71 TFLOPS) and doubled texture and pixel rates make it the more capable all-round performer. The CMP 70HX's 2.6% OpenCL win is too small to offset the massive Vulkan deficit, and its lack of display outputs—it has no outputs at all—means it cannot drive a monitor directly, unlike the RX 6800 which offers 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C.

The RX 6800 also offers double the memory (16 GB versus 8 GB) and a faster bus interface (PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 1.0 x4), making it far more practical for modern systems. The CMP 70HX's PCIe 1.0 x4 interface is a severe bottleneck for data transfer, further limiting its usefulness outside of specialized compute scenarios. While the CMP 70HX has a lower suggested PSU requirement of 200 W versus the RX 6800's 600 W, and uses a single 12-pin connector instead of two 8-pin connectors, these are minor practical considerations against the RX 6800's overwhelming performance advantages in graphics workloads.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The process node is 8 nm Samsung for the CMP 70HX versus 7 nm TSMC for the RX 6800, with transistor counts of 17,400 million versus 26,800 million and die sizes of 392 mm² versus 520 mm². Clock speeds are substantially higher on the RX 6800: 1700 MHz base and 2105 MHz boost versus 1365 MHz base and 1395 MHz boost. The RX 6800 also has a game clock of 1815 MHz, which the CMP 70HX lacks.

Memory configurations differ in capacity and type: the CMP 70HX uses 8 GB GDDR6X with 608.3 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 6800 uses 16 GB GDDR6 with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, both on a 256-bit bus. The RX 6800 has higher fill rates (202.1 GPixel/s pixel, 505.2 GTexel/s texture) compared to the CMP 70HX (89.28 GPixel/s, 167.4 GTexel/s). FP32 throughput is 16.17 TFLOPS for AMD versus 10.71 TFLOPS for NVIDIA, and FP16 is 32.33 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 10.71 TFLOPS (1:1). The RX 6800 has 240 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and 60 ray tracing cores, while the CMP 70HX has 120 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 30 ray tracing cores, plus 120 tensor cores that the RX 6800 does not have.

Power and connectivity also differ: the RX 6800 has a TDP of 250 W with 2x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU, while the CMP 70HX has no listed TDP, uses 1x 12-pin, and suggests a 200 W PSU. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for AMD versus PCIe 1.0 x4 for NVIDIA. Display outputs are present on the RX 6800 (1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C) but absent on the CMP 70HX. Dimensions are similar in length (both 267 mm), but the RX 6800 is taller (120 mm versus 112 mm) and has a listed width of 40 mm. The RX 6800 was released on 2020-10-27 with a launch MSRP of 579 USD, while the CMP 70HX has no release date or MSRP listed.