AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT vs NVIDIA Quadro P6000 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data splits these two cards into very different usage profiles. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT share the same physical length, but their benchmark results diverge sharply. In the two common tests where both cards have recorded scores, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins both. The head-to-head comparison shows a 61.2% advantage for the AMD card in Geekbench OpenCL, and a 46.2% advantage in Geekbench Vulkan. That is not a narrow margin; it is a decisive sweep in raw compute workloads.

The Quadro P6000, however, occupies a different niche. Its average benchmark score of 69986 places it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The RX 6800 XT, despite winning the direct head-to-head tests, has an average benchmark score of 48477 and sits in the 85th percentile. This apparent contradiction deserves attention. The explanation lies in the mix of tests each card has been subjected to. The Quadro P6000 has only two recorded benchmark entries, both from the Geekbench suite. The RX 6800 XT has eleven recorded entries spanning DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, Metal, OpenCL, Vulkan, compute, and 2D tests. The broader test coverage pulls its average down, while the Quadro's narrow test set keeps its average relatively high.

The wins that matter for real-world selection depend on the workload. For compute-heavy tasks measured by OpenCL and Vulkan, the RX 6800 XT is the clear winner. For the specific professional workflows that the Quadro P6000 was designed to serve, the data shows a card that competes closely with the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200, sitting just 0.2% ahead of it. It also trails the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile by 0.2% and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE by 1.2%, while leading the NVIDIA CMP 90HX by 1.4%. These are tight margins, indicating that the Quadro P6000's performance profile is well matched to its professional peers.

The RX 6800 XT, by contrast, sits 1.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile, 2.5% behind the Intel Arc A550M, 3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 3% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64. The pattern here is different: the RX 6800 XT is at the lower end of its immediate competitive cluster, while the Quadro P6000 sits near the top of its own cluster. The data suggests that the Quadro P6000, despite being an older design, holds its ground among professional workstation cards, while the RX 6800 XT, though faster in direct comparison, faces stiffer competition from newer consumer and mobile parts.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and foundry processes. The Quadro P6000 uses the GP102 chip built on NVIDIA's Pascal architecture, produced on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It packs 11,800 million transistors into a 471 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.1 million per square millimeter. The RX 6800 XT uses the Navi 21 chip built on AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture, also produced at TSMC but on a 7 nm process. It contains 26,800 million transistors across a 520 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 51.5 million per square millimeter. The density difference is stark: the RX 6800 XT fits more than twice as many transistors per square millimeter, a direct consequence of the smaller process node.

Clock speeds also separate the two. The Quadro P6000 runs at a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1645 MHz. The RX 6800 XT runs at a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. The AMD card operates at substantially higher frequencies across the board. This clock advantage compounds with its larger shader array to produce significantly higher compute throughput.

The memory subsystems are configured differently. The Quadro P6000 has 24 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 384 bit bus, delivering 432.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, yet delivers 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The narrower bus is more than compensated by the faster memory, which runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed, compared to the Quadro's 1127 MHz with 9 Gbps effective speed. The Quadro offers more capacity, which matters for very large datasets, but the RX 6800 XT offers more bandwidth, which matters for throughput-heavy workloads.

Compute resources differ significantly. The Quadro P6000 has 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The RX 6800 XT has 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The RX 6800 XT also includes 72 ray tracing cores, a feature the Quadro P6000 lacks entirely. The RX 6800 XT's pixel rate is 288.0 GPixel/s versus 157.9 GPixel/s for the Quadro, and its texture rate is 648.0 GTexel/s versus 394.8 GTexel/s. In FP32 compute, the RX 6800 XT reaches 20.74 TFLOPS against the Quadro's 12.63 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is even more lopsided: the RX 6800 XT delivers 41.47 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the Quadro manages only 197.4 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio. The Quadro's FP16 performance is effectively an afterthought, while the RX 6800 XT treats it as a first-class capability.

Feature support also differs. The Quadro P6000 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RX 6800 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 6800 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Quadro P6000 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The RX 6800 XT requires a 700 W suggested power supply and uses two 8-pin connectors, while the Quadro P6000 requires a 600 W suggested power supply and uses a single 8-pin connector. The RX 6800 XT's TDP is 300 W, higher than the Quadro's 250 W. Both cards are dual-slot designs with the same 267 mm length, but the RX 6800 XT is taller at 120 mm versus 111 mm, and it has a 50 mm width while the Quadro's width is not recorded.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split based on workload priorities. For anyone running OpenCL or Vulkan compute tasks, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the stronger choice. Its 61.2% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and 46.2% lead in Geekbench Vulkan are substantial, not incremental. It also offers ray tracing hardware, which the Quadro P6000 does not have at all. The RX 6800 XT's higher clock speeds, larger shader count, faster memory bandwidth, and more modern architecture all support its benchmark dominance.

The Quadro P6000, however, should not be dismissed. Its 24 GB of memory is 50% larger than the RX 6800 XT's 16 GB, which can be decisive for datasets that exceed 16 GB. Its 90th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database, combined with an average benchmark score of 69986, shows that it remains competitive in its professional niche. Its nearest rivals are other workstation and professional cards, and it trades blows with them within a range of 1.4% either direction. The RX 6800 XT's nearest rivals, by contrast, include consumer gaming cards like the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and it trails them by 3%.

Professionals who rely on the Quadro ecosystem, need large memory capacity, or work with software optimized for NVIDIA's professional lineup will find the P6000's 24 GB and its established position among workstation peers compelling. Enthusiasts and compute users who prioritize raw throughput, ray tracing, and modern API support will find the RX 6800 XT's benchmark results impossible to ignore. The recorded data does not crown a single winner. It describes two cards with different strengths, and the correct choice depends on whether the priority is memory capacity and professional ecosystem alignment or raw compute performance and modern features.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins with a score of 171304, compared to the NVIDIA Quadro P6000's 66382, a 61.2% advantage.

Q: How much faster is the RX 6800 XT in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RX 6800 XT scores 136875, while the Quadro P6000 scores 73590, giving the AMD card a 46.2% lead.

Q: Does the Quadro P6000 have ray tracing cores?

A: No, the Quadro P6000 has no ray tracing cores. The RX 6800 XT has 72 ray tracing cores.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between the two cards?

A: The Quadro P6000 has 24 GB of GDDR5X memory, while the RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The RX 6800 XT delivers 20.74 TFLOPS, while the Quadro P6000 delivers 12.63 TFLOPS.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Quadro P6000 has an average benchmark score of 69986 and sits in the 90th percentile, while the RX 6800 XT has an average of 48477 and sits in the 85th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two recorded head-to-head tests both favor the RX 6800 XT by wide margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6800 XT scores 171304 against the Quadro P6000's 66382. That is a delta of 61.2%, meaning the AMD card delivers roughly two and a half times the OpenCL score of the NVIDIA card. This is the kind of gap that changes project timelines. A workload that takes three hours on the Quadro would take roughly one hour and ten minutes on the RX 6800 XT, assuming linear scaling.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 6800 XT scores 136875 against the Quadro's 73590. The delta here is 46.2%, a smaller but still substantial advantage. Vulkan is increasingly common in both gaming and compute applications, and the RX 6800 XT's modern RDNA 2.0 architecture clearly handles it more efficiently than the Pascal-based Quadro.

The broader benchmark picture reinforces this trend. The RX 6800 XT has recorded scores across a wide range of tests, including a 24980 in Passmark G3D, 13245 in Passmark GPU Compute, 181337 in Geekbench Metal, and 3689 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The Quadro P6000 has only the two Geekbench entries. This means the RX 6800 XT's measured performance spans more scenarios, and it wins the only two scenarios where both cards have data.

The RX 6800 XT's advantages in pixel rate (288.0 GPixel/s versus 157.9 GPixel/s) and texture rate (648.0 GTexel/s versus 394.8 GTexel/s) provide architectural backing for its benchmark wins. Higher clock speeds (2250 MHz boost versus 1645 MHz boost), more shading units (4608 versus 3840), more TMUs (288 versus 240), and more ROPs (128 versus 96) all contribute. The memory bandwidth advantage (512.0 GB/s versus 432.8 GB/s) is smaller but still meaningful. The only hardware area where the Quadro leads is memory capacity, with 24 GB versus 16 GB.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every major specification category. The Quadro P6000 uses the GP102 chip with Pascal architecture on a 16 nm TSMC process, while the RX 6800 XT uses the Navi 21 chip with RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm TSMC process. Transistor counts are 11,800 million for the Quadro and 26,800 million for the RX 6800 XT. Die sizes are 471 mm² and 520 mm² respectively, and transistor density is 25.1M per mm² for the Quadro versus 51.5M per mm² for the RX 6800 XT.

Clock speeds favor the RX 6800 XT across the board. Its base clock is 1825 MHz versus 1506 MHz, and its boost clock is 2250 MHz versus 1645 MHz. The RX 6800 XT also has a recorded game clock of 2015 MHz, which the Quadro does not have. Memory runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed on the RX 6800 XT, versus 1127 MHz with 9 Gbps effective speed on the Quadro.

Memory configuration differs in both capacity and type. The Quadro has 24 GB of GDDR5X on a 384 bit bus with 432.8 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. Compute resources favor the RX 6800 XT with 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, versus 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RX 6800 XT adds 72 ray tracing cores; the Quadro has none.

Pixel rate is 288.0 GPixel/s for the RX 6800 XT and 157.9 GPixel/s for the Quadro. Texture rate is 648.0 GTexel/s versus 394.8 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 20.74 TFLOPS versus 12.63 TFLOPS. FP16 compute is 41.47 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 197.4 GFLOPS (1:64). TDP is 300 W for the RX 6800 XT and 250 W for the Quadro. Power connectors are 2x 8-pin versus 1x 8-pin, and suggested PSU is 700 W versus 600 W.

The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RX 6800 XT and PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Quadro. Display outputs differ: the RX 6800 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C, while the Quadro has 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the RX 6800 XT and 12 (12_1) for the Quadro. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 6800 XT is 267 mm long, 120 mm tall, and 50 mm wide. The Quadro is 267 mm long and 111 mm tall, with no recorded width. Both are dual-slot designs and both are end-of-life products.