AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT vs NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT records an average benchmark score of 58,392, while the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB sits at 43,262. The AMD card also ranks in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the Quadro’s 83rd percentile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon RX 6950 XT scores 205,998 versus the Quadro’s 40,098, a 413.7% advantage. This is the largest delta between the two across any shared benchmark.

Q: Does the Quadro M6000 24 GB win any benchmark in the head-to-head comparison?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the AMD card winning both recorded tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The win count stands at 2 for AMD and 0 for NVIDIA.

Q: What memory capacities do these cards offer?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB has 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with 317.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU uses a more advanced manufacturing process?

A: The AMD card is built on a 7 nm process at TSMC, while the NVIDIA card uses a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. The AMD chip packs 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, whereas the NVIDIA chip has 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are listed as end-of-life. The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT was released on 2022-05-09, and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB was released on 2016-03-04.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT dominates every scenario where both cards have recorded measurements. In Geekbench OpenCL, it leads by 413.7%, and in Geekbench Vulkan, it leads by 255.9%. The data suggests this is not a close contest in raw compute throughput.

The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB wins in one specific area: memory capacity. With 24 GB of GDDR5, it offers 8 GB more than the AMD card’s 16 GB. For workloads that are strictly capacity-bound, such as very large datasets that must reside entirely in VRAM, the Quadro has an edge. However, its bandwidth is lower at 317.4 GB/s versus 576.0 GB/s, so any capacity advantage comes with a speed penalty.

The AMD card also wins on interface generation, using PCIe 4.0 x16 compared to the Quadro’s PCIe 3.0 x16. This could matter for data transfer from system memory, though the benchmarks do not isolate that effect. The AMD card’s 80 ray tracing cores provide a feature set the Quadro lacks entirely, but no ray tracing benchmark is present in the shared test suite.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, using the Navi 21 chip. It is manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC, with 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 51.5M per mm². The architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. It includes 80 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature absent from the NVIDIA card.

The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB uses Maxwell 2.0 architecture, specifically the GM200 chip. It is built on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC, with 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die. The transistor density is much lower at 13.3M per mm². It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but has no ray tracing cores. The DirectX feature level is 12_1 versus the AMD card’s 12_2, which means the AMD card supports newer DirectX 12 Ultimate features.

The process node difference is stark: 7 nm versus 28 nm. This explains the transistor density gap, as the AMD chip fits over three times more transistors per square millimeter. The AMD card also has a significantly higher pixel rate at 295.7 GPixel/s versus 106.9 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 739.2 GTexel/s versus 213.9 GTexel/s. These architectural differences translate directly into the benchmark deltas observed.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every specification that matters. The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT has 5,120 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs, plus 80 ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with no ray tracing cores.

Clock speeds show a clear separation. The AMD card has a base clock of 1860 MHz, a boost clock of 2310 MHz, and a game clock of 2100 MHz. The NVIDIA card has a base clock of 988 MHz and a boost clock of 1114 MHz. Even at base, the AMD card runs nearly 900 MHz higher.

Memory configuration differs beyond capacity. The AMD card uses GDDR6 at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) on a 256-bit bus, while the NVIDIA card uses GDDR5 at 1653 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective) on a 384-bit bus. The resulting bandwidth favors AMD: 576.0 GB/s versus 317.4 GB/s.

Power and physical specs also diverge. The AMD card has a TDP of 335 W, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a suggested 700 W PSU. It is a triple-slot design. The NVIDIA card has a TDP of 250 W, uses 1x 8-pin, and suggests a 600 W PSU. It is a dual-slot design. The AMD card is taller (120 mm versus 111 mm) and wider (50 mm versus unspecified), but both have the same length of 267 mm.

Display outputs differ: the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the NVIDIA card offers 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.2. The FP32 compute figures are 23.65 TFLOPS for AMD versus 6.844 TFLOPS for NVIDIA. The AMD card also lists FP16 at 47.31 TFLOPS (2:1), while the NVIDIA card has no listed FP16 figure.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The shared benchmark suite contains only two tests, and the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT wins both decisively.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card scores 205,998 against the Quadro’s 40,098. That is a delta of 413.7% in AMD’s favor. This is the single largest margin in the comparison. For context, the AMD card’s score is more than five times the NVIDIA card’s score. The OpenCL workload likely stresses raw shader throughput, where the AMD card’s 5,120 shading units and 23.65 TFLOPS FP32 performance overwhelm the Quadro’s 3,072 shading units and 6.844 TFLOPS.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the AMD card scores 165,212 versus 46,425 for the NVIDIA card, a delta of 255.9%. This narrower but still massive gap suggests that Vulkan’s lower-level API can somewhat mitigate the architectural differences, but not enough to make the contest competitive. The AMD card’s modern RDNA 2.0 architecture and higher memory bandwidth likely contribute to this result.

The average benchmark scores tell a similar story: 58,392 for AMD versus 43,262 for NVIDIA, a roughly 35% overall advantage. The AMD card’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P102-100 (delta -0.2%), Intel Arc A570M (delta 0.3%), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (delta -0.5%), placing it in a tight cluster. The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB’s nearest rivals include the GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (delta 0%), Quadro M6000 (delta -0.1%), and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER (delta 0.1%), showing it sits at a similar performance tier to those GPUs.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion: the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is the superior performer in every measured category. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, has a higher average score, ranks higher in the percentile distribution, and offers dramatically more compute throughput, memory bandwidth, and modern architectural features.

The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB has one genuine advantage: 24 GB of VRAM versus 16 GB. For a user whose primary constraint is fitting large models or datasets into GPU memory, that extra 8 GB could be decisive. However, the Quadro’s memory is slower (GDDR5 versus GDDR6) and its bus width, while wider at 384-bit, does not compensate for the lower clock speed.

The AMD card also supports more modern APIs at the feature level, includes ray tracing cores, and uses a PCIe 4.0 interface. The Quadro is limited to PCIe 3.0 and DirectX 12_1. The AMD card’s 7 nm process versus the Quadro’s 28 nm process explains much of the performance gap, as does the 3.4x difference in transistor count.

For anyone choosing between these two based on benchmark data, the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is the clear pick unless the specific workload requires more than 16 GB of VRAM. In that narrow case, the Quadro M6000 24 GB remains relevant. Otherwise, the 413.7% OpenCL lead and 255.9% Vulkan lead leave little room for debate.