AMD Radeon RX 7600 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 7600 represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by six years of architectural evolution. The data shows a surprisingly competitive matchup: the GTX 1080 Ti secures 6 benchmark wins against the RX 7600's 4, yet their average benchmark scores are remarkably close, with the GTX 1080 Ti at 15,548 and the RX 7600 at 15,171. This places the older card in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, barely ahead of the newer card's 57th percentile, indicating that generational improvements in efficiency and feature support have not translated into a decisive performance advantage in every workload.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti edges out the AMD Radeon RX 7600 with an average benchmark score of 15,548 compared to 15,171 for the RX 7600, a difference of roughly 2.5%.

Q: How do the two cards compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 wins with a score of 2,310 versus the GTX 1080 Ti's 2,231, a 3.4% advantage. However, in the Passmark DirectX 12 test, the GTX 1080 Ti wins with a score of 66 against 58, a 13.8% lead.

Q: Which GPU demonstrates stronger compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers significantly higher OpenCL performance with a score of 88,051 compared to the GTX 1080 Ti's 67,929, a 22.9% difference. Conversely, in Passmark GPU Compute, the GTX 1080 Ti leads with 9,632 versus 8,790, a 9.6% advantage.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each card based on average score?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti's closest rival is the AMD Radeon R9 M380 with an average score of 15,521 (0.2% difference). The RX 7600's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM with an average score of 15,199 (a -0.2% difference).

Q: Which GPU has a higher Vulkan benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti achieves a Geekbench Vulkan score of 40,511, which is 17.8% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600's score of 34,401.

Q: How many total benchmark wins does each card secure?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins 6 out of 10 head-to-head benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon RX 7600 wins 4 out of 10.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial, reflecting a generational shift in design philosophy. The GTX 1080 Ti is built on NVIDIA's Pascal architecture using the GP102 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC with 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 25.1 million transistors per square millimeter. In contrast, the RX 7600 employs AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, built on a significantly more advanced 6 nm process at the same foundry, packing 13,300 million transistors into a much smaller 204 mm² die, achieving a density of 65.2 million transistors per square millimeter.

The compute resources diverge markedly. The GTX 1080 Ti features 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 ROPs, while the RX 7600 has fewer shading units (2,048), TMUs (128), and ROPs (64). However, the RX 7600 introduces 32 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Pascal-based GTX 1080 Ti. Floating-point performance tells a similar story of architectural efficiency: the RX 7600 delivers 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 (at a 1:1 ratio), whereas the GTX 1080 Ti offers 11.34 TFLOPS of FP32 but only 177.2 GFLOPS of FP16 (at a 1:64 ratio), highlighting RDNA 3.0's superior shader throughput.

Memory subsystems also differ fundamentally. The GTX 1080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus for 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7600 counters with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a narrower 128-bit bus, resulting in 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The newer card compensates with higher clock speeds—a base of 1720 MHz and boost of 2655 MHz versus 1481/1582 MHz for the GTX 1080 Ti—and a game clock of 2250 MHz. Process node advantages allow the RX 7600 to achieve higher pixel rates (169.9 GPixel/s versus 139.2 GPixel/s) while maintaining a lower TDP of 165 W against the GTX 1080 Ti's 250 W.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 1080 Ti demonstrates its strengths in legacy API performance and certain compute workloads. In Passmark DirectX 10, it dominates with a 40.5% lead over the RX 7600, and it maintains advantages in DirectX 9 (2.2%) and DirectX 12 (13.8%). Its Vulkan performance is notably superior, with a 17.8% edge in Geekbench Vulkan. The older card also wins in Passmark G3D (11.8%) and GPU Compute (9.6%), suggesting that its wider memory bus and higher ROP count benefit certain rasterization-heavy tasks.

Conversely, the RX 7600 excels in modern, API-agnostic workloads that leverage its computational throughput. The data shows a 22.9% win in Geekbench OpenCL, reflecting its 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 capability. It also takes the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test with a 3.4% margin, a modern benchmark likely optimized for newer architectures. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RX 7600 leads by 12.2%, and it edges out the GTX 1080 Ti in the 2D graphics test (Passmark G2D) by 4.6%. These wins suggest the RX 7600 is better suited for general-purpose compute and contemporary game engines that leverage its higher clock speeds and ray tracing hardware.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category, reflecting their different positions in the market. The GTX 1080 Ti uses the GP102 chip on a 16 nm TSMC process, while the RX 7600 uses Navi 33 on a 6 nm TSMC process. Transistor counts are similar at 11,800 million versus 13,300 million, but die sizes differ dramatically at 471 mm² versus 204 mm². Clock speeds favor the RX 7600 with a base of 1720 MHz and boost of 2655 MHz, compared to 1481 MHz and 1582 MHz for the GTX 1080 Ti. Memory configurations are polar opposites: 11 GB GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus versus 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s versus 288.0 GB/s.

Compute unit counts show the GTX 1080 Ti with more shaders (3584 vs 2048), TMUs (224 vs 128), and ROPs (88 vs 64), but the RX 7600 includes 32 ray tracing cores that the GTX 1080 Ti lacks. Power requirements differ substantially: the GTX 1080 Ti draws 250 W TDP and needs a 600 W PSU with 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin connectors, while the RX 7600 consumes 165 W TDP with a 450 W PSU recommendation and a single 8-pin connector. The bus interface also differs, with PCIe 3.0 x16 on the GTX 1080 Ti versus PCIe 4.0 x8 on the RX 7600. Display outputs are similar in count but differ in versions: the GTX 1080 Ti offers 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RX 7600 provides 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1. DirectX support also diverges, with the GTX 1080 Ti at 12_1 and the RX 7600 at 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive win belongs to the GTX 1080 Ti in Passmark DirectX 10, where it scores 118 against the RX 7600's 84, a commanding 40.5% advantage. This result highlights the Pascal architecture's strength in older API workloads that do not leverage the RDNA 3.0 design's compute-heavy approach. Similarly, in Geekbench Vulkan, the GTX 1080 Ti's 40,511 score represents a 17.8% lead over the RX 7600's 34,401, suggesting that NVIDIA's driver maturity and architectural layout handle low-level graphics APIs more effectively.

The RX 7600's largest victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where its 88,051 score dwarfs the GTX 1080 Ti's 67,929 by 22.9%. This aligns with the RX 7600's near-double FP32 throughput (21.75 TFLOPS versus 11.34 TFLOPS) and indicates that compute-heavy applications will favor the newer card. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RX 7600 leads 172 to 151, a 12.2% margin, while the GTX 1080 Ti counters with a 13.8% win in DirectX 12 (66 versus 58). The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the RX 7600 ahead by 3.4% (2310 versus 2231), reinforcing its advantage in modern DX12 titles.

The GTX 1080 Ti also secures wins in Passmark G3D (18,600 versus 16,634, an 11.8% lead) and GPU Compute (9,632 versus 8,790, a 9.6% advantage), demonstrating that its higher ROP count and memory bandwidth still matter for traditional rasterization and certain compute tasks. The Passmark DirectX 9 result is nearly tied, with the GTX 1080 Ti at 231 versus 226, a 2.2% margin. In the 2D test, the RX 7600 narrowly wins 984 to 939, a 4.6% difference that reflects its higher clock speeds. Overall, the GTX 1080 Ti's 6-4 win record and higher average score position it as the faster card in legacy and mixed workloads, but the RX 7600's compute and modern API performance make it a formidable competitor for current-generation software.