AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT represent two distinct generations of graphics hardware, with the former launching in the GeForce 20-series era and the latter arriving as part of the Radeon RX 7000 series. The benchmark data reveals a clear overall winner, but the specifics of each test show a more nuanced picture, particularly in legacy and compute workloads. The AMD card wins 8 of the 10 head-to-head comparisons, while the NVIDIA card secures 2 decisive victories, making the performance differential heavily dependent on the application type.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result in the head-to-head data is the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 3316 against the RTX 2080 SUPER's 1882. This represents a 43.2% margin in favor of the AMD card, marking its largest win in the entire comparison. This is a modern, DirectX 12 workload that heavily favors the newer architecture, and the data indicates the RX 7700 XT is in a completely different performance class here. Similarly, in the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD card scores 138383 versus 99226, a 28.3% advantage, showing strong raw compute throughput in a general-purpose API.

The NVIDIA card's counterattack comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where it scores 111284 against the RX 7700 XT's 46443. This is a 139.6% delta, meaning the RTX 2080 SUPER more than doubles the AMD card's score in this specific workload. This is a massive outlier compared to the rest of the results, suggesting the Vulkan path is exceptionally well optimized for the Turing architecture. The NVIDIA card also wins the Passmark DirectX 10 test, scoring 140 versus 119, a 17.6% margin, though these are lower-level synthetic scores.

Beyond those two wins, the AMD card dominates the remaining benchmarks. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RX 7700 XT scores 232 against 165, a 28.9% lead. The DirectX 12 Passmark test is closer, with the AMD card winning 79 to 75, a modest 5.1% margin. The DirectX 9 test shows a 22.8% AMD advantage, with scores of 294 and 227. In the 2D graphics test, the RX 7700 XT leads 1161 to 920, a 20.8% margin. The overall Passmark G3D score favors AMD at 22547 versus 19490, a 13.6% lead, and the GPU compute test shows a 35.8% AMD advantage, with scores of 12912 and 8290.

When looking at the average benchmark scores, the RTX 2080 SUPER posts an average of 24170 across all tests, while the RX 7700 XT averages 22549. This is a counterintuitive result given the head-to-head wins, but it is explained by the NVIDIA card's enormous Vulkan score inflating its average. The nearest rivals for the RTX 2080 SUPER include the GeForce GTX 780 Ti (delta -0.3%), GTX 1630 (delta -0.4%), Radeon RX 6800S (delta 0.4%), and Radeon RX 6600 XT (delta -1.1%). The RX 7700 XT's nearest rivals are the RTX 5060 Mobile (delta 0.5%), RTX 4060 Mobile (delta -0.8%), RTX 2080 (delta -1.5%), and Radeon RX 5700 (delta 1.7%). The percentile rankings are close, with the RTX 2080 SUPER at the 69th percentile and the RX 7700 XT at the 67th percentile of all GPUs.

Architecture Differences

The fundamental architectural split is between NVIDIA's Turing and AMD's RDNA 3.0. The RTX 2080 SUPER uses the TU104 chip fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC, containing 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die. This results in a transistor density of 25.0 million per mm². In contrast, the RX 7700 XT uses the Navi 32 chip on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC, packing 28,100 million transistors into a much smaller 346 mm² die, achieving a density of 81.2 million per mm². The manufacturing process difference is significant, allowing AMD to fit more than double the transistors in roughly two-thirds of the die area.

The compute configurations diverge substantially. The RTX 2080 SUPER has 3072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. It also includes 48 RT cores and 384 tensor cores, the latter being a Turing feature absent from the RX 7700 XT, which lists no tensor cores. The AMD card counters with 3456 shading units, 216 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, along with 54 RT cores. The pixel rate heavily favors AMD at 244.2 GPixel/s versus 116.2 GPixel/s, as does the texture rate at 549.5 GTexel/s versus 348.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is a major differentiator: the RX 7700 XT delivers 35.17 TFLOPS, while the RTX 2080 SUPER delivers 11.15 TFLOPS. Interestingly, the FP16 figures show the NVIDIA card achieving 22.30 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the AMD card achieves 35.17 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

Memory configurations also differ. The RTX 2080 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 495.9 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 432.0 GB/s. Despite the smaller bus width, the AMD card's higher memory clock compensates partially, but the NVIDIA card retains a bandwidth advantage. The bus interface is another difference: the RTX 2080 SUPER uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RX 7700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API feature support is identical, but the underlying hardware implementations clearly produce different results.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the most head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT wins 8 of the 10 head-to-head tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER wins only 2.

Q: What is the largest performance margin in either direction?

A: The NVIDIA card wins the Geekbench Vulkan test by 139.6%, scoring 111284 against the AMD card's 46443. The AMD card's largest win is 43.2% in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test.

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 2080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 24170, while the RX 7700 XT averages 22549. However, the head-to-head data shows the RX 7700 XT winning most tests.

Q: What are the transistor density differences?

A: The RX 7700 XT has a transistor density of 81.2 million per mm² on a 5 nm process, while the RTX 2080 SUPER has 25.0 million per mm² on a 12 nm process.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX and Vulkan versions?

A: Yes, both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The RTX 2080 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory.

The Verdict

The data is clear for modern DirectX 12 workloads: the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the superior card. Its 43.2% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad and 28.3% lead in Geekbench OpenCL demonstrate a generational leap in raw performance. The AMD card also wins the DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and DirectX 9 Passmark tests, along with the 2D and GPU compute tests, making it the more consistent performer across the board. The RTX 2080 SUPER's only wins are in Vulkan and DirectX 10, with the Vulkan result being so extreme that it skews the average score higher than the AMD card's average.

For users focused on modern gaming and general compute, the RX 7700 XT is the clear choice based on the benchmark results. The 12 GB memory capacity is also a practical advantage over the 8 GB on the RTX 2080 SUPER. However, the RTX 2080 SUPER's Vulkan dominance is a specific strength that cannot be ignored, indicating that certain applications using that API will perform dramatically better on the NVIDIA card. The production status also matters: the RTX 2080 SUPER is end-of-life, while the RX 7700 XT is active, suggesting longer-term driver support and availability for the AMD card.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every core specification. The RTX 2080 SUPER uses the TU104 chip on a 12 nm process, while the RX 7700 XT uses Navi 32 on a 5 nm process. Transistor counts are 13,600 million versus 28,100 million, and die sizes are 545 mm² versus 346 mm². The base clock is 1650 MHz on the NVIDIA card versus 1435 MHz on the AMD card, but the boost clock reverses this, with the AMD card hitting 2544 MHz versus 1815 MHz on the NVIDIA card. The AMD card also has a game clock of 2171 MHz, a feature not present on the NVIDIA card. Memory clocks differ as well, with the RTX 2080 SUPER at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective) and the RX 7700 XT at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective).

Shading units favor AMD at 3456 versus 3072, as do TMUs at 216 versus 192 and ROPs at 96 versus 64. The RT core count is 48 on NVIDIA versus 54 on AMD, and the NVIDIA card has 384 tensor cores while the AMD card has none. Pixel rate is 116.2 GPixel/s on NVIDIA versus 244.2 GPixel/s on AMD, and texture rate is 348.5 GTexel/s versus 549.5 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 11.15 TFLOPS versus 35.17 TFLOPS. The TDP is close at 250 W for NVIDIA and 245 W for AMD, but the power connectors differ: 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin for NVIDIA versus 2x 8-pin for AMD. The suggested PSU is 600 W for NVIDIA and 550 W for AMD. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C for NVIDIA, versus 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C for AMD. Dimensions are identical in length at 267 mm, but the AMD card is taller at 135 mm versus 116 mm and wider at 50 mm versus 35 mm.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the winner in DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and DirectX 9 workloads, as shown by the Passmark scores. It also dominates in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, 2D graphics, and GPU compute. This makes it the preferred card for modern gaming, general-purpose compute, and any application relying on OpenCL. Its higher pixel rate and texture rate suggest it can handle higher resolutions and more complex scenes, and its 12 GB memory capacity provides more headroom for texture-heavy workloads.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER wins specifically in the Geekbench Vulkan test and the Passmark DirectX 10 test. The Vulkan result is extraordinary, with a 139.6% lead, indicating that applications built on this API will see a massive performance boost on the NVIDIA card. This could be relevant for certain emulators or specialized software that favor Vulkan. The DirectX 10 win is smaller at 17.6%, but it still shows an advantage in legacy workloads. For users running applications that rely heavily on Vulkan, the RTX 2080 SUPER is the better option despite losing most other comparisons. Its higher memory bandwidth of 495.9 GB/s versus 432.0 GB/s is also a point in its favor for bandwidth-sensitive tasks, even though the AMD card wins most compute tests.