AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT compare to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in overall average benchmark score?

A: The RX 7900 XT records an average benchmark score of 13745, while the GTX 1080 records 11960. That puts the RX 7900 XT roughly 15% higher in aggregate, and the two cards sit close in the overall GPU percentile ranking, at 55th for AMD and 51st for NVIDIA.

Q: Which card wins in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The RX 7900 XT leads in Passmark DirectX 12 with a score of 110 versus 55 for the GTX 1080, a 100% advantage. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RX 7900 XT scores 5623 against 1560, a 260.4% lead.

Q: Are there any benchmarks where the GTX 1080 beats the RX 7900 XT?

A: Yes. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 1080 scores 51204 versus 12756 for the RX 7900 XT, a 75.1% margin in favor of NVIDIA. That is the only head-to-head test where the GTX 1080 wins.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The RX 7900 XT scores 71068 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the GTX 1080 scores 30398. That is a 133.8% advantage for the AMD card.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 1080 has 8 GB of GDDR5X on a 256-bit bus with 320.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has higher compute throughput in FP32?

A: The RX 7900 XT delivers 51.48 TFLOPS FP32, whereas the GTX 1080 delivers 8.873 TFLOPS FP32. The RX 7900 XT also posts a Passmark GPU Compute score of 16828 versus 7614 for the GTX 1080, a 121% delta.

The Verdict

The data points to a decisive generational shift. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins 9 of 10 head-to-head benchmarks against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, with the only loss coming in Geekbench OpenCL. The RX 7900 XT leads by huge margins in modern API workloads: 260.4% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 133.8% in Geekbench Vulkan, and 174.2% in Passmark DirectX 11. Its Passmark G3D score of 29009 versus 15586 represents an 86.1% advantage, and its Passmark GPU Compute score is 121% higher.

Buyers who target current-generation DirectX 12 or Vulkan titles should pick the RX 7900 XT without hesitation. The card also brings substantially more memory, 20 GB versus 8 GB, and a much wider memory bus, 320-bit versus 256-bit, which matters for high-resolution textures and larger datasets. The GTX 1080 remains relevant only for users whose workloads heavily favor OpenCL, where its 51204 score dwarfs the RX 7900 XT's 12756. Even then, the rest of the benchmark suite shows the RX 7900 XT dominating across DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and compute.

The GTX 1080 sits at the 51st percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the RX 7900 XT sits at the 55th percentile. That narrow percentile gap is misleading given the raw score differences, but the average benchmark score of 13745 for the RX 7900 XT versus 11960 for the GTX 1080 tells the real story. For any user prioritizing modern gaming APIs, ray tracing-capable workloads, or compute-heavy tasks, the RX 7900 XT is the clear choice.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single victory for the RX 7900 XT comes in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where it scores 5623 against the GTX 1080's 1560. That is a 260.4% delta, the most extreme gap in the entire comparison. This test reflects modern DirectX 12 rendering paths, and the RX 7900 XT's RDNA 3.0 architecture handles them far more efficiently than Pascal.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 7900 XT scores 71068 versus 30398, a 133.8% lead. Vulkan is a low-overhead API favored by many current engines, and the RX 7900 XT's advantage here aligns with its architectural focus on geometry throughput and async compute.

Passmark DirectX 11 shows a 174.2% win for the RX 7900 XT, 340 versus 124. DirectX 11 remains common in older titles and some productivity tools, so this is a meaningful gap for backward compatibility. DirectX 12 on Passmark shows a 100% advantage, 110 versus 55, and DirectX 10 shows a 69.9% win, 158 versus 93. Even DirectX 9, a legacy API, favors the RX 7900 XT by 52.6%, 322 versus 211.

The compute-focused results continue the trend. Passmark GPU Compute gives the RX 7900 XT 16828 versus 7614, a 121% delta. Passmark G3D shows 29009 versus 15586, an 86.1% advantage. The 2D performance gap is smaller but still clear: 1232 versus 888, a 38.7% win for the RX 7900 XT.

The sole counterpoint is Geekbench OpenCL. The GTX 1080 scores 51204 against the RX 7900 XT's 12756, a 75.1% margin for NVIDIA. This is an unusual result given the RX 7900 XT's much higher FP32 throughput, but the recorded data shows OpenCL workloads on Pascal in this test outperforming RDNA 3.0 by a wide margin. It should be noted as an outlier relative to the rest of the suite.

Specification Differences

The RX 7900 XT uses a 5 nm process node, while the GTX 1080 uses 16 nm, both fabricated by TSMC. The RX 7900 XT packs 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 109.1M per mm². The GTX 1080 has 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, with a density of 22.9M per mm².

Memory configuration differs sharply. The RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6, a 320-bit bus, and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1080 has 8 GB of GDDR5X, a 256-bit bus, and 320.3 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7900 XT also runs its memory at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), compared to 1251 MHz (10 Gbps effective) for the GTX 1080.

Clock speeds tell a mixed story. The GTX 1080 has a higher base clock at 1607 MHz and a higher boost at 1733 MHz. The RX 7900 XT has a lower base at 1387 MHz, a boost at 2394 MHz, and a game clock of 1498 MHz listed as game clock 2025 MHz. Despite the lower base clock, the RX 7900 XT's higher shader count and memory bandwidth drive its much larger scores.

The RX 7900 XT uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the GTX 1080 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs also differ: the RX 7900 XT offers 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C; the GTX 1080 offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Power requirements are higher for the RX 7900 XT, with a 300 W TDP, 2x 8-pin connectors, and a suggested 700 W PSU, versus 180 W, 1x 8-pin, and a suggested 450 W PSU for the GTX 1080. Both are dual-slot cards, with the RX 7900 XT measuring 276 mm long, 110 mm high, and 51 mm wide, while the GTX 1080 measures 267 mm long, 112 mm high, and 40 mm wide.

Architecture Differences

The RX 7900 XT is built on RDNA 3.0 with the Navi 31 chip, codenamed Plum Bonito, part of the Navi III (RX 7000) generation. The GTX 1080 uses the Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, part of the GeForce 10 generation. The RX 7900 XT's predecessor is Navi II, and its successor is Navi IV. The GTX 1080's predecessor is GeForce 900, and its successor is GeForce 20.

The RX 7900 XT has 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. It also includes 84 ray tracing cores. The GTX 1080 has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with no ray tracing cores. The absence of ray tracing hardware on the GTX 1080 is a fundamental architectural gap.

Compute rates diverge massively. The RX 7900 XT reaches 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 and 103.0 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The GTX 1080 reaches 8.873 TFLOPS FP32 and 138.6 GFLOPS FP16 (1:64 ratio). Pixel and texture rates follow the same pattern: the RX 7900 XT posts 459.6 GPixel/s and 804.4 GTexel/s, while the GTX 1080 posts 110.9 GPixel/s and 277.3 GTexel/s.

API support differs on the DirectX front. The RX 7900 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 1080 supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 7900 XT's DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set includes capabilities the GTX 1080 cannot expose, which explains part of the 260.4% gap in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The RX 7900 XT also has no tensor cores listed, and neither does the GTX 1080.

The release dates reflect the generation gap: the RX 7900 XT launched on 2022-11-02, while the GTX 1080 launched on 2016-05-26. Both cards are end-of-life in production status. The RX 7900 XT had a launch MSRP of 899 USD, and the GTX 1080 had a launch MSRP of 599 USD.