AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Comparison

# AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 represent two vastly different eras of graphics hardware, and the benchmark data confirms an enormous performance gulf despite both cards holding similar overall percentile rankings. The RX 7900 XT dominates in modern API workloads, while the GTX 950 surprisingly wins in one legacy compute test, but the average benchmark scores tell a clearer story: the AMD card averages 13,745 points across its benchmark suite versus 13,189 for the NVIDIA card, a modest 4.2% gap that masks the true scale of their architectural separation.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards share only two direct benchmark comparisons, and the results are decisively split. In GeekBench Vulkan, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT scores 71,068 points against the GTX 950's 16,734 points, delivering a 324.7% advantage. This is not a marginal win — the RX 7900 XT outperforms the older card by a factor of over four, reflecting the massive compute and rendering resources available in the Navi 31 chip. Vulkan is a modern low-level API that both cards support (both list Vulkan 1.4 in their API specifications), but the RX 7900 XT's 5,376 shading units versus the GTX 950's 768 shading units, combined with 84 dedicated ray tracing cores, makes the result unsurprising.

The reverse occurs in GeekBench OpenCL, where the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 scores 15,662 points versus the RX 7900 XT's 12,756 points, giving NVIDIA an 18.6% win. This is a notable upset given the hardware disparity. The GTX 950's Maxwell 2.0 architecture appears to handle this particular OpenCL workload more efficiently, despite having only 1.825 TFLOPS of FP32 compute versus the RX 7900 XT's 51.48 TFLOPS — a 28x raw throughput difference. The OpenCL result suggests that benchmark-specific optimization or driver behavior can overcome massive hardware advantages in certain legacy workloads.

Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the RX 7900 XT holds a clear edge in overall capability. Its PassMark G3D score of 29,009 dwarfs any single result from the GTX 950's suite, and its GeekBench Vulkan result alone demonstrates the kind of headroom the older card cannot approach. The GTX 950's only other benchmark result is GeekBench Metal at 7,172 points, which has no direct counterpart in the RX 7900 XT's data. The head-to-head record stands at one win each, but the magnitude of the AMD victory in Vulkan (324.7%) far exceeds the NVIDIA margin in OpenCL (18.6%), indicating which card offers the more substantial real-world performance advantage.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear conclusion: the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the overwhelmingly more capable graphics card for modern workloads. Its 324.7% lead in GeekBench Vulkan is the defining metric in this comparison, as Vulkan represents the API foundation for contemporary gaming and compute applications. The RX 7900 XT also carries 20 GB of GDDR6 memory with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth versus the GTX 950's 2 GB of GDDR5 at 105.8 GB/s — a 7.6x memory advantage that alone would disqualify the older card for any serious modern workload.

The GTX 950's 18.6% OpenCL win is an interesting anomaly but not a reason to choose the card. OpenCL is increasingly legacy in GPU compute, and the NVIDIA card's single win comes in a test where the RX 7900 XT still scores above 12,700 points, which is a respectable result. The RX 7900 XT's percentile ranking of 55 versus the GTX 950's 53 shows both cards sit near the median of all GPUs, but this is misleading — the average benchmark score for the RX 7900 XT (13,745) is dragged down by several low-scoring legacy tests like PassMark DirectX 9 (322 points) and PassMark DirectX 10 (158 points), while the GTX 950's average (13,189) comes from only three modern compute tests.

For users building a new system or upgrading from older hardware, the RX 7900 XT is the only rational choice based on this data. For those specifically targeting legacy OpenCL workloads where the GTX 950 shows a 18.6% advantage, the older card has a niche, but its 2 GB memory capacity and 90 W TDP profile suggest it is suited for low-power or embedded scenarios rather than competitive gaming. The RX 7900 XT's 300 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU are the price of entry for its performance class, and the data shows that price buys a card that is 324.7% faster in the API that matters most.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT uses the Navi 31 chip built on RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 57,700 million transistors into a 529 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 109.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The codename is Plum Bonito, and it belongs to the Navi III (RX 7000) generation with Navi II as its predecessor and Navi IV as its successor. It was released on November 2, 2022.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 uses the GM206 chip on Maxwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 2,940 million transistors on a 228 mm² die, with a transistor density of just 12.9 million per square millimeter. It belongs to the GeForce 900 generation with GeForce 700 as its predecessor and GeForce 10 as its successor. It was released on August 19, 2015.

The RX 7900 XT brings hardware ray tracing support with 84 RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the GTX 950. The AMD card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 950 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, but the RX 7900 XT's newer architecture provides FP16 support at 103.0 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the GTX 950 has no FP16 data listed at all. The RX 7900 XT also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, double the bandwidth of the GTX 950's PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.

Specification Differences

The specification gap is stark across nearly every measurable field. The RX 7900 XT has 5,376 shading units versus the GTX 950's 768, 336 texture mapping units versus 48, and 192 ROPs versus 32. The AMD card's boost clock is 2,394 MHz versus the NVIDIA card's 1,188 MHz, and its base clock of 1,387 MHz exceeds the GTX 950's boost clock. Memory specifications show a 20 GB versus 2 GB capacity difference, GDDR6 versus GDDR5 type, 320-bit versus 128-bit bus width, and 800.0 GB/s versus 105.8 GB/s bandwidth.

The RX 7900 XT's pixel rate is 459.6 GPixel/s versus the GTX 950's 38.02 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 804.4 GTexel/s versus 57.02 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 51.48 TFLOPS versus 1.825 TFLOPS. The RX 7900 XT draws 300 W with a 700 W suggested PSU and requires two 8-pin power connectors, while the GTX 950 draws 90 W with a 250 W suggested PSU and needs a single 6-pin connector. The RX 7900 XT measures 276 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width, while the GTX 950 is 202 mm long with no height or width listed. Display outputs differ: the RX 7900 XT offers 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C, while the GTX 950 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has an average benchmark score of 13,745 across its suite, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 averages 13,189 across its three results. Both cards sit near the 55th and 53rd percentiles of all GPUs respectively.

Q: Does the GTX 950 beat the RX 7900 XT in any benchmark?

A: Yes, the GTX 950 wins in GeekBench OpenCL with 15,662 points versus the RX 7900 XT's 12,756 points, an 18.6% advantage. This is the only head-to-head test the NVIDIA card wins.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: The RX 7900 XT scores 71,068 in GeekBench Vulkan versus the GTX 950's 16,734, giving AMD a 324.7% lead. This is the largest margin in any benchmark between the two cards.

Q: What memory advantages does the RX 7900 XT have?

A: The RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth, compared to the GTX 950's 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 105.8 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: When was each card released?

A: The RX 7900 XT was released on November 2, 2022, while the GTX 950 was released on August 19, 2015. Both cards are now end-of-life products.

Q: Do both cards support ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 7900 XT has 84 dedicated RT cores, while the GTX 950 has no RT core support listed. The RX 7900 XT also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the GTX 950 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins decisively in every modern workload category. Its 324.7% Vulkan advantage makes it the clear choice for any application using contemporary graphics APIs, including current game engines and GPU compute frameworks. The 20 GB memory capacity and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth provide headroom for high-resolution textures and large datasets, while the 84 RT cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing that the GTX 950 cannot perform at all. The RX 7900 XT's 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 103.0 TFLOPS of FP16 compute make it suitable for AI inference and scientific computing tasks, and its DisplayPort 2.1 outputs support the latest high-refresh-rate displays.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 wins in exactly one scenario: legacy OpenCL compute workloads where its 18.6% advantage over the RX 7900 XT is verified by the data. Its 90 W TDP and 250 W suggested PSU make it a far less demanding card from a power perspective, which could be relevant for systems with limited PSU capacity. Its smaller 202 mm length also fits in more compact cases. However, the GTX 950's 2 GB memory and 1.825 TFLOPS compute are severely limiting even for modest modern tasks, and its lack of RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support means it cannot handle newer rendering features. The OpenCL win is real but narrow, and it comes against a card that is 28x more powerful in raw FP32 throughput — the result likely reflects benchmark-specific driver quirks rather than genuine general-purpose superiority. For any use case involving modern games, content creation, or compute, the RX 7900 XT is the only viable option from the data.