AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant force in this comparison, winning 9 of the 10 recorded head-to-head benchmarks against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The scale of the victory is substantial in most tests, with the largest margin appearing in the modern DirectX 12 workload. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RX 7900 XTX scores 6841 against the RTX 3060 Ti's 2626, a massive 160.5% advantage. This is a generation-defining gap that reflects the raw compute and rendering throughput difference between the two cards.

The DirectX 11 legacy test tells a similar story, with the RX 7900 XTX posting a score of 356 versus 163 for the RTX 3060 Ti, a 118.4% lead. This is particularly notable because older API titles often favor NVIDIA architectures, yet the AMD flagship still manages to more than double the score. The Vulkan result also goes strongly to AMD, with 85612 against 47784, a 79.2% difference. Vulkan is frequently used in modern game engines, so this win carries real-world weight for current and upcoming titles.

Compute performance follows the same pattern. In the Passmark GPU Compute test, the RX 7900 XTX scores 17689, while the RTX 3060 Ti manages 10006, giving AMD a 76.8% lead. The Passmark G3D test shows a 53.5% advantage for AMD, with scores of 31238 and 20349 respectively. Even the DirectX 12 Passmark test, which is often a tight race between architectures, shows a 67.9% margin in favor of the RX 7900 XTX, with 131 points against 78.

The only benchmark where the RTX 3060 Ti takes the win is Geekbench OpenCL. Here NVIDIA scores 78927, while AMD scores 50465, a 36.1% deficit for the RX 7900 XTX. This is an interesting anomaly. OpenCL workloads can be sensitive to driver optimization and specific compute patterns, and the data shows NVIDIA holding a clear edge in this particular test. It is worth remembering this is a synthetic compute benchmark, not a gaming workload, so its relevance to typical use cases is limited. Still, it is the one bright spot for the RTX 3060 Ti in an otherwise one-sided data set.

The remaining wins for AMD are smaller but consistent. In Passmark DirectX 9, the RX 7900 XTX scores 330 against 234, a 41% lead. The Passmark DirectX 10 test shows a 25.8% advantage, with 166 versus 132. Even the 2D test, Passmark G2D, goes to AMD with 1267 against 989, a 28.1% margin. These smaller deltas suggest that the AMD card is not just faster in raw 3D rendering, but also in memory bandwidth and general graphics pipeline efficiency.

The average benchmark scores reinforce the hierarchy. The RX 7900 XTX averages 19410 across all recorded tests, while the RTX 3060 Ti averages 16129. That is a 19.3% overall advantage for AMD, even with the Geekbench OpenCL outlier pulling its average down. The percentile rankings also differ, with the RX 7900 XTX sitting at the 64th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 3060 Ti sits at the 59th percentile.

FAQ

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

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins 9 of the 10 recorded head-to-head benchmarks. The only test won by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is Geekbench OpenCL.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RX 7900 XTX scores 6841, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 2626. That is a 160.5% difference in favor of AMD.

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti competitive in any compute workload?

A: Yes, in Geekbench OpenCL the RTX 3060 Ti scores 78927 against 50465 for the RX 7900 XTX, a 36.1% lead for NVIDIA. However, in Passmark GPU Compute, AMD leads with 17689 against 10006, a 76.8% margin.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 19410, while the RTX 3060 Ti averages 16129.

Q: How do the cards compare in DirectX 11 performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX scores 356 in Passmark DirectX 11, compared to 163 for the RTX 3060 Ti, a 118.4% advantage for AMD.

Q: Which card has the higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RX 7900 XTX is at the 64th percentile, while the RTX 3060 Ti is at the 59th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX uses the Navi 31 chip built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, with a codename of Plum Bonito. It is manufactured by TSMC on a 5 nm process. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti uses the GA104 chip built on the Ampere architecture, manufactured by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This process difference is significant: the AMD chip packs 57,700 million transistors into a 529 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 109.1 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA chip contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, with a density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The AMD chip is not only larger, it is more than twice as dense.

The memory subsystems are also very different. The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3060 Ti has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That is more than double the memory capacity and more than double the bandwidth for AMD. The effective memory speed is 20 Gbps for the AMD card versus 14 Gbps for the NVIDIA card.

Compute resources diverge sharply as well. The RX 7900 XTX has 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The RTX 3060 Ti has 4864 shading units, 152 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The AMD card also has 96 ray tracing cores, while the NVIDIA card has 38. Interestingly, the NVIDIA card has 152 tensor cores, while the AMD card has no tensor core count listed. The FP32 throughput tells the performance story: the RX 7900 XTX reaches 61.39 TFLOPS, while the RTX 3060 Ti reaches 61.39 TFLOPS in FP16 with a 2:1 ratio, and 16.20 TFLOPS in FP32. The NVIDIA card's FP16 is listed as 16.20 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning its FP32 and FP16 are equal. The RX 7900 XTX's FP16 is 122.8 TFLOPS.

The power delivery requirements are also distinct. The RX 7900 XTX has a TDP of 355 W and requires a suggested PSU of 750 W, using two 8-pin connectors. The RTX 3060 Ti has a TDP of 200 W and a suggested PSU of 550 W, using a single 12-pin connector. Both cards are dual-slot designs. The AMD card is longer at 287 mm, while the NVIDIA card is 242 mm. The AMD card is also wider at 51 mm, while the NVIDIA card's width is not listed.

Specification Differences

The most obvious specification difference is memory capacity: 24 GB on the AMD card versus 8 GB on the NVIDIA card. The memory bus is 384-bit versus 256-bit, and bandwidth is 960.0 GB/s versus 448.0 GB/s. The RX 7900 XTX has a base clock of 1929 MHz and a boost clock of 2498 MHz, while the RTX 3060 Ti has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The AMD card also lists a game clock of 2365 MHz, which the NVIDIA card does not have.

Shading units differ: 6144 for AMD versus 4864 for NVIDIA. Texture mapping units are 384 versus 152. Render output units are 192 versus 80. Ray tracing cores are 96 versus 38. Tensor cores are present only on the NVIDIA card, with 152. The pixel rate for the AMD card is 479.6 GPixel/s, while the NVIDIA card is 133.2 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s for AMD versus 253.1 GTexel/s for NVIDIA.

The transistor count differs by a factor of more than three: 57,700 million for AMD versus 17,400 million for NVIDIA. Die size is 529 mm² versus 392 mm². Transistor density is 109.1M per mm² versus 44.4M per mm². The process nodes are 5 nm (TSMC) versus 8 nm (Samsung). The power draw is 355 W versus 200 W. The suggested PSU is 750 W versus 550 W. Power connectors are 2x 8-pin versus 1x 12-pin.

Display outputs differ as well. The RX 7900 XTX has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. The RTX 3060 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Both share the same API support: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Both use PCIe 4.0 x16. The AMD card is 287 mm long and 110 mm high, while the NVIDIA card is 242 mm long and 112 mm high. The AMD card is 51 mm wide, while the NVIDIA card's width is not listed.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins in every meaningful gaming and rendering scenario according to the recorded data. Its 160.5% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 shows it is the stronger choice for modern DirectX 12 titles. The 118.4% advantage in DirectX 11 means it also excels in older games that still rely on that API. The 79.2% lead in Vulkan makes it the pick for Vulkan-based engines and titles. The 76.8% margin in GPU compute suggests it handles compute-heavy workloads like rendering and physics simulations with far more headroom.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti wins only in Geekbench OpenCL, with a 36.1% advantage. This makes it the better option for workflows that are heavily dependent on OpenCL compute performance, at least according to this specific benchmark. It also has a much lower TDP at 200 W versus 355 W, which means it is the more power-efficient card per watt, though the data does not include a direct efficiency metric. The NVIDIA card is also shorter at 242 mm versus 287 mm, which could matter for smaller cases.

The average benchmark scores place the RX 7900 XTX at 19410 versus 16129 for the RTX 3060 Ti, a 19.3% overall lead. The percentile rankings also favor AMD, with 64th versus 59th percentile among all GPUs.

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the clear performance winner in this comparison. It wins 9 of 10 head-to-head benchmarks, with margins ranging from 25.8% to 160.5%. Its average benchmark score of 19410 is well ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti's 16129, and it holds the higher percentile ranking at 64 versus 59. For anyone prioritizing raw gaming performance, modern API support, or compute throughput, the data points squarely at the RX 7900 XTX.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti does have its niche. The Geekbench OpenCL win, with a 36.1% margin, suggests it is the better card for OpenCL-specific workloads. Its lower TDP of 200 W and shorter 242 mm length also make it a more flexible option for power-conscious or space-constrained builds. The RTX 3060 Ti also launched at a lower MSRP of 399 USD compared to 999 USD for the RX 7900 XTX, which is a relevant consideration for buyers, though the performance gap in the data is substantial.

For a user who wants maximum frame rates and compute performance, the RX 7900 XTX is the only logical choice based on the recorded benchmarks. For a user whose primary workloads are OpenCL-based and who values a lower power draw and smaller physical footprint, the RTX 3060 Ti remains a viable alternative. The data does not support a scenario where the RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the RX 7900 XTX in gaming or general compute, so the verdict depends entirely on the specific workload and system constraints.