AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 vs AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The database places these two cards in adjacent performance tiers, and the head-to-head benchmark data is decisive in one direction. Across the recorded Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT scores 17,428 against the GeForce GTX 580's 15,283. That is a 12.3% advantage for the AMD part, and it is the only head-to-head comparison where the two cards meet directly in the database. The GTX 580, a Fermi 2.0 part from NVIDIA, is an older design, while the RX 9070 XT is a current RDNA 4.0 product, and the architectural gap shows up clearly in the raw scores.

## Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded head-to-head result is unambiguous. In the Geekbench OpenCL workload, the RX 9070 XT posts 17,428 versus the GTX 580's 15,283, for a delta of 12.3% in favor of the AMD card. That is a substantial margin, not a statistical tie. The GTX 580 does win the broader comparison in the database by percentile: it sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, while the RX 9070 XT sits at the 55th percentile. However, percentile rank reflects the entire population of cards, including many lower-end parts, and the direct comparison is the more meaningful signal.

The RX 9070 XT's advantage is also visible in the average score of its nearest rivals. The database lists the AMD Radeon HD 7770M at a 0.1% delta from the RX 9070 XT, the GeForce GTX 570 at 0.2%, and the NVIDIA P106-090 at 0.5%, all within a narrow band. This suggests the RX 9070 XT is well above its closest peers in the synthetic load, whereas the GTX 580's peer group includes parts that trail by 1.0% or more.

Breaking the result down further, the RX 9070 XT's 12.3% margin over the GTX 580 in OpenCL is exactly the kind of lead that appears in compute-heavy, driver-optimized tests. Both cards run the same test suite, and the recorded data shows no test where the GTX 580 wins. The GTX 580's strongest result in the database is its OpenCL score of 15,283, which is still below the AMD card's score.

FAQ

Q: How does the RX 9070 XT compare to the GTX 580 in raw compute?

A: In the recorded Geekbench OpenCL test, the RX 9070 XT scores 17,428, which is 12.3% higher than the GTX 580's 15,283. That is the only direct measurement in the database, and it favors the AMD card.

Q: Which card has the higher transistor count?

A: The RX 9070 XT integrates 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, a density of 151.0 million per mm². The GTX 580 packs 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, which is 5.8 million per mm². The RX 9070 XT is the denser design by a wide margin.

Q: What memory configuration do these cards use?

A: The RX 9070 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 580 has 1536 MB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with 192.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same API feature levels?

A: The RX 9070 XT lists DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 580 lists DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and no Vulkan entry in the database.

Q: Which card has the higher pixel and texture rates?

A: The RX 9070 XT records a pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s. The GTX 580 records 24.70 GPixel/s and 49.41 GTexel/s.

Architecture Differences

The two parts come from different design generations. The GTX 580 is built on the Fermi 2.0 architecture, chip GF110, on a 40 nm process at TSMC. It uses 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die. The RX 9070 XT is RDNA 4.0, chip Navi 48, on a 4 nm process at TSMC, with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die.

This makes for a huge difference in feature size and power efficiency. The RX 9070 XT's 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 render output processors dwarf the GTX 580's 512 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 48 ROPs.

The GTX 580 also lacks the RX 9070 XT's ray accelerators. The RX 9070 XT also has 64 RT cores, which the GTX 580 does not have. The compute gap is just as large: 48.66 TFLOPS FP32 for the RX 9070 XT versus 1.581 TFLOPS for the GTX 580.

Specification Differences

| Field | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | GF110 | Navi 48 |

| Architecture | Fermi 2.0 | RDNA 4.0 |

| Process node | 40 nm | 4 nm |

| Transistors | 3,000 million | 53,900 million |

| Die size | 520 mm² | 357 mm² |

| Memory | 1536 MB GDDR5 | 16 GB GDDR6 |

| Memory bus | 384 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 192.4 GB/s | 644.6 GB/s |

| Shading units | 512 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 64 | 256 |

| ROPs | 48 | 128 |

| RT cores | N/A | 64 |

| FP32 | 1.581 TFLOPS | 48.66 TFLOPS |

| TDP | 244 W | 304 W |

| Power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin |

| Bus interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

The GTX 580 is a dual-slot card, as is the RX 9070 XT. The power delivery differs: the GTX 580 uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector, while the RX 9070 XT uses two 8-pin connectors. The database suggests a 550W PSU for the GTX 580 and a 700W PSU for the RX 9070 XT. Display output also differs: the GTX 580 offers two DVI and one mini-HDMI 1.3a, whereas the RX 9070 XT has one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1a.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 9070 XT wins the direct benchmark comparison and the architecture comparison. It is the faster card in the recorded data, with a 12.3% OpenCL score lead over the GTX 580. It also brings much newer features: RT cores, a much larger FP32 compute, and significantly more memory bandwidth (644.6 GB/s vs 192.4 GB/s). The GTX 580 does have one advantage: it was a dual-slot card with a lower 244W TDP versus 304W, and it uses the older, smaller 6-pin + 8-pin power configuration. But for performance and modern features, the RX 9070 XT is clearly the better choice in this comparison. The GTX 580 remains a high-end Fermi part, and its best case is the legacy DirectX 12 (11_0) feature level and a 384-bit memory bus. The RX 9070 XT, however, is the newer product in every measurable way, and that is the one that comes out on top.