AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a stark contrast between these two GPUs. Across the ten recorded tests, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT claims nine wins, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 secures a single victory. The magnitude of the AMD card’s wins is substantial, but the one NVIDIA win is equally striking in its scale.

Starting with the largest margin, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the RX 9070 XT scoring 7260 against the RTX 2060’s 1242, a delta of -82.9% from the AMD card’s perspective. This is a 5.8x advantage in raw DX12 rasterization throughput. In Passmark’s DirectX 11 test, the RX 9070 XT scores 292 versus 110, a -62.3% delta, meaning it delivers roughly 2.7x the performance. The Passmark GPU Compute test follows a similar pattern: 15864 versus 5488, a -65.4% delta, indicating the AMD card processes compute workloads about 2.9x faster. In Passmark DirectX 9, the RX 9070 XT’s 353 outpaces the RTX 2060’s 190 by -46.2%, a more moderate but still clear 1.9x improvement.

The DirectX 12 and DirectX 10 tests show smaller but consistent wins. In Passmark DX12, the RX 9070 XT scores 78 versus 53, a -32.1% delta. In DX10, the scores are 154 versus 98, a -36.4% delta. The Passmark G3D test, a more holistic gaming metric, shows 26795 for the AMD card versus 14111 for the NVIDIA card, a -47.3% delta. Even the 2D test (Passmark G2D) favors the RX 9070 XT, with 1328 versus 745, a -43.9% delta.

The only test where the RTX 2060 wins is Geekbench OpenCL. Here, the NVIDIA card scores 65014, while the AMD card scores only 17428, a delta of +273% for the RTX 2060. This is a massive reversal, indicating that in this specific OpenCL workload, the RTX 2060 is roughly 3.7x faster. The Geekbench Vulkan test is essentially a tie: 65846 for the RTX 2060 and 65879 for the RX 9070 XT, a -0.1% delta, meaning the two are within noise of each other.

Where Each One Wins

The data paints a clear picture for most workloads. The RX 9070 XT dominates across all DirectX API versions (9, 10, 11, 12), all Passmark graphics tests (G2D, G3D, GPU Compute), and the modern 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. This suggests that for gaming, 3D rendering, and general GPU compute tasks that utilize DirectX or Vulkan APIs, the RX 9070 XT is the superior choice by a wide margin. Specifically, its largest wins are in DX11 and GPU Compute, which are common in both older game engines and professional workloads like OpenCL-based rendering.

The RTX 2060’s single win in Geekbench OpenCL is intriguing. Given that the Vulkan scores are nearly identical, this is not a case of the older card being universally faster. Instead, it points to a specific optimization or architectural advantage in the OpenCL driver or hardware path of the Turing-based card. For users running OpenCL-heavy applications that rely on this particular benchmark’s workload, the RTX 2060 would be unexpectedly strong. However, for any other general-purpose or gaming task, the RX 9070 XT is overwhelmingly ahead.

The near-tie in Geekbench Vulkan (65846 vs 65879) is worth noting. It suggests that in certain compute-oriented Vulkan tasks, the two generations can converge despite the massive gap in raw specs. This is a reminder that benchmark scores do not always scale linearly with hardware resources.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT wins 9 out of 10 tests. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 wins only 1 test, specifically Geekbench OpenCL.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between the two?

A: The largest gap is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RX 9070 XT scores 7260 versus the RTX 2060’s 1242, a delta of -82.9%. This means the AMD card is roughly 5.8x faster in that test.

Q: Is the RTX 2060 faster in any modern API?

A: Yes, in Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2060 scores 65014 versus the RX 9070 XT’s 17428, a +273% delta. In Geekbench Vulkan, the two are nearly tied, with the RX 9070 XT leading by only 0.1%.

Q: How do the Passmark DirectX 11 scores compare?

A: The RX 9070 XT scores 292, while the RTX 2060 scores 110. This results in a -62.3% delta, meaning the AMD card is about 2.7x faster in that specific DirectX 11 workload.

Q: What about the average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, while the RX 9070 XT has an average of 13543. However, this average is heavily skewed by the RTX 2060’s outlier Geekbench OpenCL score and its near-tie in Vulkan, despite losing all other tests by large margins.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 2060 ranks in the 58th percentile, while the RX 9070 XT ranks in the 55th percentile. This seems counterintuitive given the head-to-head results, but it reflects the fact that the average score for the RX 9070 XT is pulled down by its poor OpenCL performance.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every major specification category. The RTX 2060 is built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, while the RX 9070 XT uses a 4 nm process, also from TSMC. The transistor counts are 10,800 million for the RTX 2060 and 53,900 million for the RX 9070 XT, with die sizes of 445 mm² and 357 mm² respectively. This gives the AMD card a much higher transistor density: 151.0M per mm² versus 24.3M per mm².

Memory is another major divide. The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 9070 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. Clock speeds also differ: the RTX 2060 has a base of 1365 MHz and boost of 1680 MHz, while the RX 9070 XT has a base of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost of 2970 MHz.

Compute resources are drastically different. The RTX 2060 has 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The RX 9070 XT has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The RTX 2060 has 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, while the RX 9070 XT has 64 RT cores and no listed tensor cores. Pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s for the RTX 2060 versus 380.2 GPixel/s for the RX 9070 XT. Texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s versus 760.3 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 6.451 TFLOPS versus 48.66 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 12.90 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 48.66 TFLOPS (1:1).

Power and connectivity also differ. The RTX 2060 has a TDP of 160 W and requires a 450 W PSU with a single 8-pin connector. The RX 9070 XT has a TDP of 304 W and requires a 700 W PSU with two 8-pin connectors. The RTX 2060 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RX 9070 XT uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs are different: the RTX 2060 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C, while the RX 9070 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1a. The RTX 2060 is 229 mm long, 113 mm high, and 35 mm wide; the RX 9070 XT’s dimensions are not recorded. The RTX 2060 has a launch MSRP of 349 USD, while the RX 9070 XT has a launch MSRP of 599 USD.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 2060 is based on the TU106 chip using NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, part of the GeForce 20 generation. It includes dedicated RT cores for ray tracing and tensor cores for AI workloads, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate. The RX 9070 XT is based on the Navi 48 chip using AMD’s RDNA 4.0 architecture, part of the Navi IV (RX 9000) generation. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and includes 64 RT cores, but has no tensor cores listed, suggesting a different approach to AI acceleration.

The process node difference is significant: 12 nm versus 4 nm, which explains the higher transistor density and lower die size for the AMD card despite having 5x more transistors. The RTX 2060’s FP16 throughput is half its FP32 rate (2:1), while the RX 9070 XT has a 1:1 ratio, meaning it processes FP16 and FP32 at the same rate. The RX 9070 XT also has a higher game clock (2400 MHz) than the RTX 2060’s boost clock (1680 MHz), and its memory clock is listed at 2518 MHz with 20.1 Gbps effective, versus 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective for the RTX 2060.

Both cards support the same API set: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 2060 is end-of-life, while the RX 9070 XT is active. The RTX 2060’s predecessor is GeForce 10 and successor is GeForce 30; the RX 9070 XT’s predecessor is Navi III and it has no successor listed.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the recorded data, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the definitive choice for nearly all modern workloads. It wins 9 of 10 benchmarks, with decisive margins in DirectX 11, DirectX 12, 3DMark Steel Nomad, and GPU compute. Its 16 GB memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, combined with 4096 shading units and 128 ROPs, translate into 2.7x to 5.8x performance advantages over the RTX 2060 in gaming and compute tests. Users who prioritize gaming, 3D rendering, or general GPU compute should select the RX 9070 XT without hesitation.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 retains one niche: Geekbench OpenCL, where it is 3.7x faster. This is a notable anomaly, but it does not offset the overall picture. The RTX 2060 also holds a higher percentile ranking (58th versus 55th) and a higher average benchmark score (15290 versus 13543), but those figures are inflated by its outlier OpenCL result and near-tie in Vulkan. For a user whose primary application is specifically optimized for OpenCL and mirrors that benchmark’s workload, the RTX 2060 would be the better pick. For everyone else, the data overwhelmingly favors the RX 9070 XT, despite its lower average score and percentile rank. The RX 9070 XT’s higher TDP (304 W versus 160 W) and larger PSU requirement (700 W versus 450 W) are trade-offs, but the performance gains justify them in most scenarios.