AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 are separated by nearly six years of GPU architecture, yet they land almost exactly on top of each other in aggregate benchmark scores. The RTX 4070 averages 37,648 points across its benchmark suite, while the RX Vega 56 averages 37,507 points, a margin of just 0.4%. Both cards sit at the 81st percentile among all GPUs, indicating they are statistically equivalent in overall performance, despite their radically different designs. The data shows a fascinating generational clash: a modern, efficiency-focused mid-range card from 2023 matches a power-hungry flagship from 2017 in overall compute, but the way they achieve that parity—and where they win—could not be more different. The following analysis breaks down their strengths, architectural philosophies, and the specific benchmark results that define this matchup.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data is starkly one-sided for decisive victories. The RTX 4070 wins the only head-to-head benchmark available, taking the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test with a score of 3,854 against the RX Vega 56’s 1,501. That is a 156.8% advantage for the NVIDIA card in modern DirectX 12 rasterization, a massive gap that reflects the fundamental difference in their design eras. The RX Vega 56 does not win a single benchmark in the comparison dataset, making its case strictly as an aggregate-score equalizer rather than a performance leader in any specific workload.

However, the aggregate scores tell a different story about overall compute capability. The RX Vega 56’s average score of 37,507 is nearly identical to the RTX 4070’s 37,648, suggesting that in older or more varied workloads—particularly those that stress raw compute or memory bandwidth—the older AMD card remains competitive. The RTX 4070’s wins are concentrated in modern DirectX 12 titles and ray-traced scenarios, where its dedicated RT cores and newer architecture shine. The RX Vega 56’s strength lies in its 2048-bit memory bus and HBM2 memory, which deliver high bandwidth for compute-heavy tasks, even if the benchmark suite does not include a direct test that isolates this advantage.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is enormous. The RTX 4070 uses the AD104 chip built on TSMC’s 5 nm process, packing 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die. The RX Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip on GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm process, with 12,500 million transistors spread across a much larger 495 mm² die. This means the RTX 4070 achieves a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm², versus just 25.3 million per mm² for the RX Vega 56, a 4.8x density advantage that explains how NVIDIA fits nearly three times more transistors into a smaller package.

The RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, which introduces dedicated RT cores (46 of them) and tensor cores (184 of them) for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads. The RX Vega 56, based on GCN 5.0, has no RT cores and no tensor cores, meaning it must handle ray tracing and AI tasks through traditional shader compute. The RTX 4070 also features 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, while the RX Vega 56 has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has nearly 65% more shaders, but the AMD card has more texture units, reflecting their different compute philosophies.

Clock speeds further separate them. The RTX 4070 runs at a base clock of 1,920 MHz and boosts to 2,475 MHz, while the RX Vega 56 sits at 1,156 MHz base and 1,471 MHz boost. This nearly 1 GHz boost advantage for NVIDIA is a direct result of the 5 nm process versus 14 nm. The RTX 4070 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the RX Vega 56 maxes out at DirectX 12 (12_1), and Vulkan support differs as well—1.4 for NVIDIA versus 1.3 for AMD.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark in the dataset is 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and it is not close. The RTX 4070 scores 3,854, while the RX Vega 56 scores 1,501, giving NVIDIA a 156.8% victory. This test is a modern DirectX 12 workload designed to stress contemporary GPU features, and the results underscore how far GPU architecture has advanced. The RX Vega 56’s GCN 5.0 architecture, with its lower clocks and lack of dedicated RT hardware, simply cannot keep pace in this scenario.

Looking at the broader benchmark suites each card was tested with, the RTX 4070 has a much wider range of data points. It scores 154,858 in Geekbench OpenCL and 174,152 in Geekbench Vulkan, along with Passmark scores of 26,927 in G3D and 14,720 in GPU Compute. The RX Vega 56 only has two benchmark entries in the data: 1,501 in 3DMark Steel Nomad and 73,512 in Geekbench Metal. The Metal score is notable because the RTX 4070 has no Metal test listed, suggesting the AMD card may have been tested in macOS environments where Metal is the primary API, though this is not a head-to-head comparison.

The average benchmark scores of 37,648 for the RTX 4070 and 37,507 for the RX Vega 56 suggest that in the full suite of tests each card was subjected to, they perform nearly identically. The RTX 4070’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla P4, which scores 37,628, just 0.1% behind. The RX Vega 56’s nearest rival is also the Tesla P4, at 37,628, which is 0.3% ahead of the AMD card. This clustering of scores around the 37,500-37,650 range indicates that both cards occupy the same performance tier in aggregate, even if their individual workload profiles diverge sharply.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet reveals stark contrasts in nearly every category. The RTX 4070 uses 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 409.6 GB/s. While the Vega 56 has a much wider memory bus, the RTX 4070’s faster GDDR6X and higher effective clock speed (21 Gbps versus 1,600 Mbps) give it a 23% bandwidth advantage. The RTX 4070’s memory clock is listed at 1,313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective, while the Vega 56’s memory runs at 800 MHz with 1,600 Mbps effective.

Compute throughput differs dramatically. The RTX 4070 delivers 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the RX Vega 56 delivers just 10.54 TFLOPS. However, in FP16, the Vega 56 achieves 21.09 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) versus the RTX 4070’s 29.15 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), showing that AMD’s card has a more aggressive FP16 path relative to its FP32 throughput. Pixel and texture rates also favor NVIDIA: 158.4 GPixel/s and 455.4 GTexel/s for the RTX 4070 versus 94.14 GPixel/s and 329.5 GTexel/s for the RX Vega 56.

Power consumption is surprisingly close. The RTX 4070 has a TDP of 200 W, while the RX Vega 56 is rated at 210 W. Both cards require a 550 W power supply, but the RTX 4070 uses a single 16-pin connector, whereas the RX Vega 56 needs two 8-pin connectors. Physical dimensions differ too: the RTX 4070 is 240 mm long, 110 mm tall, and 40 mm wide, while the RX Vega 56 is 280 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 40 mm wide. The RTX 4070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RX Vega 56 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are similar, with both offering one HDMI port and three DisplayPorts, though the RTX 4070 has HDMI 2.1 versus HDMI 2.0b on the Vega 56.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37,648, which is 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56’s 37,507.

Q: How large is the RTX 4070’s win in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RTX 4070 scores 3,854 versus the RX Vega 56’s 1,501, a 156.8% advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Q: Do both GPUs support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The RTX 4070 has 46 dedicated RT cores, while the RX Vega 56 has no RT cores at all, meaning it lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: What are the memory configurations of each card?

A: The RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The RX Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 409.6 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 4070 boosts to 2,475 MHz, while the RX Vega 56 boosts to 1,471 MHz, giving NVIDIA a 1,004 MHz advantage.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two GPUs?

A: The RTX 4070 has a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm², while the RX Vega 56 has 25.3 million per mm², making the NVIDIA chip approximately 4.8 times denser.