AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data for these two cards is limited to two shared benchmark tests, and the results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER scores 219,065 against the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition’s 76,111. That is a delta of -65.3% from the AMD card’s perspective, meaning the NVIDIA card delivers roughly 2.9 times the OpenCL compute score. The margin is enormous, and it reflects the generational gap between the two architectures.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens further. The RTX 4080 SUPER posts 260,075, while the Vega Frontier Edition manages 71,937. The delta here is -72.3%, again measured from the AMD side. In practical terms, the NVIDIA card is about 3.6 times faster in this Vulkan workload. Across the two head-to-head tests, the RTX 4080 SUPER wins both, giving it a clean 2-0 record in the database’s direct comparisons. The AMD card records zero wins in this head-to-head set.

The average benchmark scores tell a similar story, though they mix in different test suites. The Vega Frontier Edition has an average score of 73,370 across its recorded benchmarks (Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan). The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average of 54,209, but that number is pulled down by its inclusion of PassMark tests, which use different scoring scales. The head-to-head OpenCL and Vulkan results are the cleanest apples-to-apples comparison, and they favor the NVIDIA card decisively.

Looking at percentile placement, the AMD card sits at the 91st percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the NVIDIA card sits at the 86th. This seems counterintuitive given the head-to-head results, but it reflects the different benchmark mixes each card was tested with. The Vega Frontier Edition’s three Geekbench scores are all in the 71,000 to 76,000 range, while the RTX 4080 SUPER’s PassMark scores are comparatively low in absolute terms, dragging its average down. Still, in the two tests where both cards were run under identical conditions, the RTX 4080 SUPER is overwhelmingly ahead.

The delta percentages in the nearest-rival lists also provide context. The Vega Frontier Edition is 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64, 1.8% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal, 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M, and 3.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE. It is a solid performer relative to its contemporaries. The RTX 4080 SUPER, by contrast, is essentially tied with the RTX 4080 (-0.1% delta), 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, 2.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.8% behind the AMD Radeon 8060S. The NVIDIA card is not at the very top of its own peer group, but its raw scores in the head-to-head tests dwarf the older AMD card.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4080 SUPER wins in every measured workload that the two cards share. In OpenCL, it is 65.3% ahead, which suggests a massive advantage in general-purpose compute tasks that leverage OpenCL. In Vulkan, it is 72.3% ahead, indicating an even larger lead in graphics workloads using that API. The database shows no test where the Vega Frontier Edition comes out ahead in a direct comparison.

The Vega Frontier Edition does have strengths in its own recorded benchmarks. Its Geekbench Metal score of 72,061, OpenCL score of 76,111, and Vulkan score of 71,937 are all tightly clustered, showing consistent performance across different compute APIs. It also holds a 91st percentile rank, which places it above the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 86th percentile. This suggests that in the specific test suites the Vega card was run through, it performs very well relative to the broader GPU population, even if it cannot match the newer NVIDIA card in the shared tests.

The RTX 4080 SUPER’s wins are not just about raw scores. The deltas are so large that they indicate a different performance class entirely. For users running OpenCL-based compute, the NVIDIA card is roughly three times faster. For Vulkan-based rendering, it is roughly 3.6 times faster. These are not marginal improvements; they are generational leaps.

The Vega Frontier Edition’s only recorded advantage is its percentile rank and its closer grouping of benchmark scores. It also has a lower TDP (300 W vs. 320 W), but that is a power specification, not a performance metric. In terms of actual measured performance in the shared tests, the RTX 4080 SUPER wins every category.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the recorded data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the clear choice for anyone prioritizing raw compute and graphics performance in OpenCL or Vulkan workloads. Its scores of 219,065 and 260,075 in those two tests are multiples of the Vega Frontier Edition’s results. The delta percentages of -65.3% and -72.3% leave no ambiguity.

The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition remains a capable card for its era. Its average benchmark score of 73,370 and its 91st percentile placement show that it was a strong performer among the GPUs tested in the database. It is also only 1.4% ahead of the Radeon Pro Vega 64 and 1.8% ahead of the TITAN X Pascal, meaning it sits comfortably in its own generation. But against the RTX 4080 SUPER, it is outclassed in every shared benchmark.

Who should pick the Vega Frontier Edition? Someone working with Metal-specific workloads, since its Geekbench Metal score of 72,061 is its only recorded test that the RTX 4080 SUPER does not have a direct comparison for. Also, anyone with a system limited to PCIe 3.0 x16 and a dual-slot card may find it easier to install. But the performance data does not support choosing it over the RTX 4080 SUPER for OpenCL or Vulkan tasks.

Who should pick the RTX 4080 SUPER? Anyone who needs maximum compute throughput in OpenCL or Vulkan. The data shows it is 2.9 to 3.6 times faster than the Vega card in those exact workloads. Its 86th percentile rank, while lower than the Vega’s 91st, is less meaningful because the benchmark mix differs. The head-to-head results are the definitive comparison, and the NVIDIA card wins both.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER scores 219,065, while the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition scores 76,111. The NVIDIA card is 65.3% ahead.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap between the two cards?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 260,075 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to the Vega Frontier Edition’s 71,937. The delta is -72.3% from the AMD card’s perspective.

Q: Does the AMD card win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. In the recorded head-to-head tests, the RTX 4080 SUPER wins both Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The AMD card records 0 wins.

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

A: The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has an average score of 73,370. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has an average score of 54,209, though this includes PassMark tests with different scoring scales.

Q: How does each card rank among all GPUs in the database?

A: The AMD card is in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA card is in the 86th percentile.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card based on average score?

A: The Vega Frontier Edition’s closest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (1.4% behind). The RTX 4080 SUPER’s closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (-0.1% delta).

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different eras and use fundamentally different architectures. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is built on the Vega 10 chip using the GCN 5.0 architecture, produced on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER uses the AD103 chip with the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The process node difference alone, 14 nm vs. 5 nm, explains much of the performance gap.

Transistor counts differ dramatically. The Vega 10 chip packs 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.3 million per mm². The AD103 chip contains 45,900 million transistors on a smaller 379 mm² die, achieving a density of 121.1 million per mm². That is roughly 4.8 times higher transistor density, which directly enables the RTX 4080 SUPER’s higher clocks and compute throughput.

Clock speeds also differ significantly. The Vega Frontier Edition has a base clock of 1382 MHz and a boost clock of 1600 MHz. The RTX 4080 SUPER has a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2550 MHz. The NVIDIA card boosts to nearly 1.6 times the AMD card’s boost clock.

Memory architectures are entirely different. The Vega card uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, yielding 483.8 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4080 SUPER uses 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, yielding 736.3 GB/s bandwidth. Despite the narrower bus, the GDDR6X memory runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective) versus the HBM2’s 945 MHz (1890 Mbps effective), resulting in 52% more bandwidth.

The RTX 4080 SUPER also adds dedicated hardware that the Vega card lacks: 80 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores. The Vega Frontier Edition has no RT cores and no tensor cores. The shading unit count is also much higher on the NVIDIA card: 10,240 vs. 4,096. Texture mapping units are 320 vs. 256, and ROPs are 112 vs. 64.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification field. The Vega Frontier Edition has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4080 SUPER has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The NVIDIA card also has 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores; the AMD card has none.

Pixel rate is 102.4 GPixel/s for the Vega card versus 285.6 GPixel/s for the RTX 4080 SUPER. Texture rate is 409.6 GTexel/s versus 816.0 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 13.11 TFLOPS versus 52.22 TFLOPS. FP16 is 26.21 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) versus 52.22 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

Power draw is 300 W for the AMD card and 320 W for the NVIDIA card. The Vega card uses two 8-pin power connectors and is dual-slot. The RTX 4080 SUPER uses one 16-pin connector and is triple-slot. Both recommend a 700 W power supply.

The Vega card is 267 mm long and 111 mm tall. The RTX 4080 SUPER is 310 mm long, 140 mm tall, and 61 mm wide. The AMD card uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the NVIDIA card uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a for AMD, versus 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a for NVIDIA.

API support differs: the Vega card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 4080 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA card also lists a higher memory clock (1438 MHz vs. 945 MHz) and a larger silicon die count, but the key takeaway is that the RTX 4080 SUPER is newer, denser, faster, and more feature-rich in every measured specification.