AMD Radeon VII vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon VII has a higher average benchmark score in the database at 66,004, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 at 54,247. However, the RTX 4080 has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs at 86, while the Radeon VII sits at 90.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 scores 6,567 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 64.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon VII's 2,304. This is the largest delta in the head-to-head benchmarks.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two?

A: Both cards have 16 GB of memory, but the Radeon VII uses HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 4080 uses GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers 48.74 TFLOPS FP32, which is substantially higher than the AMD Radeon VII's 13.44 TFLOPS. The RTX 4080 also has more shading units (9,728 vs 3,840).

Q: What is the release timeline for these products?

A: The AMD Radeon VII was released on 2019-02-06, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 launched on 2022-09-19. Both are now end-of-life products in the database.

Q: How does the Radeon VII compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon VII's average score is 1.4% above the NVIDIA Tesla P40, 2.8% above the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100, and 3.4% above the NVIDIA CMP 30HX. It trails the Tesla T4 by 1.1%.

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a clear split between these two GPUs. For raw compute and modern API performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the decisive winner, taking all three head-to-head benchmark wins with deltas ranging from 57.2% to 65.2%. The RTX 4080 excels in DX12 workloads, OpenCL compute, and Vulkan rendering, making it the appropriate choice for users focused on current-generation game engines and general-purpose GPU compute.

The AMD Radeon VII, despite having a higher average benchmark score (66,004 vs 54,247), achieves that figure through a different benchmark distribution. Its nearest rivals in the database include professional workstation cards like the Tesla T4 and Radeon Pro WX 9100, with the Radeon VII sitting 1.4% above the Tesla P40 and 2.8% above the WX 9100. This positions it as a capable prosumer card from its era, but the RTX 4080's specifications and direct benchmark results indicate it belongs to a different performance class.

For users with legacy workloads that favor GCN architecture or who require the Radeon VII's specific memory subsystem, the card remains functional. The 16 GB HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus provides 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, which is 42.4% higher than the RTX 4080's 716.8 GB/s. This bandwidth advantage could benefit memory-bound tasks that do not scale with compute throughput.

However, for any modern gaming, ray tracing, or high-throughput compute scenario, the RTX 4080 is the data-supported choice. Its 48.74 TFLOPS FP32, 76 RT cores, and 304 tensor cores represent a generational leap. The verdict from the recorded measurements is unambiguous: the RTX 4080 wins in every direct comparison, and the Radeon VII's higher average score is a statistical artifact of the benchmark suite composition rather than evidence of competitive performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The three direct comparisons in the database all favor the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. The largest gap appears in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4080 scores 263,779 against the Radeon VII's 91,788, a delta of 65.2%. This result is consistent with the architectural advantages of Ada Lovelace, which includes dedicated RT and tensor cores that the Vega 20 chip lacks entirely.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the RTX 4080 at 6,567 versus 2,304 for the Radeon VII, a 64.9% advantage. This DX12 workload leverages the RTX 4080's 9,728 shading units and 112 ROPs, both far exceeding the Radeon VII's 3,840 shading units and 64 ROPs. The pixel rate difference is also stark: 280.6 GPixel/s for the RTX 4080 versus 112.0 GPixel/s for the Radeon VII.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4080 posts 214,739 versus 91,947, a 57.2% delta. While this is the smallest margin of the three, it still represents a doubling of compute performance. The RTX 4080's FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS is 3.6 times the Radeon VII's 13.44 TFLOPS, and this ratio carries through to the OpenCL result.

The Radeon VII does not win any of the three head-to-head tests. Its average benchmark score of 66,004 is higher than the RTX 4080's 54,247, but this is driven by the Radeon VII's strong showing in Geekbench Metal (77,975) and its competitive OpenCL and Vulkan scores relative to its own era. The RTX 4080's average is dragged down by lower Passmark scores in legacy API tests (DirectX 9: 370, DirectX 10: 204), which do not reflect its modern capabilities.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification. The RTX 4080 uses a 5 nm process with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, while the Radeon VII uses 7 nm with 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die. Transistor density reflects the process advantage: 121.1M per mm² for the RTX 4080 versus 40.0M per mm² for the Radeon VII.

Clock speeds diverge significantly. The RTX 4080 has a base clock of 2205 MHz and boost of 2505 MHz, compared to the Radeon VII's 1400 MHz base and 1750 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: the RTX 4080 runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective, while the Radeon VII runs at 1000 MHz with 2 Gbps effective.

Memory bandwidth favors the Radeon VII at 1.02 TB/s versus 716.8 GB/s for the RTX 4080. However, memory type and bus width explain this: HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus versus GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus.

Compute resources are heavily lopsided toward the RTX 4080. It has 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, while the Radeon VII has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4080 also includes 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores; the Radeon VII has none.

Power and physical specifications differ as well. The RTX 4080 has a 320 W TDP with a single 16-pin connector and requires a 700 W PSU. The Radeon VII has a 295 W TDP with dual 8-pin connectors and a 600 W PSU suggestion. The RTX 4080 is triple-slot, larger (310 mm length, 140 mm height, 61 mm width), while the Radeon VII is dual-slot (280 mm, 125 mm, 40 mm).

Bus interface and API support also differ: PCIe 4.0 x16 and DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the RTX 4080, versus PCIe 3.0 x16 and DirectX 12 (12_1) for the Radeon VII. Vulkan support is 1.4 for the RTX 4080 and 1.3 for the Radeon VII. Display outputs are nearly identical, with the RTX 4080 offering HDMI 2.1 instead of HDMI 2.0b.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The Radeon VII uses GCN 5.1 architecture on the Vega 20 chip, while the RTX 4080 uses Ada Lovelace on the AD103 chip. GCN 5.1 is a compute-oriented design that scales FP32 through 3,840 shaders, but it lacks dedicated ray tracing and tensor hardware. The RTX 4080's Ada Lovelace architecture includes 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads that the Radeon VII cannot perform natively.

The process node difference is significant: 5 nm versus 7 nm, both from TSMC. This allows the RTX 4080 to pack 45,900 million transistors, 3.5 times the Radeon VII's 13,230 million, on a die that is only 14.5% larger (379 mm² vs 331 mm²). The resulting transistor density of 121.1M per mm² versus 40.0M per mm² explains the RTX 4080's substantial compute advantages.

Memory architecture also differs fundamentally. The Radeon VII uses HBM2 stacked memory with a 4096-bit interface, which provides exceptional bandwidth of 1.02 TB/s but at a lower effective clock. The RTX 4080 uses GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, achieving 716.8 GB/s through higher clock speeds (22.4 Gbps effective). The Radeon VII's wider bus is a legacy design choice, while the RTX 4080 optimizes for lower power per bit.

FP16 throughput illustrates another architectural difference. The Radeon VII achieves 26.88 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, indicating a packed math path. The RTX 4080 achieves 48.74 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, meaning it does not sacrifice FP32 throughput for FP16 operations. This makes the RTX 4080 more efficient for mixed-precision workloads.

The RTX 4080's feature set, including RT cores and tensor cores, is absent from the Radeon VII entirely. These hardware units enable the RTX 4080 to handle DirectX 12 Ultimate features (12_2) and modern rendering techniques. The Radeon VII's GCN 5.1 architecture supports DirectX 12 (12_1) but lacks the specialized acceleration hardware that defines the RTX 4080's performance profile in contemporary workloads.