AMD Radeon VII vs NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark database shows a single direct head-to-head comparison between the AMD Radeon VII and the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation, and it is a decisive victory for the NVIDIA card. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 5880 Ada Generation scored 326,898 points, while the Radeon VII managed 91,947 points. That represents a delta of -71.9% for the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA GPU is roughly 3.5 times faster in raw compute throughput as measured by this workload.

The magnitude of this gap is striking, but it is not entirely surprising given the generational and architectural chasm between the two products. The Radeon VII is an end-of-life product from 2019, while the RTX 5880 Ada Generation is an active workstation part from 2024. The OpenCL test is heavily compute-bound, and the RTX 5880's advantage in shading units, texture units, and FP32 throughput is enormous. The data shows that in this specific metric, the NVIDIA card completely outclasses the AMD offering.

Looking beyond the head-to-head, the average benchmark scores from the database tell a more nuanced story about where each card sits in the broader GPU landscape. The Radeon VII has an average benchmark score of 66,004 across all recorded tests, which places it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733 average score, -1.1% delta), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (65,095, +1.4%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (64,212, +2.8%), and the NVIDIA CMP 30HX (63,842, +3.4%). These are tight margins, with the Radeon VII essentially trading blows with professional and mining-focused cards from the same era.

The RTX 5880 Ada Generation, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 45,972, which puts it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (46,043, -0.2%), the Intel Arc A730M (45,592, +0.8%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,384, +1.3%), and the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (46,601, -1.4%). This is a curious result: the RTX 5880's average score is pulled down by its Passmark results, which include some very low DirectX scores (70 in DirectX 12, 167 in DirectX 10). These Passmark numbers likely reflect driver or workload-specific quirks rather than raw compute capability, since the Geekbench OpenCL score is far more representative of its theoretical peak.

The contradiction between the head-to-head result and the average scores is worth highlighting. In the direct comparison, the RTX 5880 is overwhelmingly faster. Yet when averaged across all database tests, the Radeon VII comes out ahead (66,004 vs 45,972). This is because the Radeon VII only has recorded benchmarks in Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan, plus a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, all of which are reasonably strong. The RTX 5880's average is dragged down by Passmark tests that may not be optimized for Ada Lovelace architecture.

Where Each One Wins

The data suggests a clear split in workload suitability. The RTX 5880 Ada Generation wins decisively in compute-heavy, OpenCL-based workloads. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 326,898 versus 91,947 is not a marginal advantage; it is a landslide. This indicates that for general-purpose GPU computing, scientific simulations, or any task that leverages OpenCL, the NVIDIA card is the superior choice by a wide margin.

The Radeon VII, despite its age, holds its own in the database's aggregate metrics. Its 90th percentile ranking versus the RTX 5880's 85th percentile suggests that in the specific tests recorded for the AMD card, it performs very well relative to the entire GPU population. The Radeon VII's strengths appear to lie in its memory subsystem: 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus delivers 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth, which is actually higher than the RTX 5880's 864.0 GB/s from 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus. For bandwidth-sensitive applications, the Radeon VII's HBM2 could be an advantage, though the RTX 5880's much larger frame buffer (48 GB) is clearly superior for large datasets.

In gaming-adjacent workloads, the Radeon VII's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,304 is its only DirectX data point. The RTX 5880's Passmark DirectX results are inconsistent: a 335 in DirectX 9, 228 in DirectX 11, 167 in DirectX 10, and only 70 in DirectX 12. These numbers are puzzling and likely do not reflect real-world gaming performance, especially given the RTX 5880's 69.27 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The database does not include a direct gaming benchmark comparison, so the only reliable cross-card data is OpenCL. In that test, the RTX 5880 wins outright.

For professional visualization, the RTX 5880's 110 RT cores and 440 tensor cores suggest it is built for ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, though the database does not include specific RT or tensor benchmark scores. The Radeon VII has no RT or tensor cores at all, meaning it lacks hardware acceleration for those tasks entirely.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is vast, reflecting nearly five years of GPU development. The AMD Radeon VII is built on the Vega 20 chip using GCN 5.1 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It contains 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm². The NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation uses the AD102 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, also from TSMC but on a 5 nm node. It packs 76,300 million transistors onto a 609 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 125.3 million per mm². The RTX 5880 has more than 5.7 times the transistor count and more than 3 times the density.

Core configurations differ dramatically. The Radeon VII has 3,840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 5880 has 14,080 shading units, 440 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The NVIDIA card also includes 110 RT cores and 440 tensor cores, while the Radeon VII has none. This makes the RTX 5880 a far more capable part for real-time ray tracing and AI inference, whereas the Radeon VII is purely a rasterization and compute GPU.

Clock speeds tell an interesting story. The Radeon VII has a base clock of 1400 MHz and a boost clock of 1750 MHz. The RTX 5880 has a lower base clock of 975 MHz but a much higher boost clock of 2460 MHz. The NVIDIA card's boost behavior is clearly more aggressive, contributing to its massive FP32 throughput advantage: 69.27 TFLOPS versus 13.44 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is even more lopsided in terms of capability: the RTX 5880 delivers 69.27 TFLOPS at 1:1 ratio, while the Radeon VII offers 26.88 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio.

Memory architecture is a key differentiator. The Radeon VII uses 16 GB of HBM2 with a 4096-bit memory bus, achieving 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5880 uses 48 GB of GDDR6 with a 384-bit bus, delivering 864.0 GB/s. The Radeon VII has higher raw bandwidth, but the RTX 5880 has three times the capacity. The effective memory clock is 2 Gbps on the Radeon VII versus 18 Gbps on the RTX 5880, though the bus width difference compensates.

The RTX 5880 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon VII is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX 5880 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The Radeon VII supports DirectX 12 (12_1), Vulkan 1.3, and has 1x HDMI 2.0b plus 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. Both cards are dual-slot, but the Radeon VII is longer (280 mm vs 267 mm), taller (125 mm vs 112 mm), and wider (40 mm vs unspecified). Power requirements are similar: 295 W TDP for the Radeon VII versus 285 W for the RTX 5880, with both suggesting a 600 W PSU. The Radeon VII uses 2x 8-pin connectors, while the RTX 5880 uses a single 16-pin connector.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation scores 326,898 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to 91,947 for the AMD Radeon VII, a delta of -71.9% for the AMD card.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Radeon VII has an average benchmark score of 66,004 across all recorded tests, placing it in the 90th percentile. The RTX 5880 has an average score of 45,972, placing it in the 85th percentile.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The RTX 5880 has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the Radeon VII has 16 GB of HBM2. The Radeon VII has higher memory bandwidth at 1.02 TB/s versus 864.0 GB/s.

Q: Does the Radeon VII support ray tracing?

A: No, the Radeon VII has no RT cores. The RTX 5880 has 110 RT cores and 440 tensor cores for ray tracing and AI acceleration.

Q: What are the transistor counts?

A: The Radeon VII has 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die. The RTX 5880 has 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die.

Q: Which card is newer?

A: The Radeon VII was released on 2019-02-06 and is end-of-life. The RTX 5880 was released on 2024-01-04 and is active. The RTX 5880's predecessor is Workstation Ampere, and its successor is Blackwell PRO W.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon VII | NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation |

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

| Architecture | GCN 5.1 | Ada Lovelace |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 13,230 million | 76,300 million |

| Die Size | 331 mm² | 609 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 40.0M / mm² | 125.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1400 MHz | 975 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1750 MHz | 2460 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1000 MHz, 2 Gbps effective | 2250 MHz, 18 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 16 GB | 48 GB |

| Memory Type | HBM2 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 4096 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 1.02 TB/s | 864.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 14080 |

| TMUs | 240 | 440 |

| ROPs | 64 | 176 |

| RT Cores | None | 110 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 440 |

| Pixel Rate | 112.0 GPixel/s | 433.0 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 420.0 GTexel/s | 1,082.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 13.44 TFLOPS | 69.27 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1) | 69.27 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 295 W | 285 W |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 16-pin |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | 4x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Length | 280 mm (11 inches) | 267 mm (10.5 inches) |

| Height | 125 mm (4.9 inches) | 112 mm (4.4 inches) |

| Width | 40 mm (1.6 inches) | Not specified |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2019-02-06 | 2024-01-04 |

| Predecessor | Vega | Workstation Ampere |

| Successor | Navi | Blackwell PRO W |

| Launch MSRP | 699 USD | Not available |