NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB Comparison

The database pits a low-power workstation card against a former flagship gaming GPU, and the recorded data leaves little ambiguity about the outcome. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB, built on Ampere and aimed at professional compact workstations, meets the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, a Turing-based GeForce card that still posts numbers rivaling modern mid-to-upper-tier parts. Both are end-of-life products now, both carry 12 Ultimate feature support, and both use GDDR6 memory, but the performance gap between them is wide. Across the two head-to-head benchmarks in the database, the 2080 Ti wins both, and it wins them by margins large enough to settle most purchase decisions on their own.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Only two tests exist with scores for both cards, and both go decisively to the GeForce card.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad (DirectX 12), the RTX 2080 Ti scores 3537 against 1309 for the RTX A2000 12 GB. That is a 63 percent advantage for the 2080 Ti, which the database records as the single largest gap on the page. A difference of that size is not a tier separation within one market segment, it is a separation between product classes: a flagship consumer die versus a small professional die running at a fraction of the power budget.

Geekbench OpenCL tells the same story with a smaller but still lopsided margin. The 2080 Ti records 128171 against 66998 for the A2000, a 47.7 percent win for the GeForce card. OpenCL results matter for general compute workloads, so this is not purely a gaming result: even in the GPU compute space where workstation cards are often assumed to hold an advantage, the recorded data favors the 2080 Ti by nearly half again the A2000's score.

The A2000 posts zero wins across the shared tests. Its individual results do include one notable data point: a 79 percentile ranking against all GPUs in the database, which is actually higher than the 2080 Ti's 75. That discrepancy comes from each card's overall average benchmark score and the differing test coverage, not from head-to-head results. The A2000's average score of 34154 edges the 2080 Ti's 29783, but the 2080 Ti carries ten recorded benchmarks against the A2000's two, and the head-to-head numbers are unambiguous.

Context from each card's nearest rivals reinforces the picture. The A2000 sits in a cluster with the AMD Radeon RX 560 XT (0.1 percent), the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (-0.2 percent), the AMD Radeon RX 480 (0.5 percent), and the NVIDIA TITAN V (-0.6 percent) on average score. The 2080 Ti's neighborhood includes the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (-0.5 percent), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (-0.5 percent), the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (-1 percent), and the AMD FirePro W8000 (2 percent). In practical terms, the 2080 Ti performs in the company of far newer and higher-tier cards.

The Verdict

For anyone choosing strictly on the recorded benchmark data, the RTX 2080 Ti is the pick for performance. It wins every shared test, wins them by 47.7 and 63 percent, and lands in a rival cluster that includes the RTX 3070 Ti and RX 6800. If the workload is rendering, compute, or gaming, the data favors it without qualification.

The A2000 12 GB argues for itself on every axis the benchmarks do not measure. Its thermal design power is 70 W versus 250 W, it requires no external power connectors versus the 2080 Ti's two 8-pin connectors, and the suggested power supply is 250 W versus 600 W. Its physical footprint is dramatically smaller: 167 mm long and 69 mm tall versus 267 mm long and 116 mm tall. It fits into compact systems the 2080 Ti physically cannot, and it connects over PCIe 4.0 x16 rather than PCIe 3.0 x16.

Pick the 2080 Ti when raw throughput matters and the case and power budget can absorb it. Pick the A2000 when the system is small, power-limited, or connector-limited, and when the 12 GB frame buffer and professional display output configuration matter more than the score column.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 2080 Ti than the RTX A2000 12 GB in the shared benchmarks?

A: The 2080 Ti wins 3DMark Steel Nomad by 63 percent (3537 versus 1309) and Geekbench OpenCL by 47.7 percent (128171 versus 66998). It won both shared tests.

Q: Does the RTX A2000 12 GB win any benchmark against the 2080 Ti?

A: No. The recorded head-to-head record is two wins for the 2080 Ti and zero for the A2000.

Q: Which card needs less power?

A: The A2000, by a wide margin. Its thermal design power is 70 W with no power connectors and a suggested 250 W supply, versus 250 W, two 8-pin connectors, and a suggested 600 W supply for the 2080 Ti.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores and percentile rankings compare?

A: The A2000 records an average benchmark score of 34154 and a 79 percentile ranking, while the 2080 Ti records 29783 and a 75 percentile ranking. The 2080 Ti's figure is drawn from a larger set of recorded tests.

Q: Which GPUs perform closest to each card?

A: The A2000 matches the AMD Radeon RX 560 XT, NVIDIA RTX A1000, AMD Radeon RX 480, and NVIDIA TITAN V within roughly half a percent on average score. The 2080 Ti sits near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 5070 Mobile, AMD Radeon RX 6800, and AMD FirePro W8000.

Q: Which card is physically smaller?

A: The A2000 measures 167 mm long and 69 mm tall, versus 267 mm long and 116 mm tall for the 2080 Ti.

Specification Differences

The cards diverge on nearly every hardware metric. The A2000 uses the GA106 chip on Ampere architecture, fabbed by Samsung on an 8 nm process, with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. The 2080 Ti uses the TU102 chip on Turing architecture, fabbed by TSMC on a 12 nm process, with 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die.

Resource counts favor the 2080 Ti across the board: 4352 shading units versus 3328, 272 TMUs versus 104, 88 ROPs versus 48, 68 RT cores versus 26, and 544 tensor cores versus 104. The 2080 Ti reaches 13.45 TFLOPS FP32 against 7.987 TFLOPS, and 26.90 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 rate against 7.987 TFLOPS at 1:1.

Clocks favor the 2080 Ti on paper too: 1350 MHz base and 1545 MHz boost versus 562 MHz base and 1200 MHz boost. Memory is more nuanced. The A2000 carries 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth; the 2080 Ti carries 11 GB on a much wider 352-bit bus with 616.0 GB/s of bandwidth, more than double the A2000's figure. Effective memory speed is 14 Gbps on the 2080 Ti versus 12 Gbps on the A2000.

Rates and outputs also differ: the 2080 Ti delivers 136.0 GPixel/s and 420.2 GTexel/s against 57.60 GPixel/s and 124.8 GTexel/s. Both are dual-slot cards, but the A2000 offers four mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs while the 2080 Ti provides one HDMI 2.0, three DisplayPort 1.4a, and one USB Type-C. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 on the A2000 versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the 2080 Ti. Release dates were 2021-11-22 for the A2000 and 2018-09-19 for the 2080 Ti; launch MSRP was 449 USD for the A2000 and 999 USD for the 2080 Ti. Both cards are end-of-life, and both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The 2080 Ti is a Turing-generation GeForce card; the A2000 is a Workstation Ampere (Ax000) part, succeeding Quadro Turing and leading toward Workstation Ada. Ampere gives the A2000 the newer process: Samsung 8 nm versus TSMC 12 nm. That shows directly in transistor density, 43.5 million per square millimeter on the A2000 against 24.7 million on the 2080 Ti, even though the 2080 Ti's much larger die holds far more transistors in total.

The A2000's Ampere design runs FP16 at a 1:1 rate with FP32, both at 7.987 TFLOPS, while the 2080 Ti's Turing design runs FP16 at 2:1, reaching 26.90 TFLOPS. Both architectures include RT cores and tensor cores, but the 2080 Ti fields substantially more of each. The 2080 Ti descends from GeForce 10 and was succeeded by GeForce 30; the A2000 continues the professional lineage.

Where Each One Wins

The 2080 Ti wins everywhere performance is measured. Its 63 percent Steel Nomad margin covers rasterized and DirectX 12 gaming workloads, and its 47.7 percent OpenCL margin covers general compute. Its 616.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, 88 ROPs, and 13.45 TFLOPS FP32 make it the choice for high-resolution rendering, compute kernels, and any task where throughput is the constraint. Its PassMark records, including 21548 in G3D and 10056 in GPU compute, along with DirectX 9 through 12 subtests, further document its breadth.

The A2000 12 GB wins on deployment constraints. At 70 W with no power connectors, a 250 W suggested supply, and a 167 mm length, it fits small-form-factor and power-limited systems where the 2080 Ti is simply not installable. Its 12 GB of memory slightly exceeds the 2080 Ti's 11 GB, which can matter for large datasets or professional scene work. Its four mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs suit multi-monitor professional setups, and its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface matches newer platforms. The launch MSRP was 449 USD against 999 USD for the 2080 Ti.

In short: buy the 2080 Ti for speed, buy the A2000 for fit, power, and professional connectivity. The benchmark data supports nothing else.