NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 vs NVIDIA Quadro K5200 Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data presents an unambiguous outcome: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 outperforms the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 in every benchmark where both cards have results. The RTX 2080 holds an average benchmark score of 22895 across all tests, while the Quadro K5200 averages 19602. The delta is substantial, with the RTX 2080 finishing 380% ahead in Geekbench OpenCL and 434.2% ahead in Geekbench Vulkan. The RTX 2080 also sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, four points higher than the Quadro K5200 at the 64th percentile.

The Quadro K5200 is not without context, however. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD FirePro D300 at a 0.2% deficit, the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT at 0.8% behind, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX actually trailing it by 1%, which indicates the K5200 holds its own within its immediate performance cluster. The RTX 2080, by contrast, trades blows with the Intel Arc B580 (0.5% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (0.7% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (1.2% behind), while leading the RTX 4060 Mobile by 0.7%. The data suggests the RTX 2080 is the clear pick for anyone prioritizing raw compute performance, while the Quadro K5200 remains relevant only in scenarios where its specific feature set or legacy compatibility matters, as its raw scores lag far behind.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2080 wins every head-to-head comparison in the database. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 scores 91313 against the Quadro K5200's 19024, a 380% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2080 scores 107797 against 20180, a 434.2% advantage. The RTX 2080 also has a much broader benchmark footprint, with results across PassMark DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute, plus 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, while the Quadro K5200 only has Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan entries in the database. The K5200 has no recorded wins in any shared test, so the use-case split is one-sided: the RTX 2080 dominates compute and graphics workloads alike. The Quadro K5200's only claim to a distinct position is its legacy Quadro driver branch and its 8 GB GDDR5 memory, but the RTX 2080 matches that capacity with GDDR6, so even the memory size advantage is absent.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different NVIDIA generations with fundamentally different designs. The RTX 2080 uses the TU104 chip on the Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.0M per mm². The Quadro K5200 uses the GK110B chip on the Kepler architecture, built on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC, with 7,080 million transistors on a 561 mm² die, for a density of 12.6M per mm². The RTX 2080 crams nearly twice the transistors into a slightly smaller die, and the process shrink explains much of the performance gap.

The clock speeds differ dramatically. The RTX 2080 runs at a 1515 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost, while the Quadro K5200 runs at 667 MHz base and 771 MHz boost. Memory also diverges: the RTX 2080 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the Quadro K5200 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on the same 256-bit bus but with only 192.3 GB/s. The RTX 2080 has 2944 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, versus 2304 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 48 ROPs on the K5200. The RTX 2080 also brings hardware features the K5200 lacks entirely: 46 ray tracing cores and 368 tensor cores. The K5200 has no RT cores and no tensor cores, a structural limitation that shows in the absence of any DirectX ray tracing or AI-accelerated workload data.

Pixel and texture rates reinforce the gap. The RTX 2080 reaches 109.4 GPixel/s and 314.6 GTexel/s, while the Quadro K5200 reaches 37.01 GPixel/s and 148.0 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 10.07 TFLOPS for the RTX 2080 versus 3.553 TFLOPS for the K5200. The RTX 2080 also supports FP16 at 20.14 TFLOPS (2:1), while the K5200 has no FP16 data recorded. The RTX 2080 exposes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the K5200 tops out at DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both cards use PCIe 3.0 x16 and are dual-slot, but the RTX 2080 requires a 215 W TDP with 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors and a 550 W suggested PSU, while the K5200 draws 150 W with a single 6-pin connector and a 450 W suggested PSU. The RTX 2080 is also newer, released on 2018-09-19, versus the K5200's 2014-07-21 release.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 2080 dominates. In Geekbench OpenCL it scores 91313 versus 19024, a 380% lead, and in Geekbench Vulkan it scores 107797 versus 20180, a 434.2% lead.

Q: Do both cards have the same memory capacity?

A: Yes, both have 8 GB, but the RTX 2080 uses GDDR6 with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Quadro K5200 uses GDDR5 with 192.3 GB/s.

Q: Does the Quadro K5200 support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The K5200 has no RT cores and no tensor cores, while the RTX 2080 includes 46 RT cores and 368 tensor cores.

Q: How do the two cards compare in API support?

A: The RTX 2080 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Quadro K5200 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Q: What is the performance percentile for each card?

A: The RTX 2080 sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, while the Quadro K5200 sits at the 64th percentile.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The RTX 2080 has 2944 shading units, compared to 2304 on the Quadro K5200.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains two shared benchmarks between the RTX 2080 and the Quadro K5200, and both are decisive wins for the RTX 2080.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 scores 91313 against the Quadro K5200's 19024. That is a 380% delta, meaning the RTX 2080 delivers nearly five times the OpenCL compute throughput. This test is particularly relevant for general-purpose GPU workloads, and the margin suggests the architectural gap between Turing and Kepler is not incremental but generational. The K5200's 19024 score places it near its own rival cluster, which includes the AMD FirePro D300 (19637, 0.2% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (19765, 0.8% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (19410, 1% behind). The RTX 2080's 91313, by contrast, sits far above its nearest rivals in the overall average score comparison, where it is within 1.2% of the RTX 3080.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2080 scores 107797 against 20180, a 434.2% delta. This is an even larger margin than OpenCL. The RTX 2080's Vulkan result reflects its modern driver stack and hardware features, including the Turing architecture's improved scheduling and the presence of dedicated tensor and RT cores that the K5200 lacks. The K5200's 20180 Vulkan score is barely above its OpenCL result, indicating that the older GPU gains little from the Vulkan API path.

Beyond the shared tests, the RTX 2080 has a much richer benchmark history. It records 18720 in PassMark G3D, 7872 in GPU Compute, 223 in DirectX 9, 158 in DirectX 11, 136 in DirectX 10, 72 in DirectX 12, 907 in G2D, 158 in DirectX 10, and 136 in DirectX 10, plus 1752 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The Quadro K5200 has no PassMark or 3DMark entries at all, so the only comparison available is the two Geekbench tests, both of which the RTX 2080 wins by huge margins. The overall average score of 22895 for the RTX 2080 versus 19602 for the K5200 summarizes the story cleanly: the RTX 2080 is faster across the board in every measurable category, with no recorded counterexamples in the database.