NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell occupy vastly different positions in NVIDIA’s lineup, yet benchmark data places them closer in average score than their architectural gap suggests. The RTX 3070, an Ampere-generation card from 2020, averages 17,208 across multiple tests, while the Blackwell-based RTX PRO 6000 averages 16,408 from a single 3DMark Steel Nomad run. That 4.9% difference in average score, however, masks a dramatic split in workload characteristics, as the head-to-head test shows the RTX PRO 6000 leading by 80.7% in native DX12 performance. This page breaks down what each card does well, where the numbers diverge, and which user should prioritize which part.

The Verdict

From the data, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell is the clear choice for anyone running 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 workloads. Its score of 16,408 versus the RTX 3070’s 3,162 represents an 80.7% lead—a margin so large that the RTX 3070 cannot reasonably compete in that specific test. The RTX PRO 6000 also offers 96 GB of GDDR7 memory, a 512-bit bus, and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, which the benchmark results reflect indirectly through its superior frame generation and compute throughput. For professional rendering, simulation, or any task that scales with memory capacity and raw shader output, the RTX PRO 6000 is the only rational pick.

Conversely, the RTX 3070’s average score of 17,208, derived from a broader suite including Geekbench OpenCL, Vulkan, and Passmark tests, shows it holds its own in mixed compute and legacy API scenarios. Its 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest, but the card’s 61st percentile versus the RTX PRO 6000’s 59th percentile indicates that, across all GPUs, the older card sits slightly higher in aggregate performance distribution. That said, the RTX 3070’s only benchmark win in the head-to-head is nonexistent—it loses the sole shared test by 80.7%. So, for gaming or general-purpose compute where the 3DMark Steel Nomad result is not representative, the RTX 3070 may still serve, but the data does not support it as a superior product.

The verdict is straightforward: if the workload involves the specific DX12 test measured, the RTX PRO 6000 is overwhelmingly faster. If the workload spans diverse benchmarks—OpenCL, Vulkan, directX 9 through 12—the RTX 3070’s higher average score suggests it is more balanced, though its end-of-life status and lower memory capacity limit its future-proofing. The RTX PRO 6000 is active in production, while the RTX 3070 is listed as end-of-life, which further tilts long-term investment toward the Blackwell card.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 averages 17,208 across its benchmark suite, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell averages 16,408. The RTX 3070 leads by 4.9% in average score, but that figure includes multiple test types, whereas the RTX PRO 6000’s score comes from a single 3DMark Steel Nomad run.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the head-to-head benchmark?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX PRO 6000 scores 16,408 versus the RTX 3070’s 3,162, a deltaPct of -80.7%. That means the RTX PRO 6000 is 80.7% faster in this specific workload, making it the decisive winner in that comparison.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell has 96 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3070 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s. The RTX PRO 6000’s memory capacity is 12 times larger, and its bandwidth is roughly four times higher.

Q: Are these cards from the same architecture generation?

A: No. The RTX 3070 uses the GA104 chip on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process. The RTX PRO 6000 uses the GB202 chip on Blackwell 2.0, built on TSMC’s 5 nm node. The transistor counts differ significantly: 17,400 million versus 92,200 million.

Q: What do the percentile ranks indicate?

A: The RTX 3070 sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX PRO 6000 sits at the 59th percentile. Despite the RTX PRO 6000’s massive lead in the head-to-head test, its average score places it slightly lower than the RTX 3070 when compared against the entire GPU database.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 boosts to 2617 MHz, while the RTX 3070 boosts to 1725 MHz. The RTX PRO 6000’s boost clock is 51.7% higher, contributing to its superior pixel and texture rates (502.5 GPixel/s and 1,968.0 GTexel/s versus 165.6 GPixel/s and 317.4 GTexel/s).

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures. The RTX 3070 uses GA104, an Ampere design manufactured on Samsung’s 8 nm process, with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell uses GB202, a Blackwell 2.0 design on TSMC’s 5 nm node, packing 92,200 million transistors into a 750 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: 44.4M per mm² for the RTX 3070 versus 122.9M per mm² for the RTX PRO 6000, a 2.8x increase in packing efficiency.

Core counts diverge sharply. The RTX 3070 has 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000 quadruples the shading units to 24,064, increases TMUs to 752, and doubles ROPs to 192. Ray tracing cores scale from 46 on the RTX 3070 to 188 on the RTX PRO 6000, and tensor cores jump from 184 to 752. These raw counts translate directly into throughput: the RTX PRO 6000 delivers 126.0 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 compute, versus 20.31 TFLOPS for the RTX 3070, a 6.2x advantage.

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The RTX 3070 uses GDDR6 with a 256-bit bus, while the RTX PRO 6000 uses GDDR7 with a 512-bit bus. The effective memory clock is 14 Gbps for the RTX 3070 and 28 Gbps for the RTX PRO 6000, resulting in bandwidths of 448.0 GB/s and 1.79 TB/s, respectively. The RTX PRO 6000 also supports PCIe 5.0 x16, whereas the RTX 3070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, doubling the interface bandwidth for data transfers.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification field. Process node: 8 nm (Samsung) versus 5 nm (TSMC). Transistor count: 17,400 million versus 92,200 million. Die size: 392 mm² versus 750 mm². Base and boost clocks: 1500 MHz and 1725 MHz for the RTX 3070, versus 1590 MHz and 2617 MHz for the RTX PRO 6000. Memory size, type, bus width, and bandwidth all differ: 8 GB GDDR6 on 256-bit with 448.0 GB/s, versus 96 GB GDDR7 on 512-bit with 1.79 TB/s.

Compute resources are not comparable in scale: shading units 5,888 versus 24,064, TMUs 184 versus 752, ROPs 96 versus 192, RT cores 46 versus 188, and tensor cores 184 versus 752. Pixel rate is 165.6 GPixel/s versus 502.5 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 317.4 GTexel/s versus 1,968.0 GTexel/s. FP32 and FP16 performance is 20.31 TFLOPS versus 126.0 TFLOPS. TDP is 220 W versus 600 W, and the suggested PSU is 550 W versus 1000 W. Power connectors differ: 1x 12-pin versus 1x 16-pin. Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a versus 4x DisplayPort 2.1b. Physical dimensions also change: 242 mm length, 112 mm height for the RTX 3070, versus 304 mm length, 137 mm height, and 40 mm width for the RTX PRO 6000. Release dates are 2020-08-31 versus 2025-03-17, and the RTX 3070 is end-of-life while the RTX PRO 6000 is active.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only shared benchmark in the data is 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and the result is lopsided. The RTX PRO 6000 scores 16,408, while the RTX 3070 manages 3,162. The deltaPct of -80.7% indicates the RTX 3070 is 80.7% slower in this test, making the RTX PRO 6000 the undisputed leader. This margin is not incremental; it is a generational leap in raw DX12 performance, driven by the RTX PRO 6000’s 6.2x higher FP32 throughput, 4.1x more shading units, and 4x larger memory bandwidth.

For the RTX 3070, its wins come from the broader benchmark suite, though no single head-to-head victory is recorded. Its average score of 17,208 is 4.9% higher than the RTX PRO 6000’s 16,408, but that average includes tests like Geekbench OpenCL (112,821), Geekbench Vulkan (21,022), and Passmark G3D (22,214), none of which appear for the RTX PRO 6000. The RTX 3070 also shows strength in Passmark DirectX 9 (247) and DirectX 11 (182), suggesting legacy API performance remains competitive. The RTX PRO 6000’s single benchmark score, however, is 80.7% higher than the RTX 3070’s in the same test, indicating that any workload resembling Steel Nomad will see massive gains.

The wins count stands at 0 for the RTX 3070 and 1 for the RTX PRO 6000 in the head-to-head comparison. That single win, though, is decisive enough to define the comparison: the RTX PRO 6000 is the faster card in the measured DX12 scenario, while the RTX 3070’s higher average score comes from a more varied test set that does not include the same DX12 stressor. Benchmark results indicate that for users focused on modern DX12 performance, the RTX PRO 6000 is overwhelmingly superior, while those relying on older APIs or diverse compute loads may find the RTX 3070’s balanced profile more familiar, albeit with far less memory and compute headroom.