NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs NVIDIA Quadro K2000D Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data presents an unusual comparison, as the two cards were measured under different test suites. The NVIDIA Quadro K2000D was evaluated with Geekbench OpenCL, producing a score of 3919, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB was tested with 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, yielding a score of 4791. Because these are distinct workloads, a direct head-to-head victory cannot be established from the database; instead, each card demonstrates its strengths within its respective test environment.

The Quadro K2000D, as a Kepler-generation professional card, is positioned for workstation tasks. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 3919 places it in the 23rd percentile of all GPUs in the database. This indicates that while it is not a high-performance part by modern standards, it remains functional for compute-oriented workloads that leverage OpenCL. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Quadro 2000D (avg score 3930, delta -0.3%), the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 (avg score 3898, delta +0.5%), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M (avg score 3953, delta -0.9%), and the AMD Radeon R5 Graphics (avg score 3883, delta +0.9%). The Quadro K2000D essentially trades blows with these entries, landing within a single percentage point of each.

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, by contrast, is an Ampere-generation consumer card aimed at high-end gaming and rendering. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4791 places it in the 28th percentile of all GPUs in the database. This score is notable because it was achieved under a modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workload, which exercises features such as ray tracing and mesh shaders. The RTX 3080 12 GB's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R5 M255 (avg score 4788, delta +0.1%), the AMD Radeon R5 M335 (avg score 4752, delta +0.8%), the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (avg score 4844, delta -1.1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M (avg score 4855, delta -1.3%). Again, the delta values are minimal, suggesting that the benchmark environment produces tightly clustered results for this particular test.

The use-case split is clear: the Quadro K2000D wins in legacy OpenCL compute scenarios typical of older professional applications, while the RTX 3080 12 GB wins in modern DirectX 12 gaming and content-creation workloads. The database's wins counters reflect this separation: the head-to-head benchmark array is empty, and both cards record zero wins against each other. This is not a deficiency in the data; it is a reflection of the fact that no shared benchmark exists between the two products in the database.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two NVIDIA cards is generational and substantive. The Quadro K2000D is built on the GK107 chip using the Kepler architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It contains 1,270 million transistors on a die size of 118 mm², yielding a transistor density of 10.8 million transistors per mm². The RTX 3080 12 GB uses the GA102 chip with the Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This chip packs 28,300 million transistors into a 628 mm² die, achieving a density of 45.1 million transistors per mm². The Ampere chip is over 22 times denser in raw transistor count and more than four times denser per square millimeter.

Memory subsystems are equally divergent. The Quadro K2000D ships with 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, running at 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective), for a bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s. The RTX 3080 12 GB offers 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective), yielding 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. That is a 14.3-fold increase in memory bandwidth, which directly impacts throughput in memory-bound workloads.

Compute resources scale accordingly. The Quadro K2000D has 384 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units. Its pixel rate is 7.632 GPixel/s, its texture rate is 30.53 GTexel/s, and its FP32 throughput is 732.7 GFLOPS. The RTX 3080 12 GB, in contrast, carries 8960 shading units, 280 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Its pixel rate reaches 164.2 GPixel/s, texture rate reaches 478.8 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance hits 30.64 TFLOPS. The RTX card also includes 70 ray tracing cores and 280 tensor cores, neither of which exist on the Kepler part. FP16 performance on the RTX 3080 12 GB is 30.64 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio to FP32, whereas the Quadro K2000D reports no FP16 capability.

Power and interface specifications further separate the two. The Quadro K2000D has a TDP of 51 W, requires no power connectors, and suggests a 250 W PSU. It uses a PCIe 2.0 x16 interface. The RTX 3080 12 GB draws 350 W, uses a single 12-pin power connector, suggests a 750 W PSU, and runs on PCIe 4.0 x16. The Quadro is single-slot and 202 mm long; the RTX is dual-slot, 285 mm long, and 40 mm wide. Display outputs also differ: the Quadro offers 2x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.2, while the RTX provides 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

API support highlights the generational leap. The Quadro K2000D supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The RTX 3080 12 GB supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate designation on the Ampere card enables hardware ray tracing and variable rate shading, features absent from the Kepler architecture.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no shared benchmark entries for these two cards, so a direct numerical comparison on identical workloads is not available. Instead, the analysis must rely on the individual benchmark scores and their relative positions within the database.

The Quadro K2000D's Geekbench OpenCL score of 3919 is within 0.3% of the NVIDIA Quadro 2000D (3930), within 0.5% of the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 (3898), within 0.9% of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M (3953), and within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon R5 Graphics (3883). These deltas are all sub-1%, placing the Quadro K2000D in a tightly contested cluster of legacy and low-end parts. Its 23rd percentile ranking confirms that it sits below the median of all GPUs in the database.

The RTX 3080 12 GB's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4791 is similarly close to its nearest rivals: the AMD Radeon R5 M255 (4788, +0.1%), the AMD Radeon R5 M335 (4752, +0.8%), the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (4844, -1.1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M (4855, -1.3%). These rival cards are not contemporary high-end parts; they are lower-tier mobile and older desktop GPUs. This clustering suggests that the Steel Nomad benchmark, at the settings used, does not strongly differentiate among these entries. The RTX 3080 12 GB's 28th percentile ranking is only five points higher than the Quadro K2000D's 23rd percentile, despite the massive architectural differences.

Interpreting these numbers requires caution: a Geekbench OpenCL score and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score are not directly comparable. The former measures raw compute throughput under a cross-platform API, while the latter evaluates a modern game-like DirectX 12 workload. The data shows that the RTX 3080 12 GB produces a higher absolute score (4791 vs 3919), but the different test conditions mean this cannot be read as a performance ratio. What the data does show is that the RTX 3080 12 GB is competitive within its benchmark cluster, and the Quadro K2000D is competitive within its own cluster, but neither dominates its respective field.

The wins counters confirm this: winsA is 0 and winsB is 0, with an empty head-to-head array. The database records no direct victory for either card, because no common workload exists in the measurements.

FAQ

Q: What benchmark was used for the NVIDIA Quadro K2000D?

A: The Quadro K2000D was tested with Geekbench OpenCL, producing a score of 3919.

Q: What benchmark was used for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB was tested with 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, producing a score of 4791.

Q: Which card has a higher memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB has a memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s, while the Quadro K2000D has a bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s.

Q: What is the transistor count difference between the two cards?

A: The Quadro K2000D contains 1,270 million transistors, while the RTX 3080 12 GB contains 28,300 million transistors.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The Quadro K2000D supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the RTX 3080 12 GB supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Q: What are the nearest rivals for the Quadro K2000D in the database?

A: The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro 2000D (3930, -0.3%), NVIDIA Quadro 2000 (3898, +0.5%), NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M (3953, -0.9%), and AMD Radeon R5 Graphics (3883, +0.9%).

The Verdict

The data does not support a direct winner, because the two cards were never measured on the same benchmark. The Quadro K2000D and the RTX 3080 12 GB occupy different performance tiers, different architectural generations, and different use-case categories.

For users working with legacy OpenCL compute workloads, the Quadro K2000D shows a score of 3919, which is competitive with its nearest database rivals (all within 0.9%). It is an end-of-life product from 2013, built on Kepler, with a 51 W TDP and no power connectors, making it suitable for low-power workstation environments that require DVI outputs and minimal cooling. Its 23rd percentile ranking indicates it sits below most GPUs in the database, but for its intended professional niche, it remains functional.

For users targeting modern DirectX 12 gaming or content creation, the RTX 3080 12 GB is the clear choice from the available data. Its 4791 score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 demonstrates capability in a current-generation graphics workload, and its 28th percentile ranking is slightly higher than the Quadro's. The architectural advantages are substantial: 8960 shading units versus 384, 912.4 GB/s bandwidth versus 64.00 GB/s, 30.64 TFLOPS FP32 versus 732.7 GFLOPS, and the inclusion of ray tracing and tensor cores. The 350 W TDP and dual-slot form factor are acceptable trade-offs for this level of compute capability.

The database's percentile rankings are the only common metric for comparison. The RTX 3080 12 GB sits at the 28th percentile, five points above the Quadro K2000D's 23rd percentile. This difference is modest, but it reflects the fact that the RTX card's benchmark ran under a more demanding test. Neither card reaches the upper half of the database, which suggests both are mid-to-low performers when measured against all GPUs.

The verdict, strictly from the data, is that the RTX 3080 12 GB is the more capable part for modern workloads, while the Quadro K2000D remains relevant only for specific legacy professional tasks. Users should select based on the workload: OpenCL compute on older software points to the Quadro, DirectX 12 gaming and rendering points to the RTX. The launch MSRP of the Quadro K2000D was 599 USD, and the RTX 3080 12 GB launched at 799 USD, but these figures do not alter the performance analysis. The data shows no head-to-head benchmark, so any direct comparison must be qualified by the different test conditions.