AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data splits this comparison sharply. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 wins 9 of the 10 head-to-head benchmark tests, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT takes a single, but massive, victory. The RTX 3080 dominates in raw compute, DirectX workloads, and overall 3D performance. The RX 6700 XT is the clear choice only for users prioritizing Vulkan performance, where it leads by a staggering 178.1% in the Geekbench Vulkan test. For every other measured workload, the RTX 3080 is the stronger card, often by significant margins. The RTX 3080 also holds a higher average benchmark score in the database (27,425 vs. 23,172 for the RX 6700 XT), despite the RX 6700 XT having a higher percentile rank among all GPUs (72nd vs. 68th). This suggests the RTX 3080's wins are in heavier, more demanding tests, while the RX 6700 XT's single Vulkan win is an outlier that inflates its relative standing.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3080's dominance is comprehensive across almost every category. It wins in DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests, with margins ranging from 6.2% (DirectX 9) to 27.1% (DirectX 10). It also wins in 2D graphics (Passmark G2D), full 3D graphics (Passmark G3D), and GPU compute (Passmark GPU Compute). Its lead in the modern 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is a decisive 44.7%. The most extreme win for the RTX 3080 is in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where it scores 152,423 versus the RX 6700 XT's 44,152, a 71% difference. This points to a massive advantage in general-purpose compute through OpenCL.

The RX 6700 XT's sole win is in the Geekbench Vulkan test. Its score of 93,500 dwarfs the RTX 3080's 33,620, a 178.1% advantage. This is a singular, exceptional result. It indicates that for applications and games that use the Vulkan API, the RX 6700 XT can outperform the RTX 3080 by a wide margin, a fact that does not translate to any other benchmark in the database. No other test shows the RX 6700 XT even being competitive, with its closest loss being 6.2% in DirectX 9.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT uses the Navi 22 chip, based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, and is fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It contains 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 51.3M per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 uses the GA102 chip, based on the Ampere architecture, and is built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 28,300 million transistors onto a much larger 628 mm² die, with a lower transistor density of 45.1M per mm².

These architectural differences translate to distinct hardware configurations. The RTX 3080 has 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. It also features 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. The RX 6700 XT has far fewer: 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 40 ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 3080 also has a significant FP32 compute advantage, rated at 29.77 TFLOPS versus the RX 6700 XT's 13.21 TFLOPS. The RTX 3080's FP16 performance is identical to its FP32 (1:1 ratio), while the RX 6700 XT's FP16 is exactly double its FP32 (2:1 ratio). Memory configurations also differ sharply: the RTX 3080 uses 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 384.0 GB/s. Both support PCIe 4.0 x16 and the same API set (DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.4).

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 27,425, which is higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT's average of 23,172.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to the RX 6700 XT in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test?

A: The RTX 3080 scores 4,407, which is 44.7% higher than the RX 6700 XT's score of 2,435.

Q: Is there any test where the RX 6700 XT wins?

A: Yes, in the Geekbench Vulkan benchmark, the RX 6700 XT scores 93,500, while the RTX 3080 scores 33,620, giving the RX 6700 XT a 178.1% lead.

Q: What is the difference in GPU compute performance?

A: The RTX 3080 scores 14,397 in the Passmark GPU Compute test, which is 35.2% ahead of the RX 6700 XT's score of 9,336.

Q: Which card has more memory and what type?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory.

Q: How do their transistor counts differ?

A: The RTX 3080 has 28,300 million transistors on its GA102 chip, while the RX 6700 XT has 17,200 million transistors on its Navi 22 chip.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark results in the database are unambiguous. The RTX 3080 wins decisively in nearly every test, with margins that range from moderate to extreme. The largest victory for the RTX 3080 is in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where its score of 152,423 is 71% higher than the RX 6700 XT's 44,152. This is followed by the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the RTX 3080's 4,407 is 44.7% ahead of the RX 6700 XT's 2,435. The RTX 3080 also leads by 35.2% in Passmark GPU Compute (14,397 vs. 9,336) and by 27.1% in Passmark DirectX 10 (170 vs. 124).

In the primary 3D graphics test, Passmark G3D, the RTX 3080 scores 25,086, a 21.1% advantage over the RX 6700 XT's 19,786. The DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 tests show similar patterns, with the RTX 3080 leading by 16.4% (207 vs. 173) and 23% (100 vs. 77), respectively. Even in the older DirectX 9 test, the RTX 3080 holds a 6.2% lead (258 vs. 242). The 2D graphics test also favors the RTX 3080, with a score of 1,054 versus 951, a 9.8% difference.

The single exception to this pattern is the Geekbench Vulkan test. Here, the RX 6700 XT delivers a score of 93,500, which is 178.1% higher than the RTX 3080's 33,620. This is the only test where the RX 6700 XT not only wins but wins by a landslide, and it stands in stark contrast to the OpenCL result, which heavily favors the RTX 3080. This suggests that the two cards have very different strengths depending on the compute API used, but for the vast majority of the recorded benchmarks, the NVIDIA card is the superior performer.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in almost every major specification category. The process node differs: AMD uses 7 nm from TSMC, while NVIDIA uses 8 nm from Samsung. The die size is significantly different, with the RTX 3080's 628 mm² being nearly double the RX 6700 XT's 335 mm². Transistor counts also diverge, with the RTX 3080 holding 28,300 million versus 17,200 million for the RX 6700 XT.

Clock speeds are configured differently. The RX 6700 XT has a higher base clock at 2321 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, plus a game clock of 2424 MHz. The RTX 3080 has a lower base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, with no game clock listed. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 6700 XT runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective, while the RTX 3080 runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective.

The memory subsystem is a major point of divergence. The RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3080 has 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. The compute unit counts are vastly different: the RTX 3080 has 8,704 shading units, 272 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 68 RT cores, and 272 tensor cores. The RX 6700 XT has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 40 RT cores, with no tensor cores. This leads to different pixel and texture rates, with the RTX 3080 achieving 465.1 GTexel/s versus 413.0 GTexel/s for the RX 6700 XT, and similar pixel rates of 164.2 and 165.2 GPixel/s, respectively.

Power and physical requirements also differ. The RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320 W, a suggested PSU of 700 W, and a single 12-pin power connector. The RX 6700 XT has a TDP of 230 W, a suggested PSU of 550 W, and uses 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors. Both are dual-slot cards, but the RTX 3080 is longer at 285 mm (11.2 inches) versus 267 mm (10.5 inches) for the RX 6700 XT. Their heights are nearly identical at 112 mm and 110 mm, and both are 40 mm wide. The RTX 3080 was released on 2020-08-31, while the RX 6700 XT followed on 2021-03-02. Both are end-of-life products, and their display outputs are identical: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.