NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell Comparison

# NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080: Benchmark Analysis

The database places the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 in a head-to-head comparison across nine benchmark suites. The Blackwell workstation card wins eight of those nine tests, but the GeForce holds one notable victory. The overall average benchmark score for the RTX PRO 4000 is 27,135, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the RTX 3080, posts an average score of 23,172, which is a 17.1% deficit. The gap is not uniform across tests, and the per-test results reveal a nuanced performance profile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive victory for the RTX PRO 4000 comes in the geekbench_vulkan test. Here the Blackwell card scores 194,168, while the Ampere card manages 33,620. That is a 477.5% advantage, the largest single-test margin in the entire comparison. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test also favors the RTX PRO 4000, with a score of 4,648 versus 4,407, a 5.5% edge. The Passmark G3D test shows a 13.3% lead for the RTX PRO 4000, scoring 28,427 against 25,086. The older DirectX 9 workload shows a 37.2% performance gap, with the Blackwell card scoring 354 against the RTX 3080's 258.

The RTX 3080 does strike back in one test: Passmark DirectX 12. Here, the Ampere card wins with a score of 100, while the RTX PRO 4000 scores 97, a 3% deficit. This is the only head-to-head loss for the Blackwell card. The remaining tests are closer calls. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RTX PRO 4000 scores 276, which is 33.3% ahead of the RTX 3080's 207. In Passmark GPU Compute, the PRO 4000 wins by 2.8%, scoring 14,805 against 14,397. The DirectX 10 test shows a 1.8% lead (161 to 158). In the g2d test, the RTX PRO 4000 leads by 20%, scoring 1,265 points. Finally, the Passmark DirectX 12 test shows the RTX 3080 ahead, but by the narrowest margin recorded in the comparison: the GeForce card scores 100, the RTX PRO 4000 scores 97, a delta of only 3%.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell excels in modern, compute-heavy workloads. Its decisive wins in Vulkan, Steel Nomad DX12, and Passmark G3D indicate strong raw geometry throughput and driver efficiency in modern APIs. The 477.5% lead in Vulkan is not a small edge; it represents a generational architecture advantage in low-level graphics compute. The score distribution shows this card is well ahead in every modern DirectX 12 and Vulkan workload.

The RTX 3080's single win in Passmark DirectX 12 is a specific scenario. The 3% margin is small, and the test may be sensitive to driver optimizations that favor this workload. It is the only test where the GeForce card's architecture posts a win, and it is a narrow one. In every other test, the RTX PRO 4000 leads, with margins ranging from 1.8% in DirectX 10 to 37.2% in DirectX 9. The GeForce's architecture is competitive in that one workload, but it cannot match the Blackwell in mixed or modern API tests.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent two distinct NVIDIA workstation and consumer architectures. The RTX PRO 4000 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, specifically the GB203 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 45,600 million transistors into a 378 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 120.6 million per square millimeter. The GeForce RTX 3080 uses the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm node, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, a density of 45.1 million per square millimeter.

These architectural differences are visible in the specification sheets. The RTX PRO 4000 has 8,960 shading units, 280 tensor cores, 96 ROPs, and 70 RT cores. The RTX 3080 has 8,704 shading units, 272 tensor cores, 96 ROPs, and 68 RT cores. The Blackwell card's clocks reach 1,230 MHz base and 2,055 MHz boost, while the Ampere card's base is 1,440 MHz and boost is 1,710 MHz. The RTX PRO features a 192-bit GDDR7 memory bus with 24 GB of memory, and the RTX 3080 has a 320-bit GDDR6X bus with 10 GB. In terms of memory bandwidth, the Blackwell card reaches 672.0 GB/s versus 760.3 GB/s for the 3080.

The Blackwell card draws 140 W total board power, while the 3080 has a 320 W TDP. The PRO 4000 is a single-slot card with a 16-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested PSU. The RTX 3080 is dual-slot with a 12-pin connector and a 700 W recommended PSU. The PRO 4000 has four DisplayPort 2.1b outputs and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the 3080 has one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, with DirectX 12 Ultimate support. The PRO 4000 measures 241 mm x 111 mm x 20 mm; the 3080 measures 285 mm x 112 mm x 40 mm.

The Verdict

The recorded data points to a clear split. If your workload primarily uses the latest DirectX 12 or Vulkan APIs, the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell is the stronger pick. It posts the highest score in seven of the nine tests, often by wide margins. The 477.5% Vulkan win and the 33% DirectX 11 win show that the Blackwell architecture has significant driver headroom in modern graphics APIs.

The RTX 3080 is the correct choice if your target application is specifically DirectX 12 based on the one test it wins. That 3% margin is within noise, but it is the only data point in favor of the Ampere card, and the RTX PRO 4000 is only 3% behind. For any general use case, the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell holds the majority of the wins, and it should be the default pick. The RTX 3080 wins only one of nine benchmarks, while the RTX PRO 4000 wins eight. The data is one-sided: the Blackwell platform is the faster GPU in the database for most modern graphics tests.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell has an average benchmark score of 27,135, which is 17.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080's 23,172.

Q: How much faster is the RTX PRO 4000 in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The RTX PRO 4000 scores 194,168 in geekbench_vulkan, versus 33,217 for the RTX 3080. This is a 477.5% advantage.

Q: In which test does the GeForce RTX 3080 win?

A: The RTX 3080 wins in passmark_directx_12, scoring 100 versus 97. This is a 3% margin, the only test win for the GeForce card.

Q: What is the memory configuration of both cards?

A: The RTX PRO 4000 has 24 GB of GDDR7 on a 192 bit bus, and the RTX 3080 has 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320 bit bus.

Q: What is the architecture and process node of each card?

A: The RTX PRO 4000 uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, on a 5 nm TSMC node. The RTX 3080 uses the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, on Samsung's 8 nm node.