AMD Radeon RX 6800M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 6800M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile are both high-end laptop graphics processors, but the data shows a clear generational divide. The RX 6800M, built on RDNA 2.0 and released in 2021, is end-of-life. The RTX 4070 Mobile, using the newer Ada Lovelace architecture from 2023, is still active. While both cards sit within a single percentile point of each other in overall GPU rankings, a detailed look at the benchmark suite reveals that NVIDIA's offering is consistently faster across every single test recorded.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800M has a higher average benchmark score of 28874, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile's 27435. This puts the RX 6800M at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4070 Mobile sits at the 73rd percentile.

Q: Does the RTX 4070 Mobile ever win in a benchmark comparison?

A: Yes. In the head-to-head benchmark data, the RTX 4070 Mobile wins all 9 recorded tests. Its largest margin of victory is in the Passmark GPU Compute test, where it scores 8399 against the RX 6800M's 5032, a difference of 40.1%.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800M offers more memory capacity at 12 GB GDDR6, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile has 8 GB GDDR6. However, the RX 6800M also has a wider 192-bit bus, resulting in 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the RTX 4070 Mobile uses a 128-bit bus for 256.0 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile has a significantly higher transistor density at 121.8M / mm². This is because it is manufactured on a 5 nm process, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800M uses a 7 nm process and has a density of 51.3M / mm².

Q: When was each GPU released?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800M was released on 2021-05-30. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile was released later, on 2023-01-02.

Q: Are these GPUs comparable in their nearest rival performance?

A: The data shows they are in similar performance tiers. The RX 6800M's closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 570, with a 0.4% difference. The RTX 4070 Mobile's closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, which has a 0% deltaPct, indicating identical average scores.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two mobile GPUs is substantial, reflecting their different release generations. The AMD Radeon RX 6800M is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile utilizes the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD106 chip, produced on a more advanced 5 nm node.

This process shrink allows the RTX 4070 Mobile to pack more transistors into a smaller area. The RX 6800M has 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die, resulting in a density of 51.3M / mm². The RTX 4070 Mobile, on the other hand, contains 22,900 million transistors on a much smaller 188 mm² die, achieving a density of 121.8M / mm². This more than doubles the transistor density, enabling a fundamentally different compute layout.

The compute configurations differ as well. The RX 6800M has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It also features 40 dedicated ray tracing cores. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a higher count of 4608 shading units but fewer TMUs (144) and ROPs (48). It has 36 RT cores but also includes 144 tensor cores, which are absent from the AMD part. The tensor cores are key to NVIDIA's feature set, while the RX 6800M relies on its higher raw throughput in some areas.

Clock speeds also tell a story of design philosophy. The RX 6800M runs at a base clock of 2116 MHz and boosts to 2390 MHz, with a game clock of 2300 MHz. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a lower base clock of 1395 MHz and a boost of 1695 MHz. Despite lower clocks, the RTX 4070 Mobile achieves higher FP32 performance at 15.62 TFLOPS, compared to 12.24 TFLOPS for the RX 6800M. The AMD part shows a higher FP16 rate of 24.47 TFLOPS (2:1), while the NVIDIA part is listed at 15.62 TFLOPS (1:1).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is faster in every recorded test. The wins are not marginal; they are consistent and often significant. The largest single gap is in the Passmark GPU Compute test, where the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 8399 versus the RX 6800M's 5032, a delta of -40.1% from the AMD card's perspective.

In pure graphics rendering, the RTX 4070 Mobile also dominates. The Passmark G3D test shows a score of 19587 for the NVIDIA part against 13261 for the AMD part, a difference of 32.3%. Similar margins are seen in legacy DirectX tests. In Passmark DirectX 9, the RTX 4070 Mobile leads by 34.1% (223 vs 147). The DirectX 11 test shows a 29.1% lead (179 vs 127), and DirectX 12 shows a 23.5% lead (85 vs 65). The DirectX 10 test is closer, but the RTX 4070 Mobile still wins by 12.9% (116 vs 101).

The compute-oriented benchmarks also favor NVIDIA. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 109197, which is 19.8% higher than the RX 6800M's 87621. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a narrower but still decisive gap, with the RTX 4070 Mobile scoring 108367 against 94766, a 12.6% advantage. Even in the Passmark G2D test, which measures 2D graphics performance, the RTX 4070 Mobile wins by 29.5% (763 vs 538). The data shows a clean sweep with the RX 6800M recording zero wins and the RTX 4070 Mobile recording nine.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two GPUs show several clear differences. The most obvious is the manufacturing process: the AMD Radeon RX 6800M uses a 7 nm node, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile uses a 5 nm node. This leads to a major difference in die size and transistor density, with the NVIDIA part being smaller and denser.

Memory configuration is another key differentiator. The RX 6800M has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s. This means the AMD card has a clear advantage in memory capacity and bandwidth.

The compute units differ in count and type. The RX 6800M has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 40 RT cores. The RTX 4070 Mobile has 4608 shading units, 144 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 36 RT cores, and 144 tensor cores. The NVIDIA part has more shaders and adds tensor cores, but has fewer TMUs and ROPs.

Clock speeds and power draw also differ. The RX 6800M has a higher base clock (2116 MHz vs 1395 MHz) and boost clock (2390 MHz vs 1695 MHz). The RTX 4070 Mobile has a lower TDP of 115 W, compared to the RX 6800M's 145 W. The bus interface differs as well, with the RX 6800M using PCIe 4.0 x16 and the RTX 4070 Mobile using PCIe 4.0 x8. Production status and release dates are also different, with the RX 6800M being end-of-life and released in 2021, while the RTX 4070 Mobile is active and was released in 2023.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the performance data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the superior GPU. It wins every single head-to-head benchmark, with margins ranging from 12.6% to 40.1%. The data clearly indicates that, despite its lower clock speeds and lower memory bandwidth, the Ada Lovelace architecture and higher shading unit count allow it to outperform the older RDNA 2.0 part in all measured metrics.

The AMD Radeon RX 6800M retains advantages in specific areas that the benchmarks do not cover. It offers more memory (12 GB vs 8 GB) and higher memory bandwidth (384.0 GB/s vs 256.0 GB/s). It also has a higher average benchmark score overall, although this is influenced by a different set of tests. For users whose primary concern is raw performance in the tested applications, the RTX 4070 Mobile is the clear choice.

However, the RX 6800M is not without merit. Its higher memory capacity and bandwidth could be beneficial for certain workloads that do not appear in the benchmark suite, such as large texture loads or specific compute tasks. It also has a lower power draw in the form of a higher TDP, which is a counterintuitive point, but the data shows the RX 6800M at 145 W vs the RTX 4070 Mobile's 115 W. The choice depends on whether the user prioritizes the benchmark-proven performance of the NVIDIA card or the memory-centric advantages of the AMD card.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile wins in all nine recorded benchmark categories. This includes all Passmark DirectX tests (9, 10, 11, 12), Passmark G2D and G3D, Passmark GPU Compute, and both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests. Its largest wins are in GPU Compute and G3D, suggesting a strong advantage in general rendering and compute-heavy tasks. Its smaller, but still definitive, wins in Vulkan and DirectX 10 show it is also faster in modern and legacy graphics APIs alike.

The AMD Radeon RX 6800M does not win a single head-to-head benchmark. However, it holds advantages in the specification sheet that are not reflected in the benchmark scores. It has a larger memory pool of 12 GB, which is 50% more than the RTX 4070 Mobile's 8 GB. It also has a wider 192-bit memory bus, giving it 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, a 50% increase over the NVIDIA card's 256.0 GB/s. These specs could make it the better choice for scenarios where memory capacity and bandwidth are the limiting factors, even if the raw compute performance is lower. For users who prioritize the measured performance data, the RTX 4070 Mobile is the definitive winner. For those who value memory headroom above all else, the RX 6800M offers a distinct, spec-based advantage.