AMD Radeon RX 7800M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile and AMD Radeon RX 7800M represent two distinct approaches to high-performance mobile graphics, and the benchmark data reveals a clear split in their strengths. Across the nine head-to-head tests, the NVIDIA part wins seven, while the AMD part takes two, but the margins in those two wins are significant, and the overall average benchmark scores tell a more nuanced story. The RTX 5070 Mobile posts an average benchmark score of 29928, placing it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 7800M averages 27883, sitting in the 73rd percentile. This puts the NVIDIA part roughly 7.3% ahead in aggregate, but the specific workloads where each card excels are sharply defined.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive victory for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile comes in the legacy DirectX 10 test, where it scores 129 against the AMD Radeon RX 7800M's 99, a 30.3% advantage. This is not an isolated case; the NVIDIA part also leads by 23% in DirectX 9 (214 vs 174) and by 9.1% in DirectX 11 (192 vs 176). These results suggest that the RTX 5070 Mobile handles older API workloads with considerably more efficiency, likely due to its architectural approach to instruction processing. The DirectX 12 test shows a narrower gap, with the NVIDIA card winning 93 to 89, a 4.5% margin, indicating that the gap closes somewhat as workloads become more modern and parallelized.

In the 3D gaming-oriented Passmark G3D benchmark, the RTX 5070 Mobile is clearly stronger, scoring 20355 against the RX 7800M's 17613, a 15.6% lead. This is a substantial difference in raw rasterization performance for gaming scenarios. The 2D test is effectively a tie, with the NVIDIA part scoring 896 and the AMD part 892, a 0.4% margin that is within noise. However, the AMD Radeon RX 7800M strikes back decisively in compute-oriented workloads. In the Passmark GPU Compute test, it scores 9342 versus the NVIDIA card's 8279, representing an 11.4% advantage for AMD. Furthermore, in the Geekbench Vulkan test, the AMD part wins with a score of 126668 against 116960, a 7.7% margin, while the Geekbench OpenCL test is extremely close, with NVIDIA edging out a 1.2% win (122238 vs 120778).

The data indicates that the RTX 5070 Mobile's wins are concentrated in the Passmark suite and legacy DirectX APIs, while the RX 7800M's wins are in modern compute and Vulkan-specific loads. The NVIDIA part's 15.6% lead in G3D is its most important gaming metric, but the AMD part's 11.4% lead in GPU compute and 7.7% lead in Vulkan highlight its strength in non-rasterization tasks. The average benchmark score of 29928 for the NVIDIA part places it 0.1% behind the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (29945) and 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti (29783), while the RX 7800M's 27883 average is 0.2% ahead of the Radeon Pro Vega 20 (27839) but 0.8% behind the AMD FirePro S7150 (28117). This places the NVIDIA part in a higher performance tier overall despite the AMD part's specific wins.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 29928, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 7800M's 27883, a difference of roughly 7.3%.

Q: In which benchmark does the AMD Radeon RX 7800M have its largest margin of victory?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M wins the Passmark GPU Compute test by 11.4%, scoring 9342 against the NVIDIA card's 8279. This is its largest win in the head-to-head comparison.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the DirectX 10 benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is significantly ahead, scoring 129 versus 99, a 30.3% advantage, which is its largest margin of victory in any test.

Q: What is the score difference in the Geekbench Vulkan test?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 126668, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile scores 116960, giving AMD a 7.7% lead.

Q: Are the two GPUs close in 2D performance?

A: Yes, they are effectively identical. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile scores 896 in the Passmark G2D test, while the AMD Radeon RX 7800M scores 892, a 0.4% difference.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is in the 75th percentile, while the AMD Radeon RX 7800M is in the 73rd percentile, indicating the NVIDIA part ranks slightly higher overall.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures, which explains their divergent benchmark profiles. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile uses the GB206 chip based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process. It contains 21,900 million transistors on a die size of 181 mm², giving it a transistor density of 121.0 million per mm². The AMD Radeon RX 7800M, in contrast, uses the Navi 32 chip with the RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed "Wheat Nas," also fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process. It packs 28,100 million transistors on a larger 346 mm² die, resulting in a lower transistor density of 81.2 million per mm².

The NVIDIA chip integrates 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 48 raster output processors (ROPs). It also features 36 ray tracing cores and 144 tensor cores, emphasizing hardware support for AI-driven features and ray-traced workloads. The AMD chip has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, along with 60 ray tracing cores, but notably lacks dedicated tensor cores. This means the AMD part relies on its general-purpose compute units for AI tasks, whereas the NVIDIA part has specialized hardware for those operations.

The memory subsystems also differ architecturally. The NVIDIA card uses 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, achieving a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. The AMD card uses 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a higher bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. The larger memory capacity and wider bus on the AMD side support its strengths in compute-heavy tasks, while the faster GDDR7 type on the NVIDIA side is a newer standard. Clock speeds further differentiate them: the NVIDIA card has a base clock of 907 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz, while the AMD card operates at a base of 1295 MHz, a game clock of 2145 MHz, and a boost of 2335 MHz. The AMD part's significantly higher clocks contribute to its compute performance, while the NVIDIA part's lower clocks are offset by its higher transistor density and specialized cores.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal clear divergences in nearly every major category. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is built on the GB206 chip with the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, while the AMD Radeon RX 7800M uses the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0. The process node is the same (TSMC 5 nm), but the transistor count differs substantially: 21,900 million for NVIDIA versus 28,100 million for AMD. The die size also differs, with the NVIDIA chip at 181 mm² and the AMD chip at 346 mm².

Memory is a major differentiator: the NVIDIA card has 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD card has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The shading unit count is higher on the NVIDIA side (4608 vs 3840), but the AMD card has more TMUs (240 vs 144) and ROPs (96 vs 48). The RT core counts also differ: 36 for NVIDIA and 60 for AMD. The NVIDIA card has 144 tensor cores, while the AMD card has none. Clock speeds are markedly different, with the AMD card's boost at 2335 MHz versus the NVIDIA card's 1425 MHz. The TDP is another stark contrast: the NVIDIA card is rated at 50 W, while the AMD card is rated at 180 W. Both are IGP slot width and use no power connectors, but the NVIDIA card supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the AMD card uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The API support is identical, with both offering DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is the clear winner in legacy and general gaming workloads. Its 30.3% lead in DirectX 10 and 23% lead in DirectX 9 show strong backward compatibility, and its 15.6% lead in the Passmark G3D benchmark confirms superior rasterization performance for current gaming titles. The DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 wins (9.1% and 4.5%, respectively) reinforce this pattern, making it the better choice for pure gaming performance across a broad range of API generations. Its 50 W TDP also positions it as a far more power-efficient option, which is crucial for thin-and-light laptops.

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M wins in compute-heavy and Vulkan-specific workloads. Its 11.4% lead in Passmark GPU Compute and 7.7% lead in Geekbench Vulkan indicate that it excels in tasks that leverage parallel processing, such as rendering, scientific computation, or any workload using the Vulkan API. The larger 12 GB memory capacity and higher 432.0 GB/s bandwidth support these compute tasks, allowing it to handle larger datasets. The higher clock speeds (boost up to 2335 MHz) contribute to its raw throughput in these scenarios, despite the higher 180 W TDP.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split decision based on use case. For gamers, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is the stronger choice: it wins the primary gaming benchmark (Passmark G3D) by 15.6%, dominates legacy DirectX APIs, and does so at a 50 W TDP, which is a fraction of the AMD card's 180 W power draw. Its higher average benchmark score (29928 vs 27883) and 75th percentile ranking also indicate better overall performance. The inclusion of 144 tensor cores and support for PCIe 5.0 x16 further future-proofs it for AI-assisted features and newer system interfaces.

For professionals or users running Vulkan-based applications or compute-intensive tasks, the AMD Radeon RX 7800M is the better option. Its 11.4% lead in GPU compute and 7.7% lead in Vulkan are significant, and the 12 GB memory capacity provides more headroom for large workloads. The higher clock speeds and greater TMU/ROP counts give it raw throughput advantages that the NVIDIA part cannot match in these areas. However, this comes at the cost of a much higher 180 W TDP, which may limit its deployment in thinner machines. Ultimately, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is the better-rounded gaming GPU, while the AMD Radeon RX 7800M is a specialized compute and Vulkan performer.