AMD Radeon RX 6800S vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a closely matched pair, with the AMD Radeon RX 6800S winning 4 of 9 head-to-head tests and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 winning 5. The margins are generally modest, but the pattern of wins reveals distinct strengths.

NVIDIA's largest victory comes in PassMark DirectX 10, where the Quadro RTX 5000 scores 113 against 91 for the Radeon RX 6800S, a 19.5% advantage. That is the single biggest delta in either direction across all nine comparisons. The Geekbench Vulkan test also favors NVIDIA clearly, with the Quadro RTX 5000 posting 92309 versus 81272, a 12% lead. These two results suggest the Turing architecture holds a firm edge in older DirectX 10 workloads and in Vulkan compute scenarios.

The Geekbench OpenCL test goes to NVIDIA as well, 78999 against 73202, a 7.3% margin. PassMark GPU Compute also lands with NVIDIA, 6525 versus 6144, a 5.8% difference. The narrowest NVIDIA win is PassMark DirectX 11, where the Quadro RTX 5000 edges ahead 140 to 139, a mere 0.7% gap. This near-tie indicates that in this particular legacy API workload, the two GPUs are effectively indistinguishable.

AMD's strongest result is PassMark DirectX 12, where the RX 6800S scores 65 against 59, a 10.2% win. This is the second-largest delta in the entire comparison and indicates that AMD's RDNA 2.0 implementation handles the modern DirectX 12 feature set better than NVIDIA's Turing design. The RX 6800S also wins PassMark DirectX 9 by a small margin, 200 to 195, a 2.6% advantage. In PassMark G2D, AMD leads 732 to 709, a 3.2% difference, and in PassMark G3D the RX 6800S takes 15908 against 15616, a 1.9% edge.

The overall picture from the head-to-head data is one of role reversal: NVIDIA dominates compute-oriented and older API workloads, while AMD leads in the most modern gaming API (DirectX 12) and in rasterization-oriented PassMark tests. The average benchmark scores reflect this split, with the RX 6800S averaging 24063 across all recorded tests versus 21629 for the Quadro RTX 5000, a difference that places the AMD part in the 69th percentile of all GPUs while NVIDIA sits in the 67th.

Looking at nearest rivals, the RX 6800S sits within 1% of several comparable cards: it is 0.4% behind the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170), 0.7% behind the GTX 780 Ti (24236), 0.9% behind the GTX 1630 (24277), and 0.8% ahead of the Radeon RX 9070 (23877). The Quadro RTX 5000 similarly clusters tightly, running 1% behind the GTX 1060 6 GB (21856), 1.2% ahead of the RTX A4000 Mobile (21379), 1.8% ahead of the HD 8970M (21237), and 2.3% ahead of the RX Vega M GL (21153). Both parts are thoroughly mid-pack performers relative to the full GPU landscape, with no close rival exceeding a 2.3% delta.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800S wins PassMark DirectX 12 with a score of 65 against 59 for the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, a 10.2% advantage.

Q: How big is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: NVIDIA leads substantially in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 92309 versus 81272, a 12% difference in favor of the Quadro RTX 5000.

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800S averages 24063 across all recorded tests, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 averages 21629. The RX 6800S sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the 67th percentile for the Quadro.

Q: Are these cards closely matched overall?

A: Yes, the head-to-head record is nearly even at 5 wins for NVIDIA and 4 for AMD. Most deltas are small: DirectX 11 is a 0.7% NVIDIA win, G3D is a 1.9% AMD win, and G2D is a 3.2% AMD win.

Q: Which GPU wins compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 wins PassMark GPU Compute 6525 to 6144, a 5.8% margin, and also leads Geekbench OpenCL 78999 to 73202, a 7.3% margin.

Q: What is the largest performance gap in either direction?

A: The largest delta is in PassMark DirectX 10, where the Quadro RTX 5000 leads by 19.5% (113 versus 91). The second largest is AMD's 10.2% DirectX 12 win.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear choice based on workload. For users prioritizing modern gaming APIs, the AMD Radeon RX 6800S is the stronger pick: it wins DirectX 12 by 10.2%, DirectX 9 by 2.6%, G2D by 3.2%, and G3D by 1.9%. Its higher average benchmark score (24063 versus 21629) and better percentile ranking (69th versus 67th) reinforce this position.

For users whose work leans on compute throughput and legacy API compatibility, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 is the better option. It wins OpenCL by 7.3%, Vulkan by 12%, DirectX 10 by 19.5%, GPU Compute by 5.8%, and DirectX 11 by a hair at 0.7%. The 384 tensor cores and 48 RT cores in the Quadro also give it a feature set that the Radeon RX 6800S lacks entirely, as the RX 6800S has no tensor cores and only 32 RT cores.

The Quadro RTX 5000 also carries the workstation pedigree: it was released in 2018 as a dual-slot card with 16 GB of memory and four DisplayPort outputs plus USB Type-C, while the RX 6800S is an integrated-class mobile part with 8 GB and portable-device-dependent outputs. Those who need large framebuffers or professional display connectivity should favor NVIDIA. Those who want the better overall benchmark average and superior DirectX 12 behavior should choose AMD.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ substantially in nearly every hardware parameter. The AMD Radeon RX 6800S uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s. Memory clocks also differ: AMD runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) while NVIDIA runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Compute resources are heavily skewed. The RX 6800S has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Quadro RTX 5000 has 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. NVIDIA has 48 RT cores and 384 tensor cores; AMD has 32 RT cores and no tensor cores. Pixel rate favors AMD at 134.4 GPixel/s versus 116.2 GPixel/s, but texture rate favors NVIDIA at 348.5 GTexel/s versus 268.8 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 8.602 TFLOPS for AMD and 11.15 TFLOPS for NVIDIA; FP16 is 17.20 TFLOPS for AMD and 22.30 TFLOPS for NVIDIA.

Clock speeds differ notably: AMD has a base of 1800 MHz and boost of 2100 MHz, with a game clock of 1975 MHz. NVIDIA has a base of 1620 MHz and boost of 1815 MHz. Power consumption is dramatically different, with AMD at 100 W and NVIDIA at 230 W, and the suggested PSU for NVIDIA is 550 W while AMD lists none. The bus interface also differs: AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x8, NVIDIA uses PCIe 3.0 x16. NVIDIA's card is dual-slot with 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors, while AMD is an IGP with no power connectors. Physical dimensions for NVIDIA are 267 mm long and 111 mm tall; AMD lists no dimensions.

Architecture Differences

The architectural split is fundamental. AMD's Radeon RX 6800S is built on RDNA 2.0 using the Navi 23 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 46.7M per mm². NVIDIA's Quadro RTX 5000 uses the Turing architecture with the TU104 chip, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, yielding 25.0M per mm². The process node advantage is clear: AMD packs nearly twice the transistor density into less than half the die area.

Generation and product positioning differ as well. AMD's part belongs to the Navi Mobile (RX 6000M) generation, released in early 2022, with its predecessor listed as Polaris Mobile. NVIDIA's part belongs to the Quadro Turing (Tx000) generation, released in 2018, with its predecessor as Quadro Volta and its successor as Workstation Ampere. Both are end-of-life products.

Feature sets diverge significantly. The RX 6800S has no tensor cores and 32 RT cores, while the Quadro RTX 5000 has 384 tensor cores and 48 RT cores. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level feature support is identical in the recorded specifications. The key hardware difference is NVIDIA's tensor core array, which is wholly absent from the AMD part. The larger memory bus and 16 GB capacity on the Quadro, combined with its tensor cores, make it a more capable compute platform on paper, even though the RX 6800S has the higher average benchmark score and wins the most modern gaming API test.