AMD Radeon RX 6800 vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a clear split between the AMD Radeon RX 6800 and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000. Across the nine shared tests, the AMD card wins six, while the NVIDIA card takes three. The magnitude of those wins, however, tells a more nuanced story.

The single largest margin of victory belongs to the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 101,883 against the RX 6800's 24,508. That is a 75.9% deficit for the AMD card — the widest gap in any test. This result suggests a fundamental difference in compute-oriented workloads under OpenCL, where the Quadro's architecture and driver stack appear heavily favored. The NVIDIA card also edges out the RX 6800 in Geekbench Vulkan, posting 122,637 versus 115,107, a 6.1% lead, and in Passmark DirectX 10, where it scores 137 against 128, a 6.6% advantage.

Outside those three tests, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 dominates. The largest AMD win comes in Passmark DirectX 9, where the RX 6800 scores 257 against the Quadro's 211 — a 21.8% advantage. That is followed by a 14.3% lead in Passmark G2D (990 vs 866), a 13.8% lead in Passmark DirectX 11 (214 vs 188), and a 12.7% lead in Passmark DirectX 12 (89 vs 79). In the more comprehensive gaming-oriented metrics, the RX 6800 also pulls ahead: Passmark G3D shows 22,067 versus 19,799, an 11.5% margin, and Passmark GPU Compute shows 10,864 versus 9,992, an 8.7% lead.

The average benchmark score reinforces the AMD advantage, but not by a huge margin. The RX 6800 averages 30,095 points across its full benchmark suite, while the Quadro RTX 8000 averages 28,421. In terms of percentile ranking among all GPUs, the RX 6800 sits at the 75th percentile, just one point above the Quadro's 74th percentile. The nearest rivals data places the RX 6800 within 1.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 6700 and 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, while the Quadro RTX 8000 sits within 1.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti and 1.2% of the AMD Radeon RX 570 — a notably different competitive neighborhood.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and process nodes. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 uses the Navi 21 chip built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 uses the TU102 chip with Turing architecture, also from TSMC but on a larger 12 nm node.

Transistor counts reflect this process gap. The RX 6800 packs 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, yielding a density of 51.5 million transistors per square millimeter. The Quadro RTX 8000 contains 18,600 million transistors on a substantially larger 754 mm² die, with a density of just 24.7 million per square millimeter. The RX 6800 achieves more than double the transistor density of the Quadro, a direct consequence of the smaller process node.

Memory configurations differ sharply. The RX 6800 carries 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Quadro RTX 8000 offers 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, with 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth — 32 GB more capacity and 160 GB/s more bandwidth. Clock speeds favor the AMD card, which runs at a 1700 MHz base and 2105 MHz boost, with a game clock of 1815 MHz. The Quadro operates at 1395 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 6800 runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), while the Quadro runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Shader resources tell a mixed story. The Quadro RTX 8000 has more raw shading units (4,608 vs 3,840), more texture mapping units (288 vs 240), and more ray tracing cores (72 vs 60). Both cards have 96 ROPs. The Quadro also includes 576 tensor cores, while the RX 6800 has none. Despite the Quadro's higher shader count, the FP32 compute figures are nearly identical: 16.31 TFLOPS for the Quadro versus 16.17 TFLOPS for the RX 6800. FP16 performance is likewise close, at 32.62 TFLOPS for the Quadro and 32.33 TFLOPS for the RX 6800 (both at 2:1 ratio).

Pixel and texture rates invert this comparison. The RX 6800 achieves 202.1 GPixel/s and 505.2 GTexel/s, while the Quadro RTX 8000 posts 169.9 GPixel/s and 509.8 GTexel/s. The AMD card wins on pixel throughput, while the NVIDIA card has a very slight texture rate edge.

The bus interface differs: the RX 6800 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Both cards are dual-slot designs with a 600 W suggested PSU, but power connectors vary — the RX 6800 needs 2x 8-pin, while the Quadro needs 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin. TDP figures are close, at 250 W for the RX 6800 and 260 W for the Quadro. Display outputs are similar, with both featuring a USB Type-C port, but the RX 6800 has 1x HDMI 2.1 plus 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Quadro has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. Physical dimensions are nearly identical in length (both 267 mm), but the RX 6800 is taller at 120 mm versus 111 mm.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split by workload type. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 is the stronger choice for DirectX-based graphics workloads, winning all four DirectX tests (9, 10, 11, and 12) with margins ranging from 6.6% to 21.8%. It also wins Passmark G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute, giving it a broad lead in rasterization-focused and general graphics benchmarks. The RX 6800's average score of 30,095 and 75th percentile ranking confirm its position as the higher-performing card overall.

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 is the pick where OpenCL compute matters most. Its 101,883 OpenCL score dwarfs the RX 6800's 24,508 — a 75.9% lead — and it also wins in Vulkan by 6.1% and DirectX 10 by 6.6%. The Quadro's 48 GB memory capacity and 576 tensor cores are notable advantages for large-scale compute tasks, though these features do not translate into wins in the Passmark suite outside the three tests mentioned.

From a pure performance-per-dollar standpoint, the data is stark: the RX 6800 had a launch MSRP of 579 USD, while the Quadro RTX 8000 launched at 9,999 USD. The RX 6800 delivers higher average scores at roughly 5% of the launch price. But the Quadro's 48 GB memory and OpenCL compute lead serve a different market segment, and the benchmark results reflect that specialization.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins more benchmarks head-to-head?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 wins 6 out of 9 shared tests, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 wins 3.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 leads by 75.9% in Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 101,883 versus the RX 6800's 24,508.

Q: How does the RX 6800 perform in DirectX 12 compared to the Quadro?

A: The RX 6800 scores 89 in Passmark DirectX 12, which is 12.7% higher than the Quadro's 79.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each card?

A: The RX 6800 averages 30,095 points, while the Quadro RTX 8000 averages 28,421 points.

Q: Does the Quadro RTX 8000 have more memory bandwidth?

A: Yes, the Quadro has 672.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 512.0 GB/s for the RX 6800, along with 48 GB of memory compared to 16 GB.

Q: Which card has tensor cores?

A: Only the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 has tensor cores, with 576 of them. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 has none.

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon RX 6800 wins in: Passmark DirectX 11 (13.8% lead), DirectX 12 (12.7% lead), DirectX 9 (21.8% lead), Passmark G2D (14.3% lead), Passmark G3D (11.5% lead), and Passmark GPU Compute (8.7% lead). These results cover the full range of rasterization and general compute workloads in the Passmark suite.

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 wins in: Geekbench OpenCL (75.9% lead), Geekbench Vulkan (6.1% lead), and Passmark DirectX 10 (6.6% lead). The OpenCL result is particularly decisive, indicating a major advantage in compute-heavy applications that leverage that API.

For gaming and consumer graphics workloads, the RX 6800's consistent wins across DirectX versions and G3D make it the stronger candidate. For professional compute tasks that rely on OpenCL, the Quadro RTX 8000's massive lead in that specific test is the standout data point. The Quadro's 48 GB memory capacity also makes it the practical choice for datasets that exceed 16 GB, even though that capacity advantage does not appear as a direct benchmark win.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 6800 | NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | RDNA 2.0 | Turing |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 12 nm |

| Transistors | 26,800 million | 18,600 million |

| Die Size | 520 mm² | 754 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 51.5M / mm² | 24.7M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1700 MHz | 1395 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2105 MHz | 1770 MHz |

| Game Clock | 1815 MHz | N/A |

| Memory Size | 16 GB | 48 GB |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 512.0 GB/s | 672.0 GB/s |

| Memory Clock | 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) | 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 4608 |

| TMUs | 240 | 288 |

| ROPs | 96 | 96 |

| RT Cores | 60 | 72 |

| Tensor Cores | N/A | 576 |

| Pixel Rate | 202.1 GPixel/s | 169.9 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 505.2 GTexel/s | 509.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 16.17 TFLOPS | 16.31 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 32.33 TFLOPS (2:1) | 32.62 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 260 W |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C | 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C |

| Height | 120 mm | 111 mm |

| Launch MSRP | 579 USD | 9,999 USD |