AMD Radeon RX 6700 vs NVIDIA TITAN RTX Comparison

The NVIDIA TITAN RTX and AMD Radeon RX 6700 represent two distinct approaches to high-performance graphics, separated by two and a half years of architectural evolution. The benchmark data shows a clear overall winner in the NVIDIA TITAN RTX, which takes 8 out of 10 head-to-head tests, but the AMD card’s victories in specific legacy workloads reveal a more nuanced picture than a simple average score comparison might suggest. The TITAN RTX posts an average benchmark score of 31,676, placing it in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 6700 achieves 30,433, sitting at the 75th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive victory for the NVIDIA TITAN RTX comes in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where it scores 3,794 against the RX 6700’s 2,014. That is an 88.4% advantage, a margin so large it dwarfs every other difference between the two cards. This modern, DirectX 12-heavy workload clearly favors the TITAN RTX’s massive compute resources and suggests that in contemporary gaming or rendering scenarios, the performance gap is overwhelming.

The Geekbench results reinforce this pattern, though with narrower margins. In the OpenCL test, the TITAN RTX scores 144,858 versus 97,841, a 48.1% lead. The Vulkan test shows a similar story: 136,073 against 83,974, a 62% advantage. These results indicate that the TITAN RTX holds a substantial edge in general-purpose compute and cross-platform graphics APIs, likely stemming from its higher shading unit count and greater memory bandwidth.

Legacy DirectX benchmarks tell a mixed story. The TITAN RTX wins in DirectX 10 (147 vs 115, +27.8%), DirectX 11 (189 vs 166, +13.9%), and DirectX 12 (88 vs 71, +23.9%). However, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 takes the DirectX 9 test with a score of 250 versus 223, a 10.8% victory. This older API workload appears to favor AMD’s architecture, possibly due to more efficient handling of legacy shader instructions or a driver path that better utilizes the RDNA 2.0 design for that era of graphics.

The PassMark suite provides the closest contest. In the G3D test, the TITAN RTX wins 20,491 to 18,931, an 8.2% margin. The GPU Compute test shows a larger gap: 10,034 versus 8,240, a 21.8% lead for NVIDIA. Interestingly, the RX 6700 wins the G2D test with 936 points against 860, an 8.1% advantage. This 2D performance win, while not relevant to gaming, suggests the AMD card has a more efficient rasterization path for simple desktop and windowing operations.

The overall win count of 8 to 2 in favor of the TITAN RTX is decisive, but the magnitude of the losses matters. In its two wins, the RX 6700’s margins are 10.8% and 8.1%, while in its losses, it faces deficits ranging from 8.2% to a crushing 88.4%. The data indicates that for the majority of modern and compute-heavy workloads, the TITAN RTX is in a different performance class, while the RX 6700 only pulls ahead in specific legacy or lightweight scenarios.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures from different eras. The NVIDIA TITAN RTX uses the TU102 chip based on the Turing architecture, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. This is a massive die, measuring 754 mm² and containing 18,600 million transistors, yielding a transistor density of 24.7 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 uses the Navi 22 chip based on RDNA 2.0, built on a 7 nm process, also at TSMC. This die is much smaller at 335 mm², but packs 17,200 million transistors, resulting in a significantly higher density of 51.3 million per square millimeter.

The core configuration differences are stark. The TITAN RTX features 4,608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It also includes 72 ray tracing cores and 576 tensor cores, making it a fully-featured compute and AI accelerator. The RX 6700 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 36 ray tracing cores but no tensor cores. This means the TITAN RTX has exactly double the shading units, TMUs, and ray tracing cores of the RX 6700, and 50% more ROPs.

Clock speeds tell a different story. The RX 6700 has a base clock of 1941 MHz and a boost clock of 2450 MHz, with a game clock of 2174 MHz. The TITAN RTX is much slower in raw frequency, with a base of 1350 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz. Despite this, the TITAN RTX achieves higher pixel and texture rates: 169.9 GPixel/s versus 156.8 GPixel/s, and 509.8 GTexel/s versus 352.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance is also in the TITAN’s favor, at 16.31 TFLOPS versus 11.29 TFLOPS, a 44.5% advantage. FP16 performance follows the same pattern at 32.62 TFLOPS versus 22.58 TFLOPS.

Memory configuration is another major divergence. The TITAN RTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6700 has only 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s. This 352 GB/s bandwidth difference is likely a significant factor in the TITAN’s strong performance in memory-intensive workloads like the 3DMark Steel Nomad test. The TITAN RTX also uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the RX 6700 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, offering double the interconnect bandwidth for data transfers.

Power and physical characteristics also differ considerably. The TITAN RTX has a TDP of 280 W, requiring a 600 W power supply and two 8-pin connectors. The RX 6700 is far more efficient, with a TDP of 175 W, a 450 W power supply recommendation, and a single 8-pin connector. Both cards are dual-slot designs with identical lengths of 267 mm (10.5 inches), but the TITAN RTX is taller at 116 mm versus 110 mm, while the RX 6700 is thicker at 40 mm versus 35 mm.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more raw compute power?

A: The NVIDIA TITAN RTX has 16.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute compared to 11.29 TFLOPS for the AMD Radeon RX 6700. This represents a 44.5% advantage for the NVIDIA card, which is consistent with its higher shading unit count of 4,608 versus 2,304.

Q: How do the two cards compare in memory bandwidth?

A: The TITAN RTX offers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 384-bit bus, while the RX 6700 provides 320.0 GB/s on a 160-bit bus. The TITAN RTX has more than double the bandwidth, which likely contributes to its 88.4% lead in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 6700 better in any benchmark?

A: Yes, the RX 6700 wins the PassMark DirectX 9 test with a score of 250 versus 223 for the TITAN RTX, a 10.8% margin. It also wins the PassMark G2D test, scoring 936 against 860, an 8.1% lead. These are the only two tests where the AMD card emerges victorious.

Q: What is the architectural generation difference between these GPUs?

A: The TITAN RTX is based on NVIDIA’s Turing architecture from the GeForce 20 generation, built on a 12 nm process. The RX 6700 uses AMD’s RDNA 2.0 architecture from the Radeon RX 6000 series, built on a 7 nm process. The RX 6700 is from a later generation and uses a smaller, denser chip.

Q: Do both cards support the same modern graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both the NVIDIA TITAN RTX and AMD Radeon RX 6700 support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This means they are equally capable of running modern games that require the latest API features.

Q: Which GPU has more ray tracing cores?

A: The NVIDIA TITAN RTX has 72 ray tracing cores, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 has 36. The TITAN RTX also features 576 tensor cores, which are absent from the RX 6700 entirely.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA TITAN RTX is the superior performer in the vast majority of workloads. It wins 8 out of 10 head-to-head tests, with particularly dominant margins in modern DirectX 12 workloads and compute-heavy benchmarks. The 88.4% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and the 62% lead in Geekbench Vulkan indicate that for any contemporary gaming or rendering application, the TITAN RTX will deliver dramatically higher frame rates and faster completion times.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700’s wins are confined to legacy DirectX 9 and 2D workloads, where it shows a modest 10.8% and 8.1% advantage respectively. For users running older games or applications that rely on these APIs, the RX 6700 offers a slight edge, but this is a narrow use case in the broader landscape of GPU workloads.

The TITAN RTX’s advantages extend beyond raw performance. Its 24 GB of memory versus 10 GB, coupled with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 320.0 GB/s, makes it far better suited for large datasets, high-resolution textures, and AI workloads that leverage its 576 tensor cores. The RX 6700 counters with superior power efficiency, drawing 175 W compared to 280 W, and a more compact transistor layout on a 7 nm process. However, for users who prioritize performance above all else, the data points squarely to the NVIDIA TITAN RTX.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA TITAN RTX | AMD Radeon RX 6700 |

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

| Architecture | Turing | RDNA 2.0 |

| Process Node | 12 nm | 7 nm |

| Die Size | 754 mm² | 335 mm² |

| Transistors | 18,600 million | 17,200 million |

| Transistor Density | 24.7M / mm² | 51.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1350 MHz | 1941 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1770 MHz | 2450 MHz |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 10 GB |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 160 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 672.0 GB/s | 320.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 4608 | 2304 |

| TMUs | 288 | 144 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 72 | 36 |

| Tensor Cores | 576 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 169.9 GPixel/s | 156.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 509.8 GTexel/s | 352.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 16.31 TFLOPS | 11.29 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 32.62 TFLOPS | 22.58 TFLOPS |

| TDP | 280 W | 175 W |

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

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 450 W |

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

| Height | 116 mm (4.6 inches) | 110 mm (4.3 inches) |

| Width | 35 mm (1.4 inches) | 40 mm (1.6 inches) |