Radeon RX 6950 XT vs GeForce RTX 2070

Place in the ranking	95	17
Place by popularity	86	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	33.11	27.19
Power efficiency	16.43	14.98
Architecture	Turing (2018−2022)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	TU106	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	17 October 2018 (6 years ago)	10 May 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$499	$1,099

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 2070 has 22% better value for money than RX 6950 XT.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2304	5120
Core clock speed	1410 MHz	1925 MHz
Boost clock speed	1620 MHz	2324 MHz
Number of transistors	10,800 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	12 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	335 Watt
Texture fill rate	233.3	743.7
Floating-point processing power	7.465 TFLOPS	23.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	128
TMUs	144	320
Tensor Cores	288	no data
Ray Tracing Cores	36	80

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	229 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 8-pin	2x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR6	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1750 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	448.0 GB/s	576.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C	1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	+
G-SYNC support	+	-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

VR Ready

no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.5	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	7.5	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RTX 2070 41.90

RX 6950 XT 73.12
+74.5%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

RTX 2070 16138

RX 6950 XT 28163
+74.5%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

RTX 2070 31260

RX 6950 XT 72228
+131%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

RTX 2070 63155

RX 6950 XT 119918
+89.9%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

RTX 2070 23186

RX 6950 XT 59882
+158%

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

RTX 2070 127652

RX 6950 XT 229172
+79.5%

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

RTX 2070 425550

RX 6950 XT 497297
+16.9%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

RTX 2070 149
+4.5%

RX 6950 XT 143

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

RTX 2070 61

RX 6950 XT 188
+208%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

RTX 2070 9

RX 6950 XT 53
+501%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

RTX 2070 83

RX 6950 XT 284
+244%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

RTX 2070 46

RX 6950 XT 139
+200%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 mediacal-01

RTX 2070 41

RX 6950 XT 77
+89.2%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

RTX 2070 123

RX 6950 XT 286
+132%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

RTX 2070 12

RX 6950 XT 29
+147%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 3dsmax-05

RTX 2070 194

RX 6950 XT 451
+132%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	128 −71.9%	220 +71.9%
1440p	90 −47.8%	133 +47.8%
4K	59 −40.7%	83 +40.7%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	3.90	5.00
1440p	5.54	8.26
4K	8.46	13.24

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

70−75

−118%

161
+118%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	101 −49.5%	150−160 +49.5%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	87 −51.7%	130−140 +51.7%
Battlefield 5	164 −43.3%	230−240 +43.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	116 −3.4%	120−130 +3.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	70−75 −93.2%	143 +93.2%
Far Cry 5	124 +6%	110−120 −6%
Far Cry New Dawn	148 −22.3%	180−190 +22.3%
Forza Horizon 4	246 +1.7%	240−250 −1.7%
Hitman 3	116 −11.2%	120−130 +11.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn	258 −2.3%	260−270 +2.3%
Metro Exodus	144 −7.6%	150−160 +7.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	110 −11.8%	120−130 +11.8%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	207 −51.2%	300−350 +51.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion	254 +66%	150−160 −66%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	135 −11.9%	150−160 +11.9%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	73 −80.8%	130−140 +80.8%
Battlefield 5	156 −50.6%	230−240 +50.6%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	106 −13.2%	120−130 +13.2%
Cyberpunk 2077	70−75 −73%	128 +73%
Far Cry 5	101 −15.8%	110−120 +15.8%
Far Cry New Dawn	108 −67.6%	180−190 +67.6%
Forza Horizon 4	227 −6.6%	240−250 +6.6%
Hitman 3	113 −14.2%	120−130 +14.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn	248 −6.5%	260−270 +6.5%
Metro Exodus	144 −7.6%	150−160 +7.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	108 −13.9%	120−130 +13.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	150−160 −185%	442 +185%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	85−90 −84.9%	150−160 +84.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion	244 +59.5%	150−160 −59.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	64 −136%	150−160 +136%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65 −103%	130−140 +103%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	78 −53.8%	120−130 +53.8%
Cyberpunk 2077	70−75 −64.9%	122 +64.9%
Far Cry 5	79 −48.1%	110−120 +48.1%
Forza Horizon 4	110 −120%	240−250 +120%
Hitman 3	94 −37.2%	120−130 +37.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn	139 −129%	318 +129%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	150−160 −155%	396 +155%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	87 −148%	216 +148%
Watch Dogs: Legion	64 −67.2%	107 +67.2%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

−24.2%

120−130
+24.2%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	106 −56.6%	160−170 +56.6%
Far Cry New Dawn	75 −49.3%	110−120 +49.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	52 −67.3%	85−90 +67.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	50 −88%	90−95 +88%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	58 −41.4%	80−85 +41.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	30−35 −174%	93 +174%
Far Cry 5	60 −40%	80−85 +40%
Forza Horizon 4	215 −26%	270−280 +26%
Hitman 3	64 −67.2%	100−110 +67.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn	104 −145%	255 +145%
Metro Exodus	82 −61%	132 +61%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	100−110 −185%	294 +185%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	60−65 −118%	130−140 +118%
Watch Dogs: Legion	240 +0%	240−250 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

−40.5%

110−120
+40.5%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	53 −66%	85−90 +66%
Far Cry New Dawn	44 −56.8%	65−70 +56.8%
Hitman 3	41 −58.5%	65−70 +58.5%
Horizon Zero Dawn	116 −94.8%	220−230 +94.8%
Metro Exodus	76 −56.6%	110−120 +56.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	63 −129%	144 +129%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	36 −69.4%	60−65 +69.4%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	31 −90.3%	55−60 +90.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	33 −57.6%	50−55 +57.6%
Cyberpunk 2077	14−16 −207%	46 +207%
Far Cry 5	31 −61.3%	50−55 +61.3%
Forza Horizon 4	63 −110%	130−140 +110%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60 −197%	172 +197%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27 −141%	65 +141%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

−74.5%

80−85
+74.5%

This is how RTX 2070 and RX 6950 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6950 XT is 72% faster in 1080p
RX 6950 XT is 48% faster in 1440p
RX 6950 XT is 41% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RTX 2070 is 66% faster.
in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 6950 XT is 207% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 2070 is ahead in 4 tests (6%)
RX 6950 XT is ahead in 67 tests (93%)
there's a draw in 1 test (1%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	41.90	73.12
Recency	17 October 2018	10 May 2022
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	12 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	175 Watt	335 Watt

RTX 2070 has 91.4% lower power consumption.

RX 6950 XT, on the other hand, has a 74.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 71.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce RTX 2070 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.