Radeon RX 6950 XT vs GeForce RTX 3080

Place in the ranking	26	15
Place by popularity	93	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	46.23	27.11
Power efficiency	14.20	15.14
Architecture	Ampere (2020−2024)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	GA102	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	1 September 2020 (4 years ago)	10 May 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$699	$1,099

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 3080 has 71% 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	8704	5120
Core clock speed	1440 MHz	1925 MHz
Boost clock speed	1710 MHz	2324 MHz
Number of transistors	28,300 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	8 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	320 Watt	335 Watt
Texture fill rate	465.1	743.7
Floating-point processing power	29.77 TFLOPS	23.8 TFLOPS
ROPs	96	128
TMUs	272	320
Tensor Cores	272	no data
Ray Tracing Cores	68	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 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	285 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 12-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	GDDR6X	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	10 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	320 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1188 MHz	2250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	760.3 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 HDMI, 3x DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_2)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.5	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.1
Vulkan	1.2	1.3
CUDA	8.5	-

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 3080 65.39

RX 6950 XT 72.97
+11.6%

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 3080 25229

RX 6950 XT 28151
+11.6%

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 3080 53713

RX 6950 XT 72228
+34.5%

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 3080 91747

RX 6950 XT 119918
+30.7%

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 3080 39257

RX 6950 XT 59882
+52.5%

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 3080 188064

RX 6950 XT 229172
+21.9%

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 3080 529548
+6.5%

RX 6950 XT 497297

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

RTX 3080 165
+15.7%

RX 6950 XT 143

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

RTX 3080 69

RX 6950 XT 188
+173%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

RTX 3080 13

RX 6950 XT 53
+304%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

RTX 3080 121

RX 6950 XT 284
+134%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

RTX 3080 70

RX 6950 XT 139
+98.9%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 mediacal-01

RTX 3080 44

RX 6950 XT 77
+74.9%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

RTX 3080 190

RX 6950 XT 286
+50.5%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

RTX 3080 17

RX 6950 XT 29
+64.9%

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 3dsmax-05

RTX 3080 276

RX 6950 XT 451
+63.5%

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	169 −31.4%	222 +31.4%
1440p	127 −6.3%	135 +6.3%
4K	86 −1.2%	87 +1.2%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	4.14	4.95
1440p	5.50	8.14
4K	8.13	12.63

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

120−130

−27.8%

161
+27.8%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 −11.9%	150−160 +11.9%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	111 −18.9%	130−140 +18.9%
Battlefield 5	200−210 −12.4%	230−240 +12.4%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 −3.4%	120−130 +3.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	138 −3.6%	143 +3.6%
Far Cry 5	110−120 −1.7%	110−120 +1.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	150−160 −13.8%	180−190 +13.8%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 −3.9%	240−250 +3.9%
Hitman 3	116 −11.2%	120−130 +11.2%
Horizon Zero Dawn	240−250 −9.1%	260−270 +9.1%
Metro Exodus	144 −7.6%	150−160 +7.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	131 +6.5%	120−130 −6.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	270−280 −15.5%	300−350 +15.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion	248 +62.1%	150−160 −62.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 −11.9%	150−160 +11.9%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	96 −37.5%	130−140 +37.5%
Battlefield 5	200−210 −12.4%	230−240 +12.4%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 −3.4%	120−130 +3.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	134 +4.7%	128 −4.7%
Far Cry 5	110−120 −1.7%	110−120 +1.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	150−160 −13.8%	180−190 +13.8%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 −3.9%	240−250 +3.9%
Hitman 3	118 −9.3%	120−130 +9.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	240−250 −9.1%	260−270 +9.1%
Metro Exodus	144 −7.6%	150−160 +7.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	120−130 −2.5%	120−130 +2.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	326 −35.6%	442 +35.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	130−140 −14.4%	150−160 +14.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion	238 +55.6%	150−160 −55.6%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	130−140 −11.9%	150−160 +11.9%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	88 −50%	130−140 +50%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	110−120 −3.4%	120−130 +3.4%
Cyberpunk 2077	131 +7.4%	122 −7.4%
Far Cry 5	110−120 −1.7%	110−120 +1.7%
Forza Horizon 4	230−240 −3.9%	240−250 +3.9%
Hitman 3	110 −17.3%	120−130 +17.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	182 −74.7%	318 +74.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	287 −38%	396 +38%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	149 −45%	216 +45%
Watch Dogs: Legion	101 −5.9%	107 +5.9%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

131
+6.5%

120−130

−6.5%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	150−160 −9.9%	160−170 +9.9%
Far Cry New Dawn	100−110 −8.7%	110−120 +8.7%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	75−80 −14.5%	85−90 +14.5%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	76 −23.7%	90−95 +23.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80 −6.5%	80−85 +6.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	86 −8.1%	93 +8.1%
Far Cry 5	75−80 −9.1%	80−85 +9.1%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Hitman 3	112 +4.7%	100−110 −4.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	151 −68.9%	255 +68.9%
Metro Exodus	107 −23.4%	132 +23.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	219 −34.2%	294 +34.2%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	110−120 −16.4%	130−140 +16.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion	247 +2.9%	240−250 −2.9%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

130
+10.2%

110−120

−10.2%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	75−80 −11.4%	85−90 +11.4%
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70 −6.2%	65−70 +6.2%
Hitman 3	57 −14%	65−70 +14%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 −0.9%	220−230 +0.9%
Metro Exodus	142 +19.3%	110−120 −19.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	115 −25.2%	144 +25.2%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	50−55 −15.1%	60−65 +15.1%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	52 −13.5%	55−60 +13.5%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50 −8.3%	50−55 +8.3%
Cyberpunk 2077	43 −7%	46 +7%
Far Cry 5	45−50 −8.7%	50−55 +8.7%
Forza Horizon 4	100−110 −22.2%	130−140 +22.2%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	135 −27.4%	172 +27.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion	54 −20.4%	65 +20.4%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

95
+15.9%

80−85

−15.9%

This is how RTX 3080 and RX 6950 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6950 XT is 31% faster in 1080p
RX 6950 XT is 6% faster in 1440p
RX 6950 XT is 1% 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 3080 is 62% faster.
in Horizon Zero Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 6950 XT is 75% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 3080 is ahead in 11 tests (15%)
RX 6950 XT is ahead in 60 tests (83%)
there's a draw in 1 test (1%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	65.39	72.97
Recency	1 September 2020	10 May 2022
Maximum RAM amount	10 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	8 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	320 Watt	335 Watt

RTX 3080 has 4.7% lower power consumption.

RX 6950 XT, on the other hand, has a 11.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 60% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 14.3% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce RTX 3080 in performance tests.

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