GeForce RTX 3080 vs Radeon HD 6950M

Place in the ranking	721	26
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	46.30
Power efficiency	4.90	14.03
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Blackcomb	GA102
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	4 January 2011 (13 years ago)	1 September 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$699

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	960	8704
Core clock speed	580 MHz	1440 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1710 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	28,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	320 Watt
Texture fill rate	27.84	465.1
Floating-point processing power	1.114 TFLOPS	29.77 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	96
TMUs	48	272
Tensor Cores	no data	272
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	68

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).

Laptop size	large	no data
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	285 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	1x 12-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	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	10 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	320 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	1188 MHz
Memory bandwidth	115.2 GB/s	760.3 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	No outputs	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2
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.

HD 6950M 3.57

RTX 3080 65.45
+1733%

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.

HD 6950M 2452

RTX 3080 53713
+2091%

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.

HD 6950M 10122

RTX 3080 91747
+806%

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	9−10 −1756%	167 +1756%
1440p	6−7 −2017%	127 +2017%
4K	4−5 −2025%	85 +2025%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	4.19
1440p	no data	5.50
4K	no data	8.22

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

−2000%

120−130
+2000%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1250%	130−140 +1250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −5450%	111 +5450%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −2886%	200−210 +2886%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1350%	110−120 +1350%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −2200%	138 +2200%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1543%	110−120 +1543%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −1490%	150−160 +1490%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −1065%	230−240 +1065%
Hitman 3	9−10 −1189%	116 +1189%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −868%	240−250 +868%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −2300%	144 +2300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −1356%	131 +1356%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −1836%	270−280 +1836%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −505%	248 +505%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1250%	130−140 +1250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −4700%	96 +4700%
Battlefield 5	7−8 −2886%	200−210 +2886%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1350%	110−120 +1350%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −2133%	134 +2133%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1543%	110−120 +1543%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 −1490%	150−160 +1490%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −1065%	230−240 +1065%
Hitman 3	9−10 −1211%	118 +1211%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −868%	240−250 +868%
Metro Exodus	6−7 −2300%	144 +2300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −1233%	120−130 +1233%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −2229%	326 +2229%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −827%	130−140 +827%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −480%	238 +480%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −1250%	130−140 +1250%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −4300%	88 +4300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −1350%	110−120 +1350%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −2083%	131 +2083%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −1543%	110−120 +1543%
Forza Horizon 4	20−22 −1065%	230−240 +1065%
Hitman 3	9−10 −1122%	110 +1122%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −628%	182 +628%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 −1950%	287 +1950%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −893%	149 +893%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −146%	101 +146%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

−1356%

131
+1356%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 −2417%	150−160 +2417%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −1960%	100−110 +1960%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −2433%	75−80 +2433%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −2467%	75−80 +2467%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −4200%	86 +4200%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −1825%	75−80 +1825%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −27000%	270−280 +27000%
Hitman 3	8−9 −1300%	112 +1300%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 −1578%	151 +1578%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 −3767%	110−120 +3767%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −1023%	247 +1023%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−1757%

130
+1757%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −3850%	75−80 +3850%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −3150%	65−70 +3150%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −2550%	50−55 +2550%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −5100%	52 +5100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −4700%	45−50 +4700%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	43
Far Cry 5	2−3 −2200%	45−50 +2200%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −10700%	100−110 +10700%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −5300%	54 +5300%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−2275%

95
+2275%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	76 +0%	76 +0%
Metro Exodus	107 +0%	107 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	219 +0%	219 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	57 +0%	57 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	142 +0%	142 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	115 +0%	115 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

135

+0%

135

+0%

This is how HD 6950M and RTX 3080 compete in popular games:

RTX 3080 is 1756% faster in 1080p
RTX 3080 is 2017% faster in 1440p
RTX 3080 is 2025% faster in 4K

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3080 is 27000% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 3080 is ahead in 63 tests (89%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.57	65.45
Recency	4 January 2011	1 September 2020
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	10 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	50 Watt	320 Watt

HD 6950M has 540% lower power consumption.

RTX 3080, on the other hand, has a 1733.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 9 years, a 900% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 400% more advanced lithography process.

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

Be aware that Radeon HD 6950M is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3080 is a desktop one.

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