RX 9070 vs RTX 5080 spec comparison – how do they compare?
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2025 has brought out another competition in graphics cards as both AMD and Nvidia launch their new generations throughout the year. That is after AMD’s delay after they missed from their CES announcement. In comparison, Nvidia has been selling out its new GPUs after each release, even the 5080.
Now, we can see how those cards compare against each other, looking at the RX 9070 vs. RTX 5080 and how the specs between the two vary. We have yet to get our hands on the AMD to go through our testing lab to get our review for the cards and see how they perform. We already have two 5080 reviews, with both the Founder’s Edition and ROG Astral OC put through the paces.
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RX 9070 vs RTX 5080 specifications
| Specifications | RX 9070 | RTX 5080 |
|---|---|---|
| Compute units | 56 | 84 (SMs) |
| RT Accelerators | 56 | 84 (RT cores) |
| Peak AI TOPS | 1165 | 1801 |
| Boost clock speed | 2.52 GHZ | 2.62 GHz |
| Memory | 16GB GDDR6 | 16GB GDDR7 |
| TDP | 220W | 360W |
| Connectivity | PCIe 5.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |
| Display | HDMI 2.1b DisplayPort 2.1a | HDMI 2.1b DisplayPort 2.1b |
Here, we’ve lined out some of their top specs to see how the two compare in some key aspects. We’ll go over what each of those means for the graphics cards and what kind of effect they might have.
Cores
At the center of it all is the graphics core, which efficiently and effectively processes the workloads to either create the graphics or process any work that needs doing. For the two manufacturers, these are rather different, with Nvidia’s CUDA cores and AMD’s RDNA having different effectiveness. This is especially true as Team Green is well-known for its rendering and ray tracing performance, which AMD has historically fallen behind in.
Although not a one-to-one comparison, we see that the 5080 offers 84 SMs and RT cores compared to the RX 9070’s 56 compute units and ray tracing accelerators. So, one might expect Nvidia’s card to come out on top due to this. This also applies to the AI capabilities as it offers a 42% higher TOPS performance.
It also has a faster clock speed, as it just has a 100MHz faster boost factory clock. If they were on par, that extra boost could give it that edge, but there are always custom models that overclock the GPU and might bring the two closer or even further apart.
Memory
There is a bit more similarity here regarding the VRAM. Both offer 16GB of capacity, giving them much capability in higher resolutions. However, AMD is sticking to an older generation that doesn’t reach the same clock rate, resulting in a lower bandwidth.
Depending on the memory clock, there could be a decent amount of difference between the two. The 5080 reaches an incredible 30Gbps for speed, which totals a bandwidth of nearly 1TB/s. Meanwhile, the 9070 sticks closer to 20Gbps, which cuts about 300GB/s from that total bandwidth.
Power and connectivity
Another stat that the RTX 5080 leads in is the power requirement, which is not exactly something to boast about. However, with all the extra specs behind it, it will take in all the extra electricity to run. That will lead you to need to consider a different power supply for both of these and a likely different build for custom cards to try and cool down the different amounts of heat these cards will produce, as the 5080 has an over 140W higher rating.
Then, looking to the kind of connectivity the two offer, well, there’s no real difference between them. They offer PCIe 5.0 x16 bandwidth speeds that double Gen 4’s, not that we’d expect the cards to load up the whole thing. That is also the case for the display IO, as they both have HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1. So no matter which you choose, a great monitor will suit these well, but the performance is unlikely to be similar for both.
RX 9070 vs RTX 5080 pricing
When looking to buy one of the two cards, there is a good pricing disparity, as AMD opts for a more affordable price point for the RX 9000 series. As it announced a $549 MSRP for its RX 9070, and with excellent availability for the 9070 cards, it might be the better option for getting one for a better price, if it fits your needs.
On the other hand, the RTX 5080 stock has been hard to get, even with its rather high price point. Considering it has a $999 MSRP, that makes it 82%/$450 more expensive, and quite the consideration when you’re looking for the right hardware for your build. As all that extra could get you the best CPU for 9070 to compliment the GPU and still provide an excellent performance, but we’ll see how that does in our hands on with the card compared to the 5080.
Verdict
When comparing the RX 9070 to the RTX 5080, there are plenty of differences to consider. The extra price on the RTX 5080 makes it a bigger investment, where the 9070 could swoop in with a cheaper price and potential availability. It will be best to wait for the reviews and benchmarks to come out to see which one is best suited, especially regarding value, depending on price, and whether you can even buy one.
Apart from the basics, there are also plenty of other features to consider, with the upscaling technologies and others that can influence the performance and appeal. Nvidia’s DLSS 4 is available on the 50 series, making it a great consideration, but AMD’s FSR 4 might bring enough fight to make it good enough as well.
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