Radeon Pro Vega 56 Vs 64

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 vs AMD Radeon RX Vega 64: which meridian graphics card is best for yous?

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 vs AMD Radeon Vega 64

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 is finally a real, tangible GPU and with six times the power of Pascal-based GTX GPUs, it's a beast. But how does Nvidia'south best graphics card e'er stack upward to its eternal rival, AMD, with its Radeon RX Vega 64?

Update: We've finally been able to examination out the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 in a full review. So, nosotros've updated the below operation section with straight performance comparisons.

Well, it's never going to be apples-to-apples comparisons when information technology comes to products from different companies. All the same, since they both aim to generate incredible visuals for your favorite PC games, nosotros'll pit them against each other on paper before taking them into the lab later this year.

That being said, from their blueprint, to their projected performance, to how much that performance will cost you, let's wait at which graphics option for you is better: the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 versus the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64.

The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 in the silicon.

Pattern

Correct off the bat, the designs of these two graphics carte du jour are drastically different: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 uses a traditional, air-based cooling mechanism with a single fan drawing cool air in and driving it out the rear vents while the RTX 2080, uses a dual-fan approach which involves a heat sink in the process of dispersing hot air. (Of class, the idea here is for greater temperature control, but we won't encounter that bear fruit until a full review.)

AMD has a slight leg up here on Nvidia in producing an official liquid-cooled version of the RX Vega 64, whereas Nvidia has yet to publicly discuss any such option for its newest card. Nosotros'll encounter whether Nvidia's dual-fan air cooling system bridges that gap.

The other major important factor of design, connectivity, is where the RTX 2080 pulls ahead with the capability to business firm a USB-C port in add-on to the usual DisplayPort and HDMI ports. This comes standard on Nvidia's Founders Edition version of the bill of fare, and is probable available for manufacturers to implement if they so cull.

The RX Vega 64 has no such option, but of course includes all of the latest connectivity standards otherwise.

This distinction is important, because USB-C is poised to become the de facto official connection for virtual reality (VR) hardware and applications in the near future. The RTX 2080 is ready for this adjacent phase in simplifying VR, and the RX Vega 64 is non.

Higher is better

Performance

Now that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 is finally hither and benchmarked here in the TechRadar lab, we can compare the two graphics cards both on difficult performance and the hardware they pack within.

Before nosotros tackle the RTX 2080, let's lay out what the RX Vega 64 is capable of first. This graphics card operates at a 1,247MHz processor frequency, or clock speed, which is able to boost up to 1,546MHz using basic tools.

The RX Vega 64 GPU itself contains 4,096 stream processors and houses 8GB of Loftier-Bandwidth Retentiveness ii (HBM2) video RAM that can procedure up to 484.3 gigabytes of data per second, or GB/s, with a speed of 1.89 gigabits per 2nd, or Gbps.

At present, the RTX 2080 runs at a base of operations clock speed of 1,515MHz, just a hair shy of the RX Vega 64's boosted speed, and at 1,710MHz when additional. While Nvidia's CUDA cores and AMD's stream processors are dissimilar, they generally reach the same task: rendering pixels and carrying out other compute tasks.

College is better

To the RX Vega 64's iv,096 stream processors, the RTX 2080 has just 2,944 CUDA cores. However, the CUDA cores are more versatile than the stream processors, able to carry out a wider multifariousness of compute tasks, whereas stream processors are more specialized for efficiency.

Back to more meaningful comparisons, the RTX 2080 also has 8GB of video retentivity, just on the new GDDR6 standard – a follow-up to GDDR5X– rather than AMD'due south HBM2. This memory actually has marginally less bandwidth than the RX Vega 64, able to procedure up to 448GB/southward, just at an exponentially higher speed of 14Gbps.

The RTX 2080 does all of this with 215 watts (West) of power, while the RX Vega 64 requires 295W from your arrangement's power supply.

In the end, judging past processor and retentivity speed alone, too every bit ability draw, the RTX 2080 looks to exist a clear winner here. The answer is fifty-fifty more articulate in the benchmarks, with the Nvidia card outpacing the AMD by around 10 fps on all of our gaming tests.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 is far and away the more expensive option – surprising no one. — The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 is far and away the more expensive option – surprising no 1.

Price

Now, for the ultimate deciding factor: how much these things cost.

AMD'due south current suggested retail price for its RX Vega 64 is $499 (£549, about AU$630), only 3rd party manufacturers, like Gigabyte and Asus, are even so selling the card for far more that on account of increased demand from cryptocurrency miners.

Meanwhile, the RTX 2080 is considerably more expensive, with the Founders Edition costing $799 (AU$1,199, near £602). That'south a much higher toll than the GTX 1080 of yesteryear, a mere $599 (£600, AU$925) in comparison.

Of course, you lot should likewise consider the unsaid price of these graphics cards, judged largely by their power draw. The RTX 2080 requires less power than the RX Vega 64, which could run into you needing a beefier power supply to support the latter – an incurred cost, if your system isn't properly equipped for the chore.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 adjacent to terminal generation'due south Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

Which card is the better option?

As pricey as information technology is, the RTX 2080 offers features in games that simply aren't possible with the RX Vega 64 – namely existent-time ray tracing for more realistic lighting and shadows in games. That fact alone, not to mention the toll, makes this versus bout a hard one.

Sure, on paper, the RTX 2080 wins in nearly every regard. But, that doesn't business relationship for what you lot actually demand from a graphics carte.

If y'all seek the absolute almost upward-to-date capabilities from your graphics bill of fare, then clearly the RTX 2080 – or even the slightly cheaper $599 (AU$899, about £451) RTX 2070 – is your ticket to the latest and greatest.

The RTX 2080 looks every bit if it'southward going to burn through games at Ultra settings and 4K resolution, much less make them expect meliorate with ray tracing. However, if yous simply want to exist able to game at 1080p or even 1440p resolutions with the settings all the mode cranked up, the RX Vega 64 is by far a more cost-effective fashion there.

So, even in 2018, the archetype dichotomy between Nvidia and AMD graphics cards remains: splurge for Nvidia if yous need the absolute latest and greatest, just AMD's all-time will serve more mainstream gamers just as fine for far less.

How does Nvidia's all-time of 2018 compare to that of 2017? Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 vs Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business concern Insider Shopping squad, facilitating good reviews, comprehensive ownership guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.