RX 5700 XT vs RTX 2080

In this article, we have compared the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with the AMD RX 5700, to discover which one is best.

WePC 5700 xt VS 2080
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AMD has been gunning for a share of Nvidia’s market dominance for years. In recent times, one of their latest ploys to do so has been through the introduction of the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT.

These two AMD graphics cards are built on AMD’s acclaimed RDNA architecture and were developed in order to directly compete with Nvidia’s mid-range RTX cards, which brings us to the topic of this article.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and the Nvidia Ge-Force RTX 2080, to see how they stack up against each other. Cooling system capabilities, resolution, and VRAM are just a few of the specifications we’ve covered.

Architecture

The first specification that we’re going to be taking a look at is the architecture of each card. The architecture simply refers to the type of hardware that a card has, and is a great indicator of how powerful and efficient the performance will be overall.

As part of Nvidia’s GeForce 20 series, the RTX 2080 features Turing architecture, which is a step up from the older, Pascal architecture. The 2080 has been developed on an optimized 12 nm node from TSMC, in order to improve speed and efficiency. Turing architecture also supports real-time ray-tracing, with the 2080 featuring 576 Tensor cores and 72 specialized ray-tracing cores.

The RX 5700 has been developed using AMD’s RDNA architecture, meaning that it has been manufactured with a TSMC 7nm FinFET graphics chip in order to reduce latency and improve speed. Paired with 2,560 cores across two shader engines, this means that the RX 5700 will be able to handle more instruction per clock cycle than older generation cards, all the while being better equipped at handling complex graphics.

Resolution

As mid-range cards, both the RTX 2080 and RX 5700 should, on paper, be able to handle gaming at all three resolutions: 1080p, 1440p, and even 4K.

Despite its modest design, the RX 5700 has been built on the 7nm process and has a base clock of 1465 MHz and a boost clock of 1750 MHz. This makes the card well-equipped at handling both 1440p and 1080p gaming and even comes with an HDMI port that will be able to support 4K resolution, with a refresh rate of 60Hz.

As to be expected, the RTX 2080 also packs a powerful performance. It has a base clock of 1515MHz and a boost clock of 1710MHz and will be able to provide high frame rates across all 1080p and 1440p gaming. This card can also handle wide-screen gaming and will be suitable for 4K gaming at around 60fps.

Dimensions

Another important detail to consider is the dimensions of a card, as this information will help you to learn whether or not the measurements will be compatible with your current PC set-up. Let’s check out the dimensions and requirements of both cards below:

For starters, the Ge-Force RTX 2080 is a dual-slot card and requires a PCI-Express 3.0×16 interface in order to be connected to the rest of your PC system. The 2080’s dimensions are as follows: 267mm x 116mm x 35mm. In addition to this, it contains one HDMI port, one USB Type-C port, as well as three DisplayPorts.

As for the RX 5700, it is also a dual-slot card. However, it requires a PCI-Express 4.0×16 interface to be connected to the rest of the system. The card’s dimensions are as follows: 268mm x 111mm x 36 mm, and they contain a variety of ports including one HDMI and three DisplayPorts. Unlike the 2080, the 5700 does not offer a USB port.

Cooling

Next, we’re going to take a look at the cooling system of each card, and how their individual designs can help to prevent overheating.

The RTX 2080 features innovative dual-axial 13 blades fans that will be able to effectively achieve a constant airflow throughout the interior of the GPU, as well as a thermal design to help prevent overheating. Plus, thanks to a vapor chamber, the card will also run quietly.

On the other hand, the RX 5700 has also been equipped with just one spinning fan to maintain airflow and features no backplate which leaves the circuit board exposed. Plus, unlike the 2080, the RX 5700 does tend to operate loudly, which is something to keep in mind if a quiet performance is important to you.

Ray Tracing

In a nutshell, ray-tracing is a type of rendering technology that is able to create extremely realistic lighting and shadow effects.

The Nvidia RTX 2080 has been developed with Turing architecture, which means that it supports ray-tracing technology thanks to its specialized RT cores. In contrast, the RX 5700 has not been developed with ray-tracing in mind, so it lacks the necessary hardware to properly support it.

Now, that’s not to say that ray-tracing can’t be achieved on the 5700 because, technically, it can, but it won’t be nearly as impressive as what the 2080 can offer. In addition to that, if you did tweak the software to enable ray-tracing, you’d also likely find frame rates to be low.

VRAM

The VRAM essentially refers to the video memory capacity of the card. The more a card has, the better it will be at running more complex graphics smoothly. Nowadays, GDDR6 memory is considered to be one of the best and began being introduced by both AMD and Nvidia in 2019 to deal with the demands of latest-generation games.

Both the RX 5700 and RTX 2080 feature an 8GB GDDR6 memory and a memory speed of 14 Gbps, meaning that they are both powerful enough to play games on widescreen panels, 1080p and even 4K.

Final Words

So, which one comes out on top? It’s hard to say, as both cards are great, mid-range choices. The performance of the 5700 lives up to AMD’s claims and, powered by that glittering 7nm RDNA architecture, it’s a fantastic choice for powering latest-generation games, as well as for those wanting to use a 4K monitor.

It has to go without saying, though, that the Nvidia RTX 2080 is significantly quieter than the 5700 and better able to keep itself cool. Now, while this is by no means a be-all-end-all, if you’re the kind of person that prefers a quieter performance, you’d be making the right choice to go for the RTX 2080.