AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)

AMD Radeon RX Vega 7

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used in the Ryzen 4000 and Ryzen 5000 mobile APUs. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 7 CUs (= 448 shaders) clocked at up to 1,800 MHz. The iGPU's performance depends on the TDP of an APU (15, 35, 45 W or cTDP), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-3200 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

The performance should be slightly lower than the older RX Vega 8 GPU (1 CU more, but lower clock speed). That means, only some demanding games of 2019 will run in lowest detail settings. Less demanding games like Fifa 20 or Dirt Rally 2.0 should run in higher settings and 1920 x 1080.

Thanks to the 7 nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the iGPU won't look out of place in a slimmer, lighter laptop.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 SLI for laptops is a combination of two GTX 1080 graphics cards in SLI mode. Each card renders one frame at a time (AFR mode) but depends for most games on a good profile in the driver. Therefore, the performance can range from no gains over a single GTX 1080 to up to 90% faster performance. Sometimes, the combination may also suffer from micro-stuttering. The technical details of the card are identical to a single GTX 1080 (see for more information) and the power consumption is doubled. Therefore, the 1080 SLI combination is only found in huge clunky laptops.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the fastest desktop consumer graphics card (beginning 2017). It is based on the same GP107 chip as the Titan X but with slightly higher clock speeds and a different memory configuration. It offers one memory controller less (and 11 instead of 12 GB), but the GDDR5X memory is faster clocked (11 GHz) leading to a comparable memory bandwidth. Due to the higher boost clock, the 1080Ti should be around 5 % faster compared to the Pascal Titan X and about 35 % faster compared to the GTX 1080. The TDP is equal to the Titan X with 250 Watt. A new cooler of the Founders Edition should be more efficient and quieter.