What is the Difference Between AMD and NVIDIA GPUs?

Vishnu Subramanian

Founder @JarvisLabs.ai

NVIDIA leads in high-end performance, ray tracing, and AI features with CUDA ecosystem, while AMD offers excellent value, competitive mid-range performance, and open-source ROCm platform. Choose NVIDIA for maximum performance and ray tracing; choose AMD for better price-to-performance ratio.

Key Architectural Differences

The fundamental difference between AMD and NVIDIA GPUs lies in their underlying architectures. NVIDIA's flagship architecture, Ada Lovelace 2.0, introduces enhanced ray tracing capabilities and more efficient Tensor cores, which power its DLSS 3.5 (Deep Learning Super Sampling), while AMD has positioned itself as a strong competitor to Nvidia by focusing on value, energy efficiency, and open-source technologies.

AMD's RDNA 4 Architecture:

• Focuses on high-efficiency rasterization
• Third-generation ray tracing capabilities
• FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4 with AI-powered upscaling
• Open-source software stack with ROCm

NVIDIA's Blackwell Architecture:

• Fourth-generation RT cores for superior ray tracing
• Advanced Tensor cores for AI acceleration
• DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation (MFG)
• Mature CUDA ecosystem for professional workloads

Gaming Performance Comparison

In 2025's GPU landscape, the performance gap between AMD and NVIDIA has significantly narrowed, especially in traditional rasterization.

Latest GPU Performance

Key Performance Insights:

• The Radeon RX 9070 XT is, on average, about 5% slower than the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
• Both midrange GPUs are more capable than the likes of the respective RTX 5070 and RX 9070, meaning they can be ideal for more hardcore gamers
• The RTX 5070 is a 1440p GPU with 4K aspirations, but the RX 9070 XT feels like a 4K GPU

Ray Tracing Performance

Ray tracing remains NVIDIA's strongest advantage, though AMD has made significant improvements with RDNA 4.

The ray tracing experience used to be vastly different between NVIDIA and AMD. NVIDIA's fourth-generation RT cores in the RTX 5090 help to create visually stunning RT-powered effects such as lighting, shadows and reflections, while AMD made big steps as well in ray tracing with its RDNA 4 design.

Ray Tracing Reality Check:

• NVIDIA typically leads by 15-30% in ray-traced games
• When we include Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Black Myth Wukong, the Radeon GPU ends up 20% slower on average
• AMD's improvement means you can achieve 60+ FPS with ray tracing enabled
• At 1440p with quality FSR upscaling enabled, the 9070 XT delivers very usable performance with ray tracing effects

Memory and Bandwidth

Memory specifications reveal interesting trade-offs between the two manufacturers.

AMD Advantage:

• Generally more VRAM (16GB on RX 9070 XT vs 12GB on RTX 5070)
• Better for high-resolution gaming and content creation
• VRAM-limited games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will prompt you to reduce your texture quality at 4K on the RTX 5070

NVIDIA Advantage:

• Faster GDDR7 memory on latest cards
• Despite sporting less capacity and a thinner memory bus as a result, Nvidia actually has a slight lead in bandwidth due to the speed of GDDR7
• More efficient memory compression

Software Ecosystem: CUDA vs ROCm

The software ecosystem represents one of the biggest differentiators between the two platforms.

NVIDIA CUDA Ecosystem

NVIDIA's quasi-monopoly in the AI GPU market is achieved through its CUDA platform's early development and widespread adoption. Key advantages include:

• Mature development tools and extensive documentation
• NVIDIA's GPUs dominate creative and AI workloads with tools like CUDA and optimized integrations with professional software (Adobe Suite, Blender, etc.)
• Broad industry adoption and support
• NVIDIA maintains a strong commitment to supporting its software indefinitely

AMD ROCm Platform

ROCm, on the other hand, requires the use of a newer Linux kernel. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Benefits include:

• Open-source and vendor-agnostic
• One of the major advantages of ROCm is its ability to work with existing CUDA codebases
• AMD now beats Nvidia in the reproducibility of benchmarks and performance claims
• ROCm 6.2 introduces support for essential AI features such as the FP8 datatype, Flash Attention 3, Kernel Fusion

AI and Machine Learning Performance

For AI workloads, NVIDIA maintains its leadership position.

NVIDIA Strengths:

• NVIDIA's GPUs power machine learning, data science, and autonomous systems with unparalleled speed and efficiency, thanks to enhanced Tensor cores and AI frameworks
• Mature ecosystem with TensorFlow, PyTorch optimization
• Advanced features like DLSS for real-time AI acceleration

AMD Progress:

• ROCm 6.2 delivers up to a 2.4x performance boost in inference and a 1.8x improvement in training across a range of LLMs compared to ROCm 6.0
• AMD launched its developer relations (devrel) function as it has finally understood that developers are what made Nvidia's CUDA great
• Growing PyTorch support and community engagement

Power Efficiency

Power consumption varies significantly between comparable models.

Pricing and Value

Value proposition heavily favors AMD in most categories, though real-world pricing varies significantly from MSRP.

Current Pricing Reality

Based on MSRP – $600 for the 9070 XT and $750 for the 5070 Ti – the Radeon GPU is priced 20% lower, offering around 15% better value. However, actual retail prices tell a different story:

• Looking at recent retail pricing, we found the 9070 XT typically sells for $750, while the RTX 5070 Ti goes for around $900, making the Radeon GPU 17% cheaper and approximately 12% better value
• At the moment, outside of Prime member deals, there is actually precious little difference in price between the RX 9070 XT and the RTX 5070 Ti—both are frankly offensively priced at between $900 and $1,000

Cloud GPU Pricing

For cloud workloads, consider these JarvisLabs.ai pricing options:

When to Choose NVIDIA

Pick NVIDIA if you prioritize:

• Maximum performance: Nvidia remains the top choice for hardcore gamers and enthusiasts due to its superior ray tracing and AI-driven upscaling
• Ray tracing quality: Significantly better RT performance across all price points
• Professional workflows: Adobe Suite, Blender, and other creative software optimization
• AI/ML development: NVIDIA's CUDA cores and optimized architecture are essential for machine learning workloads
• Latest features: DLSS 4, Multi Frame Generation, RTX Video Super Resolution

When to Choose AMD

Choose AMD if you value:

• Price-to-performance: If budget and value are your priorities, AMD graphics cards generally give you the most bang for your buck
• More VRAM: Better for high-resolution gaming and content creation
• Open-source ecosystem: ROCm offers vendor independence
• Power efficiency: Generally more efficient per dollar spent
• Future-proofing: Higher memory capacities at lower price points

The Verdict for 2025

In 2025, AMD is a better option than it has been in years. That's particularly true if you're looking to get the most overall performance for your dollar, and you don't care much about extra features.

The GPU market in 2025 offers compelling choices from both manufacturers. NVIDIA maintains its leadership in high-end performance, ray tracing, and AI features, but at a premium price. AMD has closed the performance gap significantly while maintaining better value propositions.

For most users, the decision comes down to specific needs: choose NVIDIA for cutting-edge features and maximum performance, or AMD for excellent value and competitive performance. Either choice will deliver outstanding gaming and productivity experiences.