AMD Radeon 8060S vs AMD Radeon RX 6550M Comparison

AMD Radeon 8060S and AMD Radeon RX 6550M are both integrated mobile GPUs, but the benchmark data shows they occupy distinct performance tiers. The 8060S delivers nearly double the OpenCL score and a 58.2% higher Vulkan score than the RX 6550M, making it the clear performance leader in every head-to-head test recorded. The RX 6550M, however, holds its own in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, indicating it is far from a weak option, but the 8060S’s 87th percentile ranking and higher average benchmark score place it firmly above.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive result comes from Geekbench OpenCL, where the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 84,626 against the RX 6550M’s 42,536. This is a 99% delta, effectively doubling the older GPU’s compute performance. In practical terms, this means the 8060S can handle compute-heavy workloads such as content creation or physics simulations with significantly more headroom. The RX 6550M’s score of 42,536 is respectable on its own, but it trails by a wide margin that no driver optimization can close.

Vulkan performance narrows the gap somewhat, though the 8060S still wins decisively. The 8060S posts 80,483 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RX 6550M manages 50,867. That is a 58.2% advantage for the 8060S. Vulkan is a lower-level API that often benefits from raw architectural efficiency, and the data suggests the RDNA 3.5-based 8060S extracts more performance per shader than the RDNA 2.0-based RX 6550M. The RX 6550M’s Vulkan score is still higher than its OpenCL score, showing it scales well with modern APIs, but it cannot match the 8060S’s absolute throughput.

Across the two recorded head-to-head benchmarks, the 8060S wins 2 out of 2. The average benchmark score reflects this overall trend: the 8060S averages 55,757, while the RX 6550M averages 46,702. That is a 9,055-point gap, or roughly 19.4% higher average performance for the 8060S. The RX 6550M’s nearest rival, Intel Arc A530M, scores 46,614 with a delta of 0.2%, meaning the RX 6550M sits in a competitive mid-range band. Meanwhile, the 8060S’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, which scores 55,698 with a delta of 0.1%, showing the 8060S punches near a desktop-class discrete GPU despite being an IGP.

The RX 6550M’s best showing is in Vulkan, where it reaches 85% of the 8060S’s score in that specific test (50,867 vs 80,483). But in OpenCL, the RX 6550M only achieves 50.3% of the 8060S’s output. This disparity suggests that the 8060S benefits more from compute-heavy drivers or has superior raw compute resources that OpenCL can exploit. The RX 6550M’s 2:1 FP16 ratio (11.63 TFLOPS) versus the 8060S’s 1:1 FP16 (14.85 TFLOPS) does not translate into a benchmark win, as the 8060S’s higher FP32 throughput (14.85 vs 5.816 TFLOPS) dominates.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon 8060S has an average benchmark score of 55,757, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6550M’s 46,702. The 8060S also ranks in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 6550M ranks in the 85th percentile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The 8060S scores 80,483 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RX 6550M scores 50,867. This gives the 8060S a 58.2% advantage in that test.

Q: Does the RX 6550M win any benchmark against the 8060S?

A: No. In the head-to-head benchmark data, the 8060S wins both recorded tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan). The wins tally is 2 for the 8060S and 0 for the RX 6550M.

Q: What is the memory configuration of each GPU?

A: The RX 6550M has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus with 144.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 8060S uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent.

Q: How do their shading unit counts compare?

A: The 8060S has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RX 6550M has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The 8060S also has 40 ray tracing cores versus 16 for the RX 6550M.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The RX 6550M has a boost clock of 2840 MHz, which is slightly lower than the 8060S’s 2900 MHz. However, the RX 6550M has a much higher base clock of 2000 MHz versus the 8060S’s 1295 MHz.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon 8060S is the superior GPU in every measurable way from this FACT PACK. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, has a higher average score (55,757 vs 46,702), and ranks higher in the percentile of all GPUs (87th vs 85th). The 8060S’s 99% lead in OpenCL and 58.2% lead in Vulkan are not marginal differences; they represent a full performance class separation. A user who needs maximum compute performance, ray tracing capability, or simply the highest frame rates should choose the 8060S without hesitation.

The RX 6550M is not a bad GPU—it sits near the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (46,601 average score, 0.2% delta) and Intel Arc A530M (46,614, 0.2% delta)—but it is clearly aimed at a lower tier. Its 4 GB GDDR6 memory and 144.0 GB/s bandwidth are fixed, whereas the 8060S’s System Shared memory scales with the host system, potentially giving it an even larger advantage in memory-heavy scenarios. The RX 6550M’s only advantage is its higher base clock (2000 MHz vs 1295 MHz), which may help in short, lightly threaded tasks, but the 8060S’s higher boost clock (2900 MHz vs 2840 MHz) and 2.5x shading unit count overwhelm that in sustained workloads.

For a buyer choosing between these two, the verdict is simple: the 8060S is the pick for anyone prioritizing raw performance, modern architecture, or future-proofing. The RX 6550M is a fallback for systems where power draw (80 W vs 55 W) is not a concern, but the 8060S actually consumes less power while delivering more performance, making the RX 6550M’s case even weaker.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The 8060S uses a 4 nm process node, while the RX 6550M uses a 6 nm node, both from TSMC. The 8060S’s die size is 308 mm², more than triple the RX 6550M’s 107 mm². Transistor count is listed as unknown for the 8060S, but the RX 6550M packs 5,400 million transistors at a density of 50.5M per mm². Clock speeds differ significantly: the 8060S has a base clock of 1295 MHz and boost of 2900 MHz, while the RX 6550M has a base of 2000 MHz and boost of 2840 MHz, plus a game clock of 2560 MHz.

Memory configurations are completely different. The 8060S uses System Shared memory with a System Shared bus width and System Dependent bandwidth. The RX 6550M has 4 GB GDDR6, a 64-bit bus, and 144.0 GB/s bandwidth. Compute resources favor the 8060S: 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 40 ray tracing cores versus the RX 6550M’s 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 16 ray tracing cores. Pixel rate is 185.6 GPixel/s for the 8060S versus 90.88 GPixel/s for the RX 6550M. Texture rate is 464.0 GTexel/s versus 181.8 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 14.85 TFLOPS versus 5.816 TFLOPS. FP16 is 14.85 TFLOPS (1:1) for the 8060S, while the RX 6550M achieves 11.63 TFLOPS (2:1). Power draw is 55 W for the 8060S and 80 W for the RX 6550M. The bus interface differs: PCIe 5.0 x16 for the 8060S versus PCIe 4.0 x4 for the RX 6550M.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two is as wide as the performance gap. The 8060S is built on RDNA 3.5, while the RX 6550M uses RDNA 2.0. This generational leap explains much of the performance delta. The 8060S uses the Strix Halo chip, while the RX 6550M uses Navi 24. The 8060S belongs to the Navi Mobile (RX 8000M) generation, released on 2025-01-05, whereas the RX 6550M is from the Navi Mobile (RX 6000M) generation, released on 2023-01-03. The process node shrunk from 6 nm to 4 nm, allowing the 8060S to cram more transistors into a larger die (308 mm² vs 107 mm²).

Ray tracing hardware is a key differentiator: the 8060S has 40 ray tracing cores, more than double the RX 6550M’s 16. The 8060S also has a 1:1 FP16 ratio, meaning it does not sacrifice FP16 throughput, while the RX 6550M uses a 2:1 ratio, halving FP16 performance relative to FP32. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API support is identical. The 8060S’s System Shared memory is a fundamental architectural choice—it leverages the host’s memory pool, which can be larger and faster than a fixed 4 GB VRAM buffer, but it also depends on system configuration. The RX 6550M’s dedicated GDDR6 offers predictable bandwidth (144.0 GB/s), while the 8060S’s bandwidth is listed as System Dependent, meaning its performance can vary based on the platform it is paired with.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon 8060S wins in every category that the FACT PACK measures. In compute-heavy applications that rely on OpenCL, it is 99% faster than the RX 6550M, making it the obvious choice for tasks like rendering, video encoding, or any GPU-accelerated productivity workload. Its Vulkan advantage of 58.2% also makes it superior for modern games that use Vulkan, especially at higher resolutions or with ray tracing enabled, given its 40 ray tracing cores versus 16. The 8060S’s higher pixel rate (185.6 GPixel/s vs 90.88 GPixel/s) and texture rate (464.0 GTexel/s vs 181.8 GTexel/s) further solidify its lead in rasterization-heavy scenarios. Its lower TDP (55 W vs 80 W) means it delivers more performance while consuming less power, a rare combination that favors thin-and-light laptops.

The AMD Radeon RX 6550M has no benchmark wins against the 8060S, but it does have a niche: its higher base clock (2000 MHz vs 1295 MHz) could provide snappier response in bursty, low-threaded tasks that do not scale across many cores. Its dedicated 4 GB GDDR6 memory with fixed 144.0 GB/s bandwidth offers consistency that the 8060S’s System Shared memory cannot guarantee, as the latter’s bandwidth is System Dependent. In a system with slow or insufficient RAM, the RX 6550M might actually feel smoother in memory-constrained scenarios. The RX 6550M also has a smaller die (107 mm² vs 308 mm²), which could make it cheaper to manufacture, but that does not translate into user-facing performance benefits. For users who prioritize raw frame rates, compute throughput, or ray tracing, the 8060S is the only rational choice from this data. The RX 6550M is a viable option only for ultra-portable devices where the 8060S is unavailable and where the workload is light enough to stay within the RX 6550M’s 4 GB VRAM limit.