AMD Radeon 8060S vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 and AMD Radeon 8060S are both active products in the benchmark database, yet they represent fundamentally different design philosophies. The RTX 5080 is a discrete, dual-slot add-in board with a 360 W TDP, while the 8060S is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 55 W TDP. Despite this gulf in power and physical footprint, their average benchmark scores are surprisingly close: the RTX 5080 averages 56,083 points, while the 8060S averages 55,757 points, a delta of just 0.6%. This near-parity in aggregate scores, however, masks a dramatic divergence in individual workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data reveals a complete sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 across all three shared tests, but the margins are anything but uniform. The largest discrepancy appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, a modern, demanding DirectX 12 workload. Here, the RTX 5080 scores 8,637, while the 8060S manages only 2,162. That translates to a 299.5% advantage for the NVIDIA part—nearly four times the performance. This is the clearest indicator of raw rasterization and geometry throughput, where the discrete card's dedicated hardware and high power budget dominate.

The synthetic compute benchmarks tell a similar story, albeit with slightly smaller gaps. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5080 posts 235,901 points against the 8060S's 84,626, a 178.8% lead. The Vulkan test shows the RTX 5080 at 255,450 versus 80,483 for the AMD part, a 217.4% difference. These results suggest that the RTX 5080's compute resources are not just faster but scale better across different API front-ends. The Vulkan margin being larger than OpenCL is notable, indicating that the NVIDIA architecture's scheduling and driver overhead are particularly efficient in that context.

When looking at the nearest rivals data, the aggregate scores place both cards in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. The RTX 5080 is 0.6% ahead of the 8060S in average score, and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. The 8060S, conversely, is 0.1% ahead of the RX 6750 GRE and 1.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. This clustering suggests that in a broad, mixed workload average, the 8060S is competitive with mid-range discrete cards. However, the 8060S is also listed as being 2.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, which is a much higher-tier discrete part in most other contexts. This anomaly is explained by the fact that the 8060S's average is likely buoyed by its performance in specific compute or driver-optimized scenarios, while the RTX 4080's average is dragged down by other factors, or the test set is limited.

The RTX 5080's own rival list shows it is 2.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, indicating it is not the absolute fastest in its peer group. Yet, against the 8060S, the RTX 5080 is decisively superior in every head-to-head test. The data does not support any scenario where the 8060S wins a direct comparison. The wins column confirms this: the RTX 5080 takes all 3 head-to-head tests, while the 8060S takes 0.

The Verdict

From the data alone, the choice is unambiguous for performance-sensitive workloads. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the superior product in every measured benchmark. Its 299.5% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is a decisive margin that no other statistic can offset. For any user running DirectX 12 gaming or rendering workloads, the RTX 5080 provides a level of performance that the 8060S cannot approach. The 178.8% and 217.4% leads in OpenCL and Vulkan, respectively, further cement its position as the compute leader.

The AMD Radeon 8060S, however, is not without its own rationale. Its 55 W TDP and IGP form factor mean it requires no power connectors and is designed for portable devices. The RTX 5080, by contrast, demands a 750 W suggested PSU and a dual-slot footprint. For a user building a compact, power-efficient system where the GPU is integrated into the processor, the 8060S is the only viable option. Its 87th percentile ranking proves it is capable of substantial performance, and its average score of 55,757 is only 0.6% behind the RTX 5080.

The verdict hinges on the system context. If the requirement is a standalone graphics card for a desktop PC with a robust power supply, the RTX 5080 is the clear choice—no benchmark data suggests otherwise. If the requirement is a mobile or ultra-compact platform where the GPU must be integrated and power draw is critical, the 8060S is the appropriate selection. The data does not indicate that the 8060S is a faster card; it indicates that it is a remarkably efficient one that trades raw speed for integration and power economy. A user comparing these two directly is likely comparing two different classes of machine, and the benchmark data should guide them to the RTX 5080 only if their chassis and power budget can accommodate it.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 56,083, while the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55,757. The RTX 5080 is 0.6% ahead in this metric.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RTX 5080 scores 8,637, which is 299.5% higher than the 8060S's score of 2,162. This is the largest margin in any shared test.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon 8060S win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the RTX 5080 winning all 3 tests (3DMark Steel Nomad, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan), with the 8060S winning 0 tests.

Q: What is the difference in power consumption between the two cards?

A: The RTX 5080 has a TDP of 360 W and requires a 750 W suggested PSU, while the 8060S has a TDP of 55 W and requires no power connectors.

Q: Are these cards in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both the RTX 5080 and the 8060S are listed in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, despite their significant differences in power and form factor.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to the RTX 4080 in the rival data?

A: The RTX 5080 is not directly compared to the RTX 4080 in its rival list. However, the 8060S's rival list shows the 8060S is 2.8% ahead of the RTX 4080 in average score.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every fundamental specification. The RTX 5080 uses a 5 nm process node, while the 8060S uses a 4 nm node. The RTX 5080's die size is 378 mm², compared to 308 mm² for the 8060S. Transistor counts are listed as 45,600 million for the RTX 5080, while the 8060S's count is unknown. The RTX 5080 has 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs; the 8060S has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 5080 features 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores, while the 8060S has 40 RT cores and no listed tensor cores.

Clock speeds also differ substantially. The RTX 5080 has a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz. The 8060S has a lower base clock of 1295 MHz but a higher boost clock of 2900 MHz. Memory configurations are entirely different: the RTX 5080 has 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the 8060S uses system shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The RTX 5080's memory clock is 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective), whereas the 8060S's memory clock is listed as "System Shared."

Rates follow the same pattern. The RTX 5080's pixel rate is 293.1 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s. The 8060S's rates are 185.6 GPixel/s and 464.0 GTexel/s, respectively. Compute throughput is 56.28 TFLOPS for the RTX 5080 versus 14.85 TFLOPS for the 8060S. The RTX 5080 is dual-slot with a 1x 16-pin power connector; the 8060S is an IGP with no power connectors. The RTX 5080 has specific display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1b), while the 8060S's outputs are portable-device dependent.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is stark. The RTX 5080 is built on NVIDIA's Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, part of the GeForce 50-series generation. The 8060S uses AMD's RDNA 3.5 architecture with the Strix Halo chip, belonging to the Navi Mobile (RX 8000M) generation. This is a fundamental difference: one is a desktop discrete architecture, and the other is a mobile integrated architecture.

The RTX 5080's transistor density is 120.6M per mm², a figure not available for the 8060S. The 8060S's predecessor is listed as "Polaris Mobile," while the RTX 5080's predecessor is the GeForce 40 series and its successor is the GeForce 60 series. The 8060S has no listed successor. Both support the same API level—DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4—so API compatibility is not a differentiator.

The RTX 5080 includes tensor cores, which the 8060S lacks; this points to a divergence in AI-accelerated workloads. The RTX 5080's 336 tensor cores are a substantial resource, while the 8060S's absence of them means any AI inference or DLSS-style acceleration must rely on other shader-based methods. The memory architecture also differs: the RTX 5080 has dedicated GDDR7, while the 8060S relies on system shared memory, making its performance dependent on the host system's memory configuration. Finally, the RTX 5080's release date is 2025-01-29, while the 8060S's is 2025-01-05, a difference of just over three weeks. Both are listed as having active production status.