AMD Radeon 860M vs AMD Radeon Instinct MI308X Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon 860M and the AMD Radeon Instinct MI308X occupy entirely different segments of the GPU market, and the recorded data confirms they should never be cross-shopped. The Radeon 860M is an integrated graphics processor for mobile devices, built on the 4 nm process and rated at 15 W, delivering a measured average benchmark score of 26,401. The Radeon Instinct MI308X is a data center accelerator built on the 5 nm process, rated at 750 W, with no benchmark scores recorded in the database. The data shows the MI308X is designed for compute workloads in servers, while the 860M targets everyday mobile graphics. The 860M has an active production status and benchmarks from Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests, while the MI308X has no benchmark entries, no API support listed for DirectX, OpenGL, or Vulkan, and no display outputs. The verdict from the data is straightforward: the 860M serves portable consumer devices, and the MI308X serves rack-mounted compute infrastructure. The MI308X has a percentile rank of 50 across all GPUs, while the 860M sits at the 72nd percentile, but this comparison is skewed by the complete absence of benchmark data for the MI308X.

Architecture Differences

The two chips diverge at the architectural level. The Radeon 860M uses the Krackan Point chip with RDNA 3.5 architecture, belonging to the Navi III IGP generation for Strix Point Mobile. The Radeon Instinct MI308X uses the Aqua Vanjaram chip with CDNA 3.0 architecture, belonging to the Radeon Instinct MIx generation. The process nodes differ: the 860M is built on TSMC 4 nm, while the MI308X is built on TSMC 5 nm. The MI308X carries 153,000 million transistors on a 1017 mm² die, with a transistor density of 150.4M per mm². The 860M has unknown transistor count and die size in the database. The MI308X has no RT cores listed, while the 860M includes 8 ray tracing cores. The MI308X has no tensor cores listed, and the 860M also lists none. The 860M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the MI308X lists no API support at all. The 860M is an IGP with no power connectors and a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, whereas the MI308X is an OAM Module with no power connectors and a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. The MI308X uses HBM3 memory with a 8192 bit bus, while the 860M uses system shared memory. The MI308X is a 750 W part requiring a suggested PSU of 1150 W, and the 860M is a 15 W part with no PSU suggestion. The production status of the MI308X is not listed, while the 860M is marked Active.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark table in the database contains no entries, so there are no direct comparison scores between the Radeon 860M and the Radeon Instinct MI308X. The 860M has two recorded benchmark results: a Geekbench OpenCL score of 22,759 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 30,043, producing an average benchmark score of 26,401. The MI308X has no benchmark results, an average benchmark score of 0, and an empty nearest rivals list. The nearest rivals for the 860M provide context for its performance tier. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 has an average score of 26,421, which is 0.1% higher than the 860M. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 scores 26,331, putting the 860M 0.3% ahead. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary scores 26,553, which is 0.6% higher than the 860M. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 scores 26,683, putting the 860M 1.1% behind. These deltas are all within a narrow range, indicating the 860M performs in a tight band around these rivals despite being an integrated part. The MI308X cannot be compared on benchmarks because the database holds no scores for it. The data indicates the 860M is competitive with discrete mobile and workstation GPUs from the same era, while the MI308X is a compute accelerator whose performance is not captured by the standard benchmark suite.

Specification Differences

The specification table shows major differences across nearly every field. The 860M has 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs, while the MI308X has 19,456 shading units and 1,216 texture mapping units but 0 ROPs. The pixel rate of the 860M is 48.00 GPixel/s, while the MI308X is listed at 0 MPixel/s, consistent with its lack of ROPs. The texture rate of the 860M is 96.00 GTexel/s, far below the MI308X at 2,553.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is 3.072 TFLOPS for the 860M versus 81.72 TFLOPS for the MI308X. The FP16 performance is 3.072 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio for the 860M, while the MI308X delivers 653.7 TFLOPS at an 8:1 ratio. The base clock of the 860M is 600 MHz with a boost of 3000 MHz, while the MI308X has a base clock of 1000 MHz and a boost of 2100 MHz. Memory configurations are fundamentally different: the 860M uses system shared memory with system dependent bandwidth, while the MI308X has 192 GB of HBM3 on an 8192 bit bus with 10.3 TB/s bandwidth and a memory clock of 2525 MHz at 10.1 Gbps effective. The 860M has a TDP of 15 W, the MI308X has a TDP of 750 W. The 860M is an IGP with portable device dependent display outputs, and the MI308X is an OAM Module with no outputs. The bus interfaces differ: PCIe 4.0 x8 for the 860M and PCIe 5.0 x16 for the MI308X. The release dates are different, with the 860M released on 2025-02-28 and the MI308X released on 2023-12-05. The predecessors also differ, with the 860M succeeding Navi II IGP and the MI308X succeeding FirePro Data Center.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon 860M has an average benchmark score of 26,401, while the AMD Radeon Instinct MI308X has an average benchmark score of 0 because no benchmark results are recorded for it in the database.

Q: What are the recorded benchmark scores for the Radeon 860M?

A: The 860M has a Geekbench OpenCL score of 22,759 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 30,043.

Q: How does the Radeon 860M compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The 860M is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX550, 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary, and 1.1% behind the NVIDIA RTX A4000.

Q: What memory does the Radeon Instinct MI308X use?

A: The MI308X uses 192 GB of HBM3 memory with an 8192 bit bus width and 10.3 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the Radeon Instinct MI308X support DirectX or Vulkan?

A: The database lists no DirectX, OpenGL, or Vulkan support for the MI308X, while the 860M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What are the TDP figures for these two GPUs?

A: The Radeon 860M has a TDP of 15 W, and the Radeon Instinct MI308X has a TDP of 750 W with a suggested PSU of 1150 W.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon 860M wins in the mobile integrated segment. The data shows it delivers 3.072 TFLOPS of FP32 performance at a 15 W TDP, which makes it suitable for portable devices where power draw is constrained. Its 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs provide a conventional rendering pipeline, and the 8 ray tracing cores add hardware acceleration for ray-traced effects. The 860M supports the full consumer API stack with DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and its display outputs are portable device dependent, meaning it drives the built-in panels of laptops and handhelds. Its percentile rank of 72 across all GPUs, combined with benchmark scores that place it within 1.1% of discrete rivals like the NVIDIA RTX A4000, indicates it holds its own against dedicated mobile graphics solutions. The 860M wins on release recency, with a 2025-02-28 launch date, and its active production status confirms ongoing availability.

The Radeon Instinct MI308X wins in raw compute capacity. It delivers 81.72 TFLOPS of FP32, which is roughly 26.6 times the FP32 throughput of the 860M based on the recorded figures. Its FP16 output of 653.7 TFLOPS at an 8:1 ratio dwarfs the 860M's 3.072 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, showing a design optimized for reduced-precision workloads. The MI308X has 19,456 shading units, 1,216 TMUs, and 2,553.6 GTexel/s of texture throughput, all far beyond the 860M. The 192 GB HBM3 memory pool with a 10.3 TB/s bandwidth and 8192 bit bus provides a massive memory subsystem for large data sets. The MI308X uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, double the lane width and a newer generation than the 860M's PCIe 4.0 x8. Its 1017 mm² die and 153,000 million transistors indicate a chip built for scale, and its 150.4M per mm² transistor density shows a dense packing of compute resources. The MI308X has no display outputs and no consumer API support, confirming its role as an accelerator rather than a rendering GPU. The 860M wins for consumer graphics and portability, and the MI308X wins for data center compute with its 750 W TDP, OAM Module form factor, and suggested PSU of 1150 W.