AMD Radeon 860M vs NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison in the database is the Geekbench Vulkan test, and it shows a narrow but clear victory for the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q. The GRID M60-1Q scores 31,220 points, while the AMD Radeon 860M posts 30,043 points. That is a 3.9% advantage for the NVIDIA part, a modest margin that puts both products in the same performance tier despite their wildly different designs.

Looking at the nearest rivals, the GRID M60-1Q sits comfortably in the upper-middle of the GPU population. Its 76th percentile ranking places it alongside the NVIDIA Quadro M5000, which scores 31,206 points, a delta of 0%. The GRID M60-1Q also edges out the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER by 0.4% (31,087 points) and trails the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell by 1% (31,532 points) and the TITAN RTX by 1.4% (31,676 points). In short, the GRID M60-1Q is performing at a level that matches some of NVIDIA's modern desktop flagships, at least in this synthetic workload.

The Radeon 860M, meanwhile, holds a 72nd percentile ranking. Its average benchmark score across both OpenCL and Vulkan tests is 26,401 points, but the Vulkan result alone is 30,043. The nearest rival is the GeForce MX550 at 26,421 points, a delta of only 0.1%, indicating that the 860M's average performance is nearly identical to that older discrete GPU. It also sits within 0.3% of the GeForce RTX 5060 (26,331 points) and 0.6% of the Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26,553 points). The spread is tight, which means the 860M's standing in the database is highly competitive for an integrated part.

The headline takeaway from the head-to-head is that the GRID M60-1Q wins the only shared benchmark, but the gap is not dramatic. A 3.9% lead in Vulkan suggests that in real-world workloads, the two would trade blows depending on driver optimization, memory subsystem behavior, and the specific API used. The GRID M60-1Q does not run away with the contest, and the Radeon 860M is closer than its age and power envelope would suggest.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q is built on the GM204 chip using Maxwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 5,200 million transistors into a 398 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.1M per mm². This is a mature, power-hungry design from 2015, originally intended for datacenter virtualization workloads, not consumer gaming.

The AMD Radeon 860M, by contrast, uses the Krackan Point chip with RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process, also at TSMC. Its transistor count and die size are listed as unknown in the database, but the process node alone tells the story: 4 nm versus 28 nm is a generational leap in manufacturing efficiency. The 860M is part of the Navi III IGP family for Strix Point Mobile, meaning it is an integrated graphics processor designed to live inside a laptop APU.

Clock speeds highlight the difference in design philosophy. The GRID M60-1Q runs at a modest 557 MHz base and boosts to 1,178 MHz. The Radeon 860M starts at 600 MHz base but boosts all the way to 3,000 MHz. That 1,822 MHz gap in boost clock is enormous and reflects the efficiency gains of the newer process node. Higher clocks on the 860M allow it to compensate for having far fewer compute units.

The compute configuration also diverges sharply. The GRID M60-1Q has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. The Radeon 860M has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. That is a 4:1 ratio in favor of the NVIDIA part across all three metrics. Yet the GRID M60-1Q only achieves a 3.9% Vulkan win, which demonstrates how much architectural efficiency and clock speed matter in modern workloads. The 860M also includes 8 ray tracing cores, while the GRID M60-1Q has none, a clear sign of their respective eras.

Memory is another fundamental split. The GRID M60-1Q uses 1,024 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon 860M relies on System Shared memory, meaning it borrows from the host system's RAM, with bandwidth listed as System Dependent. This is a major disadvantage for the integrated part in theory, but the benchmark results show it does not cripple performance in Vulkan.

Pixel and texture rates reinforce the pattern. The GRID M60-1Q outputs 75.39 GPixel/s and 150.8 GTexel/s, while the Radeon 860M manages 48.00 GPixel/s and 96.00 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA part is roughly 57% faster in pixel throughput and 57% faster in texture throughput, yet the final benchmark gap is only 3.9%. The Radeon's higher clock speed and newer instruction set are clearly closing the gap that raw hardware specifications would suggest.

Where Each One Wins

The GRID M60-1Q wins in raw compute throughput. Its FP32 performance is 4.825 TFLOPS versus 3.072 TFLOPS for the Radeon 860M, a 57% advantage. That matters for workloads that are heavily shader-bound and can utilize the full 2,048 shading units. The GRID M60-1Q also has dedicated GDDR5 memory with 160.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a reliable, fixed resource for large data sets. In a datacenter or virtual desktop environment, where the GRID M60-1Q was designed to operate, this predictability is valuable. It supports PCIe 3.0 x16, which provides a wide pipe for host communication, and it has no display outputs, meaning it is purely a compute or virtual GPU device.

The Radeon 860M wins in efficiency and modern feature support. Its 15 W TDP is a fraction of the GRID M60-1Q's 225 W, making it suitable for thin-and-light laptops. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GRID M60-1Q is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The 860M also includes 8 ray tracing cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing that the GRID M60-1Q cannot perform. Its boost clock of 3,000 MHz is more than double the GRID M60-1Q's 1,178 MHz, which helps in latency-sensitive tasks and single-threaded workloads. The 860M uses PCIe 4.0 x8, which offers newer signaling even if the lane count is lower.

For gaming on the go, the Radeon 860M is the obvious choice. It is an active, current product from 2025, while the GRID M60-1Q is end-of-life from 2015. The 860M's display outputs are portable device dependent, meaning it can drive laptop panels, whereas the GRID M60-1Q has no outputs at all. For an enthusiast building a desktop or a professional needing a virtual GPU for server tasks, the GRID M60-1Q has the edge in raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every specification category. The manufacturing process is 28 nm for NVIDIA versus 4 nm for AMD. Transistor count is 5,200 million for the GRID M60-1Q, while the Radeon 860M's is unknown. Die size is 398 mm² for the GRID M60-1Q, also unknown for the Radeon 860M. The GRID M60-1Q has a transistor density of 13.1M per mm², the Radeon 860M does not list one.

Clock speeds show the GRID M60-1Q at 557 MHz base and 1,178 MHz boost, while the Radeon 860M runs at 600 MHz base and 3,000 MHz boost. Memory is a 1,024 MB GDDR5 configuration with a 256-bit bus and 160.4 GB/s bandwidth for NVIDIA, versus System Shared memory with System Dependent bandwidth for AMD. The GRID M60-1Q has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, while the Radeon 860M has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Radeon 860M has 8 ray tracing cores, the GRID M60-1Q has none.

Pixel rate is 75.39 GPixel/s for NVIDIA and 48.00 GPixel/s for AMD. Texture rate is 150.8 GTexel/s versus 96.00 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 4.825 TFLOPS for the GRID M60-1Q and 3.072 TFLOPS for the Radeon 860M. The Radeon 860M also lists FP16 at 3.072 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the GRID M60-1Q does not list FP16. Power consumption is 225 W versus 15 W. The GRID M60-1Q is dual-slot with a 1x 8-pin connector and a suggested 550 W PSU, while the Radeon 860M is an IGP with no power connectors and no suggested PSU. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 for NVIDIA and PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD. Display outputs are none for the GRID M60-1Q and portable device dependent for the Radeon 860M. The GRID M60-1Q is 267 mm long, the Radeon 860M has no listed dimensions. Release dates are 2015-08-29 for NVIDIA and 2025-02-28 for AMD. The GRID M60-1Q is end-of-life; the Radeon 860M is active.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon 860M boosts to 3,000 MHz, while the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q boosts to 1,178 MHz.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The GRID M60-1Q scores 31,220 points versus 30,043 points for the Radeon 860M, a 3.9% advantage.

Q: Does the Radeon 860M support ray tracing?

A: Yes, it has 8 ray tracing cores. The GRID M60-1Q has no ray tracing cores.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the Radeon 860M?

A: It uses System Shared memory with System Dependent bandwidth, meaning it relies on the host system's RAM.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel rate?

A: The NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q has a pixel rate of 75.39 GPixel/s, while the AMD Radeon 860M has 48.00 GPixel/s.

Q: What is the power draw difference between the two?

A: The GRID M60-1Q has a TDP of 225 W, while the Radeon 860M has a TDP of 15 W.