AMD Radeon 860M vs NVIDIA Tesla M60 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a clear, if uneven, victory for the NVIDIA Tesla M60 across the two benchmark workloads. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Tesla M60 scored 29,506 against the AMD Radeon 860M's 22,759, a substantial 29.6% lead. This is the largest margin in the head-to-head comparison and reflects the Tesla M60's compute-oriented design. The OpenCL result is particularly telling because it stresses raw parallel throughput, an area where the older discrete GPU remains dominant.

The Vulkan result is much closer. The Tesla M60 posted 31,473, while the Radeon 860M managed 30,043, a 4.8% advantage for the NVIDIA part. Vulkan's lower-level API tends to reward architectural efficiency, and the Radeon 860M's modern RDNA 3.5 design closes much of the gap here. Still, the Tesla M60 wins both tests, giving it a 2-0 record in this matchup.

Context from the database's nearest rival comparisons adds nuance. The Tesla M60's average benchmark score of 30,490 places it within 0.2% of the NVIDIA CMP 70HX (30,476) and 1.8% of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (29,945). It also edges the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (30,433) by 0.2% and the RX 6800 (30,095) by 1.3%. In other words, this 2015-era accelerator still sits in the same performance band as much newer mainstream desktop cards.

The Radeon 860M, by contrast, has an average score of 26,401. Its nearest rivals cluster tightly around it: the GeForce MX550 is just 0.1% behind (26,421), the RTX 5060 is 0.3% ahead (26,331), and the RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.6% ahead (26,553). The RTX A4000 leads it by 1.1% (26,683). This places the 860M in the upper midrange of the database's GPU population, but below the Tesla M60's tier.

Percentile data reinforces the separation. The Tesla M60 sits at the 75th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon 860M sits at the 72nd. That three-point gap in percentile rank is modest, but the raw score difference of 4,089 points (30,490 vs 26,401) is significant in absolute terms.

The split between the two workloads is worth emphasizing. In OpenCL, the Tesla M60's 29.6% advantage is decisive. In Vulkan, the 4.8% margin is narrow enough that driver optimizations or system memory configurations could plausibly swing the result. The database shows the Tesla M60 winning both, but the Vulkan result suggests the Radeon 860M is not far behind in API-level efficiency.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M60 has an average benchmark score of 30,490, compared to 26,401 for the AMD Radeon 860M, a difference of roughly 15.5%.

Q: How much faster is the Tesla M60 in OpenCL?

A: The Tesla M60 scores 29,506 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 22,759 for the Radeon 860M, a 29.6% advantage.

Q: Does the Radeon 860M win any benchmark in this comparison?

A: No. The recorded head-to-head results show the Tesla M60 winning both the Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan tests.

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

A: The Radeon 860M's average score of 26,401 is 0.1% ahead of the GeForce MX550 (26,421), 0.3% behind the RTX 5060 (26,331), 0.6% behind the RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26,553), and 1.1% behind the RTX A4000 (26,683).

Q: What is the Vulkan performance gap between the two cards?

A: The Tesla M60 scores 31,473 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 30,043 for the Radeon 860M, a 4.8% margin.

Q: Where does each GPU rank among all GPUs in the database?

A: The Tesla M60 is at the 75th percentile, while the Radeon 860M is at the 72nd percentile.

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward choice for compute-heavy workloads. The NVIDIA Tesla M60 is the faster GPU in both recorded benchmarks, with a commanding 29.6% OpenCL lead and a smaller but real 4.8% Vulkan edge. Its average score of 30,490 places it in the same band as the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and RX 6700, which are far newer desktop parts. For anyone prioritizing raw throughput in OpenCL-style applications, the Tesla M60 is the clear pick from this data.

The AMD Radeon 860M is not without merit, however. Its 72nd percentile rank is only three points behind the Tesla M60's 75th, and its Vulkan score of 30,043 trails by less than 5%. The 860M also carries architectural advantages that the benchmarks do not fully capture, including a 4 nm process, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and eight ray tracing cores. Its 15 W power envelope is dramatically lower than the Tesla M60's 300 W, which makes it suitable for portable, power-constrained systems where the Tesla M60 cannot physically operate.

The deciding factor is the use case. If the task is maximum compute performance per benchmark score, the Tesla M60 wins outright. If the task requires modern API features, ray tracing capability, or low power consumption, the Radeon 860M is the rational choice despite its lower scores. The database does not record a single test where the 860M outperforms the Tesla M60, so performance parity is not supported by the measurements.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every recorded specification. The Tesla M60 uses a GM204 chip on a 28 nm process, while the Radeon 860M uses a Krackan Point chip on a 4 nm process. Transistor counts are only listed for the Tesla M60 at 5,200 million; the Radeon 860M's count is unknown. Die size is 398 mm² for the Tesla M60 and unknown for the Radeon 860M.

Clock speeds diverge sharply. The Tesla M60 has a base clock of 557 MHz and a boost clock of 1,178 MHz. The Radeon 860M has a higher base clock of 600 MHz and a much higher boost clock of 3,000 MHz. Memory clocks are also different: the Tesla M60 runs at 1,253 MHz with 5 Gbps effective, while the Radeon 860M uses system shared memory.

Memory configuration is a major difference. The Tesla M60 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 160.4 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon 860M uses system shared memory with a system-dependent bus width and bandwidth. The Tesla M60's 8 GB is dedicated VRAM, whereas the 860M depends on the host system's memory.

Compute unit counts differ as well. The Tesla M60 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Radeon 860M has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Tesla M60 also has higher pixel and texture rates: 75.39 GPixel/s and 150.8 GTexel/s versus 48.00 GPixel/s and 96.00 GTexel/s for the 860M. FP32 throughput is 4.825 TFLOPS for the Tesla M60 and 3.072 TFLOPS for the Radeon 860M. The Radeon 860M lists FP16 at 3.072 TFLOPS (1:1), while the Tesla M60 has no recorded FP16 figure.

Power requirements are vastly different. The Tesla M60 has a 300 W TDP, a dual-slot form factor, a 1x 8-pin power connector, and a suggested 700 W PSU. The Radeon 860M has a 15 W TDP, an IGP form factor, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU. The Tesla M60 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon 860M uses PCIe 4.0 x8.

Display outputs also differ. The Tesla M60 has no outputs, while the Radeon 860M's outputs are portable device dependent. Production status separates them further: the Tesla M60 is end-of-life, and the Radeon 860M is active.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs spans multiple generations. The Tesla M60 is built on Maxwell 2.0 and belongs to the Tesla Maxwell (Mxx) generation. The Radeon 860M uses RDNA 3.5 and belongs to the Navi III IGP (Strix Point Mobile) generation. The Tesla M60's predecessor is Tesla Kepler, and its successor is Tesla Pascal. The Radeon 860M's predecessor is Navi II IGP, with no successor recorded.

The process node difference is substantial: 28 nm for the Tesla M60 versus 4 nm for the Radeon 860M. Both are fabricated by TSMC, but the newer node gives the Radeon 860M a significant efficiency advantage in density and power efficiency per transistor.

Ray tracing is a key differentiator. The Radeon 860M has 8 ray tracing cores, a feature absent entirely in the Tesla M60. The Tesla M60 has no tensor cores, and neither does the Radeon 860M. DirectX support also differs: the Tesla M60 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the Radeon 860M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

The Radeon 860M's FP16 throughput matches its FP32 at 3.072 TFLOPS, indicating a 1:1 ratio. The Tesla M60 has no recorded FP16 data, which suggests its FP16 capability is either limited or not measured in the database. This matters for workloads that use mixed-precision computation.

The Tesla M60's 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die yields a transistor density of 13.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The Radeon 860M's transistor count and die size are unknown, so no density figure can be calculated. However, the 4 nm process implies a much higher density than the 28 nm Tesla M60, a qualitative observation supported by the process node difference.

The Radeon 860M's 3,000 MHz boost clock is more than 2.5 times the Tesla M60's 1,178 MHz boost clock. Despite this, the Tesla M60 achieves higher FP32 throughput (4.825 TFLOPS vs 3.072 TFLOPS) because it has four times the shading units (2,048 vs 512). This illustrates how the Tesla M60 compensates for its lower clock speed with massive parallel width.

Memory architecture also reflects different design philosophies. The Tesla M60 uses dedicated GDDR5 with a fixed 256-bit bus, while the Radeon 860M relies on system shared memory. This makes the 860M's memory performance dependent on the host system, a variable that the database records as system dependent. The Tesla M60's fixed 160.4 GB/s bandwidth is a known quantity, whereas the 860M's bandwidth cannot be stated as a fixed number.

The Tesla M60's Maxwell architecture was designed for compute acceleration in server environments, which explains its lack of display outputs and its dual-slot, 300 W design. The Radeon 860M's RDNA 3.5 architecture targets integrated graphics in mobile processors, which explains its 15 W TDP and portable device dependent outputs. These are fundamentally different product categories that happen to overlap in benchmark scores.