AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 occupy very different positions in the current GPU landscape, despite both being active products built on modern architectures. The RTX 5060 is a mainstream GeForce card aimed at general gaming and consumer workloads, while the Radeon AI PRO R9700 is a workstation-oriented part with a much larger memory pool and higher power envelope. The recorded data shows a clear split: the AMD card wins the majority of benchmark comparisons, but the NVIDIA card holds a significant advantage in one specific API test. This analysis walks through the architecture, benchmark results, and specification differences to determine which card suits which use case.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 has a higher average benchmark score of 26331, compared to the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700's average of 23315. The RTX 5060 also sits at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, while the R9700 sits at the 69th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 wins this test decisively, scoring 7006 points against the RTX 5060's 3628 points. The RTX 5060 trails by 48.2% in this specific workload.

Q: Where does the NVIDIA card perform better than the AMD card?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 wins the Geekbench Vulkan test by a wide margin. It scores 113321 points in Vulkan, while the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 scores 113321 in the same test, a difference of 78.3% in favor of NVIDIA.

**Q: What is the difference in memory size between these two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory. The AMD card also has a 256-bit memory bus width, double the RTX 5060's 128-bit bus.

Q: How many benchmark wins does AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 have?

A: The AMD card wins 9 out of the 10 head-to-head benchmark comparisons. It wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, Passmark DirectX 10, DirectX 11, DirectX 12, DirectX 9, Passmark G2D, Passmark G3D, and Passmark GPU Compute. The NVIDIA card wins only the Geekbench Vulkan test.

Q: What are the power connector requirements for each card?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 uses a single 8-pin power connector and has a TDP of 145 W. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 uses a single 16-pin connector and has a TDP of 300 W. The suggested PSU rating is 300 W for the NVIDIA card and 700 W for the AMD card.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on entirely different architectural foundations. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 uses the GB206 chip based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 uses the Navi 48 chip based on RDNA 4.0, also built by TSMC but on a 4 nm process. The die size difference is substantial: the AMD chip measures 357 mm² while the NVIDIA chip is just 181 mm². Transistor counts differ greatly as well, with the AMD chip containing 53,900 million transistors versus 21,900 million on the NVIDIA chip. This results in a transistor density of 151.0 million per mm² for AMD and 121.0 million per mm² for NVIDIA.

The memory subsystems diverge sharply. The RTX 5060 uses 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The R9700 uses 32 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, achieving a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The AMD card therefore offers four times the capacity and roughly 44% more bandwidth. Memory clocks also differ: the NVIDIA card runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) while the AMD card runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective).

Compute resources favor the AMD card in raw counts. The R9700 has 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 raster operation pipelines. The RTX 5060 has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The AMD card also has 64 ray tracing cores, while the NVIDIA card has 30. The RTX 5060 does include 120 tensor cores, a feature category that is not listed for the AMD card. Clock behavior also differs: the NVIDIA card has a base clock of 2280 MHz and boost clock of 2497 MHz, while the AMD card has a base clock of 1660 MHz, a boost clock of 2920 MHz, and a game clock of 2350 MHz. The higher boost clock on the AMD card contributes to its much higher theoretical peak rates.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Display outputs are similar in count, with both offering one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort outputs, though the NVIDIA card uses DisplayPort 2.1b while the AMD card uses DisplayPort 2.1a. The bus interface also differs: the RTX 5060 uses PCIe 5.0 x8, while the R9700 uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Physical dimensions are close in height and width (both 111 mm and 40 mm), but the AMD card is longer at 267 mm versus 241 mm for the NVIDIA card. Both are dual-slot designs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are lopsided in favor of the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, which claims 9 wins out of 10 tests. The largest margin comes in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, where the AMD card scores 7006 points against the RTX 5060's 3628 points, a difference of 48.2% in AMD's favor. This is the most dramatic single gap in the entire comparison and indicates a substantial advantage in modern 3D rendering workloads.

The Passmark suite shows consistent AMD wins across all API tests. In DirectX 9, the R9700 scores 363 points versus 225 for the RTX 5060, a 38% advantage. In DirectX 11, the AMD card scores 272 points against 200, a 26.5% lead. In DirectX 10, the AMD card scores 155 against 127, an 18.1% lead. Even in DirectX 12, where the gap is smallest, the AMD card still wins with 83 points against 77, a 7.2% advantage.

Compute performance also favors AMD. In Passmark GPU Compute, the R9700 scores 15300 points against the RTX 5060's 10899 points, a lead of 28.8%. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card wins more narrowly, 118202 points against 112787 points, a 4.6% difference. The Passmark G3D test shows a 22.6% AMD lead, with scores of 26979 versus 20891. Even the 2D workload, Passmark G2D, goes to AMD: 1236 points versus 1154, a 6.6% margin.

The single NVIDIA win comes in Geekbench Vulkan. Here the RTX 5060 reverses the trend decisively, scoring 113321 points against the R9700's 63550 points. The delta of 78.3% in NVIDIA's favor is the largest percentage gap in either direction across all tests. This result stands out because it is the only Vulkan test in the set, and it shows the NVIDIA architecture handling this API far more efficiently than the AMD card.

The overall pattern is clear: the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 dominates in DirectX legacy workloads, compute performance, and the modern 3DMark Steel Nomad test, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 has a singular but massive edge in Vulkan performance. The average benchmark scores reflect a nuance here: the RTX 5060 has a higher average score (26331) than the R9700 (23315), despite losing 9 out of 10 direct comparisons. This is likely because the average includes a broader set of tests beyond the 10 head-to-head entries, and the RTX 5060's Vulkan score contributes heavily to its aggregate.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal where the two cards fundamentally diverge. The most obvious difference is memory capacity: 8 GB on the NVIDIA card versus 32 GB on the AMD card. The memory type also differs, with GDDR7 on the RTX 5060 and GDDR6 on the R9700. The bus width is 128-bit for NVIDIA and 256-bit for AMD, and bandwidth is 448.0 GB/s versus 644.6 GB/s respectively.

Process node and die size favor the AMD card in terms of transistor density but not physical size. The R9700 uses a 4 nm process and a 357 mm² die, while the RTX 5060 uses a 5 nm process and a 181 mm² die. Transistor counts are 53,900 million for AMD and 21,900 million for NVIDIA. Clock speeds differ in both base and boost: the NVIDIA card has a base clock of 2280 MHz and boost of 2497 MHz, while the AMD card has a base clock of 1660 MHz and boost of 2920 MHz. The AMD card also lists a game clock of 2350 MHz, which the NVIDIA card does not have.

Compute unit counts differ across every category. The AMD card has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, while the NVIDIA card has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Ray tracing cores number 64 on the AMD card and 30 on the NVIDIA card. The NVIDIA card includes 120 tensor cores, a feature without a listed counterpart on the AMD card. Pixel rate is 373.8 GPixel/s for AMD versus 119.9 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rate is 747.5 GTexel/s for AMD versus 299.6 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. FP32 and FP16 performance are both 47.84 TFLOPS for AMD and 19.18 TFLOPS for NVIDIA.

Power and connectivity also differ. The NVIDIA card has a TDP of 145 W with a single 8-pin connector and a suggested PSU of 300 W. The AMD card has a TDP of 300 W with a single 16-pin connector and a suggested PSU of 700 W. The bus interface is PCIe 5.0 x8 for NVIDIA and PCIe 5.0 x16 for AMD. The display outputs are nearly identical, but the NVIDIA card uses DisplayPort 2.1b while the AMD card uses DisplayPort 2.1a. The AMD card is longer at 267 mm versus 241 mm, while both share the same height and width. The release dates differ as well, with the NVIDIA card released in May 2025 and the AMD card in July 2025.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 is the clear winner in most measured workloads. Its 48.2% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 indicates strong modern 3D rendering capability. The Passmark suite shows consistent AMD superiority across DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12, with margins ranging from 7.2% to 38%. Compute workloads also favor AMD, as shown by the 28.8% lead in Passmark GPU Compute and the 4.6% lead in Geekbench OpenCL. For users running DirectX-based applications, compute-heavy tasks, or anything requiring large memory capacity (32 GB versus 8 GB), the R9700 is the stronger option. The higher bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s and the larger 256-bit bus also support this position.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 wins in Vulkan performance by a huge margin. Its 113321 point score in Geekbench Vulkan versus the R9700's 63550 points represents a 78.3% advantage. This is the one area where NVIDIA demonstrates clear architectural superiority. For applications that rely heavily on the Vulkan API, the RTX 5060 would be the preferred card despite losing every other head-to-head test. The RTX 5060 also has a higher average benchmark score of 26331 versus 23315, and it sits at a higher percentile among all GPUs (72nd versus 69th). Its lower TDP of 145 W and single 8-pin connector make it a less demanding install, while the AMD card requires a 16-pin connector and a 700 W suggested PSU.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward split. The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 is the superior card for the majority of workloads measured, winning 9 out of 10 head-to-head tests. Its wins include the most demanding modern 3D benchmark, all DirectX API tests, compute benchmarks, and 2D performance. The 32 GB memory capacity and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth give it a clear edge in memory-intensive tasks. Users who need a card for DirectX gaming, compute workloads, or any application that benefits from large memory pools should choose the R9700.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the better choice specifically for Vulkan-based applications, where it leads by 78.3%. It also has a higher average benchmark score overall and a higher percentile ranking. Its lower power draw and less demanding power connector requirements make it easier to integrate into existing systems. However, its 8 GB memory capacity and significantly lower compute throughput put it at a disadvantage in most measured scenarios. The recommendation from the recorded data is clear: choose the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 for broad performance across DirectX and compute workloads, and choose the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 only if Vulkan performance is the primary concern.