AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 vs AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits cleanly along workload lines. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 wins the only directly comparable test, Geekbench OpenCL, with a score of 68,562 against the RX 5600 OEM’s 62,427 — a 9.8% advantage. That single win positions the MI25 at the 90th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600 OEM sits at the 87th percentile. In raw compute throughput, the MI25’s 12.29 TFLOPS FP32 nearly doubles the RX 5600 OEM’s 6.390 TFLOPS, and its FP16 rating of 24.58 TFLOPS (2:1) likewise dwarfs the 12.78 TFLOPS (2:1) of the Navi part. These are numbers that point to one conclusion: the Instinct card is built for sustained, parallel number-crunching, not for interactive rendering.

The RX 5600 OEM, however, has its own domain. It is the only one of the two with display outputs — 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a — while the MI25 lists “No outputs.” That single distinction makes the RX 5600 OEM the only viable choice for a desktop workstation where a monitor must be attached. Its Vulkan score of 53,743 (no Vulkan result exists for the MI25 in the data) further suggests that the newer RDNA architecture handles modern graphics APIs with a different profile, even if the OpenCL comparison favors the older card. The RX 5600 OEM also carries a much lower TDP of 125 W versus 300 W, and its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface doubles the bus bandwidth available to the MI25’s PCIe 3.0 x16. For gaming, content creation, or any workload that feeds data through a conventional display pipeline, the RX 5600 OEM is the functional option; for headless compute, the MI25 is the brute-force instrument.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different foundries and different design philosophies. The MI25 uses the Vega 10 chip on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, packing 12,500 million transistors into a 495 mm² die — a transistor density of 25.3 million per square millimeter. The RX 5600 OEM uses Navi 10 on TSMC’s 7 nm node, with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, achieving 41.0 million transistors per square millimeter. The process shrink is stark: the RX 5600 OEM crams 62% more transistors into roughly half the area, which explains its far lower power draw despite a higher boost clock.

The compute resources differ even more dramatically. The MI25 fields 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RX 5600 OEM halves the shading units to 2,048 and the TMUs to 128, while keeping 64 ROPs. Texture rate tells the story: 384.0 GTexel/s for the MI25 versus 199.7 GTexel/s for the RX 5600 OEM — a 92% gap. Pixel rates are nearly identical (96.00 vs 99.84 GPixel/s), which makes sense given the matching ROP counts. The MI25’s memory subsystem is equally lopsided: 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 436.2 GB/s, against 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, at 288.0 GB/s. The MI25 has 51% more bandwidth and nearly three times the capacity, though the RX 5600 OEM’s memory runs at a much higher effective speed (12 Gbps vs 1704 Mbps effective).

Architecturally, the MI25 is GCN 5.0, a design optimized for compute throughput with a 2:1 FP16 ratio. The RX 5600 OEM is RDNA 1.0, a gaming-first architecture that also supports a 2:1 FP16 ratio but with a different scheduling model. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6, but the RX 5600 OEM lists Vulkan 1.4 while the MI25 lists Vulkan 1.3. The bus interface differs too: PCIe 3.0 x16 on the Instinct, PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RX 5600 OEM. The power delivery tells the rest of the story — the MI25 needs a 300 W TDP, a dual-slot cooler, 2x 8-pin connectors, and a 700 W suggested PSU; the RX 5600 OEM runs on 125 W, a single 8-pin, and a 300 W suggested PSU.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head result is Geekbench OpenCL, where the MI25 scores 68,562 against the RX 5600 OEM’s 62,427 — a 9.8% margin. That is a meaningful gap but not a landslide. To put it in context, the MI25’s nearest rivals are the Intel Arc A770 (68,809, -0.4% relative to the MI25), the NVIDIA CMP 90HX (69,000, -0.6%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (69,870, -1.9%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (69,986, -2%). The MI25 sits just below a cluster of cards scoring in the high 68,000 to 70,000 range, meaning a 9.8% win over the RX 5600 OEM places it in a competitive tier rather than at the top.

The RX 5600 OEM’s own nearest rivals tell a different story. Its average benchmark score is 58,085, which is dragged down by its Vulkan result of 53,743 (the OpenCL score of 62,427 is the stronger data point). Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc A570M (58,239, -0.3% relative to the RX 5600 OEM), the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (58,392, -0.5%), the Intel Arc A580 (57,756, +0.6%), and the NVIDIA P102-100 (58,528, -0.8%). The RX 5600 OEM is clustered with mid-range cards, all within a 1% band of each other, whereas the MI25 sits with higher-performing workstation and mining parts. The 9.8% OpenCL delta between the two cards is larger than any delta within their respective rival clusters, which underscores that these are not direct competitors — they merely share a vendor logo.

The FP32 numbers reinforce the benchmark gap. At 12.29 TFLOPS, the MI25 delivers 92% more raw compute than the RX 5600 OEM’s 6.390 TFLOPS. The FP16 figures follow the same pattern (24.58 vs 12.78 TFLOPS). Yet the RX 5600 OEM’s pixel rate is slightly higher (99.84 vs 96.00 GPixel/s), and its memory runs with a much faster effective clock (12 Gbps vs 1704 Mbps). The MI25’s advantage is bandwidth and capacity, not speed per pin. For workloads that fit in 6 GB and stream data efficiently, the RX 5600 OEM can hold its own; for anything that needs the full 16 GB HBM2 pool, the MI25 is the only option.

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward split. Choose the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 if the workload is headless compute: OpenCL-heavy tasks, large datasets that benefit from 16 GB of HBM2, or any scenario where 436.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth matters more than power efficiency. Its 9.8% OpenCL lead over the RX 5600 OEM, combined with near-double FP32 throughput, makes it the clear choice for server racks, render farms, or machine learning inference where no display is needed. The trade-offs are real: 300 W TDP, a 700 W suggested PSU, dual-slot width, and two 8-pin connectors. But if the task is number-crunching, the MI25 is the stronger tool.

Choose the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM if the card must connect to a monitor. It is the only one of the two with display outputs, and its 125 W TDP, single 8-pin connector, and 300 W suggested PSU make it far easier to integrate into a desktop system. Its Vulkan 1.4 support and PCIe 4.0 interface are modern advantages, even if its OpenCL score trails the MI25 by 9.8%. The 6 GB of GDDR6 is sufficient for 1080p gaming and mainstream content creation, and the 99.84 GPixel/s pixel rate is actually slightly higher than the MI25’s. The RX 5600 OEM is also smaller in practical terms — no length or height dimensions are listed for it, but the MI25 is a 267 mm dual-slot card.

Neither card is a current product; both are end-of-life. The MI25 dates from June 2017, the RX 5600 OEM from January 2020. The MI25’s predecessor is FirePro Data Center, while the RX 5600 OEM’s predecessor is Vega and its successor is Navi II. If the choice is forced between these two, the decision is not about performance alone — it is about whether the machine needs a picture.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 scores 68,562, which is 9.8% higher than the RX 5600 OEM’s 62,427.

Q: Can the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 output video to a display?

A: No. The MI25 lists “No outputs” for display connections, while the RX 5600 OEM has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The MI25 has 436.2 GB/s from 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, versus 288.0 GB/s from 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus for the RX 5600 OEM.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two?

A: The RX 5600 OEM on TSMC’s 7 nm process has 41.0 million transistors per mm², while the MI25 on GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm process has 25.3 million per mm².

Q: Which card supports a newer version of Vulkan?

A: The RX 5600 OEM supports Vulkan 1.4; the MI25 supports Vulkan 1.3. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6.

Q: What power supply is recommended for each card?

A: The MI25 requires a 700 W suggested PSU with 2x 8-pin connectors; the RX 5600 OEM needs a 300 W suggested PSU with a single 8-pin connector.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 | AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | GCN 5.0 | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process Node | 14 nm (GlobalFoundries) | 7 nm (TSMC) |

| Transistors | 12,500 million | 10,300 million |

| Die Size | 495 mm² | 251 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.3M / mm² | 41.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1400 MHz | 1130 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1500 MHz | 1560 MHz |

| Game Clock | — | 1375 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 852 MHz (1704 Mbps effective) | 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 16 GB HBM2 | 6 GB GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 2048 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 436.2 GB/s | 288.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 4096 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 256 | 128 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| Pixel Rate | 96.00 GPixel/s | 99.84 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 384.0 GTexel/s | 199.7 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 12.29 TFLOPS | 6.390 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 24.58 TFLOPS (2:1) | 12.78 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 300 W | 125 W |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 700 W | 300 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| Vulkan Version | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | 267 mm (10.5 inches) long, 111 mm (4.4 inches) high | Not listed |

| Release Date | 2017-06-26 | 2020-01-20 |

| Predecessor | FirePro Data Center | Vega |

| Successor | — | Navi II |