AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 is the dominant performer in this pairing. The recorded data shows a 48.2% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and a 72% lead in Geekbench Vulkan over the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM. The MI60 sits at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600 OEM sits at the 87th percentile. The MI60 wins both head-to-head benchmark tests.

The RX 5600 OEM is not without its place. It is a 125 W card with a suggested 300 W power supply, making it a far lighter system burden than the MI60's 300 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU. The RX 5600 OEM also carries modern display outputs: one HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 1.4a connections, versus the MI60's single mini-DisplayPort 1.4a. Buyers should choose the MI60 for raw compute throughput, while the RX 5600 OEM makes sense for systems where power delivery and display connectivity matter more than peak compute.

The MI60's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro VII, which is 4.8% ahead, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900M, which is 5.2% ahead. The RX 5600 OEM sits in a tighter pack: the Intel Arc A570M is 0.3% behind, the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is 0.5% behind, the Intel Arc A580 is 0.6% ahead, and the NVIDIA P102-100 is 0.8% behind. These deltas show the RX 5600 OEM clustering near its peers, while the MI60 has clear separation from the GPUs directly below it.

Architecture Differences

The MI60 uses the Vega 20 chip built on GCN 5.1 architecture, while the RX 5600 OEM uses the Navi 10 chip built on RDNA 1.0. Both are manufactured by TSMC on a 7 nm process. The MI60 packs 13,230 million transistors across a 331 mm² die, for a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The RX 5600 OEM contains 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, for a slightly higher density of 41.0M per mm².

The MI60's compute resources are substantial: 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RX 5600 OEM halves the shading units to 2,048 and the TMUs to 128, while keeping 64 ROPs. The MI60's pixel rate is 115.2 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 460.8 GTexel/s. The RX 5600 OEM delivers 99.84 GPixel/s and 199.7 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput gap is wide: 14.75 TFLOPS for the MI60 versus 6.390 TFLOPS for the RX 5600 OEM. FP16 figures follow the same pattern: 29.49 TFLOPS for the MI60 versus 12.78 TFLOPS for the RX 5600 OEM, both at a 2:1 ratio.

Memory architecture differs completely. The MI60 uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, producing 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The RX 5600 OEM uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s. The MI60's memory clock is 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective), while the RX 5600 OEM runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). The MI60's clock profile is 1200 MHz base and 1800 MHz boost; the RX 5600 OEM runs 1130 MHz base, 1375 MHz game, and 1560 MHz boost.

The MI60 is a Radeon Instinct part from the MIx generation, released November 2018, while the RX 5600 OEM belongs to the Radeon RX 5000 series (Navi generation), released January 2020. The RX 5600 OEM lists Vega as its predecessor and Navi II as its successor. The MI60 lists FirePro Data Center as its predecessor. Both are end-of-life products. The MI60 uses a dual-slot cooler with a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector arrangement; the RX 5600 OEM is also dual-slot but needs only a single 8-pin connector. The MI60 is 267 mm long and 111 mm tall; the RX 5600 OEM's dimensions are not recorded.

API support shows a notable difference. The MI60 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RX 5600 OEM supports the same DirectX and OpenGL versions, but Vulkan 1.4 instead of 1.3. Both use PCIe 4.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains two tests, and the MI60 wins both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the MI60 scores 92,488 against the RX 5600 OEM's 62,427, a 48.2% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the MI60 scores 92,444 against 53,743, a 72% advantage.

The Vulkan gap is the larger of the two. The RX 5600 OEM's Vulkan score of 53,743 is notably below its own OpenCL result of 62,427, a 13.9% drop. The MI60's two scores are nearly identical: 92,488 OpenCL and 92,444 Vulkan, a difference of only 44 points. This suggests the MI60 delivers consistent performance across both APIs, while the RX 5600 OEM loses more ground in the Vulkan workload.

The MI60's average benchmark score across the recorded tests is 92,466. The RX 5600 OEM's average is 58,085. That is a 59.2% gap in average score, which aligns with the individual test deltas. The MI60's percentile ranking (93rd) versus the RX 5600 OEM's (87th) also reflects this separation, though the percentile difference is smaller than the raw score gap because the MI60 sits among other high-end accelerators.

Nearest rival data provides context. The MI60's closest competitor, the NVIDIA RTX A4500, scores 91,671, just 0.9% behind. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is 1.5% behind at 91,134. Above the MI60 sit the AMD Radeon Pro VII at 97,131 (4.8% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX 7900M at 97,487 (5.2% ahead). The MI60 is therefore near the top of its performance tier, with only two recorded rivals exceeding it by modest margins.

The RX 5600 OEM's nearest rivals cluster far more tightly. The Intel Arc A570M scores 58,239 (0.3% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT scores 58,392 (0.5% behind), the Intel Arc A580 scores 57,756 (0.6% ahead), and the NVIDIA P102-100 scores 58,528 (0.8% behind). All four rivals fall within a 1.3% band around the RX 5600 OEM's 58,085 average. This is a competitive segment where small differences separate products, unlike the MI60's tier where the nearest rival is nearly 1% away and the next two are 4.8% and 5.2% ahead.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 has an average benchmark score of 92,466, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM averages 58,085.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Vulkan?

A: The MI60 leads by 72% in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 92,444 versus 53,743 for the RX 5600 OEM.

Q: Does the RX 5600 OEM win any benchmark test?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the MI60 winning both Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The RX 5600 OEM has zero wins.

Q: What memory configurations do these cards use?

A: The MI60 uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth. The RX 5600 OEM uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do the power requirements compare?

A: The MI60 has a 300 W TDP and a suggested 700 W power supply, with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors. The RX 5600 OEM has a 125 W TDP and a suggested 300 W power supply, with a single 8-pin connector.

Q: Which GPU supports a newer Vulkan version?

A: The RX 5600 OEM supports Vulkan 1.4, while the MI60 supports Vulkan 1.3. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6.

Where Each One Wins

The MI60 wins in raw compute workloads. Its 14.75 TFLOPS FP32 and 29.49 TFLOPS FP16 performance, combined with 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth and 32 GB of HBM2 capacity, make it suited for large data sets and sustained compute. The benchmark data confirms this: 48.2% ahead in OpenCL and 72% ahead in Vulkan. The MI60's consistent scores across both APIs (92,488 and 92,444) indicate stable performance regardless of the workload type. Its 93rd percentile ranking places it among the top GPUs in the database.

The RX 5600 OEM wins in efficiency and practical system integration. At 125 W TDP with a 300 W suggested PSU, it demands less than half the power budget of the MI60. Its display output suite, with one HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports, supports multi-monitor setups directly, whereas the MI60 offers only a single mini-DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 5600 OEM is also the newer product by release date, arriving in January 2020 versus November 2018, and supports Vulkan 1.4, a newer API version than the MI60's Vulkan 1.3.

For compute density, the MI60 is the clear choice. Its 4096 shading units and 256 TMUs dwarf the RX 5600 OEM's 2048 shading units and 128 TMUs. The MI60's texture rate of 460.8 GTexel/s is more than double the RX 5600 OEM's 199.7 GTexel/s. The pixel rates are closer (115.2 GPixel/s versus 99.84 GPixel/s), but the MI60 still leads.

For general use, the RX 5600 OEM's position within a tight rival cluster (all nearest rivals within 0.8%) means it is a balanced mid-pack option. The MI60, by contrast, has a 0.9% lead over its nearest rival and sits 4.8% and 5.2% below the next tier up, making it a high-end part with clear separation from the field. The choice depends on whether the workload prioritizes maximum compute throughput (MI60) or lower power draw with modern display outputs (RX 5600 OEM). The recorded data does not show any test where the RX 5600 OEM overtakes the MI60.