AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 and NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum: one is a 300 W data-center accelerator from 2018, the other a 70 W mobile workstation part from 2021. The benchmark data shows a clear overall winner, but the two cards are built for entirely different environments, and the scores reflect that split. The MI60 leads in both recorded tests, with an average benchmark score of 92,466 versus 70,140 for the RTX A3000 Mobile, placing them at the 93rd and 91st percentiles of all GPUs respectively.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 wins on raw compute throughput in every benchmark recorded. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 92,488 against the RTX A3000 Mobile’s 79,091, a 16.9% advantage. The gap widens dramatically in Geekbench Vulkan, where the MI60 posts 92,444 versus 61,189, a 51.1% lead. These results align with the specification sheet: the MI60 delivers 14.75 TFLOPS FP32 and 29.49 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), while the RTX A3000 Mobile manages 10.08 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1). The MI60 also has a massive memory advantage — 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus providing 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth, compared to 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus at 264.0 GB/s. For compute-heavy workloads that saturate memory bandwidth, the MI60 is the clear pick.

The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile wins on efficiency and feature set for its intended use case. Its 70 W TDP is a fraction of the MI60’s 300 W, and it requires no external power connectors, making it suitable for portable workstations. It also brings hardware that the MI60 lacks entirely: 32 RT cores and 128 tensor cores. The RTX A3000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the MI60 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The NVIDIA card also supports Vulkan 1.4, whereas the AMD card is capped at Vulkan 1.3. In the context of mobile workstations, the RTX A3000 Mobile’s feature set is more modern, even if its raw scores are lower.

The benchmark wins break down as 2 for the MI60 and 0 for the RTX A3000 Mobile. However, that binary count obscures the context: the RTX A3000 Mobile’s Vulkan score of 61,189 is 20.3% below its own OpenCL score, while the MI60’s two scores are nearly identical (92,488 and 92,444). This suggests the MI60 has more consistent cross-API performance, whereas the RTX A3000 Mobile is notably weaker in Vulkan specifically.

The Verdict

For anyone prioritizing raw compute performance, the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 is the data-backed choice. It leads the RTX A3000 Mobile by 16.9% in OpenCL and 51.1% in Vulkan. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth is in a different class from the 6 GB GDDR6 at 264.0 GB/s. The MI60 also sits at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals — the NVIDIA RTX A4500 at 91,671 (0.9% behind) and the RTX A4500 Mobile at 91,134 (1.5% behind) — are all extremely close, indicating the MI60 is competitive with much newer workstation parts.

For mobile or power-constrained environments, the RTX A3000 Mobile is the only sensible option. The MI60 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, requiring a 700 W power supply and both a 6-pin and 8-pin connector. The RTX A3000 Mobile has no power connectors and draws 70 W, making it feasible in laptops where the MI60 physically cannot fit. The RTX A3000 Mobile also supports ray tracing and tensor acceleration, which the MI60 does not. Its 91st percentile ranking is respectable, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 at 69,986, is only 0.2% behind, showing the RTX A3000 Mobile holds its own among older desktop flagships.

The verdict is straightforward: the MI60 wins every benchmark and is the superior compute part, but the RTX A3000 Mobile is the only card that works in a mobile chassis. These are not competing products in the same market segment — they are solutions for different problems, and the data supports choosing the MI60 for stationary compute and the RTX A3000 Mobile for portable work.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the MI60 at 92,488 against the RTX A3000 Mobile’s 79,091, a 16.9% difference. This is the smaller of the two gaps, and it reflects the MI60’s higher FP32 throughput (14.75 TFLOPS vs 10.08 TFLOPS) and vastly superior memory bandwidth. The RTX A3000 Mobile’s 10.08 TFLOPS FP16 at 1:1 ratio means it does not gain a half-rate advantage like the MI60’s 2:1 FP16, so in mixed-precision workloads the MI60’s 29.49 TFLOPS FP16 would be even more dominant.

The Geekbench Vulkan test is where the MI60 truly separates itself. Its score of 92,444 is 51.1% higher than the RTX A3000 Mobile’s 61,189. This is a massive margin that cannot be explained by raw specs alone. The RTX A3000 Mobile’s Vulkan score is significantly lower than its OpenCL score, suggesting driver or architecture-level inefficiencies in Vulkan on the Ampere mobile part. The MI60’s Vulkan score is effectively identical to its OpenCL score, indicating consistent performance across APIs. This 51.1% delta is the single largest gap in the head-to-head data and is the defining statistic for this comparison.

The MI60 also wins on memory architecture. Its 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth are roughly four times the RTX A3000 Mobile’s 192-bit bus and 264.0 GB/s. This matters for workloads that stream large datasets, where the MI60’s 32 GB capacity also avoids spills to system memory. The RTX A3000 Mobile’s 6 GB is sufficient for many mobile tasks but will bottleneck on large models or high-resolution textures.

In terms of rasterization throughput, the MI60 has higher pixel and texture rates: 115.2 GPixel/s and 460.8 GTexel/s versus 78.72 GPixel/s and 157.4 GTexel/s for the RTX A3000 Mobile. The MI60’s texture rate is nearly three times higher, though both have 64 ROPs. The RTX A3000 Mobile’s 128 TMUs are half the MI60’s 256, which explains the texture rate gap. Both have 4096 shading units, but the MI60’s higher clocks (1200 MHz base, 1800 MHz boost) versus the RTX A3000 Mobile’s (600 MHz base, 1230 MHz boost) drive its compute advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 has an average benchmark score of 92,466, compared to 70,140 for the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile.

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

A: The largest gap is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the MI60 scores 92,444 versus the RTX A3000 Mobile’s 61,189, a 51.1% difference.

Q: Does the RTX A3000 Mobile support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile has 32 RT cores and 128 tensor cores. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 has neither.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The MI60 has 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 264.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card is more energy-efficient?

A: The RTX A3000 Mobile has a 70 W TDP and no power connectors, while the MI60 has a 300 W TDP and requires both a 6-pin and 8-pin connector.

Q: How do their percentile rankings compare?

A: The MI60 is at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A3000 Mobile is at the 91st percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and processes. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 uses the Vega 20 chip with GCN 5.1 architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 7 nm process. It contains 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip with Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. It contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, for a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². Despite the RTX A3000 Mobile having more transistors and a larger die, it delivers lower compute performance due to its lower clock speeds and mobile power envelope.

The memory subsystems are entirely different. The MI60 uses 32 GB of HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, running at 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The RTX A3000 Mobile uses 6 GB of GDDR6 with a 192-bit bus and 264.0 GB/s bandwidth, running at 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective). This is a four-fold difference in bandwidth and a five-fold difference in capacity, making the MI60 far better suited for memory-bound compute tasks.

Compute resources differ in configuration. Both have 4096 shading units, but the MI60 has 256 TMUs and 64 ROPs, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The MI60’s higher texture rate (460.8 GTexel/s vs 157.4 GTexel/s) stems from its doubled TMU count and higher clocks. The RTX A3000 Mobile adds 32 RT cores and 128 tensor cores, which the MI60 lacks entirely. The MI60’s FP16 performance is double its FP32 (29.49 TFLOPS vs 14.75 TFLOPS), while the RTX A3000 Mobile has equal FP16 and FP32 (10.08 TFLOPS each).

API support differs notably. The RTX A3000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the MI60 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both have OpenGL 4.6. The MI60 is a dual-slot card with one mini-DisplayPort 1.4a output, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has portable-device-dependent display outputs. The MI60 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, as does the RTX A3000 Mobile. The MI60’s production status is end-of-life, as is the RTX A3000 Mobile’s, with the latter having a successor in Ada-MW and the former having no successor listed.