AMD Radeon Pro 460 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 460 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, with the former being a 2016 mobile-class part for Macs and the latter a 2020 desktop enthusiast card. Benchmark data from the FACT PACK shows the RTX 3060 Ti dominates in every shared test, yet the two cards occupy different performance percentiles relative to all GPUs, highlighting how their target use cases diverge. The Radeon Pro 460 posts an average benchmark score of 17,509, placing it in the 61st percentile, while the RTX 3060 Ti averages 16,129 across a broader test suite, landing in the 59th percentile. This apparent contradiction stems from the fact that the RTX 3060 Ti’s average is dragged down by older DirectX 9 and 10 tests, whereas its modern compute and Vulkan results are dramatically higher.

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti compare to the AMD Radeon Pro 460 in OpenCL performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti scores 78,927 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 80.6% higher than the Radeon Pro 460’s 15,284. This is the largest single-test gap in the head-to-head data.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density, and what does that indicate?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti’s Samsung 8 nm process yields a density of 44.4M transistors per mm², nearly double the Radeon Pro 460’s 24.4M / mm² on GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm node. This reflects a much more advanced manufacturing process.

Q: Are there any benchmarks where the Radeon Pro 460 wins?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the RTX 3060 Ti winning both shared tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The Radeon Pro 460 records zero wins in the comparison.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two cards?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti offers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth over a 256-bit GDDR6 bus, while the Radeon Pro 460 provides 81.28 GB/s on a 128-bit GDDR5 bus. That is roughly a 5.5x advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Q: How do their API support levels differ?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Radeon Pro 460 tops out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6.

Q: What is the RTX 3060 Ti’s launch MSRP?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti had a launch MSRP of 399 USD. The Radeon Pro 460 has no listed launch MSRP in the data.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Ti wins outright in every benchmark category where both cards were tested. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 47,784 against the Radeon Pro 460’s 16,816, a delta of 64.8% in NVIDIA’s favor. The OpenCL gap is even starker at 80.6%, as noted above. Beyond these head-to-head tests, the RTX 3060 Ti’s broader benchmark suite shows strengths in DirectX 11 (Passmark score of 163), DirectX 12 (78), and GPU compute (10,006). Its Passmark G3D score of 20,349 indicates strong overall rasterization performance.

The Radeon Pro 460, despite losing all shared tests, has its own niche. Its 35 W TDP and IGP slot width make it suitable for compact, power-constrained systems, particularly Mac laptops. Its Geekbench Metal score of 20,426 is not compared directly against the RTX 3060 Ti, but it suggests reasonable performance in Apple’s Metal API. For users running legacy applications, the Radeon Pro 460’s 61st percentile ranking (versus the RTX 3060 Ti’s 59th) implies it holds up better relative to other GPUs in older workloads, likely due to the RTX 3060 Ti’s poor performance in Passmark DirectX 9 (score of 234) and DirectX 10 (132) tests.

Where the Radeon Pro 460 genuinely wins is in efficiency and form factor. Its 35 W TDP is dramatically lower than the RTX 3060 Ti’s 200 W, and it requires no power connectors, whereas the NVIDIA card needs a 12-pin connector and a 550 W suggested PSU. For a Mac environment with limited cooling and power delivery, the Radeon Pro 460 is the only viable option of the two.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these GPUs is generational. The Radeon Pro 460 uses the Baffin chip built on GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process by GlobalFoundries. It packs 3,000 million transistors into a 123 mm² die. The RTX 3060 Ti uses the GA104 chip on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm Samsung process with 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. This represents a 5.8x increase in transistor count and a 3.2x increase in die area.

The RTX 3060 Ti introduces hardware features that simply do not exist on the Radeon Pro 460. It includes 38 RT cores for hardware ray tracing and 152 tensor cores for AI acceleration. The Radeon Pro 460 has neither. Shader organization also differs fundamentally: the RTX 3060 Ti has 4,864 shading units, 152 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, while the Radeon Pro 460 has 1,024 shaders, 64 TMUs, and 16 ROPs.

Memory architecture reflects the performance gap. The Radeon Pro 460 uses 4 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, while the RTX 3060 Ti doubles capacity to 8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. Clock speeds also differ significantly: the Radeon Pro 460 runs at 850 MHz base and 907 MHz boost, whereas the RTX 3060 Ti operates at 1,410 MHz base and 1,665 MHz boost. The memory clock difference is notable too, with the Radeon Pro 460 at 1,270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective) versus the RTX 3060 Ti at 1,750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification field. The Radeon Pro 460’s process node is 14 nm, while the RTX 3060 Ti uses 8 nm. Transistor density is 24.4M / mm² versus 44.4M / mm². The Radeon Pro 460 has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 16 ROPs; the RTX 3060 Ti has 4,864 shading units, 152 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The RTX 3060 Ti adds 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores, which the Radeon Pro 460 lacks entirely.

Pixel and texture rates diverge sharply: the Radeon Pro 460 achieves 14.51 GPixel/s and 58.05 GTexel/s, while the RTX 3060 Ti reaches 133.2 GPixel/s and 253.1 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 1.858 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro 460 versus 16.20 TFLOPS for the RTX 3060 Ti, an 8.7x difference. Both cards show 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratios, but the absolute numbers are 1.858 TFLOPS versus 16.20 TFLOPS.

Power and physical specifications could not be more different. The Radeon Pro 460 draws 35 W, is an IGP (integrated graphics package), and has no power connectors. The RTX 3060 Ti draws 200 W, is dual-slot, and requires a 12-pin connector with a 550 W suggested PSU. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x8 for the Radeon Pro 460 versus PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RTX 3060 Ti. Display outputs are "portable device dependent" for the AMD card, while the NVIDIA card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX 3060 Ti measures 242 mm in length and 112 mm in height; the Radeon Pro 460 has no listed dimensions. Release dates are 2016-10-29 for the AMD card and 2020-11-30 for the NVIDIA card, with both now marked end-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains only two shared tests, and both are decisive victories for the RTX 3060 Ti. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA card scores 78,927, which is 80.6% higher than the Radeon Pro 460’s 15,284. This is the largest margin in the comparison. The RTX 3060 Ti’s raw compute advantage, driven by 4,864 shading units versus 1,024, is the primary factor. The Radeon Pro 460’s GCN 4.0 architecture, designed for efficiency rather than peak throughput, simply cannot match the Ampere design’s raw execution resources.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story, though with a slightly smaller margin. The RTX 3060 Ti scores 47,784 against the Radeon Pro 460’s 16,816, a 64.8% delta. Vulkan benefits from the RTX 3060 Ti’s newer architecture and higher memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s versus 81.28 GB/s), which allows for more efficient draw call handling and texture streaming. The Radeon Pro 460’s Vulkan score is respectable for its class, but it cannot overcome the fundamental throughput gap.

Notably, the RTX 3060 Ti’s average benchmark score of 16,129 is actually lower than the Radeon Pro 460’s 17,509, despite winning both head-to-head tests. This is explained by the RTX 3060 Ti’s inclusion of legacy Passmark tests in its average, where it scores poorly (DirectX 9: 234, DirectX 10: 132). The Radeon Pro 460’s average is based solely on its three Geekbench scores, which are all above 15,000. This illustrates that aggregate scores can mislead; the RTX 3060 Ti’s modern workload performance is vastly superior, but its backward compatibility drags down its average. The percentile rankings reflect this: the Radeon Pro 460 sits at 61st percentile versus the RTX 3060 Ti’s 59th, but this ranking is an artifact of test selection rather than a true measure of relative capability.