AMD Radeon Pro 5300M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M represent two very different eras of mobile graphics, separated by over five years of architectural evolution. The data shows a decisive performance gap, with the Radeon Pro 5300M delivering roughly triple the compute throughput of the older GeForce in the shared benchmark suite. The GTX 850M, while once a capable mainstream part, is now firmly in entry-level territory, whereas the Radeon Pro 5300M holds a mid-pack position among all GPUs.

The Verdict

The benchmark results leave little room for ambiguity: the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is the superior performer in every measurable category. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Radeon scores 29,252 against the GTX 850M's 9,821, a 197.9% advantage. The Vulkan gap is even wider, with the Radeon posting 27,912 versus 8,782, a 217.8% lead. For any workload leveraging OpenCL or Vulkan, the Radeon Pro 5300M is categorically in a different class.

The GTX 850M's sole statistical edge is its power draw. At 45 W, it consumes nearly half the 85 W TDP of the Radeon Pro 5300M. This makes the older NVIDIA part a plausible choice for ultra-thin, passively-cooled legacy systems where absolute performance is secondary to thermal constraints. However, the performance-per-watt ratio still favors the Radeon, as its compute output is roughly three times higher while drawing less than double the power.

For users choosing between these two today, the decision hinges on workload. If the task involves modern API rendering, GPU compute, or any form of content creation, the Radeon Pro 5300M is the only rational pick. The GTX 850M's 2 GB DDR3 memory and 32.03 GB/s bandwidth are severe bottlenecks for contemporary textures and datasets. The data indicates that the Radeon Pro 5300M belongs in a different performance tier, sitting 0.5% above the GeForce GTX 870M in average score, while the GTX 850M sits 0.3% above the GeForce GTX 960. There is no benchmark scenario in the provided data where the older card wins.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The Radeon Pro 5300M uses the Navi 14 chip based on RDNA 1.0, fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. This is a modern, dense design with 6,400 million transistors packed into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5M per mm². In contrast, the GTX 850M uses the GM107 chip based on the older Maxwell architecture, built on a 28 nm process. It contains 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, with a density of just 12.6M per mm². The process node advantage alone explains a substantial portion of the performance differential.

The compute configuration differs dramatically. The Radeon Pro 5300M features 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The GTX 850M has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs — exactly half the Radeon's counts in each category. This doubling of resources is reflected in the raw throughput figures: the Radeon achieves 3.200 TFLOPS FP32 and 6.400 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio), while the GTX 850M manages 1,154.6 GFLOPS FP32 with no FP16 capability listed. The Radeon's pixel rate of 40.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 100.0 GTexel/s dwarf the GTX 850M's 14.43 GPixel/s and 36.08 GTexel/s.

Memory architecture reinforces the gap. The Radeon Pro 5300M uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s bandwidth at 12 Gbps effective. The GTX 850M uses 2 GB of DDR3 on the same 128-bit bus, but only achieves 32.03 GB/s at 2 Gbps effective. This sixfold bandwidth difference has outsized impact on texture-heavy and compute-bound workloads. The Radeon also supports PCIe 4.0 x8, while the GTX 850M uses PCIe 3.0 x16, though the latter's older interface is less relevant given its other bottlenecks. API support also differs: the Radeon lists DirectX 12 (12_1), while the GTX 850M lists DirectX 12 (11_0), indicating a lower feature level for the NVIDIA part.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M scores 29,252 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M scores 9,821. This represents a 197.9% advantage for the AMD card.

Q: Is the GTX 850M better in any benchmark?

A: No. In the head-to-head benchmark comparison, the Radeon Pro 5300M wins both tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The wins tally is 2 for AMD and 0 for NVIDIA.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M delivers 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, compared to the GTX 850M's 32.03 GB/s. The Radeon's GDDR6 memory operates at 12 Gbps effective, while the GTX 850M's DDR3 runs at 2 Gbps effective.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M has an average benchmark score of 10,013, placing it at the 48th percentile of all GPUs. The GTX 850M has an average score of 9,302, at the 46th percentile. The Radeon's nearest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K5100M at a -0.3% delta, while the GTX 850M's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 at a 0.1% delta.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M has a TDP of 85 W, while the GTX 850M has a TDP of 45 W. The GTX 850M consumes less power, but the Radeon delivers far higher performance per watt in the shared benchmarks.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The Radeon Pro 5300M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the GTX 850M supports DirectX 12 (11_0). The Radeon's higher feature level allows for more advanced rendering techniques.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification field. The process node is a major divider: 7 nm for AMD versus 28 nm for NVIDIA. Transistor count stands at 6,400 million versus 1,870 million, and die size at 158 mm² versus 148 mm². Transistor density is 40.5M per mm² for AMD versus 12.6M per mm² for NVIDIA.

Clock speeds are not directly comparable, as the Radeon lists a base clock of 1000 MHz and boost of 1250 MHz, while the GTX 850M lists no base or boost clock. Memory clocks differ: 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA. Memory size is 4 GB GDDR6 versus 2 GB DDR3, both on a 128-bit bus, but bandwidth is 192.0 GB/s versus 32.03 GB/s.

Compute resources are doubled on the AMD side: 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs versus 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Pixel rate is 40.00 GPixel/s versus 14.43 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 100.0 GTexel/s versus 36.08 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 3.200 TFLOPS versus 1,154.6 GFLOPS. The Radeon offers FP16 at 6.400 TFLOPS (2:1), while the GTX 850M has no listed FP16 capability.

TDP is 85 W versus 45 W. The bus interface differs: PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for NVIDIA. The GTX 850M has a slot width of "IGP", while the Radeon has no listed slot width. Both use no power connectors and have portable-device-dependent display outputs. The Radeon supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the GTX supports DirectX 12 (11_0); both list OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. Release dates are 2019-11-12 for AMD and 2014-03-11 for NVIDIA. The GTX 850M has a predecessor (GeForce 700M) and successor (GeForce 900M), while the Radeon has neither listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains two benchmarks, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M wins both decisively. The first is Geekbench OpenCL, where the Radeon scores 29,252 against the GTX 850M's 9,821. The delta is 197.9%, meaning the AMD card delivers nearly triple the OpenCL compute performance. This is not a marginal victory; it is a generational leap. The OpenCL result aligns with the raw FP32 disparity — 3.200 TFLOPS versus 1,154.6 GFLOPS — though the benchmark gap is larger than the theoretical compute gap, suggesting memory bandwidth and driver efficiency amplify the difference.

The second benchmark is Geekbench Vulkan, where the Radeon scores 27,912 against 8,782. The delta here is 217.8%, an even larger margin than OpenCL. This wider gap likely reflects the RDNA architecture's more modern Vulkan implementation and the GTX 850M's older Maxwell design struggling with newer API overhead. The GTX 850M's nearest rival in average score is the GeForce GTX 465 at 0.1% delta, while the Radeon's nearest rival is the Quadro K5100M at -0.3% delta. In absolute terms, the Radeon's average score of 10,013 places it 7.6% above the GTX 850M's average of 9,302, though the individual head-to-head tests show much larger gaps.

For the GTX 850M, the only consolation is its 45 W TDP, which is 40 W lower than the Radeon's 85 W. In thin-and-light laptops where thermal headroom is minimal, the older card could still function where the newer one would throttle or require more robust cooling. However, the benchmark data shows that any workload migrated from the GTX 850M to the Radeon Pro 5300M would see roughly a 200% performance uplift in compute tasks, making the power trade-off trivial for most users. The wins tally is 2 for AMD, 0 for NVIDIA, and no benchmark in the dataset suggests the GTX 850M can close this gap.