AMD Radeon Pro 5300M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M represent two distinct eras of mobile graphics, separated by over five years of architectural evolution. The data shows a clear generational gap, with the Radeon Pro 5300M holding a commanding lead in every shared benchmark, while the GTX 870M trails significantly in raw compute and API compatibility. This analysis examines the benchmark scores, architectural differences, and specification gaps to determine which GPU suits specific workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M averages 10013 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M averages 9959 points. This places the Radeon Pro 5300M just 0.5% ahead of the GTX 870M in overall performance.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Geekbench Metal test?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M scores 33626 in Geekbench Metal, which is 361.4% higher than the GTX 870M’s 7288. This represents the single largest performance delta between the two cards.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M delivers 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth over a 128-bit bus using GDDR6 memory, while the GTX 870M provides 120.0 GB/s over a 192-bit bus with GDDR5 memory. The Radeon Pro 5300M achieves 60% more bandwidth despite a narrower bus.

Q: Which GPU supports a newer PCIe interface?

A: The Radeon Pro 5300M uses PCIe 4.0 x8, whereas the GTX 870M relies on the older MXM-B (3.0) interface. This reflects the Radeon Pro 5300M’s more modern platform integration.

Q: How do the shading unit counts compare?

A: The GTX 870M has 1344 shading units, which is 64 more than the Radeon Pro 5300M’s 1280. Despite fewer units, the Radeon Pro 5300M achieves higher FP32 throughput at 3.200 TFLOPS versus 2.599 TFLOPS.

Q: What are the production statuses of both GPUs?

A: Both the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M are marked as end-of-life products in the data.

The Verdict

The benchmark data strongly favors the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M for any modern workload. In the two shared tests, the Radeon Pro 5300M wins decisively: 361.4% higher in Geekbench Metal and 131.6% higher in Geekbench OpenCL. The compute-oriented RDNA 1.0 architecture delivers over 23% more FP32 performance (3.200 TFLOPS vs 2.599 TFLOPS) and nearly double the memory bandwidth (192.0 GB/s vs 120.0 GB/s), making it the clear choice for GPU-accelerated tasks like rendering, machine learning inference, or professional content creation.

However, the GTX 870M is not without merit for legacy scenarios. Its 1344 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 24 ROPs provide a different resource balance that may suit older DirectX 11-era applications. The data shows the GTX 870M supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175, which covers most games from its 2014 release period. For users running software optimized for Kepler architecture, the GTX 870M remains functional, but its 3 GB GDDR5 frame buffer and lower bandwidth will bottleneck modern high-texture workloads.

The verdict is straightforward: choose the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M for current-generation compute and graphics tasks, and reserve the GTX 870M for retro compatibility or legacy systems where MXM-B (3.0) integration is required. The Radeon Pro 5300M’s 7 nm process and RDNA 1.0 architecture provide a substantial efficiency and performance advantage that no amount of Kepler-era driver optimization can overcome.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data reveals a one-sided contest across the two available test suites. In Geekbench Metal, the Radeon Pro 5300M scores 33626, while the GTX 870M manages only 7288. This 361.4% delta is staggering and reflects the fundamental difference in compute architecture: RDNA 1.0’s shader design is far more efficient at Metal-level abstractions than Kepler’s older SIMT model. The Radeon Pro 5300M’s 6.400 TFLOPS FP16 throughput (2:1 ratio) also contributes to Metal’s heavy use of half-precision math, a capability entirely absent from the GTX 870M (FP16 is null in its specifications).

In Geekbench OpenCL, the gap narrows but remains lopsided. The Radeon Pro 5300M scores 29252 versus the GTX 870M’s 12630, a 131.6% advantage. OpenCL workloads often stress raw FP32 compute, where the Radeon Pro 5300M’s 3.200 TFLOPS outperforms the GTX 870M’s 2.599 TFLOPS by a 23% margin. The additional bandwidth (192.0 GB/s vs 120.0 GB/s) further amplifies this advantage in memory-bound kernels. The GTX 870M’s higher TMU count (112 vs 80) provides some texture-heavy benefits, but this does not translate into OpenCL wins given the Radeon Pro 5300M’s superior texture rate of 100.0 GTexel/s versus 108.3 GTexel/s for the GTX 870M — a rare metric where the NVIDIA card actually leads.

The wins tally confirms the dominance: the Radeon Pro 5300M wins 2 out of 2 head-to-head benchmarks, with zero wins for the GTX 870M. The average benchmark score difference of 0.5% (10013 vs 9959) is misleading because it averages across different test sets; the GTX 870M lacks PassMark and Geekbench Vulkan results, which would likely widen the gap further given the Radeon Pro 5300M’s 27912 Vulkan score.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs diverge sharply across every major specification category. The Radeon Pro 5300M uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the GTX 870M has 3 GB of GDDR5 — a 1 GB capacity difference and a memory type leap of one generation. Bus widths also differ: 128-bit for the Radeon Pro 5300M versus 192-bit for the GTX 870M, yet the Radeon Pro 5300M still achieves 192.0 GB/s versus 120.0 GB/s due to GDDR6’s higher data rate (12 Gbps effective vs 5 Gbps effective).

Clock speeds favor the Radeon Pro 5300M, with a base of 1000 MHz and boost of 1250 MHz, compared to the GTX 870M’s 941 MHz base and 967 MHz boost. This 283 MHz boost advantage, combined with architectural efficiency, explains the massive performance delta. The Radeon Pro 5300M also has a lower TDP of 85 W versus 100 W for the GTX 870M, making it more power-efficient despite delivering higher performance.

Other differences include the Radeon Pro 5300M’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface versus the GTX 870M’s MXM-B (3.0) slot, and the Radeon Pro 5300M’s superior API support: DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 versus DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. The GTX 870M’s slot width of MXM Module indicates its removable form factor, while the Radeon Pro 5300M’s slot width is not specified. Neither GPU has power connectors listed, suggesting integrated power delivery.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is the root cause of their performance disparity. The Radeon Pro 5300M is built on TSMC’s 7 nm process with RDNA 1.0 architecture, packing 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 40.5M per mm² — a figure the GTX 870M cannot approach. The GTX 870M uses Kepler architecture on TSMC’s 28 nm node, with 3,540 million transistors spread across a much larger 294 mm² die, resulting in just 12.0M transistors per mm². The Radeon Pro 5300M achieves over 3.3 times the transistor density, enabling more compute elements per watt.

The Radeon Pro 5300M’s RDNA 1.0 architecture is designed for modern graphics APIs, supporting DirectX 12 (12_1) with feature level 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4. Kepler, by contrast, only reaches DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. This means the GTX 870M lacks hardware support for some DirectX 12 features like variable rate shading or mesh shaders, limiting its compatibility with recent titles. The Radeon Pro 5300M also offers FP16 compute at 6.400 TFLOPS (2:1), while the GTX 870M has no FP16 support listed, a critical gap for AI and machine learning workloads.

Memory architecture further separates them. The Radeon Pro 5300M’s GDDR6 memory with 12 Gbps effective speed delivers modern high-bandwidth performance, while the GTX 870M’s GDDR5 at 5 Gbps is two generations old. The Radeon Pro 5300M’s 128-bit bus is compensated by faster data rates, whereas the GTX 870M’s wider 192-bit bus cannot overcome its slower memory clock. The Radeon Pro 5300M’s pixel rate of 40.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 100.0 GTexel/s also outpace the GTX 870M’s 27.08 GPixel/s and 108.3 GTexel/s, respectively — the latter being the only metric where the GTX 870M leads.