AMD Radeon Pro 5300M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between these two mobile GPUs, with the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M winning both head-to-head benchmark comparisons. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M scores 29,252 points versus 9,745 points for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, a 200.2% advantage. That is not a marginal lead; it is more than triple the raw compute output in this particular workload.

The Geekbench Vulkan results are even more lopsided. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M achieves 27,912 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M manages only 6,525 points. The delta here reaches 327.8%, meaning the AMD part delivers over four times the Vulkan score of the NVIDIA chip. For applications that leverage Vulkan for rendering or compute, this is a substantial, measurable difference that will translate directly into faster frame times and smoother execution.

Looking at the aggregate benchmark picture, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M holds an average benchmark score of 10,013 across all recorded tests. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M sits at 8,135. That is a difference of roughly 23% in average performance. The AMD GPU also places in the 48th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the NVIDIA chip lands in the 42nd percentile. Neither part is a top-tier performer by modern standards, but the AMD card clearly occupies a higher performance tier.

When placed against its nearest rivals, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M's average score of 10,013 puts it within 0.3% of the NVIDIA Quadro K5100M (10,043), 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (9,959), and 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M375 (10,070). It also leads the NVIDIA Quadro 6000 (9,846) by 1.7%. These are tight margins, indicating that the Radeon Pro 5300M slots into a competitive performance band rather than dominating its immediate peers.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, by contrast, has an average score of 8,135, which places it within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon R9 M360 (8,129), 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (8,167), 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 945M (8,099), and 0.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GRID K2 (8,080). The GTX 950M is effectively in a dead heat with its closest competitors, all clustering around the 8,100 to 8,200 mark.

The individual benchmark suite further illustrates the gap. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M records a Passmark G3D score of 5,918 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 2,658. It also posts Passmark scores of 36 in DirectX 10, 37 in DirectX 11, 25 in DirectX 12, and 80 in DirectX 9, alongside a Passmark G2D score of 582. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M has no corresponding Passmark entries in the database, which limits direct comparison on those legacy APIs, but the two Geekbench tests that do overlap tell a consistent story of AMD superiority.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M wins every head-to-head benchmark recorded in the database, so the use-case split heavily favors the AMD part. For OpenCL compute workloads, which are common in professional rendering, scientific simulation, and GPU-accelerated productivity tasks, the AMD card leads by 200.2%. This is a large enough margin that any OpenCL-based application will see meaningful performance gains.

For Vulkan workloads, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M leads by 327.8%. Vulkan is increasingly used in modern game engines and cross-platform graphics applications, so this advantage has practical relevance for both gaming and content creation. The AMD card's Vulkan score of 27,912 is close to its OpenCL score of 29,252, suggesting strong, consistent compute and graphics throughput across different API environments.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M does not win any recorded benchmark in the head-to-head data. Its OpenCL score of 9,745 and Vulkan score of 6,525 are both far below the AMD counterpart. However, the GTX 950M does have one area of relative strength: its efficiency profile. At 75 W TDP versus 85 W for the AMD part, the NVIDIA chip draws less power while delivering lower performance. For thin-and-light laptops where thermal headroom is limited, this power difference could be relevant, though the performance penalty is severe.

In terms of legacy API coverage, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M supports DirectX 12 (11_0). The feature level difference means the AMD part can handle more advanced DirectX 12 features. Both GPUs support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is otherwise equivalent.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from completely different architectural generations. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is built on the Navi 14 chip using RDNA 1.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M uses the GM107 chip with Maxwell architecture, also from TSMC but on a much older 28 nm node. This process gap is enormous: 7 nm versus 28 nm. The AMD chip packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5 million transistors per square millimeter. The NVIDIA chip contains 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, with a density of only 12.6 million per square millimeter.

The compute resources reflect this architectural generational leap. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M has 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. In every category, the AMD part has exactly double the execution resources. The pixel rate tells the same story: 40.00 GPixel/s for AMD versus 17.98 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rate is 100.0 GTexel/s versus 44.96 GTexel/s.

Floating-point throughput follows the same pattern. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M delivers 3.200 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M provides 1,438.7 GFLOPS, which is approximately 1.44 TFLOPS. The AMD card also advertises FP16 performance of 6.400 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card has no recorded FP16 capability in the database.

Memory subsystems differ dramatically. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with memory clocked at 1500 MHz and 12 Gbps effective, delivering 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M uses 4 GB of DDR3 memory on the same 128-bit bus, with memory at 900 MHz and 1800 Mbps effective, yielding only 28.80 GB/s. That is a 6.7x bandwidth advantage for the AMD part, which is critical for texture-heavy workloads and large compute datasets.

Clock speeds are closer than the rest of the specifications might suggest. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M has a base clock of 1000 MHz and a boost clock of 1250 MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M has a base of 993 MHz and a boost of 1124 MHz. The AMD card's clocks are modestly higher, but the real performance gap comes from the doubled execution resources and vastly faster memory.

The bus interface differs as well: PCIe 4.0 x8 for the AMD part versus PCIe 3.0 x8 for the NVIDIA part. This gives the AMD card more host bandwidth for data transfers, which matters in compute scenarios where data is streamed from system memory. Power consumption is 85 W for the AMD part and 75 W for the NVIDIA part, a 10 W difference that is relatively small given the performance disparity.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M was released on 2019-11-12, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M came out on 2015-03-12. Both are now end-of-life products. The NVIDIA card has a recorded predecessor in the GeForce 800M and a successor in the GeForce 10 Mobile series; the AMD card has no recorded predecessor or successor in the database.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is the faster GPU by a wide margin. It wins both head-to-head tests, with a 200.2% lead in OpenCL and a 327.8% lead in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 10,013 versus 8,135 for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M represents a roughly 23% overall advantage. For anyone choosing between these two for compute-heavy or graphics-intensive mobile workloads, the AMD part is the clear choice based on recorded performance.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is also the better option for modern API support. Its DirectX 12 (12_1) feature level exceeds the GTX 950M's DirectX 12 (11_0), and its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides more host bandwidth than PCIe 3.0 x8. The GDDR6 memory with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 28.80 GB/s for DDR3 is a decisive factor in memory-bound workloads.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M does retain one practical advantage: lower power consumption at 75 W versus 85 W. For ultra-portable laptops with limited cooling and small batteries, that 10 W difference could matter for thermals and battery life. But the performance cost is steep, and the GTX 950M wins no recorded benchmarks against the AMD part.

Picking between these two depends on priorities. If raw performance, API feature level, and memory bandwidth are the primary concerns, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is the only rational choice. If the absolute lowest power draw in a mobile form factor is the priority and the user accepts significantly lower performance, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M is the more frugal option. The data does not support any other conclusion.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M has an average benchmark score of 10,013, compared to 8,135 for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M.

Q: How large is the AMD card's lead in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M scores 27,912 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 6,525 for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, a 327.8% advantage.

Q: What memory types do these two GPUs use?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M uses 4 GB of GDDR6 with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M uses 4 GB of DDR3 with 28.80 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do their power draws compare?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M has a TDP of 85 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M has a TDP of 75 W.

Q: What are the process nodes for each chip?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M is built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M uses a 28 nm process, also at TSMC.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300M has 1,280 shading units. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M has 640 shading units, exactly half as many.