AMD Radeon Pro 560 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 560 has an average benchmark score of 17551, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has an average of 15548. However, the GTX 1080 Ti wins all three head-to-head tests by substantial margins, as the average includes a broader set of workloads.

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

A: The largest delta is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the GTX 1080 Ti scores 67929 versus the Pro 560's 15504, a difference of 77.2% in NVIDIA's favor. The smallest gap is in Geekbench Metal, where NVIDIA leads by 31.7% (30624 vs 20918).

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth from its 11 GB GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus. The Pro 560 has 81.28 GB/s from 4 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. That is roughly a 6x difference in bandwidth.

Q: How do the two cards compare in transistor density?

A: They are very close. The Pro 560 packs 24.4 million transistors per mm² on a 14 nm process, while the GTX 1080 Ti has 25.1 million per mm² on a 16 nm process. Despite different nodes and foundries, density is nearly identical.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The Pro 560 has a 75 W TDP and requires no power connectors, while the GTX 1080 Ti has a 250 W TDP and needs one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector. NVIDIA also recommends a 600 W power supply for the GTX 1080 Ti.

Q: Which card supports Vulkan 1.4?

A: Only the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti supports Vulkan 1.4. The AMD Radeon Pro 560 is limited to Vulkan 1.3. Both support DirectX 12 (12_0 for AMD, 12_1 for NVIDIA) and OpenGL 4.6.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro 560 is built on the Polaris 21 chip using GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The die measures 123 mm² and contains 3,000 million transistors. It belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (500 Series) generation and is intended as an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface. Its compute configuration includes 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operations pipelines. The FP32 throughput is 1.858 TFLOPS, and FP16 is delivered at the same 1.858 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti uses the GP102 chip with Pascal architecture, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The die is substantially larger at 471 mm² and packs 11,800 million transistors. This is a discrete, dual-slot card with a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. It has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. FP32 performance reaches 11.34 TFLOPS, while FP16 is severely cut back at 177.2 GFLOPS with a 1:64 ratio, reflecting Pascal's compute-oriented design priorities.

The architectural split is clear: GCN 4.0 emphasizes balanced FP16/FP32 compute, while Pascal focuses on raw FP32 throughput and rasterization. The GTX 1080 Ti's transistor density is 25.1M per mm² versus 24.4M for the Pro 560, nearly identical despite different process nodes and foundries. The GTX 1080 Ti also supports Vulkan 1.4, one version ahead of the Pro 560's Vulkan 1.3, and it reaches DirectX 12_1 feature level versus 12_0 on the AMD card.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head record is one-sided: the GTX 1080 Ti wins all three recorded tests, with zero wins for the Pro 560. In Geekbench Metal, the NVIDIA card scores 30624 against 20918 for AMD, a 31.7% lead. This is the closest margin of the three tests, but still a decisive advantage. Metal workloads on macOS clearly favor the GTX 1080 Ti's larger shader array and higher clock speeds.

Geekbench OpenCL shows the most dramatic separation. The GTX 1080 Ti posts 67929, while the Pro 560 manages only 15504. That is a 77.2% deficit for the AMD card. OpenCL compute tasks that scale with shading units and memory bandwidth heavily reward the GTX 1080 Ti's 3584 cores and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth. The Pro 560's 1024 cores and 81.28 GB/s simply cannot keep pace.

Geekbench Vulkan lands in between: NVIDIA scores 40511 versus AMD's 16232, a 59.9% gap. Vulkan workloads benefit from the GTX 1080 Ti's higher pixel rate (139.2 GPixel/s vs 14.51 GPixel/s) and texture rate (354.4 GTexel/s vs 58.05 GTexel/s). The data shows a consistent pattern: the GTX 1080 Ti outperforms the Pro 560 by roughly 32% to 77% depending on the API and workload type.

For context, the Pro 560's average benchmark score of 17551 places it near the AMD Radeon 780M (17588, a 0.2% deficit) and just above the AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509, a 0.2% lead). The GTX 1080 Ti's average of 15548 sits close to the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (15521, 0.2% ahead) and slightly below the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, a 0.8% gap). These nearest-rival comparisons show that while the GTX 1080 Ti wins every head-to-head test, its overall average is dragged down by legacy DirectX and 2D workloads, whereas the Pro 560's average reflects a narrower, more consistent benchmark set.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The Pro 560 uses a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, while the GTX 1080 Ti uses 16 nm at TSMC. The Pro 560 has 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die; the GTX 1080 Ti has 11,800 million on a 471 mm² die. Transistor density is 24.4M vs 25.1M per mm², essentially a wash.

Memory is a major divider. The Pro 560 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 81.28 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus with 484.4 GB/s bandwidth. Memory clock is 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.

Compute resources differ by a factor of roughly 3.5 in shading units (1024 vs 3584), TMUs (64 vs 224), and ROPs (16 vs 88). FP32 is 1.858 TFLOPS vs 11.34 TFLOPS. FP16 is 1.858 TFLOPS (1:1) vs 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64). Pixel rate is 14.51 vs 139.2 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 58.05 vs 354.4 GTexel/s.

Power and physical requirements are starkly different. The Pro 560 draws 75 W with no power connectors and is an IGP. The GTX 1080 Ti draws 250 W, requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector, and is dual-slot. NVIDIA also suggests a 600 W power supply. The GTX 1080 Ti is 267 mm long, 112 mm tall, and 40 mm wide. The Pro 560 has no listed dimensions.

Bus interface differs: PCIe 3.0 x8 for AMD versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for NVIDIA. Display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent" for the Pro 560, while the GTX 1080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. API support: DirectX 12_0 vs 12_1, OpenGL 4.6 for both, Vulkan 1.3 vs 1.4. Release dates are close (April 17, 2017 vs March 9, 2017), and the GTX 1080 Ti has a launch MSRP of 699 USD. Both are end-of-life.

The Verdict

The data supports only one conclusion for raw performance: the GTX 1080 Ti is in a different class. It wins every head-to-head benchmark by margins from 31.7% to 77.2%. Its compute resources, memory bandwidth, and rasterization rates are multiples of the Pro 560's. Anyone selecting between these two strictly on benchmark results should choose the GTX 1080 Ti without hesitation.

However, the use case matters. The Pro 560 is an integrated GPU for portable Mac systems, consuming 75 W with no external power. The GTX 1080 Ti is a 250 W dual-slot desktop card requiring a 600 W power supply and a 267 mm chassis. The Pro 560's nearest rivals (AMD Radeon 780M, Radeon Pro 460) are similarly low-power integrated parts, while the GTX 1080 Ti competes against the RTX 2060 and GTX 580. The GTX 1080 Ti is 1.7% ahead of both those NVIDIA parts in average score, but it is also 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5500.

The GTX 1080 Ti is the correct choice for desktop users who need maximum frame rates and compute throughput. The Pro 560 is the only option in the comparison for a laptop or Mac form factor where power draw and physical space are constrained. The Pro 560's 1.858 TFLOPS FP32 is sufficient for light workloads, but the GTX 1080 Ti's 11.34 TFLOPS is over 6x higher. There is no performance scenario where the Pro 560 wins; its advantages are entirely in power efficiency and integration.

Where Each One Wins

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins in: Geekbench Metal (30624 vs 20918, 31.7% ahead), Geekbench OpenCL (67929 vs 15504, 77.2% ahead), and Geekbench Vulkan (40511 vs 16232, 59.9% ahead). It wins every recorded head-to-head test. It also wins on memory bandwidth (484.4 GB/s), memory capacity (11 GB), FP32 throughput (11.34 TFLOPS), pixel rate (139.2 GPixel/s), and texture rate (354.4 GTexel/s). For desktop gaming, compute workloads, or any application that can use its 3584 shading units, the GTX 1080 Ti is the clear pick.

AMD Radeon Pro 560 wins in: power efficiency (75 W TDP vs 250 W), physical integration (IGP vs dual-slot card), and FP16 compute ratio (1:1 vs 1:64). It requires no power connectors and fits in portable systems. Its transistor density is nearly identical to the GTX 1080 Ti's (24.4M vs 25.1M per mm²), showing efficient use of its smaller die. Its average benchmark score is actually higher (17551 vs 15548), though that reflects a narrower benchmark set rather than raw capability.

For a Mac laptop or compact system where the GPU is soldered to the board, the Pro 560 is the only choice between these two. For anything else, the GTX 1080 Ti dominates. The data does not suggest any workload where the Pro 560 outperforms the GTX 1080 Ti; its strengths are architectural (FP16 parity, lower power) rather than performance-based.