AMD Radeon Pro 560 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro 560 represent two very different eras of mobile graphics, with the former targeting high-performance gaming and the latter designed for professional Mac workflows. The data shows a decisive performance gap, but the Radeon Pro 560 holds its own in specific legacy contexts. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results, architectural disparities, and practical implications based solely on the supplied specifications and test scores.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head comparison is brief but conclusive, with the RTX 3060 Mobile winning both shared tests by a massive margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA part scores 79,483 against the AMD's 15,504, a delta of 412.7% in favor of the RTX 3060 Mobile. This is not a marginal victory; it represents a five-fold advantage in raw compute throughput. Similarly, in Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 3060 Mobile posts 80,344 versus 16,232 for the Radeon Pro 560, a 395% lead. These results align with the fundamental compute differences between the two chips, which we will explore in the architecture section.

Looking at average benchmark scores, the RTX 3060 Mobile averages 18,159 points, while the Radeon Pro 560 averages 17,551 points. The RTX 3060 Mobile sits at the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro 560 is just one percentile behind at 61st. Despite the huge delta in the two shared Geekbench tests, the overall average scores are remarkably close. This is because the RTX 3060 Mobile's average includes several low-scoring Passmark results (e.g., 58 in DirectX 12, 90 in DirectX 10), which drag its mean down. The Radeon Pro 560 has no such low outliers, only three Geekbench results, so its average is more concentrated.

The nearest rival data for each card further contextualizes their standing. The RTX 3060 Mobile is within 0.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (average score 18,093), and within 1.2% of the Intel Arc A770M (18,383). This suggests that despite its mobile designation, the RTX 3060 Mobile trades blows with desktop-class cards from the previous generation. In contrast, the Radeon Pro 560 is nearly tied with the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588, delta -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17,509, delta +0.2%). The presence of the modern Radeon 780M in its rival list indicates that the Pro 560's performance profile is still relevant in low-power integrated-class segments, even if its absolute scores are far behind the RTX 3060 Mobile.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is vast and explains the benchmark outcomes. The RTX 3060 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture using an 8nm process at Samsung, featuring the GA106 chip with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The Radeon Pro 560, conversely, uses AMD's older GCN 4.0 architecture with the Polaris 21 chip, fabricated on a 14nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs just 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, resulting in a density of 24.4 million per mm². The newer node and nearly four times the transistor count give the RTX 3060 Mobile an inherent computational advantage.

Core configurations diverge sharply. The RTX 3060 Mobile boasts 3,840 shading units, 120 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 48 raster output units (ROPs). It also includes 30 dedicated ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Radeon Pro 560. The AMD part has only 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. This 3.75x difference in shader count directly translates to the FP32 compute throughput: the RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS, while the Radeon Pro 560 manages just 1.858 TFLOPS. Both cards offer FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, but the absolute numbers still favor NVIDIA by the same factor.

Memory subsystems are equally divergent. The RTX 3060 Mobile comes with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, running at 14 Gbps effective, which yields a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The Radeon Pro 560 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a narrower 128-bit bus, with memory clocked at 5.1 Gbps effective, providing only 81.28 GB/s. That is a 4.1x bandwidth advantage for the NVIDIA card. Pixel and texture fill rates follow suit: the RTX 3060 Mobile achieves 68.40 GPixel/s and 171.0 GTexel/s, while the Radeon Pro 560 manages 14.51 GPixel/s and 58.05 GTexel/s.

Feature support also differs. The RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon Pro 560 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support is 1.4 on NVIDIA versus 1.3 on AMD. Power envelopes are similar, with the RTX 3060 Mobile rated at 80W TDP and the Radeon Pro 560 at 75W, but the NVIDIA part uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface versus PCIe 3.0 x8 on the AMD. The Radeon Pro 560 is classified as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) in terms of slot width, while the RTX 3060 Mobile's slot width is unspecified. Both are end-of-life products, with the RTX 3060 Mobile releasing in January 2021 and the Radeon Pro 560 in April 2017.

The Verdict

From the data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is the clear winner for any workload that leverages modern APIs, ray tracing, or high-bandwidth memory. Its 412.7% lead in OpenCL and 395% lead in Vulkan over the Radeon Pro 560 are decisive. The RTX 3060 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, enabling hardware ray tracing and mesh shaders, which the GCN 4.0-based Pro 560 cannot handle. For gaming, content creation, or general compute tasks that utilize DirectX 12 or Vulkan, the choice is unambiguous: the RTX 3060 Mobile offers roughly five times the performance in shared benchmarks.

However, the Radeon Pro 560 is not without merit in its specific niche. It supports Metal, a graphics API used heavily in macOS environments, and the data includes a Geekbench Metal score of 20,918. The RTX 3060 Mobile has no Metal benchmark listed, making a direct comparison impossible. The Pro 560's lower TDP (75W) and integrated form factor (IGP) suggest it was designed for thin-and-light professional laptops, where power efficiency and compatibility with Apple's ecosystem matter more than raw frame rates. Its average score of 17,551, only 3.3% below the RTX 3060 Mobile's 18,159, indicates that in mixed workloads, the gap narrows significantly once you exclude the NVIDIA card's low Passmark outliers.

For a user choosing between these two today, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the superior hardware unless the target platform is specifically macOS with Metal-based applications. The Pro 560's nearest rivals include the integrated AMD Radeon 780M, which is a modern iGPU, suggesting that the Pro 560 performs at a level now achievable by integrated graphics. The RTX 3060 Mobile, by contrast, rivals desktop cards like the RTX 2060 SUPER. Benchmark results indicate that the RTX 3060 Mobile is a discrete-class performer, while the Radeon Pro 560 is a legacy part that has been surpassed by newer integrated solutions.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to 1.858 TFLOPS for the AMD Radeon Pro 560. This is a 5.9x difference in theoretical compute throughput.

Q: How do the memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile offers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. The Radeon Pro 560 provides 81.28 GB/s from 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, giving NVIDIA a 4.1x advantage.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro 560 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Radeon Pro 560 has no ray tracing cores listed, while the RTX 3060 Mobile includes 30 dedicated RT cores. Additionally, the RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, whereas the Pro 560 only supports DirectX 12 (12_0).

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile averages 18,159 points, and the Radeon Pro 560 averages 17,551 points. This is a difference of 608 points, or approximately 3.5% in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: How does the Radeon Pro 560 compare to the RTX 3060 Mobile in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile scores 80,344 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 395% higher than the Radeon Pro 560's score of 16,232. The Pro 560 also supports an older Vulkan version (1.3 versus 1.4).

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has a density of 43.5 million transistors per mm², far above the Radeon Pro 560's 24.4 million per mm². This is due to the newer 8nm process versus the 14nm process.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Mobile wins decisively in every shared benchmark category. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 79,483 versus 15,504, a 412.7% lead. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 80,344 versus 16,232, a 395% lead. These wins are driven by its superior shader count (3,840 vs 1,024), higher memory bandwidth (336 GB/s vs 81.28 GB/s), and support for newer APIs like DirectX 12 Ultimate. The RTX 3060 Mobile also wins on raw pixel rate (68.40 GPixel/s vs 14.51 GPixel/s) and texture rate (171.0 GTexel/s vs 58.05 GTexel/s), making it suitable for high-resolution gaming and GPU-accelerated rendering.

The Radeon Pro 560, however, wins in the specific domain of Apple ecosystem compatibility. Its Geekbench Metal score of 20,918 is the only benchmark where it has a listed result that the RTX 3060 Mobile cannot contest. The Pro 560's 75W TDP is lower than the RTX 3060 Mobile's 80W, and its IGP classification suggests it was built for compact, power-efficient laptops where the NVIDIA card's performance headroom is unnecessary. Its PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, while older, is sufficient for its bandwidth needs. If a workload is Metal-based and runs on macOS, the data supports the Radeon Pro 560 as the viable option, despite its age. For everything else, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the definitive choice based on benchmark wins and architectural features.