AMD Radeon Pro 560X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and Radeon Pro 560X occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum. The GTX 1080 Ti is a desktop flagship built for extreme throughput, while the Pro 560X is a mobile-class integrated part designed for Apple laptops. Benchmark data confirms a massive gulf in raw performance, but the comparison reveals more than just a score gap; it highlights divergent architectural philosophies and use-case priorities.

Where Each One Wins

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins every single head-to-head benchmark in the fact pack. Across the three shared tests — Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan — the GTX 1080 Ti claims a 3–0 sweep. Its average benchmark score of 15,548 dwarfs the Pro 560X’s 15,082, though the percentages tell a nuanced story about how each card performs in different workloads.

The GTX 1080 Ti’s dominance is most pronounced in compute-heavy OpenCL tasks. Its score of 67,929 is 603% higher than the Pro 560X’s 9,663. This is the card’s clear home turf: raw floating-point throughput, where its 11.34 TFLOPS FP32 rating and 3584 shading units simply overwhelm the Pro 560X’s 2.056 TFLOPS and 1024 shading units. If the workload demands massive parallel computation, the GTX 1080 Ti wins by an order of magnitude.

The Pro 560X, conversely, has no benchmark victories to point to. Its only competitive arena is relative efficiency: it draws 75 W versus 250 W, and it is an integrated part (IGP) that requires no power connectors. In the context of the data, its "win" is not performance but placement — it exists to provide discrete-class graphics in a portable, low-power chassis. Benchmark results indicate the Pro 560X’s Vulkan score of 16,819 is 140.9% behind the GTX 1080 Ti, yet that score still represents functional capability for a device with a 128-bit memory bus.

Where each one wins, then, is a matter of environment. The GTX 1080 Ti wins every performance metric decisively. The Pro 560X wins the unspecified "portable device" scenario by virtue of its IGP form factor and 75 W TDP, but not a single test in the fact pack favors it.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is vast. The GTX 1080 Ti uses the GP102 chip on NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm TSMC process. It packs 11,800 million transistors into a 471 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.1M / mm². The Pro 560X uses AMD’s Polaris 21 on GCN 4.0, fabricated by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm node. It contains just 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, with a density of 24.4M / mm².

Memory configurations could not be more different. The GTX 1080 Ti features 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus, achieving 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Pro 560X has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 94.08 GB/s. That is a 5.1x bandwidth advantage for the NVIDIA card. Clock speeds follow suit: the GTX 1080 Ti runs at a base of 1481 MHz and boosts to 1582 MHz, with memory at 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective). The Pro 560X’s core clocks are not listed in the data, but its memory runs at 1470 MHz (5.9 Gbps effective).

Compute resources scale accordingly. The GTX 1080 Ti has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 88 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s. The Pro 560X has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, yielding 16.06 GPixel/s and 64.26 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput gap is 11.34 versus 2.056 TFLOPS, a 5.5x difference. Interestingly, the Pro 560X offers 1:1 FP16 performance at 2.056 TFLOPS, while the GTX 1080 Ti’s FP16 is a paltry 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64) — a rare case where the AMD card wins a spec sheet battle, though no benchmark in the pack tests it.

Physical and interface differences are stark. The GTX 1080 Ti is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 112 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, requiring a 600 W suggested PSU and 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors. The Pro 560X is an IGP with no dimensions listed, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU. The GTX 1080 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the Pro 560X uses PCIe 3.0 x8. Display outputs also differ: the GTX 1080 Ti offers 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Pro 560X’s outputs are "Portable Device Dependent." API support is close, with both hitting DirectX 12 (12_1 vs 12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan (1.4 vs 1.3), but the GTX 1080 Ti’s higher DirectX feature level reflects its newer architecture.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench suite provides the only direct comparisons in the fact pack, and the results are lopsided. In Geekbench Metal, the GTX 1080 Ti scores 30,624 against the Pro 560X’s 18,763, a 63.2% advantage. This is the closest margin of the three tests, suggesting that Metal’s API overhead narrows the architectural gap somewhat, but the NVIDIA card still holds a commanding lead.

Geekbench OpenCL is where the GTX 1080 Ti completely separates. Its score of 67,929 versus 9,663 represents a 603% delta. This result aligns with the raw compute specs: the GTX 1080 Ti’s 11.34 TFLOPS FP32 and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelming in a memory-hungry, parallel-heavy workload. The Pro 560X’s 2.056 TFLOPS and 94.08 GB/s simply cannot compete.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a 140.9% win for the GTX 1080 Ti, with scores of 40,511 versus 16,819. Vulkan’s low-level nature tends to reward raw hardware resources, and the GTX 1080 Ti’s 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs deliver. The Pro 560X’s 1024 shading units and 16 ROPs are a fraction of that, and the 4 GB memory cap likely hampers larger workloads.

Contextualizing these scores against the nearest rivals clarifies the positioning. The GTX 1080 Ti’s average benchmark score of 15,548 is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (15,521) and 1.7% ahead of both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (15,290) and the GeForce GTX 580 (15,283). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15,679) by 0.8%. The Pro 560X’s average of 15,082 is 0.1% ahead of the GTX 660 Ti (15,063) but 0.6% behind the RX 7600 (15,171), 0.8% behind the RTX 3050 OEM (15,199), and 1.2% behind the Radeon 680M (15,270). In other words, the Pro 560X is statistically a peer of a GTX 660 Ti, while the GTX 1080 Ti is effectively a peer of the RTX 2060.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, with an average benchmark score of 15,548, versus the AMD Radeon Pro 560X’s 15,082 — a difference of 466 points.

Q: What is the largest performance gap in head-to-head testing?

A: The Geekbench OpenCL test, where the GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929 against the Pro 560X’s 9,663, a 603% delta in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti offers 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth from 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus. The Pro 560X has 94.08 GB/s from 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Are there any specifications where the Radeon Pro 560X is superior?

A: Yes, in FP16 compute. The Pro 560X delivers 2.056 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, while the GTX 1080 Ti offers only 177.2 GFLOPS FP16 at a 1:64 ratio. The Pro 560X also has a lower TDP at 75 W versus 250 W.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti is 1.7% ahead of the RTX 2060 and 0.2% ahead of the Radeon R9 M380. The Pro 560X is 0.1% ahead of the GTX 660 Ti but 1.2% behind the Radeon 680M.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti contains 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, while the Pro 560X has 3,000 million on a 123 mm² die. That is a 3.9x transistor advantage for the NVIDIA part.

The Verdict

The data points to an obvious conclusion: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the superior performer in every measurable category. It wins all three head-to-head benchmarks — by 63.2% in Metal, 603% in OpenCL, and 140.9% in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score is 466 points higher, and it maintains a percentile ranking of 58 versus the Pro 560X’s 57, though both sit near the middle of all GPUs. The GTX 1080 Ti’s 11.34 TFLOPS FP32, 484.4 GB/s bandwidth, and 3584 shading units are class-leading for its generation.

However, the verdict is not simply "buy the faster card." The Radeon Pro 560X is an IGP with a 75 W TDP, no power connectors, and portable-device-dependent outputs. It is built for a Mac laptop chassis, not a desktop tower. Its 4 GB of memory and 128-bit bus are sufficient for casual and prosumer tasks in that form factor, and its 1:1 FP16 capability hints at compute efficiency the GTX 1080 Ti lacks. But the GTX 1080 Ti is a dual-slot, 250 W desktop card requiring a 600 W PSU and two power connectors.

The choice comes down to platform. If the requirement is a high-performance desktop GPU, the GTX 1080 Ti is the pick — it rivals the RTX 2060 within 1.7% and beats the R9 M380 by 0.2%. If the requirement is a low-power integrated solution for a portable device, the Pro 560X is the only option that fits the physical constraints, and it performs within 1.2% of the Radeon 680M. The GTX 1080 Ti is the benchmark winner by a landslide; the Pro 560X is the niche winner by necessity.