AMD Radeon Pro 560X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 560X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions, but they represent very different design philosophies and eras. The data shows a split decision: the NVIDIA card dominates in OpenCL compute, while the AMD card takes a decisive lead in Vulkan performance. With an average benchmark score of 15082, the Radeon Pro 560X sits at the 57th percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 965M’s average of 14404 places it at the 56th percentile. This near-identical overall standing masks significant architectural and specification differences that determine which workload each card handles best.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking contrast in the head-to-head data appears in the Geekbench OpenCL test. Here, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M posts a score of 14509, which is a massive 33.4% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 560X’s 9663. This is a decisive victory for the older Maxwell-based card. The delta is substantial enough to suggest that OpenCL compute workloads—which often rely on raw shader throughput and driver optimization—strongly favor NVIDIA’s architecture. The GTX 965M’s advantage here is not marginal; it is a clear generational strength in this specific API.

However, the tables turn completely in the Geekbench Vulkan test. The AMD Radeon Pro 560X achieves a score of 16819, while the GTX 965M manages only 14299. This gives AMD a 17.6% lead, a significant margin that flips the narrative of the OpenCL result. Vulkan is a lower-level API that rewards architectural efficiency and modern feature sets, and the data indicates that the Polaris 21 chip inside the Radeon Pro 560X is better equipped to exploit it. The 17.6% delta is nearly half the magnitude of NVIDIA’s OpenCL win, but it is still a comfortable victory for AMD.

When tallying the wins, each card takes one benchmark, resulting in a 1-1 split. This makes the choice between them entirely dependent on the target application. The average benchmark scores reflect this balance: the Radeon Pro 560X’s 15082 average is only 4.7% higher than the GTX 965M’s 14404, a narrow gap that underscores how differently the two cards perform across APIs. Looking at the nearest rivals for context, the Radeon Pro 560X is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (15063, 0.1% delta) and slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171, -0.6% delta). The GTX 965M, meanwhile, sits just ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14385, 0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (14373, 0.2% delta). These comparisons show that both cards are firmly in the mid-range tier of historical GPUs, with neither offering a dominant overall performance advantage.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: choose the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M if your primary workload is OpenCL compute. Its 33.4% lead in that benchmark is the single largest performance gap between the two cards and cannot be ignored. For applications that rely heavily on OpenCL—such as certain scientific computing tasks or older rendering pipelines—the GTX 965M is the unequivocal choice. Its higher pixel rate of 30.40 GPixel/s versus the Radeon Pro 560X’s 16.06 GPixel/s also suggests an advantage in rasterization-heavy tasks, even if the Vulkan scores tell a different story.

Conversely, the AMD Radeon Pro 560X is the superior option for Vulkan-based gaming or modern graphics workloads. Its 17.6% lead in the Vulkan benchmark indicates that it handles contemporary APIs more efficiently, likely due to its newer GCN 4.0 architecture. The Radeon Pro 560X also offers double the memory capacity at 4 GB versus 2 GB, which is a critical advantage for modern game textures and large datasets. With a 57th percentile ranking versus the GTX 965M’s 56th, the AMD card has a slight edge in overall standing, and its average benchmark score of 15082 is higher than the GTX 965M’s 14404.

For a user who prioritizes modern gaming performance and has a 4 GB memory requirement, the Radeon Pro 560X is the pick. For someone locked into legacy OpenCL workflows, the GTX 965M is the only logical choice based on this data. There is no universal winner here; the verdict depends entirely on the API and memory demands of the software in question.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 560X has an average benchmark score of 15082, which is higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M’s 14404.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The Radeon Pro 560X scores 16819 in the Geekbench Vulkan test, giving it a 17.6% advantage over the GTX 965M’s 14299.

Q: Which card wins the OpenCL benchmark, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 14509, which is 33.4% higher than the Radeon Pro 560X’s 9663.

Q: Do both cards have the same amount of memory?

A: No. The AMD Radeon Pro 560X has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: What is the percentile ranking for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 560X is at the 57th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M is at the 56th percentile.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M has a pixel rate of 30.40 GPixel/s, which is nearly double the Radeon Pro 560X’s 16.06 GPixel/s.

Specification Differences

The most obvious specification difference is memory capacity: the AMD Radeon Pro 560X offers 4 GB of GDDR5, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M is limited to 2 GB. Both use a 128-bit memory bus, but the AMD card achieves a higher bandwidth of 94.08 GB/s compared to the GTX 965M’s 80.19 GB/s. Memory clock speeds also differ, with the Radeon Pro 560X running at 1470 MHz (5.9 Gbps effective) versus the GTX 965M’s 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective).

The shading unit count is identical at 1024 for both cards, as is the texture unit count at 64. However, the ROP count diverges significantly: the GTX 965M has 32 ROPs, while the Radeon Pro 560X has only 16. This explains the GTX 965M’s higher pixel rate of 30.40 GPixel/s versus 16.06 GPixel/s for the AMD card. Texture rates are close, with the Radeon Pro 560X at 64.26 GTexel/s and the GTX 965M at 60.80 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is also similar, with the AMD card at 2.056 TFLOPS and the NVIDIA card at 1.946 TFLOPS.

The bus interface differs: the Radeon Pro 560X uses PCIe 3.0 x8, while the GTX 965M uses an MXM-B (3.0) module interface. The GTX 965M also has explicit base and boost clocks of 924 MHz and 950 MHz, respectively, while the Radeon Pro 560X lists no base or boost clock values. Power consumption figures are only provided for the AMD card, listed as 75 W TDP, with the GTX 965M’s TDP not specified. The GTX 965M also supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the Radeon Pro 560X supports DirectX 12 (12_0), a minor API feature difference.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The AMD Radeon Pro 560X uses the Polaris 21 chip based on GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M uses the GM204 chip based on Maxwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This node difference is stark: the AMD chip packs 3,000 million transistors into a 123 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.4M per mm². The NVIDIA chip, meanwhile, contains 5,200 million transistors on a much larger 398 mm² die, resulting in a lower density of 13.1M per mm². The smaller, denser AMD chip is a direct benefit of the more advanced 14 nm process.

The Radeon Pro 560X supports FP16 compute at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, both rated at 2.056 TFLOPS, while the GTX 965M has no FP16 data listed. The GTX 965M also has a higher DirectX feature level (12_1 versus 12_0) and supports Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Radeon Pro 560X supports Vulkan 1.3. Both cards lack dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The GTX 965M’s generation is listed as GeForce 900M, with a predecessor of GeForce 800M and a successor of GeForce 10 Mobile, while the Radeon Pro 560X belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (500X Series) generation. The GTX 965M was released earlier, on 2015-01-08, while the Radeon Pro 560X launched on 2018-07-15, a gap of over three years that explains the architectural advances in the AMD card.