AMD Radeon R5 M320 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M Comparison

The benchmark data places the AMD Radeon R5 M320 ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M in the sole head-to-head test, but the margin is narrow and the two GPUs occupy nearly identical positions in the overall performance hierarchy. The R5 M320’s Geekbench OpenCL score of 5051 edges out the GTX 560M’s 4855 by 3.9%, yet both cards sit at the 27th and 28th percentiles respectively, indicating they are both entry-level mobile parts separated by less than the statistical noise of a single benchmark run. The GTX 560M, despite being four years older, remains competitive due to its fundamentally different architecture and memory subsystem, while the R5 M320 leverages a newer process node and higher shader count to claim the victory.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the AMD Radeon R5 M320 posts a score of 5051 against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M’s 4855. That 196-point gap translates to a 3.9% advantage for the AMD part, a result that is meaningful but hardly decisive. In a field where a 0.2% delta separates the GTX 560M from the GeForce 940MX and a 0.8% difference separates it from the GTS 450, a 3.9% lead is a clear, if modest, win.

The R5 M320’s victory is directly attributable to its architectural strengths. It fields 320 shading units compared to the GTX 560M’s 192, and its boost clock of 855 MHz (with a base of 780 MHz) helps push its FP32 throughput to 547.2 GFLOPS. However, the GTX 560M counters with a higher texture fill rate of 24.80 GTexel/s versus the R5 M320’s 17.10 GTexel/s, and a pixel rate of 6.200 GPixel/s versus 6.840 GPixel/s for the AMD chip. The GTX 560M’s memory bandwidth advantage is substantial: 60.00 GB/s over a 192-bit GDDR5 bus, compared to the R5 M320’s 16.00 GB/s over a 64-bit DDR3 bus. In compute-heavy OpenCL workloads, the R5 M320’s raw shader count wins out, but the GTX 560M’s superior bandwidth could plausibly flip the result in memory-bound tasks, though no such test is present in the data.

Looking at the rivals list, the GTX 560M’s 4855 score places it right alongside the GeForce 940MX (4844, a 0.2% delta) and the AMD Radeon R6 M255DX (4867, a -0.2% delta). The R5 M320’s 5051 score, meanwhile, aligns it with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB at 4657 (0% delta) and the NVIDIA Quadro P400 at 4684 (-0.6% delta). Notably, the R5 M320’s average benchmark score is only 4657, which is lower than its single OpenCL run, suggesting the Vulkan score of 4262 drags down its average. The GTX 560M has no Vulkan result in the data, so its average equals its OpenCL score of 4855.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the only head-to-head benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon R5 M320 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 5051 versus the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M’s 4855, a 3.9% advantage.

Q: How do these cards compare in overall percentile ranking?

A: The GTX 560M sits at the 28th percentile of all GPUs, while the R5 M320 sits at the 27th percentile, placing them within one percentile of each other despite the R5 M320’s benchmark win.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The GTX 560M has 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 192-bit bus with 60.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the R5 M320 has 4 GB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus with 16.00 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the R5 M320 support Vulkan?

A: Yes, the R5 M320 supports Vulkan version 1.2.170 and has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 4262. The GTX 560M has no Vulkan support listed in the data.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two chips?

A: The GTX 560M’s GF116 chip packs 1,170 million transistors into 238 mm² on a 40 nm process, yielding 4.9M transistors per mm². The R5 M320’s Jet chip packs 690 million transistors into 56 mm² on a 28 nm process, yielding 12.3M transistors per mm².

Q: Which card has a higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The GTX 560M leads with 595.2 GFLOPS compared to the R5 M320’s 547.2 GFLOPS, despite the R5 M320 having more shading units (320 versus 192).

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R5 M320 wins in raw compute-heavy benchmarks. Its OpenCL score of 5051 outstrips the GTX 560M’s 4855, and its 320 shading units provide a 66% increase in shader count over the NVIDIA part. The R5 M320 also wins on API support, offering Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1), whereas the GTX 560M only lists DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6. For workloads that leverage modern APIs or many parallel threads, the R5 M320 is the better choice.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M wins in memory-bound scenarios. Its GDDR5 memory with 60.00 GB/s bandwidth is 3.75 times faster than the R5 M320’s DDR3 at 16.00 GB/s, and the 192-bit bus width is triple the AMD part’s 64-bit bus. The GTX 560M also leads in texture throughput (24.80 GTexel/s versus 17.10 GTexel/s) and FP32 compute (595.2 GFLOPS versus 547.2 GFLOPS). Its pixel rate is slightly lower at 6.200 GPixel/s versus 6.840 GPixel/s, but the bandwidth advantage makes it more suitable for texture-heavy or high-resolution workloads where memory speed dominates.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs diverge on nearly every core specification. The GTX 560M uses 192 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, while the R5 M320 uses 320 shading units, 20 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. Memory configuration differs sharply: 1536 MB GDDR5 on a 192-bit bus versus 4 GB DDR3 on a 64-bit bus. Bandwidth is 60.00 GB/s for NVIDIA versus 16.00 GB/s for AMD. Clock speeds show the GTX 560M with a memory clock of 625 MHz (2.5 Gbps effective) and no base or boost figures listed, while the R5 M320 has a base of 780 MHz and a boost of 855 MHz with a memory clock of 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The GTX 560M has a TDP of 75 W and uses an MXM Module slot with an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface and no power connectors; the R5 M320 is an IGP with a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface and no TDP listed. Process node, die size, and transistor counts also differ: 40 nm and 238 mm² with 1,170 million transistors for NVIDIA versus 28 nm and 56 mm² with 690 million transistors for AMD.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 560M is built on NVIDIA’s Fermi 2.0 architecture with the GF116 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 40 nm process. It packs 1,170 million transistors into a 238 mm² die, yielding a density of 4.9M transistors per mm². The R5 M320 uses AMD’s GCN 1.0 architecture with the Jet chip, also from TSMC but on a 28 nm process, with 690 million transistors in a 56 mm² die, achieving a density of 12.3M transistors per mm². The R5 M320’s higher density reflects its two-generation newer process node, released in 2015 versus 2011 for the GTX 560M. The GTX 560M’s predecessor is the GeForce 400M and its successor is the GeForce 600M; the R5 M320’s predecessor is the Solar System and its successor is Polaris Mobile. Both cards have null values for RT cores and tensor cores, confirming neither supports ray tracing or tensor acceleration hardware.

The Verdict

The data points to the AMD Radeon R5 M320 as the overall winner, but with important caveats. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark by 3.9%, and its Vulkan support and newer 28 nm process give it a modern feature set that the GTX 560M lacks. Its 4 GB of memory is also larger, though the DDR3 type and 64-bit bus undermine that capacity in practice. For users prioritizing compute performance, modern API compatibility, or lower power draw (implied by its IGP slot width), the R5 M320 is the better selection.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M is far from obsolete. Its GDDR5 memory with 60.00 GB/s bandwidth is a massive advantage over the R5 M320’s DDR3, and its higher texture rate and FP32 throughput suggest it could outperform the AMD part in gaming or texture-heavy workloads, even if no such benchmarks are present in the data. The GTX 560M’s 28th percentile ranking versus the R5 M320’s 27th percentile shows that despite the R5 M320’s benchmark win, the two are effectively peers in the overall GPU landscape.

Choose the R5 M320 if you need Vulkan support, more shading units, or a newer architecture. Choose the GTX 560M if you need memory bandwidth, higher texture fill, or faster FP32 compute. The 3.9% OpenCL delta is real, but the GTX 560M’s 60.00 GB/s bandwidth advantage is a far larger gap that could dominate in real-world scenarios not captured by this single test. The verdict is split: the R5 M320 wins the benchmark, but the GTX 560M wins the spec sheet where it matters most.