AMD Radeon R7 M380 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M and AMD Radeon R7 M380 are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions from 2015, targeting the same performance tier. Benchmark data shows a clear, single head-to-head victory for the NVIDIA part in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where it scores 11045 against the AMD's 9313. This represents an 18.6% performance advantage, a substantial margin that places the two chips in different competitive brackets despite their similar architectural configurations.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are decisively in favor of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M. The NVIDIA GPU scores 11045 points, while the AMD Radeon R7 M380 manages 9313 points, giving the GTX 960M an 18.6% lead. This is not a marginal victory; it is a significant gap that typically translates to perceptible real-world performance differences in compute-heavy workloads and general GPU acceleration tasks.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the GTX 960M's average benchmark score of 9645 places it in the 46th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 with an average score of 9637 (a 0.1% difference) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 with 9653 (a 0.1% deficit). This clustering shows that the GTX 960M sits right at a performance plateau where many professional and consumer cards converge.

The AMD Radeon R7 M380, with an average benchmark score of 9313, also occupies the 46th percentile, but its nearest rivals tell a different story. The AMD card is most closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, which scores 9302 (a 0.1% lead for AMD), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 at 9294 (a 0.2% lead). Interestingly, the R7 M380 edges out the desktop NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 by a 0.4% margin, with the GTX 960 scoring 9273. This suggests the R7 M380 is competitive with a previous-generation desktop card, while the GTX 960M is positioned closer to professional workstation parts.

The 18.6% delta in the head-to-head test is the single most important number in this comparison. It indicates that in OpenCL workloads, the GTX 960M delivers roughly one-fifth more performance than the R7 M380. For users running GPU-accelerated applications, this difference would be immediately noticeable, particularly in tasks that scale well with compute throughput.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures, which explains their performance divergence. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M uses the GM107 chip based on the Maxwell architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This chip packs 1,870 million transistors into a 148 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.6 million transistors per square millimeter.

In contrast, the AMD Radeon R7 M380 uses the Tropo chip based on the older GCN 1.0 architecture, also manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The Tropo chip contains 1,500 million transistors on a smaller 123 mm² die, resulting in a slightly lower transistor density of 12.2 million transistors per square millimeter. The GTX 960M thus has 370 million more transistors and a 25 mm² larger die, giving it a structural advantage in raw compute resources.

Clock speeds further separate the two. The GTX 960M operates at a base clock of 1097 MHz with a boost clock of 1176 MHz, while the R7 M380 runs at a significantly lower 900 MHz base and 915 MHz boost. This clock speed advantage, combined with the architectural efficiency of Maxwell over GCN 1.0, contributes heavily to the NVIDIA card's performance lead.

Memory architecture also differs substantially. The GTX 960M uses 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 80.19 GB/s of bandwidth. The R7 M380 also has 4 GB of memory, but it is DDR3 on the same 128-bit bus, yielding only 32.00 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a massive discrepancy: the NVIDIA card offers 2.5 times the memory bandwidth, which is critical for texture-heavy workloads and high-resolution rendering.

Both GPUs share identical core counts in terms of shading units (640), texture mapping units (40), and render output units (16). However, the higher clocks and superior memory bandwidth of the GTX 960M allow it to extract more performance from these same resources. The pixel rate of the GTX 960M is 18.82 GPixel/s versus 14.64 GPixel/s for the R7 M380, and the texture rate is 47.04 GTexel/s versus 36.60 GTexel/s.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 960M wins the only direct benchmark comparison, and its architectural advantages suggest it would dominate in most GPU-bound scenarios. The 18.6% OpenCL lead indicates that compute workloads, such as video encoding, physics simulations, and machine learning inference, would run noticeably faster on the NVIDIA card. The 80.19 GB/s memory bandwidth versus 32.00 GB/s also gives the GTX 960M a clear edge in games with high-resolution textures and in applications that stream large datasets.

The R7 M380's advantages are less about raw performance and more about its positioning. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M (0.1% faster) and the GeForce GTX 465 (0.2% faster), showing that it competes with a slightly older generation of NVIDIA mobile parts. The R7 M380 also matches the GTX 960M in the 46th percentile ranking, indicating that for the average user, the performance difference might not be catastrophic, but it is consistent and measurable.

For gaming, the GTX 960M's higher pixel rate of 18.82 GPixel/s and texture rate of 47.04 GTexel/s would translate to better frame rates at higher settings, particularly at 1080p. The R7 M380's lower rates of 14.64 GPixel/s and 36.60 GTexel/s would require lower graphical settings to achieve comparable smoothness. In compute tasks, the GTX 960M's 1.505 TFLOPS of FP32 performance dwarfs the R7 M380's 1,171.2 GFLOPS, a 28.5% advantage in theoretical floating-point throughput.

The R7 M380 does have one notable advantage: its bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16, while the GTX 960M uses an MXM-B (3.0) module interface. This means the AMD card could potentially be used in a wider range of systems, though the GTX 960M's MXM form factor is standard for many laptops of that era.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across several key specification fields, and these differences paint a clear picture of their relative capabilities.

• Chip and Architecture: The GTX 960M uses the GM107 chip on Maxwell architecture, while the R7 M380 uses the Tropo chip on GCN 1.0 architecture.
• Transistors: The GTX 960M has 1,870 million transistors compared to 1,500 million for the R7 M380, a 24.7% advantage.
• Die Size: The GTX 960M's die is 148 mm² versus 123 mm² for the R7 M380.
• Transistor Density: 12.6M / mm² for the GTX 960M versus 12.2M / mm² for the R7 M380.
• Base Clock: 1097 MHz for the GTX 960M versus 900 MHz for the R7 M380.
• Boost Clock: 1176 MHz for the GTX 960M versus 915 MHz for the R7 M380.
• Memory Type: GDDR5 for the GTX 960M versus DDR3 for the R7 M380.
• Memory Clock: 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective) for the GTX 960M versus 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective) for the R7 M380.
• Memory Bandwidth: 80.19 GB/s for the GTX 960M versus 32.00 GB/s for the R7 M380.
• Pixel Rate: 18.82 GPixel/s for the GTX 960M versus 14.64 GPixel/s for the R7 M380.
• Texture Rate: 47.04 GTexel/s for the GTX 960M versus 36.60 GTexel/s for the R7 M380.
• FP32 Performance: 1.505 TFLOPS for the GTX 960M versus 1,171.2 GFLOPS for the R7 M380.
• TDP: The GTX 960M is rated at 75 W, while the R7 M380 has no listed TDP.
• Bus Interface: MXM-B (3.0) for the GTX 960M versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the R7 M380.
• Vulkan Support: The GTX 960M supports Vulkan 1.4, while the R7 M380 supports Vulkan 1.2.170.
• DirectX Support: The GTX 960M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the R7 M380 supports DirectX 12 (11_1).

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M is 18.6% faster than the AMD Radeon R7 M380 in the Geekbench OpenCL test, scoring 11045 versus 9313.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their closest rivals?

A: The GTX 960M is within 0.2% of the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (9665) and 0.1% of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 (9653), while the R7 M380 is 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M (9302) and 0.4% ahead of the desktop NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9273).

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two?

A: The GTX 960M has 80.19 GB/s of bandwidth using GDDR5 memory, while the R7 M380 has 32.00 GB/s using DDR3 memory, making the NVIDIA card 2.5 times faster in this metric.

Q: Do both GPUs have the same core configuration?

A: Yes, both have 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units, but the GTX 960M operates at higher clocks (1097 MHz base versus 900 MHz) and delivers higher throughput rates.

Q: Which GPU has better API support?

A: The GTX 960M supports Vulkan 1.4, while the R7 M380 supports Vulkan 1.2.170. Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the R7 M380 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) compared to the GTX 960M's DirectX 12 (11_0).

Q: What is the FP32 compute performance of each GPU?

A: The GTX 960M delivers 1.505 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the R7 M380 delivers 1,171.2 GFLOPS, giving the NVIDIA card a 28.5% advantage in theoretical compute throughput.