AMD Radeon R9 370X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data places the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile in a different competitive class than the AMD Radeon R9 370X. The RTX 3060 Mobile holds an average benchmark score of 18159, which lands it at the 62nd percentile among all GPUs. The R9 370X averages 15862, sitting at the 58th percentile. That is a meaningful gap in overall standing, but the real story is in the head-to-head results, where the RTX 3060 Mobile wins both recorded tests by a wide margin.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is the clear choice for anyone running modern compute or graphics workloads, particularly those that use Vulkan or OpenCL. Its 207% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and a 790.9% lead in Geekbench Vulkan are not incremental improvements; they represent a generational shift in capability. The R9 370X remains functional for its era, but the data shows it is severely outmatched on every metric that matters today.

The R9 370X should only be considered by those dealing with legacy software or systems that require its specific display outputs (2x DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2) and PCIe 3.0 interface. It also requires a 450 W suggested PSU and dual-slot spacing, making it a less practical fit for modern compact builds. For any new purchase or upgrade, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the only defensible option based on the benchmark evidence.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design eras. The RTX 3060 Mobile uses the GA106 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. It packs 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². The R9 370X uses the Trinidad chip with GCN 1.0 architecture, built by TSMC on a 28 nm process. It holds 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, for a density of 13.2M per mm². The density difference alone explains much of the performance gap: the newer chip packs over three times as many transistors per square millimeter.

Memory configurations also diverge sharply. The RTX 3060 Mobile uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The R9 370X has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 256-bit bus, but only reaches 179.2 GB/s. The larger capacity and nearly double the bandwidth give the RTX 3060 Mobile a decisive advantage in texture-heavy and high-resolution workloads. The R9 370X memory clock is 1400 MHz (5.6 Gbps effective), while the RTX 3060 Mobile runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Compute resources are heavily skewed toward the newer card. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 30 RT cores, and 120 tensor cores. It outputs 68.40 GPixel/s and 171.0 GTexel/s, with 10.94 TFLOPS FP32 and matching 10.94 TFLOPS FP16. The R9 370X has 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no RT or tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 32.96 GPixel/s, texture rate is 82.40 GTexel/s, and FP32 is 2.637 TFLOPS. The FP16 and ray tracing hardware on the RTX 3060 Mobile are features the R9 370X simply does not have.

Power and interface differences are just as stark. The RTX 3060 Mobile is rated at 80 W TDP with no external power connectors, making it suitable for laptops and low-power systems. The R9 370X draws 180 W and requires two 6-pin connectors, plus a 450 W suggested PSU. The bus interfaces differ as well: PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RTX 3060 Mobile versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the R9 370X. API support also favors the newer card: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus DirectX 12 (11_1), and Vulkan 1.4 versus 1.2.170.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Mobile wins every recorded benchmark in the head-to-head comparison. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 79483 against 25893, a 207% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 80344 against 9018, a 790.9% advantage. These are not close contests, and the results indicate that the RTX 3060 Mobile is better suited for any workload that leverages OpenCL or Vulkan, which includes most modern game engines, compute shaders, and general GPU acceleration.

The R9 370X does not win any of the two head-to-head tests. However, its individual benchmark scores show it can still handle certain tasks. It has a Geekbench Metal score of 12676, a test the RTX 3060 Mobile does not have recorded. That suggests the R9 370X retains some utility in Apple-specific Metal environments, though the lack of a comparable metric for the RTX 3060 Mobile prevents a direct comparison. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 9018 is far below the RTX 3060 Mobile, but it is still a nonzero result, meaning the card can run Vulkan applications, just at much lower performance.

For use-case splitting, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the pick for anything involving ray tracing, tensor operations, or high-bandwidth memory access. The R9 370X is only relevant for systems that require its specific legacy display outputs or that cannot accommodate the newer card's power or interface requirements. The R9 370X also has a launch MSRP of 199 USD, which can be mentioned once for historical context, but the database data does not support any claim about current pricing or cost-effectiveness.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS FP32, while the R9 370X delivers 2.637 TFLOPS FP32. That is roughly a fourfold difference in raw floating-point throughput.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3060 Mobile in OpenCL?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79483 versus 25893 for the R9 370X, a 207% advantage.

Q: Does the R9 370X support ray tracing?

A: No. The R9 370X has no RT cores listed in the database. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 30 RT cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the R9 370X has 179.2 GB/s. The RTX 3060 Mobile also has 6 GB of memory versus 2 GB on the R9 370X.

Q: Can the R9 370X run Vulkan games?

A: Yes, but at a lower level. The R9 370X supports Vulkan 1.2.170 and scores 9018 in Geekbench Vulkan. The RTX 3060 Mobile supports Vulkan 1.4 and scores 80344, a 790.9% lead.

Q: Which card has better API support?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The R9 370X supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The newer card also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, while the R9 370X has no recorded FP16 capability.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two head-to-head comparisons between these GPUs, and the RTX 3060 Mobile wins both. The first test is Geekbench OpenCL. The RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79483, while the R9 370X scores 25893. The delta is 207%, meaning the RTX 3060 Mobile performs more than three times as well in this compute test. This result aligns with the FP32 throughput difference: 10.94 TFLOPS versus 2.637 TFLOPS. The larger memory capacity and higher bandwidth also contribute, as OpenCL workloads often stress memory subsystems.

The second test is Geekbench Vulkan. Here the gap widens dramatically. The RTX 3060 Mobile scores 80344, and the R9 370X scores 9018. That is a 790.9% advantage for the newer card. Vulkan is a lower-level API that exposes hardware features directly, and the RTX 3060 Mobile's modern architecture benefits disproportionately. The older GCN 1.0 design on the R9 370X appears to struggle with Vulkan-specific optimizations. A score of 9018 is roughly one-ninth of the RTX 3060 Mobile's result, indicating that the R9 370X is not merely slower but fundamentally limited in this API.

The wins tally is 2 for the RTX 3060 Mobile and 0 for the R9 370X. There are no recorded tests where the R9 370X comes out ahead. The R9 370X does have a Geekbench Metal score of 12676, but there is no corresponding Metal score for the RTX 3060 Mobile in the database, so no direct comparison can be made. The average benchmark scores also favor the RTX 3060 Mobile: 18159 versus 15862, a difference of about 14.5%. The percentile rankings reflect this, with the RTX 3060 Mobile at 62% of all GPUs and the R9 370X at 58%.

For context, the nearest rivals to the RTX 3060 Mobile include the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (avg score 18189, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (18093, delta 0.4%), the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373, delta -1.2%), and the Intel Arc A770M (18383, delta -1.2%). The RTX 3060 Mobile sits within 1.2% of all these cards, indicating it is competitive with that group. The R9 370X's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852, delta 0.1%), AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014, delta -1%), AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, delta 1.2%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129, delta -1.7%). The R9 370X is similarly close to its peer group, but that peer group operates at a lower performance level.

The conclusion from the head-to-head data is unambiguous. The RTX 3060 Mobile is not just a better GPU; it is in a different performance tier entirely. The 790.9% Vulkan gap is particularly telling, as it suggests architectural advantages that no driver or software optimization can overcome on the older card. For any modern workload, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the only rational choice between these two.