AMD Radeon R9 M380 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data includes a single direct comparison between these two GPUs, the Geekbench OpenCL test. In that workload, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 scores 95,057 points, while the AMD Radeon R9 M380 scores 12,565 points. That represents a 656.5% advantage for the NVIDIA part, a margin that places the two products in entirely different performance tiers.

Looking at the broader database averages, the RTX 4060 holds an average benchmark score of 17,639 across all recorded tests, while the R9 M380 averages 15,521. The NVIDIA card sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs in the database, whereas the AMD part sits at the 58th percentile. Despite the massive OpenCL gap, the overall averages are closer than the head-to-head result suggests, because the two cards have been tested under different suites: the RTX 4060 has ten recorded benchmark entries spanning DirectX 9 through 12, OpenCL, Vulkan, and compute workloads, while the R9 M380 has only two entries, Metal and OpenCL.

The RTX 4060's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 with an average score of 17,666 (0.2% higher), the AMD Radeon 780M at 17,588 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 at 17,551 (0.5% lower). This places the RTX 4060 in a cluster of mid-range parts where performance differences are within a single percentage point. The R9 M380, by contrast, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which averages 15,548 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 at 15,679 (1% higher). The R9 M380 also edges out the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, which averages 15,290 (1.5% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 at 15,283 (1.6% lower). These rival positions show that the R9 M380, despite being a much older mobile-oriented part, lands in a similar overall average range to much newer desktop cards, largely because its limited benchmark set is dominated by a single Metal score of 18,476 that boosts its average.

The OpenCL comparison is the only test where both products have a recorded result. In that test the RTX 4060 is over seven and a half times faster, which reflects the generational gap in raw compute throughput. The RTX 4060 delivers 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the R9 M380 delivers 1.536 TFLOPS, a difference that aligns with the 656.5% score delta. The RTX 4060 also reaches a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s, compared to 48.00 GTexel/s and 16.00 GPixel/s for the R9 M380. Every measurable throughput metric in the database favors the NVIDIA card by a wide margin.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4060 wins the only directly comparable benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, with a 656.5% lead. That single result dominates the head-to-head comparison. The database shows no test where the R9 M380 records a higher score than the RTX 4060.

The RTX 4060 also holds advantages across every API generation in its benchmark suite. In PassMark DirectX 9 it scores 236, in DirectX 10 it scores 103, in DirectX 11 it scores 175, and in DirectX 12 it scores 76. It also records a PassMark G3D score of 19,545, a PassMark G2D score of 1,037, and a PassMark GPU compute score of 9,213. The R9 M380 has no comparable entries in any of these tests, so the RTX 4060 is the only part with recorded data in those workloads.

For use cases, the RTX 4060 is the clear choice for OpenCL compute, given its 95,057 score versus 12,565. Its Vulkan score of 48,643 and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,302 further indicate strong modern API support, though the R9 M380 has no recorded results in those tests. The R9 M380 does have a Geekbench Metal score of 18,476, which is its strongest recorded result and suggests it can handle Apple's Metal API workloads reasonably well, but no comparable Metal score exists for the RTX 4060 in the database.

In terms of overall database standing, the RTX 4060's 61st percentile versus the R9 M380's 58th percentile shows that the NVIDIA card places higher among all GPUs, but the gap in percentile rank is modest. The RTX 4060's average score of 17,639 is only 13.6% higher than the R9 M380's 15,521, a much smaller difference than the OpenCL head-to-head suggests. This discrepancy is explained by the R9 M380's limited benchmark coverage, which weights its strong Metal result heavily.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4060 than the R9 M380 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4060 scores 95,057 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the R9 M380 scores 12,565. That is a 656.5% higher score for the NVIDIA part.

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17,639, while the R9 M380 averages 15,521. The RTX 4060 also holds a higher percentile rank at 61 versus 58.

Q: Do the two cards share any benchmark results besides OpenCL?

A: No. The only test where both have recorded scores is Geekbench OpenCL. The RTX 4060 has additional results in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench Vulkan, and five PassMark tests, while the R9 M380 has a Geekbench Metal score of 18,476.

Q: How does the R9 M380 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The R9 M380 averages 15,521, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, 1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, and 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

Q: Where does the RTX 4060 sit among its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4060 averages 17,639, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon HD 7790, 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon 780M, 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 560, and 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 460.

Q: Which GPU supports more modern graphics APIs?

A: The RTX 4060 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The R9 M380 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every specification field in the database. The RTX 4060 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The R9 M380 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory capacity doubles between the AMD and NVIDIA parts, and bandwidth is 2.8 times higher on the RTX 4060.

Clock speeds differ substantially. The RTX 4060 has a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The R9 M380 has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 1000 MHz, with memory at 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective). Both base and boost clocks are roughly twice as high on the NVIDIA card.

The RTX 4060 packs 3,072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. The R9 M380 has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The RTX 4060 also includes 24 ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores, while the R9 M380 has none of either. The RTX 4060's FP32 throughput is 15.11 TFLOPS with FP16 at 15.11 TFLOPS (1:1), while the R9 M380's FP32 is 1.536 TFLOPS and it has no recorded FP16 value.

Power and physical specifications differ as well. The RTX 4060 has a TDP of 115 W, uses a dual-slot cooler with a 1x 12-pin power connector, and requires a 300 W suggested PSU. The R9 M380 has no recorded TDP, slot width, power connector, or suggested PSU values. The RTX 4060 measures 240 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width. The R9 M380 has no recorded dimensions.

The bus interface differs: the RTX 4060 uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the R9 M380 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs also differ, with the RTX 4060 offering 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the R9 M380 has no recorded display outputs.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4060 is built on NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD107 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 118.9 million transistors per mm². The R9 M380 uses AMD's GCN 2.0 architecture with the Strato chip, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It contains 2,080 million transistors on a 160 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 13.0 million transistors per mm². The die sizes are nearly identical, but the RTX 4060 packs roughly nine times more transistors into the same area, a direct consequence of the 5 nm versus 28 nm process gap.

The RTX 4060 belongs to the GeForce 40 generation and its predecessor is the GeForce 30 series, with the GeForce 50 as its successor. It was released on May 17, 2023. The R9 M380 belongs to the Gem System (R9 M300) generation, with its predecessor listed as Solar System and its successor as Polaris Mobile. It was released on May 4, 2015. Both parts are end-of-life in the database.

The RTX 4060's Ada Lovelace architecture brings hardware ray tracing cores (24 of them) and tensor cores (96 of them), features entirely absent from the GCN 2.0-based R9 M380. The RTX 4060 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the R9 M380 only reaches DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support is newer on the NVIDIA card (1.4 versus 1.2.170), while OpenGL support is identical at 4.6 for both.

The R9 M380's GCN 2.0 architecture, dating to 2015, lacks the dedicated AI and ray tracing hardware that defines the Ada Lovelace generation. The RTX 4060's 5 nm process, high transistor density, and modern feature set explain the massive compute advantage recorded in the OpenCL benchmark, where the NVIDIA card leads by 656.5%. The architectural divide is not incremental; it represents two different eras of GPU design. The RTX 4060 is a modern desktop card with full feature support, while the R9 M380 is a legacy mobile part with a simpler feature set and much lower throughput.