AMD Radeon RX 560 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB compare to the AMD Radeon RX 560 in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB has an average benchmark score of 4970, while the RX 560 sits at 4569. The RTX 5060 Ti also places in the 29th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the RX 560's 26th percentile.

Q: Which card wins in DirectX 12 performance, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB wins the Passmark DirectX 12 test with a score of 89 versus the RX 560's 21, a lead of 323.8%.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two cards?

A: The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB comes with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 560 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, with 112.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor count and what is the density difference?

A: The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB packs 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die, for a density of 121.0M / mm². The RX 560 has 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, at 24.4M / mm².

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB has a TDP of 180 W and requires a 450 W suggested power supply with a single 8-pin connector. The RX 560 has a TDP of 75 W, a 250 W suggested PSU, and requires no power connectors.

Q: Does the RX 560 support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No, the AMD Radeon RX 560 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB includes 36 RT cores and 144 tensor cores.

The Verdict

The data makes the outcome unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB wins all seven head-to-head benchmark comparisons against the AMD Radeon RX 560. The RTX 5060 Ti is the clear choice for any workload involving modern DirectX 12 titles, compute tasks, or higher-resolution textures, given its 16 GB GDDR7 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 560, a 2017-era entry-level part, is end-of-life and trails by massive margins across every recorded test.

However, the RX 560 is not without a niche. Its 75 W TDP, lack of any power connectors, and 250 W suggested PSU make it suitable for legacy systems or low-power builds where the RTX 5060 Ti's 180 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU would be excessive. The RX 560 also supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, so it can still run modern APIs, but only at entry-level settings.

For gamers targeting high frame rates in current DirectX 12 games, the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is the only sensible pick; its 323.8% advantage in the DirectX 12 test alone tells that story. For users constrained by power delivery or physical size, the RX 560 remains a functional, low-power option. The RTX 5060 Ti also excels in GPU compute, where it leads by 681.1%, making it the better choice for any GPU-accelerated productivity work.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is a complete sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB, with seven wins and zero for the AMD Radeon RX 560.

The largest single margin comes in the Passmark DirectX 10 test, where the RTX 5060 Ti scores 144 against the RX 560's 16, an 800% difference. That pattern repeats in DirectX 11, with the RTX 5060 Ti posting 219 versus 25, a 776% lead. The DirectX 12 test shows a narrower but still decisive gap: 89 against 21, for a 323.8% advantage. The DirectX 9 test rounds out the API suite with 238 versus 57, a 317.5% difference.

The compute-oriented Passmark GPU Compute test shows the RTX 5060 Ti at 11224 against the RX 560's 1437, a 681.1% lead. This reflects the massive difference in FP32 throughput: 23.70 TFLOPS for the RTX 5060 Ti versus 2.611 TFLOPS for the RX 560.

The overall 3D performance gap is captured by the Passmark G3D test, where the RTX 5060 Ti scores 22618 and the RX 560 scores 3671, a 516.1% difference. Even in the 2D test, the RTX 5060 Ti leads with 1206 versus 485, a 148.7% advantage, though this is the closest relative margin in the entire comparison.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, while the RX 560 uses a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The RTX 5060 Ti has 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die, versus 3,000 million on 123 mm² for the RX 560.

Clock speeds differ substantially: the RTX 5060 Ti runs at a base of 2407 MHz and a boost of 2572 MHz, while the RX 560 operates at 1175 MHz base and 1275 MHz boost. Memory is also a major divider, with the RTX 5060 Ti using 16 GB of GDDR7 at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) and the RX 560 using 4 GB of GDDR5 at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). Both use a 128-bit bus, but bandwidth favors NVIDIA at 448.0 GB/s versus 112.0 GB/s.

The compute units scale accordingly: the RTX 5060 Ti has 4608 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, while the RX 560 has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Pixel rate is 123.5 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 20.40 GPixel/s for AMD, and texture rate is 370.4 GTexel/s versus 81.60 GTexel/s.

Power and physical requirements also diverge. The RTX 5060 Ti has a 180 W TDP, a 450 W suggested PSU, and one 8-pin power connector, while the RX 560 has a 75 W TDP, a 250 W suggested PSU, and no power connectors. The RTX 5060 Ti is 241 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 40 mm wide; the RX 560 is only 170 mm long, with no recorded height or width. Both are dual-slot cards.

The RTX 5060 Ti uses a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface and offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs. The RX 560 uses PCIe 3.0 x8 and offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX 5060 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4; the RX 560 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6. The RTX 5060 Ti is still active in production, while the RX 560 is end-of-life.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The RTX 5060 Ti is based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture on the GB206 chip, part of the GeForce 50-series. The RX 560 uses the GCN 4.0 architecture on the Polaris 21 chip, from the Polaris (RX 500) generation.

The process node difference is stark: 5 nm at TSMC for NVIDIA versus 14 nm at GlobalFoundries for AMD. This drives a transistor density of 121.0M / mm² for the RTX 5060 Ti, compared to just 24.4M / mm² for the RX 560. The RTX 5060 Ti's 21,900 million transistors dwarf the RX 560's 3,000 million.

Feature support is where the architectures truly separate. The RTX 5060 Ti includes 36 RT cores for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and 144 tensor cores for AI workloads, neither of which exist on the RX 560. The RTX 5060 Ti also delivers FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, at 23.70 TFLOPS each; the RX 560 also has a 1:1 FP16 ratio, but at just 2.611 TFLOPS.

The memory architecture also reflects the generational shift. The RTX 5060 Ti uses GDDR7 at 28 Gbps effective, quadrupling the RX 560's 7 Gbps effective GDDR5 speed. Both cards use 128-bit buses, but the RTX 5060 Ti's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is four times the RX 560's 112.0 GB/s.

API support shows the same trend: the RTX 5060 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 560 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. The release dates reinforce the generational split, with the RTX 5060 Ti arriving on 2025-04-15 and the RX 560 on 6 years earlier. The RTX 5060 Ti's predecessor is the GeForce 40-series and successor is the GeForce 60-series; the RX 560's predecessor is Arctic Islands and successor is Vega.