AMD Radeon RX 560 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile represent two very different approaches to GPU design: a desktop Polaris part from 2019 versus a mobile Ampere chip from 2021. The benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy, but the specification sheets reveal why these products are not direct substitutes. Below is a breakdown of the quantitative evidence, followed by architectural context.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT has a higher average benchmark score of 34,133, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile scores 33,170. The AMD card sits in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA mobile part is in the 78th percentile.

Q: In the head-to-head Geekbench tests, how large is the NVIDIA lead?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile wins both head-to-head tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 50,038 against AMD's 31,387, a delta of -37.3% (from AMD's perspective). In Geekbench Vulkan, NVIDIA scores 49,051 versus AMD's 36,879, a delta of -24.8%.

Q: How do the two GPUs differ in memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD RX 560 XT has a 256-bit memory bus with GDDR5 memory, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile has a narrower 128-bit bus but uses faster GDDR6 memory, resulting in 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size difference?

A: The NVIDIA GA107 chip contains 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, giving a density of 43.5M / mm². The AMD Ellesmere chip has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a lower density of 24.6M / mm².

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The AMD RX 560 XT is rated at 150 W TDP, requires a 1x 6-pin power connector, and suggests a 450 W power supply. The NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile is rated at 45 W TDP, has no power connectors (as it is an IGP), and lists no suggested PSU.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing and tensor cores?

A: Only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile includes dedicated hardware, with 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores. The AMD RX 560 XT has none, as it predates AMD's ray tracing hardware.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion for raw compute: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile is the faster GPU in the two shared benchmarks. It leads by 37.3% in OpenCL and by 24.8% in Vulkan, a substantial margin that reflects its newer architecture and higher shader count. However, the AMD RX 560 XT posts a slightly higher average benchmark score (34,133 vs 33,170) because its two available scores are both strong, whereas the NVIDIA part's average is dragged down by a lower 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 421.

That said, the comparison is complicated by form factor. The RTX 3050 Mobile is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) designed for laptops, with a 45 W TDP and no power connectors. The RX 560 XT is a dual-slot desktop card requiring a 6-pin connector and a 450 W PSU. The data suggests that if you need maximum compute throughput in a portable system, the RTX 3050 Mobile is the clear winner. If you are building a desktop and the average benchmark score is your primary metric, the RX 560 XT edges out the mobile part—but only by 963 points (2.9%). The RTX 3050 Mobile's wins in both head-to-head tests make it the better choice for users who prioritize Geekbench performance specifically.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains only two tests, both favoring NVIDIA, but the margins tell different stories. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3050 Mobile scores 50,038 compared to the RX 560 XT's 31,387. This 18,651-point gap translates to a 37.3% deficit for AMD. OpenCL workloads often scale with raw shader throughput, and NVIDIA's 2,048 shading units at a 5.501 TFLOPS FP32 rate outperform AMD's 1,792 shading units at 4.394 TFLOPS.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the spread narrows. The RTX 3050 Mobile scores 49,051, while the RX 560 XT reaches 36,879, a 24.8% difference. Vulkan's lower overhead may benefit AMD's GCN architecture, which is known for its async compute capabilities, but it is not enough to close the gap. The RX 560 XT's texture rate of 137.3 GTexel/s is actually higher than NVIDIA's 85.95 GTexel/s, and its pixel rate of 39.23 GPixel/s is close to NVIDIA's 42.98 GPixel/s. Yet the FP32 compute advantage (5.501 vs 4.394 TFLOPS) appears to dominate the synthetic workloads.

Notably, the RX 560 XT's average benchmark score of 34,133 is higher than the RTX 3050 Mobile's 33,170. This is because AMD's two Geekbench scores average to 34,133, while NVIDIA's three scores (including the 421 in 3DMark Steel Nomad) average lower. The Steel Nomad test is a DX12 workload, and the RTX 3050 Mobile's score there is far lower than its Geekbench results, suggesting that its performance is workload-dependent.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs diverge sharply on memory and compute specifications. The RX 560 XT uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, achieving 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3050 Mobile also has 4 GB, but it is GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 192.0 GB/s—a 32 GB/s deficit. Despite the narrower bus, the newer GDDR6 memory runs at 12 Gbps effective versus 7 Gbps effective for GDDR5.

Shader counts favor NVIDIA: 2,048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. AMD has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The TMU count is a significant inversion—AMD has 75% more texture units, which explains its higher texture rate (137.3 vs 85.95 GTexel/s). However, NVIDIA's higher boost clock (1343 MHz vs 1226 MHz) and superior FP32 throughput (5.501 vs 4.394 TFLOPS) give it the edge in general compute.

The process nodes are generations apart. AMD uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, while NVIDIA uses an 8 nm process from Samsung. This allows NVIDIA to pack 8,700 million transistors into a smaller 200 mm² die, versus AMD's 5,700 million on 232 mm². The transistor density difference is stark: 43.5M / mm² for NVIDIA versus 24.6M / mm² for AMD.

The bus interface also differs: PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD versus PCIe 4.0 x8 for NVIDIA. Display outputs are another divergence—AMD offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while NVIDIA's are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," reflecting its mobile nature.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf is fundamental. AMD's RX 560 XT is built on GCN 4.0, part of the Polaris generation. It uses a monolithic Ellesmere chip with 5,700 million transistors. The architecture supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. Critically, it has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores—dedicated hardware for those features does not exist in GCN.

NVIDIA's RTX 3050 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA107 chip, part of the GeForce 30 Mobile series. It is fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm node and packs 8,700 million transistors. Ampere brings significant feature additions: 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores, which enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based DLSS. The API support is also newer, with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4.

The FP16 performance is identical to FP32 on both parts (1:1 ratio), meaning neither GPU has a dedicated half-precision boost. However, the presence of tensor cores on the NVIDIA part allows for different workloads entirely, particularly those leveraging AI inference. The AMD part's GCN architecture is older, with its last major revision dating back to the Polaris era. The production status for both is end-of-life, but the RX 560 XT's successor is listed as Vega, while the RTX 3050 Mobile's predecessor is GeForce 20 Mobile.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3050 Mobile wins in the two compute benchmarks that both GPUs share. Its 37.3% lead in OpenCL and 24.8% lead in Vulkan make it the stronger choice for general-purpose compute tasks like OpenCL-based rendering or Vulkan games. The higher FP32 throughput (5.501 vs 4.394 TFLOPS) and the extra 256 shading units provide a solid foundation for these workloads. Additionally, its 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores give it capabilities the RX 560 XT simply lacks—any workload that uses ray tracing or tensor operations will only run on the NVIDIA part.

The RX 560 XT has its own advantages, though they are narrower. Its texture rate of 137.3 GTexel/s is 60% higher than NVIDIA's 85.95 GTexel/s, which could benefit texture-heavy workloads. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is 16.7% higher than NVIDIA's 192.0 GB/s, which may help in memory-bound scenarios. Its average benchmark score of 34,133 is higher than the RTX 3050 Mobile's 33,170, placing it in a higher percentile (79th vs 78th). However, this aggregate advantage is not reflected in any single head-to-head test—it is purely an artifact of the different benchmark suites available for each GPU.

For users, the choice hinges on platform. The RTX 3050 Mobile is the only option for a laptop, given its 45 W TDP and IGP form factor. The RX 560 XT, with its 150 W TDP, dual-slot cooler, and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, is strictly a desktop part. If you are constrained to a laptop, the RTX 3050 Mobile is the only viable option and it delivers superior compute. If you are on a desktop, the RX 560 XT's higher average score and lower power draw (relative to its form factor) might appeal, but the RTX 3050 Mobile's decisive wins in both shared tests suggest it is the more capable silicon. The data does not support a single universal winner—it supports a platform-dependent verdict.