AMD Radeon RX 560 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT and NVIDIA RTX A5000 represent two vastly different eras and market segments. The RX 560 XT is an end-of-life Polaris part from 2019, built for the mainstream Radeon RX 500 generation, while the RTX A5000 is an end-of-life workstation Ampere card from 2021. Benchmark data shows a decisive performance gulf, with the A5000 dominating both shared tests, but the RX 560 XT holds its own in the aggregate percentile rankings. This analysis breaks down the numbers, architectures, and use cases strictly from the provided data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards share only two benchmark tests in the data: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 delivers a crushing victory, but the margin of victory differs significantly between the two APIs.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5000 scores 157,905 against the RX 560 XT's 31,387. That is a delta of -80.1% for the AMD card, meaning the A5000 is roughly five times faster in raw compute throughput. This is the single largest gap in the shared test suite, reflecting the A5000's 27.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance versus the RX 560 XT's 4.394 TFLOPS — a 6.3x advantage in theoretical peak compute.

The Geekbench Vulkan result narrows the gap slightly, but the outcome is unchanged. The RTX A5000 posts 137,828, while the RX 560 XT manages 36,879. The delta here is -73.2% for AMD. While the A5000 still wins decisively, the Vulkan test shows the RX 560 XT performing relatively better than it does in OpenCL — its Vulkan score is 17.5% higher than its OpenCL score, whereas the A5000's Vulkan score is 12.7% lower than its OpenCL result. This suggests the older GCN architecture responds more favorably to Vulkan's lower-level API access.

The win tally is lopsided: winsB (RTX A5000) = 2, winsA (RX 560 XT) = 0. There are no benchmark tests in the data where the RX 560 XT comes out ahead. However, the aggregate picture is more nuanced. The RX 560 XT has an average benchmark score of 34,133 across its two tests, while the RTX A5000 averages 33,622 across ten tests. The A5000's average is dragged down by its Passmark DirectX tests, which score between 87 and 251 — these are likely legacy or specific workload tests where the workstation card's drivers or architecture don't shine. The RX 560 XT's nearest rival list shows it within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 480 and HD 7950, while the A5000 sits within 1.1% of the same HD 7950 and RX 480, creating an unusual cluster where both cards benchmark near similar aggregate scores despite wildly different individual test results.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 wins every head-to-head comparison. Its Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are both in a different stratosphere, and it also carries a suite of ten benchmarks covering DirectX 9 through 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute. In those additional tests, the A5000 shows particular strength in Passmark G3D with a score of 22,541 and Passmark GPU Compute at 12,455. The G3D score indicates strong rasterization performance, while the compute score reinforces its OpenCL lead.

The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT's wins are structural rather than benchmark-based. It wins on efficiency of implementation relative to its age: it achieves a 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, versus the RTX A5000's 78th percentile. Despite being a 2019 part with 5,700 million transistors on a 14 nm process, it benchmarks within 1.5% of the A5000's average score. The RX 560 XT also wins on physical footprint — it is 241 mm long versus the A5000's 267 mm — and on power draw at 150 W TDP versus 230 W, though the data does not include direct performance-per-watt metrics.

For use-case splitting: the A5000 is the clear choice for compute-heavy workloads, given its 6.3x FP32 advantage and massive 24 GB GDDR6 memory with 768.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 560 XT, with its 4 GB GDDR5 and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, is suited for lighter 1080p-class gaming or legacy DirectX workloads, but the data shows no test where it outperforms the A5000. The A5000's Passmark DirectX 9 score of 251 versus its DirectX 12 score of 87 suggests it is optimized for modern APIs, while the RX 560 XT's Vulkan score being close to its OpenCL score suggests balanced legacy support.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is vast and explains the benchmark results. The RX 560 XT uses the Ellesmere chip on GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6 million per mm². The A5000 uses the GA102 chip on Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process. It contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, for a density of 45.1 million per mm² — nearly double the density.

Compute resources differ by an order of magnitude. The RX 560 XT has 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The RTX A5000 has 8,192 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The A5000 also adds hardware that the RX 560 XT entirely lacks: 64 RT cores for ray tracing and 256 tensor cores for AI acceleration. This explains the A5000's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support versus the RX 560 XT's DirectX 12 (12_0) — ray tracing and mesh shaders require the newer feature level.

Clock speeds tell a story of efficiency versus brute force. The RX 560 XT runs at a 1074 MHz base and 1226 MHz boost, while the A5000 runs at 1170 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost. Despite the higher clocks, the A5000's TDP is only 230 W versus 150 W — a 53% power increase for a 6.3x compute increase. Memory subsystems diverge completely: the RX 560 XT uses 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus at 224.0 GB/s, while the A5000 uses 24 GB GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus at 768.0 GB/s. The A5000 also supports PCIe 4.0 x16 versus the RX 560 XT's PCIe 3.0 x16, doubling the interconnect bandwidth.

Pixel and texture rates reinforce the gap. The A5000 hits 162.7 GPixel/s and 433.9 GTexel/s, compared to the RX 560 XT's 39.23 GPixel/s and 137.3 GTexel/s. Both cards are dual-slot, but the A5000 requires an 8-pin power connector and a 550 W suggested PSU, versus the RX 560 XT's 6-pin and 450 W suggestion. The A5000 offers four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the RX 560 XT offers one HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 1.4a. Vulkan support also differs: the A5000 supports Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 560 XT tops out at Vulkan 1.3.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: choose the NVIDIA RTX A5000 for any compute-intensive or modern workload. It wins both shared benchmarks by margins of 73-80%, offers 6x the FP32 throughput, 6x the memory capacity, and adds RT and tensor cores that the RX 560 XT cannot match. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and PCIe 4.0 interface make it future-proof for applications built around modern APIs. The A5000's 78th percentile ranking, while slightly below the RX 560 XT's 79th, is achieved across ten benchmarks including legacy DirectX tests where it scores poorly — its real-world modern performance is far higher than its aggregate suggests.

Choose the AMD Radeon RX 560 XT only if your workload is limited to the benchmarks where it competes. Its Geekbench scores, while far lower, still place it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 79% of the database. It is a smaller card (241 mm vs 267 mm), draws less power (150 W vs 230 W), and requires a less demanding PSU (450 W vs 550 W). For legacy DirectX 9-11 workloads or Vulkan-based applications that don't need massive VRAM, the RX 560 XT remains functional. However, the data shows zero benchmark wins for the RX 560 XT against the A5000 — any scenario where the A5000 is available renders the RX 560 XT the inferior choice.

The aggregate scores are deceptive: the RX 560 XT averages 34,133 and the A5000 averages 33,622, a 1.5% difference in the AMD card's favor. But this is an artifact of the A5000's Passmark DirectX scores (87-251) dragging down its average. The two shared tests tell the real story — the A5000 is in a different performance class entirely.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT has a higher average benchmark score of 34,133 compared to the NVIDIA RTX A5000's 33,622, but this is based on two tests for the RX 560 XT versus ten tests for the A5000.

Q: How much faster is the RTX A5000 in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RTX A5000 scores 157,905 versus the RX 560 XT's 31,387, a delta of -80.1% for the AMD card, meaning the A5000 is approximately five times faster.

Q: Does the RX 560 XT win any benchmark against the A5000?

A: No. The data shows winsB equal to 2 and winsA equal to 0. The A5000 wins both shared Geekbench tests, and the RX 560 XT has no benchmark victories.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 768.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 560 XT has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing and tensor cores?

A: Only the NVIDIA RTX A5000, which has 64 RT cores and 256 tensor cores. The AMD Radeon RX 560 XT has no RT or tensor core support in the data.

Q: How do their transistor counts compare?

A: The RTX A5000 contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, while the RX 560 XT contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. The A5000 has nearly five times the transistor count.