AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 and AMD Radeon RX 5600M occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data reflects that gulf. The RTX 4080 is a desktop flagship built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, while the RX 5600M is a mobile chip from the RDNA 1.0 generation. Across the three head-to-head benchmarks available, the RTX 4080 wins decisively in every single test, with deltas ranging from 260.4% to 440.1%. The data shows no scenario where the RX 5600M takes a victory; its only comparable metric is the Geekbench Metal score of 76653, which has no direct counterpart on the NVIDIA side. For anyone choosing between these two, the decision is not about performance nuance—it is about whether a desktop flagship or a laptop-class part fits the use case.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the overwhelming performance choice, with an average benchmark score of 54247 compared to the RX 5600M's 46601. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX 4080 scores 6567 against the RX 5600M's 1320, a 397.5% advantage. The RTX 4080 also leads in Geekbench OpenCL (214739 vs 59589, a 260.4% delta) and Geekbench Vulkan (263779 vs 48843, a 440.1% delta). The RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600M sits at 85th—a similar percentile, but that is misleading because the mobile part's score is far lower in absolute terms. The RTX 4080's nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (-1.1% delta), placing it firmly in flagship territory. The RX 5600M, by contrast, trades blows with the Intel Arc A530M (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 6550M (-0.2% delta), which are clearly entry-level or midrange parts. Pick the RTX 4080 for any serious desktop gaming or compute workload; pick the RX 5600M only if a mobile form factor is mandatory and the performance gap is acceptable.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4080 wins every head-to-head benchmark in the data, so the "where each one wins" split is lopsided. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which stresses modern DirectX 12 rendering, the RTX 4080 is 397.5% ahead—a landslide that indicates the desktop part's raw rasterization power is in a different class. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4080 leads by 260.4%, showing a massive advantage in general-purpose compute that would benefit tasks like video encoding or physics simulation. The Geekbench Vulkan result is even more extreme, with a 440.1% delta favoring the RTX 4080, which suggests the NVIDIA architecture handles low-level API workloads far more efficiently. The RX 5600M has no benchmark wins at all, but it does post a Geekbench Metal score of 76653—a test the RTX 4080 does not have—which indicates it can handle Apple's Metal API, likely for macOS compatibility. For the RX 5600M, the only "win" is the existence of that Metal score, but it is not comparable to any NVIDIA result in the pack. The data shows the RTX 4080 is the sole victor in every shared test, making it the pick for any workload where those benchmarks matter.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design generations and use cases. The RTX 4080 uses the AD103 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, for a density of 121.1M transistors per mm². The RX 5600M uses the Navi 10 chip on TSMC's 7 nm node, with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, yielding a much lower density of 41.0M per mm². The RTX 4080's Ada Lovelace architecture includes 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, while the RX 5600M's RDNA 1.0 has neither—no RT cores and no tensor cores are listed. The shader configuration also diverges: the RTX 4080 has 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, versus 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs on the RX 5600M. Memory is another major split: the RTX 4080 offers 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s. The RTX 4080's boost clock is 2505 MHz, far above the RX 5600M's 1265 MHz boost. The RTX 4080 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX 5600M is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4080 is a triple-slot card with a 1x 16-pin connector and 320 W TDP, whereas the RX 5600M is an IGP with no power connectors and a 150 W TDP. The RTX 4080's process node is smaller, its transistor count is over four times higher, and its feature set includes ray tracing and tensor cores that the RX 5600M lacks entirely.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 5600M's 46601, a difference of 7646 points.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two in any benchmark?

A: The largest delta is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4080 scores 263779 versus the RX 5600M's 48843, a 440.1% advantage for NVIDIA.

Q: Does the RX 5600M have any ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No, the data lists null values for RT cores and tensor cores on the RX 5600M, while the RTX 4080 has 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores.

Q: How do their memory configurations differ?

A: The RTX 4080 has 16 GB of GDDR6X with a 256-bit bus and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 4080 has a transistor density of 121.1M per mm² on a 5 nm process, versus the RX 5600M's 41.0M per mm² on a 7 nm process.

Q: What is the RTX 4080's closest rival according to the data?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the closest, with an average score of 54209 and a delta of 0.1% from the RTX 4080's 54247.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains three shared tests, and the RTX 4080 wins all three by massive margins. The largest win is in Geekbench Vulkan: the RTX 4080 scores 263779 against the RX 5600M's 48843, a delta of 440.1%. This is a staggering gap that underscores the RTX 4080's superiority in low-level graphics API performance, likely driven by its newer architecture and far higher clock speeds. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows a 397.5% delta, with the RTX 4080 at 6567 and the RX 5600M at 1320. That test stresses modern DirectX 12 features, and the RTX 4080's support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus the RX 5600M's DirectX 12 (12_1) likely contributes to the gap. The smallest delta among the shared tests is Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 4080 leads 214739 to 59589, a 260.4% advantage. Even this "smallest" delta is enormous, showing that the RTX 4080's compute throughput—48.74 TFLOPS FP32 versus the RX 5600M's 5.829 TFLOPS—translates directly into benchmark dominance. The RX 5600M does have a Geekbench Metal score of 76653, but since the RTX 4080 has no Metal result in the data, it cannot be compared directly. The RTX 4080's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s dwarf the RX 5600M's 80.96 GPixel/s and 182.2 GTexel/s, aligning with the benchmark outcomes. The wins tally is 3 for the RTX 4080 and 0 for the RX 5600M, with no benchmark in the shared set where the AMD part comes close. The data tells a consistent story: the RTX 4080 is in a completely different performance tier, and the RX 5600M's only solace is that it exists in a mobile form factor with a much lower 150 W TDP against the RTX 4080's 320 W.