AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data is unequivocal: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile dominates the AMD Radeon RX 5600M across every recorded test. In the three head-to-head comparisons available, the RTX 5080 Mobile wins all three, with no test favoring the RX 5600M. The most decisive gap appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4952 against the RX 5600M's 1320, a delta of -73.3% from the RX 5600M's perspective. This means the NVIDIA part delivers roughly 3.75 times the performance in this modern DirectX 12 workload, a massive generational leap.

The compute-oriented results tell a similar story. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5080 Mobile records 166986 points versus 59589 for the RX 5600M, a 64.3% deficit for the AMD part. The Vulkan test shows an even wider relative margin: 169754 against 48843, a 71.2% gap. These are not marginal differences; they represent fundamentally different performance tiers. The RX 5600M's best showing relative to the RTX 5080 Mobile is in OpenCL, where it still trails by nearly two-thirds.

Looking at the broader database context, the RTX 5080 Mobile's average benchmark score sits at 38349, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. The RX 5600M, despite winning zero head-to-head tests, has a higher average score of 46601 and sits in the 85th percentile. This apparent contradiction stems from the different benchmark suites included in each product's average: the RX 5600M's average is buoyed by strong Geekbench Metal results (76653), a test not recorded for the RTX 5080 Mobile. The RTX 5080 Mobile's average is dragged down by its Passmark legacy DirectX scores, which are extremely low (171 for DX10, 253 for DX11, 116 for DX12, 314 for DX9). These Passmark numbers likely reflect driver or workload characteristics rather than raw capability, given the overwhelming lead in every modern benchmark.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5080 Mobile wins in every head-to-head category recorded: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. It is the clear choice for any modern gaming or compute workload that leverages these APIs. The 3DMark result is particularly relevant for contemporary DirectX 12 games, while the Vulkan score indicates strong performance in Vulkan-based titles and applications.

The RX 5600M has no recorded wins against the RTX 5080 Mobile. However, its database profile shows strengths in specific legacy or Apple-oriented workloads. Its Geekbench Metal score of 76653 is the highest among its four recorded benchmarks, suggesting particular competence in Metal-based applications, a test the RTX 5080 Mobile does not have recorded. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 59589 also exceeds its Vulkan score, indicating a relative preference for OpenCL over Vulkan, the opposite of the RTX 5080 Mobile's pattern (where Vulkan at 169754 edges out OpenCL at 166986). For users confined to Metal ecosystems, the RX 5600M may hold relevance, but for everything else, the RTX 5080 Mobile is decisively ahead.

The RTX 5080 Mobile's Passmark G3D score of 27711 and GPU compute score of 12134 provide additional context, though no direct RX 5600M comparison exists for those tests. Its G2D score of 1095 suggests modest 2D performance, but this is unlikely to matter in practice. The RX 5600M's nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Arc A530M (average score 46614, delta 0%), the AMD Radeon RX 6550M (46702, delta -0.2%), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (46043, delta 1.2%). The RTX 5080 Mobile's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38299, delta 0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135, delta 0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38691, delta -0.9%). These rival lists underscore that the two GPUs occupy entirely different segments of the performance spectrum.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast and explains the benchmark disparity. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M uses the Navi 10 chip built on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. It packs 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 41.0 million per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile uses the GB203 chip on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, with a transistor density of 120.6 million per mm². The RTX 5080 Mobile has over four times the transistor count and nearly three times the density, reflecting both a newer process node and a more complex design.

The RDNA 1.0 architecture in the RX 5600M has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. It relies on 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The Blackwell 2.0 architecture in the RTX 5080 Mobile includes 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores, alongside 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 5080 Mobile has more than triple the shading units, nearly double the TMUs, and 50% more ROPs. This hardware difference directly enables the RTX 5080 Mobile's superior throughput in every measured workload.

The compute capabilities diverge sharply. The RX 5600M delivers 5.829 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 11.66 TFLOPS of FP16 (at a 2:1 ratio). The RTX 5080 Mobile delivers 23.04 TFLOPS of FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS of FP16 (at a 1:1 ratio). The RTX 5080 Mobile has roughly four times the FP32 throughput and its FP16 performance matches its FP32, whereas the RX 5600M halves its FP16 rate. Pixel rate and texture rate follow the same trend: the RTX 5080 Mobile achieves 144.0 GPixel/s and 360.0 GTexel/s, versus 80.96 GPixel/s and 182.2 GTexel/s for the RX 5600M.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems are in different leagues. The RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 5080 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s bandwidth. That is over three times the bandwidth and nearly triple the capacity, a critical advantage for high-resolution textures and large datasets.

Clock speeds differ notably. The RX 5600M has a base clock of 1035 MHz, a boost clock of 1265 MHz, and a game clock of 1190 MHz. The RTX 5080 Mobile has a lower base clock of 975 MHz but a higher boost clock of 1500 MHz, with no recorded game clock. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 5600M runs at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective, while the RTX 5080 Mobile runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective. The RTX 5080 Mobile's higher boost clock and significantly faster memory more than compensate for its slightly lower base clock.

Power consumption is a major differentiator, with the RTX 5080 Mobile rated at 80 W TDP versus 150 W for the RX 5600M. The NVIDIA part delivers roughly four times the performance at nearly half the power. Both are IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factors with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs. The RX 5600M uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RTX 5080 Mobile uses PCIe 5.0 x16, doubling the available bus bandwidth.

API support shows a generational shift. The RX 5600M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 5080 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate designation indicates support for features like ray tracing and mesh shaders, which the RX 5600M lacks. The RTX 5080 Mobile was released on 2025-04-01 and is marked as Active production status, while the RX 5600M was released on 2020-07-06 and is End-of-life, with the Polaris Mobile as its predecessor. The RTX 5080 Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 40 Mobile series.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4952 versus 1320 for the AMD Radeon RX 5600M, a 73.3% lead for the NVIDIA part.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each GPU have?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile has 896.0 GB/s from 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus. The RX 5600M has 288.0 GB/s from 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus.

Q: Does the RX 5600M support ray tracing?

A: No, the RDNA 1.0 architecture has no dedicated ray tracing cores. The RTX 5080 Mobile includes 60 ray tracing cores.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile is rated at 80 W TDP, while the RX 5600M is rated at 150 W TDP. The RTX 5080 Mobile delivers far higher performance at lower power.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile has 7680 shading units, more than triple the RX 5600M's 2304 shading units.

Q: What are the production statuses of these GPUs?

A: The RX 5600M is End-of-life, released 2020-07-06. The RTX 5080 Mobile is Active, released 2025-04-01.

The Verdict

The data leaves no room for ambiguity. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is the superior GPU in every head-to-head benchmark recorded, with wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. Its performance advantage ranges from 64.3% to 73.3% depending on the test, and it achieves this while drawing 80 W versus the RX 5600M's 150 W. The RTX 5080 Mobile also offers 16 GB of GDDR7 memory with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth, more than triple the RX 5600M's 6 GB and 288.0 GB/s. Architecturally, it brings ray tracing cores, tensor cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and a 5 nm process with 45,600 million transistors.

The RX 5600M's sole redeeming data point is its higher average benchmark score (46601 versus 38349) and higher percentile ranking (85th versus 81st), driven by its strong Geekbench Metal result and the RTX 5080 Mobile's weak Passmark legacy scores. For users specifically targeting Metal-based workloads, the RX 5600M may have niche relevance. It also carries a lower transistor count and older architecture, making it a less complex part, but that does not translate to any performance benefit in the recorded tests.

For anyone choosing between these two for modern gaming, compute, or general GPU-accelerated tasks, the RTX 5080 Mobile is the definitive pick. It wins every relevant benchmark, offers superior memory capacity and bandwidth, supports modern APIs, and does so at nearly half the power draw. The RX 5600M is an end-of-life product from 2020 with no recorded wins against its rival. The verdict is simple: the RTX 5080 Mobile is the clear choice, and the RX 5600M should only be considered in scenarios where Metal compatibility or its specific average-score profile matters more than raw, modern performance.