AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA P102-100 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows two benchmark comparisons between the NVIDIA P102-100 and the AMD Radeon RX 5600M, and each card claims one victory. The results are split cleanly along API lines, with the AMD card dominating in OpenCL while the NVIDIA part takes a decisive lead in Vulkan.

In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon RX 5600M scores 59,589 points against the NVIDIA P102-100's 49,602 points. That is a 16.8% advantage for the AMD card, a substantial margin that places it clearly ahead in this compute workload. The NVIDIA P102-100's OpenCL result is lower than its own average benchmark score across all tests, suggesting that this particular API does not play to the card's strengths. The RX 5600M, by contrast, posts an OpenCL score that is well above its overall average, indicating that OpenCL is one of its stronger workloads.

The Vulkan test tells the opposite story. The NVIDIA P102-100 scores 67,454 points, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600M manages only 48,843 points. The delta is 38.1% in favor of the NVIDIA card, a commanding lead that dwarfs the AMD card's OpenCL advantage. This is the single largest performance gap recorded between the two cards in any shared benchmark. The NVIDIA P102-100's Vulkan result is significantly higher than its OpenCL score, showing that the Pascal architecture responds particularly well to Vulkan's low-level API design.

Looking at the aggregate data, the NVIDIA P102-100 holds an average benchmark score of 58,528 points across all recorded tests, which places it at the 88th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M averages 46,601 points, sitting at the 85th percentile. That is a 25.6% difference in average score, even though the head-to-head results are split. The reason for this discrepancy is simple: the two cards do not share many benchmarks in the database. The RX 5600M has additional recorded results, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,320 points and a Geekbench Metal score of 76,653 points, neither of which has a corresponding result for the P102-100. The P102-100 has only the two Geekbench results, both of which happen to be strong enough to lift its average.

The nearest rival data provides useful context for each card. The NVIDIA P102-100's closest competitor in the database is the AMD Radeon PRO V710, which averages 58,657 points, a mere 0.2% ahead. The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT trails by 0.2%, and the Intel Arc A570M sits 0.5% behind. The AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM is 0.8% behind the P102-100. These are very tight margins, meaning the P102-100 sits in a cluster of GPUs with nearly identical average scores. For the AMD Radeon RX 5600M, the nearest rival is the Intel Arc A530M with an identical 46,614-point average, followed by the AMD Radeon RX 6550M at 0.2% ahead. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 trails by 1.2% and the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation sits 1.4% behind. The RX 5600M also occupies a tight grouping, though its cluster sits roughly 20% lower in absolute performance than the P102-100's cluster.

Interpreting the head-to-head results, the Vulkan score is the more striking outlier. A 38.1% lead in one API while losing the other by 16.8% suggests that the NVIDIA P102-100 has a significant architectural advantage in Vulkan workloads, while the AMD card's RDNA 1.0 design handles OpenCL more efficiently. Neither card is a general-purpose champion across every API, but the NVIDIA card's Vulkan dominance is the single biggest swing in the comparison.

The Verdict

The data points to two very different use cases. The NVIDIA P102-100 is the stronger choice for anyone prioritizing Vulkan performance. Its 67,454-point Vulkan score is 38.1% ahead of the RX 5600M, and its average benchmark score of 58,528 points at the 88th percentile puts it in a higher overall performance tier. The card's nearest rivals all sit within 0.8% of its average score, meaning it is competitive with GPUs like the AMD Radeon PRO V710 and the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT in aggregate terms.

The AMD Radeon RX 5600M, on the other hand, wins the OpenCL comparison by 16.8% and also offers a Geekbench Metal score of 76,653 points, which is the highest single benchmark result recorded for either card in the database. For workloads that rely on OpenCL or Metal, the RX 5600M is clearly the better option. Its average score of 46,601 points at the 85th percentile is lower than the P102-100's, but the card's API-specific strengths should not be overlooked.

Strictly from the recorded data, the NVIDIA P102-100 is the higher-performing card overall. It has the better average score, the higher percentile ranking, and a massive Vulkan advantage. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M is the better choice for OpenCL-centric tasks or any environment where Metal support is required, since the P102-100 has no recorded Metal result at all. The P102-100 also has no display outputs, so any user needing a display connection must consider the RX 5600M, which offers portable-device-dependent outputs. For compute-focused workloads where Vulkan is available, the P102-100 is the clear pick. For OpenCL or Metal workloads, the RX 5600M wins.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and are built for different market segments. The NVIDIA P102-100 uses the GP102 chip based on the Pascal architecture, a design from the Mining GPUs generation. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M uses the Navi 10 chip based on RDNA 1.0, belonging to the Navi Mobile generation within the Radeon RX 5000 series. The P102-100 is fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC, while the RX 5600M is built on TSMC's 7 nm node. The process node difference has direct consequences for transistor density: the P102-100 packs 11,800 million transistors across a 471 mm² die, yielding a density of 25.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The RX 5600M contains 10,300 million transistors on a much smaller 251 mm² die, achieving 41.0 million transistors per square millimeter. The 7 nm process gives the AMD card a density advantage of roughly 63% per square millimeter, though the NVIDIA chip has a larger overall transistor count by 1,500 million.

Memory architecture also differs substantially. The P102-100 uses 5 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 440.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 5600M uses 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, achieving 288.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card has 52.9% more memory bandwidth, while the AMD card has 1 GB more capacity. The P102-100's memory runs at 1376 MHz with 11 Gbps effective speed, while the RX 5600M's memory runs at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed.

Compute resources also differ. The P102-100 has 3,200 shading units, 200 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The RX 5600M has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Neither card includes ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The P102-100's pixel rate is 134.6 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 336.6 GTexel/s, while the RX 5600M achieves 80.96 GPixel/s and 182.2 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance tells a similar story: the P102-100 delivers 10.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the RX 5600M delivers 5.829 TFLOPS. However, the RX 5600M offers 11.66 TFLOPS of FP16 performance with a 2:1 ratio, while the P102-100's FP16 is severely limited at 168.3 GFLOPS with a 1:64 ratio. This makes the AMD card the clear winner for FP16 workloads, a meaningful distinction for machine learning inference tasks that use reduced precision.

The bus interfaces also differ significantly. The P102-100 uses PCIe 1.0 x4, a severely limited connection, while the RX 5600M uses PCIe 4.0 x16. This affects how quickly data can move between the GPU and the host system, though the P102-100's compute capabilities are still substantial despite the older bus.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category. The NVIDIA P102-100 has a base clock of 1582 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600M has a base clock of 1035 MHz, a boost clock of 1265 MHz, and a game clock of 1190 MHz. The NVIDIA card runs at significantly higher clock speeds, which contributes to its higher pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 throughput.

Power requirements also differ. The P102-100 has a TDP of 250 W, uses dual-slot cooling, and requires two 8-pin power connectors with a suggested power supply of 600 W. The RX 5600M has a TDP of 150 W, is an integrated graphics processor with no dedicated power connectors, and has no suggested PSU rating. The P102-100 is 267 mm long (10.5 inches), while the RX 5600M has no recorded dimensions. The P102-100 also has no display outputs, while the RX 5600M's display outputs are portable-device dependent.

The P102-100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 5600M supports the same API versions. The P102-100 was released on 2018-02-11, while the RX 5600M was released on 2020-07-06. Both cards are end-of-life. The RX 5600M has a predecessor listed as Polaris Mobile, while the P102-100 has none. Neither card has a recorded launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 has an average benchmark score of 58,528 points, compared to 46,601 points for the AMD Radeon RX 5600M. The P102-100 also ranks at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600M ranks at the 85th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 scores 67,454 points in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 38.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600M's 48,843 points. This is the largest performance gap between the two cards in any shared benchmark.

Q: Which card wins in OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5600M wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with 59,589 points, beating the NVIDIA P102-100's 49,602 points by 16.8%.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon RX 5600M support Metal?

A: Yes, the RX 5600M has a recorded Geekbench Metal score of 76,653 points. The NVIDIA P102-100 has no recorded Metal benchmark in the database.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 has 5 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 320-bit bus with 440.3 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 and FP16 performance?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 has higher FP32 performance at 10.77 TFLOPS compared to the RX 5600M's 5.829 TFLOPS. However, the RX 5600M has much higher FP16 performance at 11.66 TFLOPS, while the P102-100 manages only 168.3 GFLOPS of FP16.