AMD Radeon RX 570 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 570 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 occupy nearly identical positions in the aggregate performance hierarchy, with average benchmark scores of 30,158 and 30,109 respectively — a gap of just 0.2%. This places the RX 570 in the 74th percentile of all GPUs and the RTX 5060 in the 73rd, making them direct competitors in overall compute capability despite their eight-year separation in release dates. The data presents a fascinating paradox: a 2017 Polaris card built on a 14 nm process matching a 2025 Blackwell chip on 5 nm in average score, yet the underlying architectures and individual benchmark results tell a more complex story.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 dominates the two directly comparable benchmark tests, winning both head-to-head matchups decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5060 scores 120,785 against the RX 570’s 32,084, representing a 73.4% advantage. The Vulkan test shows a similar pattern: 116,626 versus 42,752, a 63.3% lead. These are not marginal victories — they are generational leaps in raw compute throughput, reflecting the RTX 5060’s 19.18 TFLOPS FP32 performance against the RX 570’s 5.095 TFLOPS.

However, the RX 570’s victories are more subtle and emerge from the broader benchmark database. The RX 570 scores 880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, a test the RTX 5060 does not appear in, and it posts a Geekbench Metal score of 44,915, which also has no RTX 5060 counterpart. The RX 570’s average score of 30,158 actually edges out the RTX 5060’s 30,109, meaning that across the full spectrum of available tests, the older card holds a slight aggregate edge. This suggests the RX 570 excels in legacy or API-specific workloads where the RTX 5060 lacks direct measurements, while the RTX 5060 dominates in modern cross-platform compute APIs.

The RTX 5060’s additional benchmark results — PassMark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores of 225, 127, 200, and 77 respectively, plus G2D 1,154, G3D 20,891, and GPU Compute 10,899 — indicate strengths in rasterization and compute that the RX 570 simply cannot match in direct comparisons. The wins for the RTX 5060 are concentrated in exactly the areas where modern games and applications demand performance: high-throughput compute and Vulkan rendering.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear split based on workload and platform priorities. The RTX 5060 is the superior choice for any application leveraging OpenCL or Vulkan compute, where its performance is 63-73% ahead of the RX 570. Its 8 GB GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, more than double the RX 570’s 224.0 GB/s, which translates directly to texture streaming and high-resolution asset handling. For users running modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads, the RTX 5060’s support for DirectX 12_2 features — including ray tracing with 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores — provides capabilities the RX 570’s DirectX 12_0 implementation lacks entirely.

Conversely, the RX 570 remains relevant for users whose software ecosystem relies on Metal or specific legacy APIs. Its Geekbench Metal score of 44,915 and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 880 demonstrate that in certain constrained test environments, it can hold its own. The RX 570’s 256-bit memory bus, despite slower GDDR5, offers a different memory access pattern that may benefit particular workloads. Its end-of-life production status and 2017 release date suggest it should be chosen only for compatibility reasons, not future-proofing. The RTX 5060, with its active production status and 2025 release, is the data-driven recommendation for anyone building a system today, provided their software stack uses modern APIs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the single largest margin in the comparison. The RTX 5060’s 120,785 versus the RX 570’s 32,084 is a 73.4% delta, a gap so wide it suggests the RX 570’s GCN 4.0 architecture is fundamentally limited in OpenCL compute scalability. The RX 570’s 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 and matching 5.095 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio) are dwarfed by the RTX 5060’s 19.18 TFLOPS in both precisions, and the newer card’s 299.6 GTexel/s texture rate versus 159.2 GTexel/s shows a 2x improvement in texture throughput.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a similar but slightly narrower gap: 116,626 versus 42,752, a 63.3% delta. This narrowing is notable because Vulkan is often considered a more efficient low-level API that can benefit older architectures. The RX 570’s Vulkan 1.3 support versus the RTX 5060’s Vulkan 1.4 does not close the performance chasm. The pixel rate difference is stark — 119.9 GPixel/s for the RTX 5060 against 39.81 GPixel/s for the RX 570 — indicating the newer card can drive higher resolutions and more complex shading operations at equivalent fill rates.

The RTX 5060’s PassMark results provide additional context: its G3D score of 20,891 and GPU Compute of 10,899 show strong rasterization and compute performance, while the RX 570 has no corresponding PassMark entries in the data. The only direct head-to-head tests where the RX 570 does not lose are those where the RTX 5060 has no recorded score, such as 3DMark Steel Nomad and Geekbench Metal. This asymmetry in test coverage means the 0.2% aggregate score difference is partly a function of which benchmarks are available for each card, not a true reflection of parity in overlapping workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30,158, which is 0.2% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060’s 30,109.

Q: How large is the RTX 5060’s lead in OpenCL performance?

A: The RTX 5060 scores 120,785 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 32,084 for the RX 570, a 73.4% advantage.

Q: Does the RX 570 win any direct head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. In the two head-to-head tests recorded (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), the RTX 5060 wins both. The RX 570 only has scores in tests the RTX 5060 lacks, like 3DMark Steel Nomad (880) and Geekbench Metal (44,915).

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two cards?

A: The RTX 5060 has 448.0 GB/s bandwidth from 8 GB GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus, while the RX 570 has 224.0 GB/s from 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The RTX 5060 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, while the RX 570 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6.

Q: How do their transistor densities compare?

A: The RTX 5060 has 121.0 million transistors per mm² on a 181 mm² die, versus 24.6 million per mm² on a 232 mm² die for the RX 570.

Architecture Differences

The RX 570 uses the Polaris 20 chip built on GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm process. It contains 5,700 million transistors across a 232 mm² die. The RTX 5060 uses the GB206 chip on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process, packing 21,900 million transistors into a smaller 181 mm² die. The density difference is dramatic: 121.0M transistors per mm² for the RTX 5060 versus 24.6M per mm² for the RX 570, a 4.9x improvement in packing efficiency.

The RX 570 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The RTX 5060 has 3,840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, plus 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. While the RX 570 has more TMUs, the RTX 5060’s higher clocks and architecture efficiency yield a 299.6 GTexel/s texture rate versus 159.2 GTexel/s. The RTX 5060 also supports hardware ray tracing and tensor-based features, which the RX 570 lacks entirely. Both cards support DirectX, OpenGL, and Vulkan, but the RTX 5060’s DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 represent newer API generations than the RX 570’s DirectX 12_0 and Vulkan 1.3.

Memory architecture diverges sharply: the RX 570 uses 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, while the RTX 5060 uses 8 GB GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 5060 achieves double the bandwidth (448.0 GB/s vs 224.0 GB/s) thanks to faster memory clocks. The RX 570’s FP16 performance is 1:1 with FP32 at 5.095 TFLOPS, while the RTX 5060 also runs 1:1 but at 19.18 TFLOPS, indicating a four-fold compute improvement.

Specification Differences

Clock speeds differ substantially: the RX 570 has a base clock of 1168 MHz and boost of 1244 MHz, while the RTX 5060 runs at 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost — roughly double the frequency. Memory clocks show a similar pattern: both list 1750 MHz, but the RX 570 achieves 7 Gbps effective on GDDR5, whereas the RTX 5060 reaches 28 Gbps effective on GDDR7.

Power requirements are close but not identical: the RX 570 has a 150 W TDP with a 1x 6-pin connector and a suggested 450 W PSU, while the RTX 5060 has a 145 W TDP with a 1x 8-pin connector and a suggested 300 W PSU. The RTX 5060 is more power-efficient per watt of compute, delivering 19.18 TFLOPS at 145 W versus 5.095 TFLOPS at 150 W.

Display outputs differ by generation: the RX 570 offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RTX 5060 has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. The bus interface also advances from PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RX 570 to PCIe 5.0 x8 on the RTX 5060. Physical dimensions are identical in length (241 mm / 9.5 inches), but the RTX 5060 adds specified height (111 mm) and width (40 mm) values. The RX 570’s launch MSRP was 169 USD, while the RTX 5060’s launch MSRP is 299 USD. Production status and release dates reflect their generations: the RX 570 is end-of-life from April 2017, while the RTX 5060 is active from May 2025.