AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile Comparison

AMD's Radeon RX 580 2048SP and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile represent two very different generations of GPU design, separated by nearly five years of architectural evolution. The desktop Polaris card, an end-of-life product from 2018, trades blows with a modern, active mobile chip from the Ada Lovelace generation. Benchmark results show a clear overall victor, but the data also reveals that the older card remains competitive in specific aggregate metrics. The RTX 4060 Mobile wins both head-to-head tests decisively, yet the average benchmark scores of the two GPUs are remarkably close, with the RX 580 2048SP actually holding a slight edge in overall standing.

Where Each One Wins

The data paints a clear picture: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is the dominant performer in raw compute benchmarks. In the head-to-head comparison, it wins both available tests outright. The largest margin comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 4060 Mobile scores 89,420 against the RX 580 2048SP's 29,668, a massive 66.8% advantage. This indicates a substantial lead in general-purpose compute workloads that leverage OpenCL. Similarly, in Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 89,569 versus 38,666 for the AMD card, a 56.8% lead. This suggests that for gaming and other applications that utilize the Vulkan API, the RTX 4060 Mobile holds a commanding performance advantage.

However, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP wins where it matters most in the aggregate: the overall average benchmark score. The RX 580 2048SP boasts an average score of 23,061, while the RTX 4060 Mobile sits at 22,729. This is a marginal 1.5% difference, but it places the AMD card in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, one point higher than the NVIDIA card's 67th percentile. This suggests that in a broader suite of tests, including legacy DirectX benchmarks and compute tests, the older Polaris architecture holds its own. The RX 580 2048SP also has wins in its specific benchmark suite, particularly in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test with a score of 849, a test that the RTX 4060 Mobile does not have a corresponding result for in the data.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The AMD RX 580 2048SP utilizes the Polaris 20 chip, based on the GCN 4.0 architecture, and is fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. This older design packs 5,700 million transistors onto a 232 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 24.6 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Mobile uses the AD107 chip, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, and is built on TSMC's 5 nm process. This allows for 18,900 million transistors on a smaller 159 mm² die, achieving a significantly higher density of 118.9 million per square millimeter.

The memory subsystems also diverge sharply. The RX 580 2048SP comes with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4060 Mobile offers 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, but on a narrower 128-bit bus, which nonetheless provides higher bandwidth at 256.0 GB/s. The newer card also features a more advanced feature set, including 24 dedicated ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores, which the GCN-based AMD card lacks entirely. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card tops out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 4060 Mobile also has a higher boost clock (1890 MHz vs 1284 MHz) and significantly more shading units (3072 vs 2048), along with a higher texture fill rate (181.4 GTexel/s vs 164.4 GTexel/s).

The Verdict

The benchmark data indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is the superior choice for users prioritizing modern, high-performance compute and graphics workloads. Its decisive wins in both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests show a clear advantage in APIs that are critical for contemporary gaming and professional applications. The 66.8% lead in OpenCL and 56.8% lead in Vulkan are not marginal; they represent a generational leap in processing power. For anyone building a system where these workloads matter, the RTX 4060 Mobile is the only logical choice based on this data.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, however, is not without merit. Its higher average benchmark score and percentile ranking suggest that it is better optimized for a wider range of legacy and DirectX-based tests. Its nearest rivals, including the Intel Arc B580 (0.2% slower) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (0.7% slower), are all modern or high-end parts, showing that the Polaris card's aggregate performance is still relevant. However, with zero wins in the head-to-head matchups, its overall victory is a statistical artifact of the test suite composition. The RTX 4060 Mobile is the winner where performance is measured directly, while the RX 580 2048SP's edge in the aggregate reflects its enduring strength in specific, older workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has a higher average benchmark score of 23,061, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile's 22,729.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Geekbench Vulkan test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile leads by 56.8% in the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 89,569 against the RX 580 2048SP's 38,666.

Q: Does the AMD card support ray tracing?

A: No, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has no ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile, in contrast, features 24 dedicated RT cores.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do the two cards compare in terms of transistor density?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has a much higher transistor density at 118.9 million per square millimeter, versus 24.6 million per square millimeter for the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP.

Q: Which GPU is in a higher performance percentile?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is in the 67th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single biggest win for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile comes in the Geekbench OpenCL test. The NVIDIA card scores an impressive 89,420, dwarfing the AMD card's 29,668. This 66.8% delta is the largest performance gap recorded in the head-to-head data. This result highlights the immense compute throughput of the Ada Lovelace architecture, especially in a cross-platform compute API like OpenCL. The raw FP32 performance difference is a key factor, with the RTX 4060 Mobile rated at 11.61 TFLOPS compared to the RX 580 2048SP's 5.259 TFLOPS, and this benchmark confirms that theoretical advantage translates into real-world performance.

The second head-to-head test, Geekbench Vulkan, also goes decisively to NVIDIA. The RTX 4060 Mobile scores 89,569, while the RX 580 2048SP manages 38,666. The 56.8% margin, while smaller than the OpenCL gap, is still substantial. This result is particularly relevant for gaming, as Vulkan is a popular API for modern game engines. The NVIDIA card's support for newer features like DirectX 12 Ultimate and its dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores likely contribute to this superiority, even in a non-ray-traced workload. The RTX 4060 Mobile's higher memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s vs 224.0 GB/s) and faster boost clock (1890 MHz vs 1284 MHz) also play a role.

Despite these two dominant losses for the AMD card, its aggregate score of 23,061 is higher than the NVIDIA card's 22,729. This is because the aggregate includes a broader set of benchmarks, such as the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test where the RX 580 2048SP scores 849, and various Passmark tests. The RX 580 2048SP's nearest rival, the Intel Arc B580, is only 0.2% behind its average score, while the RTX 4060 Mobile's closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, is 0.8% slower. These numbers suggest that while the RTX 4060 Mobile is the clear winner in the specific head-to-head tests, the RX 580 2048SP remains a more balanced performer across a wider variety of legacy and synthetic workloads.