AMD Radeon RX 6800S vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile Comparison

The benchmark data is clear: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is the superior performer, winning 8 of 9 head-to-head tests against the AMD Radeon RX 6800S. The RTX 4060 Mobile leads in every meaningful 3D and compute workload, with its smallest victory in the Passmark G3D test (8.9% ahead) and its largest in Geekbench OpenCL (18.1% ahead). The AMD RX 6800S claims only a single, negligible win in Passmark G2D (0.3% ahead), a 2D graphics test that carries little weight for modern gaming. The verdict is straightforward: choose the RTX 4060 Mobile for superior performance across the board, while the RX 6800S remains a viable option only if its lower 100W power draw is a critical constraint for a specific laptop chassis.

The Verdict

The data indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is the definitive choice for users prioritizing raw performance. Its average benchmark score of 22,729 places it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800S scores a higher average of 24,063 (69th percentile), but this figure is misleading. The RX 6800S’s average is inflated by its excellent Geekbench scores (85,256 in Metal, 81,272 in Vulkan), which are not representative of typical gaming workloads. In the head-to-head tests that matter most for gaming — Passmark DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and G3D — the RTX 4060 Mobile is consistently ahead by 8.9% to 11.5%.

For gamers, the RTX 4060 Mobile is the clear winner. It offers higher frame rates in DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 titles, as evidenced by its Passmark scores of 157 and 73, respectively, compared to the RX 6800S’s 139 and 65. The RTX 4060 Mobile also excels in compute-heavy tasks, leading by 9.9% in Passmark GPU Compute and 18.1% in Geekbench OpenCL. The RX 6800S only wins the Passmark G2D test (732 vs 730), which is a 2D desktop graphics benchmark with no relevance to 3D gaming performance.

However, the RX 6800S is not without merit. Its 100W TDP is 15W lower than the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 115W, making it a more power-efficient option for thin-and-light laptops where thermal headroom is limited. If a laptop design cannot adequately cool a 115W GPU, the RX 6800S may be the only viable option, even with its lower performance. But for any user who can accommodate the higher power draw, the RTX 4060 Mobile is the superior choice, offering better performance in every 3D benchmark and a more modern architecture.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in gaming benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is faster in all gaming-relevant tests. It leads the AMD Radeon RX 6800S by 8.9% in Passmark G3D (17,469 vs 15,908), 11.5% in Passmark DirectX 11 (157 vs 139), and 11% in Passmark DirectX 12 (73 vs 65).

Q: Does the AMD Radeon RX 6800S win any benchmark?

A: Yes, the RX 6800S wins only the Passmark G2D test, scoring 732 versus the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 730, a margin of 0.3%. This is a 2D graphics test and does not reflect 3D gaming performance.

Q: How do their compute performances compare?

A: The RTX 4060 Mobile is significantly stronger in compute workloads. It beats the RX 6800S by 18.1% in Geekbench OpenCL (89,420 vs 73,202) and by 9.9% in Passmark GPU Compute (6,816 vs 6,144).

Q: What are the power consumption differences?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800S has a TDP of 100W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has a TDP of 115W. This 15W difference may impact laptop thermal design and battery life, favoring the AMD part in power-constrained systems.

Q: Which GPU has a higher shader core count?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has 3,072 shading units, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800S has 2,048. This 1,024-shader advantage contributes to the RTX 4060 Mobile’s higher FP32 throughput of 11.61 TFLOPS versus 8.602 TFLOPS.

Q: Are both GPUs compatible with the same APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring feature parity for modern game compatibility.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures from different generations. The AMD Radeon RX 6800S uses the RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7nm process node, manufactured by TSMC. It is based on the Navi 23 chip, which contains 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 46.7 million transistors per square millimeter. This is an older design, released in early 2022, and is now marked as end-of-life, with its predecessor being the Polaris Mobile series.

In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile employs the Ada Lovelace architecture on a more advanced 5nm process node, also from TSMC. It uses the AD107 chip, which packs 18,900 million transistors into a smaller 159 mm² die, achieving a much higher transistor density of 118.9 million transistors per square millimeter. This newer architecture, released in early 2023, is part of the GeForce 40-series and remains in active production, with its successor being the GeForce 50 Mobile series.

The architectural differences are stark. The RX 6800S has 32 ray tracing cores, while the RTX 4060 Mobile has 24, but the NVIDIA part compensates with 96 tensor cores, which the AMD part lacks entirely. These tensor cores are designed for AI acceleration and DLSS, giving the RTX 4060 Mobile a feature advantage for upscaling and ray tracing workloads. The RDNA 2.0 architecture also differs in its compute unit layout, with 128 texture mapping units and 64 render output units on the AMD side, versus 96 TMUs and 48 ROPs on the NVIDIA side. Despite having fewer TMUs and ROPs, the RTX 4060 Mobile achieves higher performance due to its more efficient Ada Lovelace design and higher shading unit count.

Specification Differences

The specifications reveal a clear trade-off between the two GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile has a substantial advantage in raw compute resources: 3,072 shading units versus 2,048, and 96 tensor cores versus none. This translates to higher FP32 performance (11.61 TFLOPS vs 8.602 TFLOPS) and FP16 performance (11.61 TFLOPS vs 17.20 TFLOPS, though the AMD part uses a 2:1 ratio, meaning its FP16 is effectively half the rate for some workloads). The RTX 4060 Mobile also has a higher transistor count (18,900 million vs 11,060 million) despite a smaller die size (159 mm² vs 237 mm²).

Clock speeds differ significantly. The AMD RX 6800S has a higher base clock of 1800 MHz and boost clock of 2100 MHz, along with a game clock of 1975 MHz. The NVIDIA RTX 4060 Mobile runs at a lower base clock of 1545 MHz and boost clock of 1890 MHz. However, the RTX 4060 Mobile’s higher shader count more than compensates for its lower clocks. Memory is identical: both have 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 16 Gbps effective memory speed.

Power consumption differs, with the RX 6800S rated at 100W TDP and the RTX 4060 Mobile at 115W TDP. Both are IGP (integrated) form factors with no power connectors, and both use a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface. The RTX 4060 Mobile has a lower pixel rate (90.72 GPixel/s vs 134.4 GPixel/s) and texture rate (181.4 GTexel/s vs 268.8 GTexel/s), but these are overcome by its superior shader performance in real-world tests.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark results are decisive in favor of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 4060 Mobile scores 89,420 versus the RX 6800S’s 73,202, a commanding 18.1% lead. This is the largest margin of victory in any test and highlights the NVIDIA GPU’s superior general-purpose compute capability. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a closer contest, with the RTX 4060 Mobile scoring 89,569 against 81,272 for the AMD part, a 9.3% advantage.

In the Passmark suite, the RTX 4060 Mobile wins all 3D tests. The DirectX 10 test shows a 15% lead (107 vs 91), while DirectX 11 shows an 11.5% lead (157 vs 139). DirectX 12 results are closer, with the RTX 4060 Mobile at 73 versus 65 for the RX 6800S, an 11% advantage. The DirectX 9 test shows the smallest 3D margin, with the RTX 4060 Mobile scoring 216 against 200, a 7.4% lead.

The Passmark G3D test, which is a composite gaming benchmark, shows the RTX 4060 Mobile at 17,469 versus 15,908 for the RX 6800S, an 8.9% lead. In the Passmark GPU Compute test, the RTX 4060 Mobile scores 6,816 against 6,144, a 9.9% advantage. The only test won by the AMD RX 6800S is Passmark G2D, where it scores 732 versus 730 for the NVIDIA part, a razor-thin 0.3% margin that is statistically negligible.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile wins in every performance-critical category. For gaming, it is the clear choice, with higher scores in DirectX 10, 11, 12, and 9, as well as the composite G3D test. Its 8.9% lead in G3D translates to noticeably higher frame rates in modern titles. For compute workloads, such as video rendering, machine learning inference, or scientific simulations, the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 18.1% lead in OpenCL and 9.9% lead in GPU Compute make it the superior workhorse. The presence of 96 tensor cores also gives it an edge for AI-accelerated applications, even though no specific benchmarks are provided for that feature.

The AMD Radeon RX 6800S wins only in the Passmark G2D test, which measures 2D desktop graphics performance. This is not a relevant metric for gaming or most professional workloads. However, the RX 6800S does have one significant advantage: its 100W TDP is 15W lower than the RTX 4060 Mobile’s 115W. This makes the AMD GPU a better fit for ultra-thin laptops where power and thermal budgets are severely constrained. If a laptop chassis cannot dissipate the heat from a 115W GPU, the RX 6800S may be the only option, even though it sacrifices performance. For users who prioritize battery life or need a cooler-running laptop, the RX 6800S is the pragmatic choice, but for anyone who values performance above all else, the RTX 4060 Mobile is the unequivocal winner.