AMD Radeon RX 7800M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data reveals a clear split between the AMD Radeon RX 7800M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, with NVIDIA taking 7 of 10 tests but AMD winning the two most compute-oriented workloads. The most decisive NVIDIA victory comes in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RTX 5060 scores 3628 against the RX 7800M's 2994, a 17.5% advantage. This is a synthetic DirectX 12 workload that stresses modern rendering pipelines, and the margin is substantial enough to indicate a real performance tier gap in that specific scenario.

NVIDIA also dominates the legacy DirectX tests. In Passmark DirectX 9, the RTX 5060 posts 225 versus 174 for AMD, a 22.7% lead. Passmark DirectX 10 shows a similar pattern: 127 for NVIDIA against 99 for AMD, also a 22% difference. DirectX 11 results are closer but still favor NVIDIA, with 200 versus 176, a 12% margin. These older API benchmarks suggest NVIDIA's driver overhead and geometry handling remain strong in backward-compatible workloads.

The 2D and compute-oriented Passmark tests also trend NVIDIA's way. Passmark G2D scores 1154 for the RTX 5060 versus 892 for the RX 7800M, a 22.7% gap that reflects memory bandwidth and rasterization efficiency at lower resolutions. Passmark GPU Compute shows 10899 for NVIDIA against 9342 for AMD, a 14.3% advantage. Even in the aggregate Passmark G3D score, NVIDIA leads with 20891 versus 17613, a 15.7% margin.

AMD's wins are concentrated in compute and modern API scenarios. The Geekbench Vulkan test is AMD's best showing: 126668 versus 113321 for NVIDIA, an 11.8% lead. Geekbench OpenCL follows with 120778 against 112787, a 7.1% advantage. These are notable because they indicate AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture retains a compute throughput edge in certain workloads, despite the RTX 5060's higher transistor density. The only DirectX 12 win for AMD comes in Passmark DirectX 12, where the RX 7800M scores 89 against 77, a 15.6% margin. This is an interesting contrast to the 3DMark Steel Nomad result, suggesting that the two DX12 tests stress different aspects of the pipeline.

The average benchmark scores reflect this split: the RX 7800M averages 27883 across all tests, while the RTX 5060 averages 26331. However, the percentile rankings are nearly identical, with AMD at the 73rd percentile and NVIDIA at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. This means that despite the head-to-head losses, the RX 7800M sits in a comparable overall performance bracket due to its strong compute results. The nearest rivals for each card further contextualize this: AMD's closest competitor is the Radeon Pro Vega 20 at 27839 (0.2% delta), while NVIDIA's is the Radeon 860M at 26401 (-0.3% delta). Neither card is near the top of the GPU hierarchy, but both occupy solid mid-range territory.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 wins decisively, scoring 3628 against the AMD Radeon RX 7800M's 2994. This represents a 17.5% advantage for NVIDIA in this synthetic DX12 workload.

Q: Does the AMD card win any modern API benchmarks?

A: Yes. The RX 7800M leads in Geekbench Vulkan by 11.8% (126668 vs 113321) and in Geekbench OpenCL by 7.1% (120778 vs 112787). It also wins Passmark DirectX 12 by 15.6% (89 vs 77), though that test's absolute scores are much lower than the Geekbench figures.

Q: How do the two cards compare in overall average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M has a higher average benchmark score of 27883, while the RTX 5060 averages 26331. Despite this, the RTX 5060 wins 7 of the 10 individual head-to-head tests, indicating the AMD average is buoyed by its strong compute results.

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference between the two cards?

A: The RX 7800M ranks at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 5060 ranks at the 72nd percentile. This difference of one percentile point is negligible in practical terms.

Q: Which card has better Passmark G3D performance?

A: The RTX 5060 scores 20891 in Passmark G3D, compared to 17613 for the RX 7800M, giving NVIDIA a 15.7% advantage. This is one of the larger margins in the benchmark suite and reflects overall 3D rendering capability.

Q: Are there any tests where the AMD card wins by a larger margin than NVIDIA's biggest win?

A: No. NVIDIA's largest win is 22.7% in both Passmark DirectX 9 and Passmark G2D. AMD's largest win is 15.6% in Passmark DirectX 12, which is smaller than NVIDIA's top margins.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the clear choice for legacy DirectX workloads and general 3D rendering. Its wins in DirectX 9, 10, and 11, plus the Passmark G3D and G2D tests, indicate strong driver optimization for older APIs and efficient rasterization. The 22.7% lead in DirectX 9 and the 15.7% lead in G3D make it the preferable option for users running older games or applications that rely on these APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad win further solidifies its position for modern DX12 gaming, as that test is designed to reflect current AAA rendering demands.

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M excels in compute-heavy scenarios and Vulkan-based workloads. The 11.8% Vulkan lead and 7.1% OpenCL advantage suggest that applications leveraging asynchronous compute or Vulkan's explicit control model will see better performance on AMD hardware. The Passmark DirectX 12 win, while on a low absolute scale, hints that certain DX12 paths favor AMD's architecture. For users running compute tasks, machine learning inference, or Vulkan-native titles, the RX 7800M is the stronger candidate despite its overall head-to-head deficit.

The Passmark GPU Compute result complicates the picture, as NVIDIA wins that test by 14.3%. This suggests that NVIDIA's compute advantage is workload-dependent, and users should benchmark specific applications rather than rely on generic compute scores. The RTX 5060 also wins the 2D test by 22.7%, which may matter for desktop compositing and lighter graphical loads.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems differ significantly. The RX 7800M features 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5060 uses 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus, achieving 448.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, NVIDIA's GDDR7 memory runs at 28 Gbps effective versus AMD's 18 Gbps, resulting in higher raw bandwidth for the RTX 5060. The AMD card offers 50% more capacity, which is relevant for high-resolution textures and larger working sets.

Clock speeds favor NVIDIA. The RTX 5060 has a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost of 2497 MHz, while the RX 7800M operates at 1295 MHz base and 2335 MHz boost. NVIDIA also specifies a memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), while AMD lists 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). Power consumption differs substantially: the RTX 5060 has a TDP of 145 W, while the RX 7800M draws 180 W. The NVIDIA card requires a single 8-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested PSU, while the AMD card uses no external power connectors and is classified as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with slot width "IGP."

The RTX 5060 has a defined physical footprint of 241 mm by 111 mm by 40 mm and is dual-slot. The RX 7800M has no listed dimensions and is described as "Portable Device Dependent" for display outputs, indicating it is designed for mobile or embedded use rather than as a standalone add-in card. The RTX 5060 offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs, while the RX 7800M's outputs depend on the host device. Bus interfaces also differ: AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while NVIDIA uses PCIe 5.0 x8.

Architecture Differences

The architectural split is generational and fundamental. AMD's RX 7800M uses the Navi 32 chip built on RDNA 3.0, while NVIDIA's RTX 5060 uses the GB206 chip on Blackwell 2.0. Both are fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process, but the die sizes differ dramatically: Navi 32 measures 346 mm² with 28,100 million transistors, while GB206 is 181 mm² with 21,900 million transistors. This yields transistor densities of 81.2M per mm² for AMD and 121.0M per mm² for NVIDIA, showing a much denser layout for the Blackwell chip.

Core configurations are similar in shading units—both have 3840—but diverge elsewhere. The RX 7800M has 240 TMUs and 96 ROPs, while the RTX 5060 has 120 TMUs and 48 ROPs. This gives AMD a 2:1 advantage in texture and pixel throughput, reflected in its higher pixel rate of 224.2 GPixel/s versus 119.9 GPixel/s, and texture rate of 560.4 GTexel/s versus 299.6 GTexel/s. AMD's FP32 compute is 35.87 TFLOPS, nearly double NVIDIA's 19.18 TFLOPS.

Ray tracing resources differ: the RX 7800M has 60 RT cores, while the RTX 5060 has 30. However, NVIDIA counters with 120 tensor cores, while AMD's tensor core field is null, indicating no equivalent hardware. This is critical for AI-accelerated features like DLSS, which rely on tensor cores. AMD's FP16 throughput matches its FP32 at 35.87 TFLOPS (1:1), while NVIDIA also achieves 19.18 TFLOPS (1:1), but NVIDIA's tensor cores provide additional AI-specific compute that AMD lacks.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 7800M traces its lineage to Polaris Mobile, while the RTX 5060 succeeds the GeForce 40 series and has a named successor in GeForce 60. The RTX 5060 has a launch MSRP of 299 USD; the RX 7800M has no listed launch MSRP. Release dates are separated by about eight months, with AMD launching on 2024-09-10 and NVIDIA on 2025-05-18.