AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data splits this comparison into two distinct narratives. Out of ten head-to-head tests, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins eight, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile wins two. However, the margins on the NVIDIA victories are substantial and reveal an interesting pattern.

The largest single win for the AMD card comes in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where it scores 6841 against the RTX 5060 Mobile's 3013.5. That represents a 55.9% advantage for the RX 7900 XTX in this modern DirectX 12 workload. The AMD card also dominates the older DirectX API tests: it leads by 52.8% in PassMark DirectX 11 (356 vs 168), by 38.5% in DirectX 9 (330 vs 203), and by 33.6% in DirectX 12 (131 vs 87). In the PassMark G3D test, the RX 7900 XTX scores 31238 against 18852, a 39.7% margin. The compute-oriented PassMark GPU Compute test shows a 57% gap, with the AMD card scoring 17689 versus 7607.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile, despite being a mobile part with far lower power draw, posts a decisive win in Geekbench OpenCL. Its score of 96969 beats the RX 7900 XTX's 50465 by 92.2%, nearly doubling the AMD card's output. The NVIDIA part also wins Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 96451 against 85612, a 12.7% advantage. These two wins, particularly the OpenCL result, suggest that the RTX 5060 Mobile's architecture excels in certain compute-oriented synthetic workloads that do not translate to the older rasterization-focused PassMark tests.

The overall average benchmark scores in the database tell a slightly different story. The RTX 5060 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 22435, placing it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs. The RX 7900 XTX has an average score of 19410, which sits in the 64th percentile. This discrepancy arises because the two NVIDIA wins, especially the massive OpenCL margin, skew the mobile card's average upward relative to the AMD card's more consistent but less extreme results. The nearest rivals for the RTX 5060 Mobile include the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (average score 22549, delta of -0.5%), the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22170, delta 1.2%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729, delta -1.3%). For the RX 7900 XTX, the nearest rivals are older cards: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (19334, delta 0.4%), NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19602, delta -1%), and AMD FirePro D300 (19637, delta -1.2%). This suggests the RX 7900 XTX's average score places it in an unusual bracket relative to its raw specifications.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile is built on the GB206 chip using the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 21,900 million transistors into a die size of 181 mm², yielding a transistor density of 121.0 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX uses the Navi 31 chip with the RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Plum Bonito, also fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. However, the Navi 31 die is substantially larger at 529 mm² and contains 57,700 million transistors, resulting in a lower density of 109.1 million per square millimeter. The AMD chip's larger transistor budget is evident in its compute resources: 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The NVIDIA chip has 3328 shading units, 104 TMUs, and 48 ROPs.

Memory configurations differ sharply. The RTX 5060 Mobile uses 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 7900 XTX uses 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 960.0 GB/s. The AMD card's memory bandwidth is 2.5 times higher, which directly supports its higher fill rates: 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate, versus the NVIDIA's 69.84 GPixel/s and 151.3 GTexel/s.

Ray tracing hardware also differs. The NVIDIA part has 26 RT cores and 104 tensor cores, while the AMD card has 96 ray accelerators and no tensor core equivalent. The FP32 compute figures are stark: the RX 7900 XTX delivers 61.39 TFLOPS, while the RTX 5060 Mobile delivers 9.684 TFLOPS. In FP16, the AMD card reaches 122.8 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA part offers 9.684 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

Clock behavior reflects the different power envelopes. The RTX 5060 Mobile has a base clock of 952 MHz and a boost of 1455 MHz, with memory at 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective). The RX 7900 XTX has a base of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost of 2498 MHz, with memory at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The TDP figures are 45 W for the NVIDIA mobile part and 355 W for the AMD desktop card, a nearly 8-fold difference.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins decisively in traditional rasterization workloads. The PassMark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests all favor the AMD card, with margins ranging from 28.3% to 52.8%. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, which represents a modern graphics workload, also goes to the AMD card by 55.9%. The PassMark G3D score, which aggregates general 3D gaming performance, shows a 39.7% advantage for the RX 7900 XTX. Users running legacy titles or DirectX-based games will find the AMD card substantially faster. The PassMark GPU Compute test also favors the AMD card by 57%, indicating stronger raw compute throughput in that specific benchmark.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile wins in Geekbench OpenCL by 92.2%, a margin that suggests the Blackwell 2.0 architecture has significant strengths in OpenCL compute workloads. The Vulkan result also favors the NVIDIA part by 12.7%, meaning in Vulkan-based applications, the mobile card outperforms the desktop AMD flagship. This is notable given the massive difference in power draw and die size.

The PassMark G2D test, which measures 2D graphics performance, goes to the AMD card by 30.9% (1267 vs 876). This indicates the RX 7900 XTX also handles desktop compositing and 2D operations faster.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split. For users prioritizing raw rasterization performance, legacy DirectX compatibility, or high fill-rate workloads, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the stronger choice. Its wins in eight of ten benchmarks, including all four DirectX API tests and the 3DMark Steel Nomad test, show broad superiority in conventional graphics rendering. The 55.9% lead in Steel Nomad and the 39.7% lead in PassMark G3D quantify this advantage. The RX 7900 XTX also offers 24 GB of memory versus 8 GB, which matters for memory-heavy workloads.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile wins the two most compute-oriented synthetic tests in this comparison. The 92.2% OpenCL margin is not a small edge; it is a near-doubling of the AMD card's score. The 12.7% Vulkan win also indicates that in Vulkan compute scenarios, the mobile NVIDIA part outperforms the desktop AMD card. Users running OpenCL-based compute tasks or Vulkan applications may find the RTX 5060 Mobile unexpectedly competitive despite its far lower power draw of 45 W versus 355 W.

The average benchmark scores, with the RTX 5060 Mobile at 22435 and the RX 7900 XTX at 19410, reflect these mixed results. The NVIDIA card's average is higher because its two wins include one extremely large margin. But this average does not tell the whole story: the RX 7900 XTX wins more tests overall, and its wins are consistent across the PassMark suite. The RX 7900 XTX is end-of-life, while the RTX 5060 Mobile is active, but production status alone does not change the recorded performance data.

The choice depends on the workload. For gaming, especially DirectX titles, the RX 7900 XTX is the data-backed pick. For OpenCL compute or Vulkan-based workloads, the RTX 5060 Mobile wins. The power envelope difference (45 W vs 355 W) also makes the NVIDIA part viable in portable systems, while the AMD card requires a dual-slot desktop setup with two 8-pin connectors and a 750 W suggested PSU.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX wins 8 out of 10 recorded head-to-head tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile wins 2.

Q: What is the largest single benchmark margin between the two?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile leads by 92.2% in Geekbench OpenCL (96969 vs 50465), which is the largest delta in either direction.

Q: How do they compare in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX scores 6841 against the RTX 5060 Mobile's 3013.5, a 55.9% advantage for AMD.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 960.0 GB/s bandwidth from its 384-bit GDDR6 memory, versus 384.0 GB/s from the RTX 5060 Mobile's 128-bit GDDR7 memory.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 22435, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an average of 19410.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 6144 shading units, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile has 3328.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | GB206 | Navi 31 |

| Architecture | Blackwell 2.0 | RDNA 3.0 |

| Codename | None | Plum Bonito |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 21,900 million | 57,700 million |

| Die Size | 181 mm² | 529 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 121.0M / mm² | 109.1M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 952 MHz | 1929 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1455 MHz | 2498 MHz |

| Game Clock | None | 2365 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective) | 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 24 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR7 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 384.0 GB/s | 960.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3328 | 6144 |

| TMUs | 104 | 384 |

| ROPs | 48 | 192 |

| RT Cores | 26 | 96 |

| Tensor Cores | 104 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 69.84 GPixel/s | 479.6 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 151.3 GTexel/s | 959.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 9.684 TFLOPS | 61.39 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 9.684 TFLOPS (1:1) | 122.8 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 45 W | 355 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | None | 750 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 5.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C |

| Dimensions | Not specified | 287 mm length, 110 mm height, 51 mm width |

| Production Status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release Date | 2025-05-19 | 2022-11-02 |

| Predecessor | GeForce 40 Mobile | Navi II |

| Successor | None | Navi IV |

| Launch MSRP | None | 999 USD |