AMD Radeon RX 9060 vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data splits these two cards into very different profiles. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 takes 7 of the 10 head-to-head tests, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 wins 3. The margins, however, tell a more interesting story than the raw win count.

The largest single victory belongs to the AMD card in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The RX 9060 scores 3322 against the Quadro's 1873, a 43.6% advantage. That is a commanding lead in a modern DirectX 12 workload and suggests the AMD architecture handles current-generation rendering pipelines with significantly more headroom. The gap is nearly as large in Passmark GPU Compute, where the RX 9060 posts 9919 versus 6176, a 37.7% delta. Compute-heavy tasks, whether for rendering or general GPU workloads, clearly favor the AMD part.

The Quadro RTX 4000, however, delivers its own decisive blow in Geekbench Vulkan. It scores 78844 against the RX 9060's 39476, a 99.7% advantage, essentially double the performance. This is the standout NVIDIA result and indicates the older Turing architecture retains exceptional Vulkan optimization. The Quadro also wins Passmark DirectX 12 by 18.2% (52 versus 44) and squeaks out a narrow Passmark DirectX 10 win at 108 versus 104, a 3.8% margin.

The remaining AMD victories are consistent but less extreme. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 9060 leads 88183 to 74540, a 15.5% gap. Passmark DirectX 11 shows a 29.7% AMD advantage (182 versus 128), while DirectX 9 favors AMD by 26.8% (280 versus 205). The 2D workload, Passmark G2D, goes to AMD at 1002 versus 846, a 15.6% lead. Finally, the overall Passmark G3D score puts the RX 9060 ahead at 17631 versus 15117, a 14.3% margin.

The average benchmark scores place the Quadro RTX 4000 at 17789 and the RX 9060 at 16014. That is a 1775-point gap in favor of the NVIDIA card, despite losing most individual tests. This discrepancy comes from the Quadro's massive Vulkan score inflating its average. The RX 9060 wins more tests, but the Quadro wins the one test by such a wide margin that its aggregate position is higher. The percentile rankings reflect this: the Quadro sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 9060 sits at the 59th.

Nearest rival data adds context. The Quadro RTX 4000's nearest competitors include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (0.9% ahead), the AMD Radeon 780M (1.1% ahead), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (1.4% ahead). The RX 9060's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (0.7% behind), the AMD Radeon R9 370X (1% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (1% ahead), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (2.1% ahead). Both cards cluster tightly within a few percentage points of their respective peer groups.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from completely different design generations and philosophies. The Quadro RTX 4000 uses the TU104 chip on NVIDIA's Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It packs 13,600 million transistors onto a 545 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.0 million per square millimeter. The RX 9060 uses the Navi 44 chip on AMD's RDNA 4.0 architecture, also fabricated by TSMC but on a 4 nm node. It contains 29,700 million transistors on a much smaller 199 mm² die, achieving 149.2 million transistors per square millimeter. The density difference is enormous: the AMD chip crams more than twice the transistors into roughly a third of the silicon area.

Core configurations diverge significantly. The Quadro RTX 4000 has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. It also includes 36 ray tracing cores and 288 tensor cores. The RX 9060 has fewer shading units at 1792, fewer TMUs at 112, but the same 64 ROPs. It offers 28 ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, since RDNA 4.0 does not implement NVIDIA-style tensor hardware. The FP32 compute figures reflect this: the RX 9060 delivers 21.43 TFLOPS against the Quadro's 7.119 TFLOPS, a threefold raw throughput advantage. FP16 also favors AMD at 21.43 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) versus 14.24 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) for the Quadro.

Clock speeds tell a similar story. The RX 9060 runs at a 1700 MHz base, 2400 MHz game clock, and 2990 MHz boost. The Quadro RTX 4000 runs at 1005 MHz base and 1545 MHz boost. The AMD card's boost clock is nearly double the NVIDIA card's base clock. Memory configurations add another contrast: both cards have 8 GB of GDDR6, but the Quadro uses a 256-bit bus with 416.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 9060 uses a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Quadro has substantially more memory bandwidth, though the AMD card compensates with much higher pixel and texture rates (191.4 GPixel/s and 334.9 GTexel/s versus 98.88 GPixel/s and 222.5 GTexel/s).

Power and physical specifications differ sharply. The Quadro RTX 4000 draws 160 W TDP, requires a 450 W suggested PSU, and fits in a single-slot form factor with one 8-pin connector. The RX 9060 draws only 132 W TDP, needs a 300 W PSU, and uses a dual-slot design with one 8-pin connector. Both use PCIe, but the Quadro runs PCIe 3.0 x16 while the RX 9060 uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs also differ: the Quadro provides 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C, while the RX 9060 offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Quadro launched on November 12, 2018, with an 899 USD launch MSRP, and is end-of-life, succeeded by Workstation Ampere. The RX 9060 launched on August 4, 2025, is active in production, and has no successor listed.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 9060 dominates in compute throughput and modern graphics workloads. Its 43.6% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 37.7% lead in Passmark GPU Compute establish it as the stronger choice for raw number-crunching and current-generation gaming engines. The 15.5% OpenCL advantage reinforces this, as OpenCL is heavily used in productivity and scientific applications. The 14.3% overall Passmark G3D win indicates better general 3D rendering performance across the board.

The Quadro RTX 4000 wins decisively in Vulkan, a cross-platform graphics API used in many game engines and professional visualization tools. Its 99.7% Vulkan lead is the single largest margin in any test and cannot be ignored. The Quadro also wins the two API-specific DirectX tests where it leads, DirectX 10 by 3.8% and DirectX 12 by 18.2%, though the RX 9060 counters with wins in DirectX 9 (26.8%) and DirectX 11 (29.7%). The 2D workload goes to AMD at 15.6%, which matters for desktop compositing and certain professional 2D rendering tasks.

For users prioritizing Vulkan-based applications or older DirectX 10/12 pipelines, the Quadro RTX 4000 offers a clear edge. For those running OpenCL compute, DirectX 11, DirectX 9, or modern DirectX 12 titles, the RX 9060 is the better performer. The RX 9060 also wins on efficiency metrics from the data: lower TDP (132 W versus 160 W), lower suggested PSU (300 W versus 450 W), and a newer process node (4 nm versus 12 nm).

The Verdict

The data points to the AMD Radeon RX 9060 as the stronger overall performer in most modern workloads. It wins 7 of 10 head-to-head tests, including all the compute-heavy and current-generation DirectX tests. Its 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, 2990 MHz boost clock, and 4 nm process give it a structural advantage that shows up clearly in benchmark scores. Users who run OpenCL applications, DirectX 11 titles, or 3DMark Steel Nomad will see substantially better performance from the RX 9060.

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 remains relevant for a specific niche. Its 99.7% Vulkan advantage is remarkable and suggests that Turing's Vulkan drivers and hardware are exceptionally well-tuned. The card also wins DirectX 12 and DirectX 10 tests, and its higher memory bandwidth (416.0 GB/s versus 288.0 GB/s) could benefit bandwidth-sensitive workloads not captured in these benchmarks. Its single-slot form factor and 160 W TDP make it a viable option for space-constrained systems, though the RX 9060's lower TDP of 132 W is more power-efficient.

The average benchmark score of 17789 for the Quadro versus 16014 for the RX 9060 shows that the NVIDIA card holds a higher aggregate position, driven by its Vulkan outlier. However, the RX 9060's percentile ranking at 59th versus the Quadro's 61st is close, and the head-to-head results favor AMD in most real-world scenarios. The RX 9060 is the better buy for general users, while the Quadro RTX 4000 appeals specifically to Vulkan-centric workflows.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 has an average benchmark score of 17789, while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 scores 16014.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap in the head-to-head tests?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 leads by 99.7% in Geekbench Vulkan (78844 versus 39476), while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 leads by 43.6% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (3322 versus 1873).

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 has 2304 shading units, compared to 1792 on the AMD Radeon RX 9060.

Q: How do the two cards compare in memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 offers 416.0 GB/s over a 256-bit bus, while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 offers 288.0 GB/s over a 128-bit bus. Both have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 boosts to 2990 MHz, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 boosts to 1545 MHz. The RX 9060 also has a base clock of 1700 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz.

Q: What is the power consumption difference between the two GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has a TDP of 132 W with a 300 W suggested PSU, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 has a TDP of 160 W with a 450 W suggested PSU.