AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SE Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SE and AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile occupy opposite ends of the hardware spectrum, yet their benchmark scores land them in the same performance tier. The data shows a 10.7% victory for the GTX 560 SE in the single Geekbench OpenCL test, with scores of 7171 versus 6476. This is a narrow margin that places both GPUs in the bottom half of all GPUs — the GTX 560 SE sits at the 39th percentile while the Vega 10 Mobile sits at the 37th percentile. The GTX 560 SE edges out the Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580 by 0% and trails the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile by 0.4%, while the Vega 10 Mobile lands within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 72 GB Blackwell. The verdict is clear: this is not a matchup between a clear winner and loser, but rather between two aging parts that deliver comparable raw compute performance through radically different designs.

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward split decision. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SE is the pick for anyone who needs a discrete, desktop-oriented GPU with dedicated memory and a proven 10.7% performance edge in the measured OpenCL workload. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark available, and its 39th percentile ranking versus all GPUs puts it slightly ahead of the Vega 10 Mobile's 37th percentile. The GTX 560 SE also offers a higher pixel rate of 8.832 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 35.33 GTexel/s, though these are not directly compared in the benchmark data.

The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile, despite losing the benchmark, is the rational choice for ultra-mobile systems. Its 10 W TDP and IGP form factor make it the only viable option for portable devices where a 150 W dual-slot card with 2x 6-pin power connectors is physically impossible. The data shows the Vega 10 Mobile delivers 96.6% of the GTX 560 SE's OpenCL score (6476 versus 7171) while consuming 93.3% less power (10 W versus 150 W) — an efficiency gap that dwarfs the performance deficit. For integrated graphics in a laptop, the Vega 10 Mobile is the clear winner on merit of its form factor alone.

Architecture Differences

These two GPUs are separated by seven years of architectural evolution, and the data reflects that chasm. The GTX 560 SE is built on NVIDIA's Fermi 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC. Its GF114 chip packs 1,950 million transistors into a 332 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 5.9M per mm². The Vega 10 Mobile, by contrast, uses AMD's GCN 5.0 architecture on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. Its Raven-M chip contains 4,940 million transistors in a 210 mm² die, achieving a density of 23.5M per mm² — roughly four times the density of the Fermi part.

The memory subsystems could not be more different. The GTX 560 SE has 1024 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 91.87 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega 10 Mobile uses System Shared memory, with its bandwidth listed as System Dependent. This means the Vega 10 Mobile's performance scales with the host system's RAM, while the GTX 560 SE has a fixed, predictable memory pipeline. The GTX 560 SE's memory clock runs at 957 MHz, translating to 3.8 Gbps effective.

Compute resources also diverge sharply. The Vega 10 Mobile fields 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and just 8 ROPs. The GTX 560 SE counters with 288 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs. Despite having fewer shading units, the GTX 560 SE achieves higher pixel throughput per ROP, while the Vega 10 Mobile compensates with a higher boost clock of 1301 MHz versus the GTX 560 SE's unspecified base and boost clocks. The Vega 10 Mobile's FP32 throughput of 1.665 TFLOPS is nearly double the GTX 560 SE's 847.9 GFLOPS, and it also supports FP16 at 3.331 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio — a feature the Fermi part lacks entirely.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, provides the only direct comparison in the data. The GTX 560 SE scores 7171 against the Vega 10 Mobile's 6476, a delta of 10.7% in favor of NVIDIA. This result is consistent with the percentile rankings, where the GTX 560 SE's 39th percentile edges out the Vega 10 Mobile's 37th. The margin is meaningful but not transformative — both GPUs cluster near the same performance band.

Within the rival sets, the GTX 560 SE's score of 7171 sits 0.2% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970's 7157 and 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750's 7222. It also matches the Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580 at 7170 (0% delta). The Vega 10 Mobile's 6476 is 0.1% below the NVIDIA Quadro M5000M's 6481, 0.3% below the GeForce GT 555M's 6493, and 0.6% below the GeForce GTX 670M's 6513. Notably, the Vega 10 Mobile beats the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 72 GB Blackwell by 1.1% (6476 versus 6407), a surprising result given the stark generational gap.

The wins tally is 1-0 in favor of the GTX 560 SE, but the practical difference is modest. The 10.7% delta translates to roughly one frame per second in a 60 FPS workload — noticeable in a side-by-side test but not a game-changing advantage for most applications.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 SE scores 7171, which is 10.7% higher than the AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile's 6476.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 560 SE is 0.2% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 and 0.7% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750. The Vega 10 Mobile is 0.6% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M and 1.1% faster than the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 72 GB Blackwell.

Q: What is the thermal design power difference?

A: The Vega 10 Mobile has a 10 W TDP, while the GTX 560 SE has a 150 W TDP, making the AMD part 15 times more power-efficient on paper.

Q: Can the Vega 10 Mobile be used in a desktop PC?

A: The Vega 10 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no slot width, no power connectors, and a portable-device-dependent display output. The data indicates it is designed exclusively for mobile systems.

Q: Does the GTX 560 SE support modern APIs like Vulkan?

A: The data shows the GTX 560 SE supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but lists no Vulkan support. The Vega 10 Mobile supports Vulkan 1.3, DirectX 12 (12_1), and OpenGL 4.6.

Q: Which GPU has higher compute throughput?

A: The Vega 10 Mobile delivers 1.665 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, nearly double the GTX 560 SE's 847.9 GFLOPS, despite losing the OpenCL benchmark.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 560 SE wins in raw benchmark performance, as demonstrated by its 7171 OpenCL score and 10.7% delta over the Vega 10 Mobile. It also wins in memory bandwidth with 91.87 GB/s of dedicated GDDR5 versus the Vega 10 Mobile's system-dependent shared memory. The GTX 560 SE's 24 ROPs give it a pixel rate of 8.832 GPixel/s, and its 48 TMUs deliver 35.33 GTexel/s. For desktop users with a 450 W power supply and dual-slot clearance, the GTX 560 SE is the better performer in the measured workload. Its 192-bit memory bus and 1024 MB dedicated frame buffer also make it more predictable for gaming at its target resolution.

The Vega 10 Mobile wins decisively on efficiency and form factor. Its 10 W TDP is 140 W lower than the GTX 560 SE's 150 W, and its IGP design requires no power connectors or expansion slot. The 14 nm process and GCN 5.0 architecture deliver 1.665 TFLOPS of FP32 compute — 96.4% more than the GTX 560 SE — even though the OpenCL score is lower. The Vega 10 Mobile also supports FP16 at 3.331 TFLOPS, a capability absent from the Fermi part. For laptops and ultraportables where power draw and physical size are paramount, the Vega 10 Mobile is the only realistic choice. Its 640 shading units and 40 TMUs provide texture rate of 52.04 GTexel/s, which is 47.3% higher than the GTX 560 SE's 35.33 GTexel/s, suggesting it may excel in certain compute workloads that favor high shader counts over memory bandwidth.

The data also shows the Vega 10 Mobile has a higher boost clock of 1301 MHz and a base clock of 300 MHz, though the GTX 560 SE's clocks are not listed. The AMD part is the more modern design on paper — 14 nm versus 40 nm, GCN 5.0 versus Fermi 2.0, Vulkan support versus none — but the GTX 560 SE's dedicated memory pipeline and higher ROP count give it the edge in the only benchmark where they meet. The verdict is a tie broken by use case: desktop enthusiasts get the GTX 560 SE, mobile users get the Vega 10 Mobile, and neither is a compelling upgrade for the other's territory.