AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains only one direct head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs, and it is a decisive result. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT scores 48,289 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M scores 12,630 points. That translates to a 282.3% advantage for the AMD part, meaning the RX 6500 XT delivers nearly four times the compute performance in this specific workload. The delta is so large that it separates the two cards into entirely different performance tiers, not merely adjacent steps in a lineup.

Looking at broader database averages reinforces this gap. The RX 6500 XT has an average benchmark score of 11,842, while the GTX 870M sits at 9,959. That is a roughly 19% overall advantage for the newer AMD card across all recorded tests. However, the average score tells only part of the story. The RX 6500 XT lands in the 51st percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the GTX 870M sits in the 48th percentile. These are surprisingly close percentile rankings, given the massive OpenCL delta. The explanation lies in the benchmark sets: the GTX 870M has only two recorded scores (Geekbench Metal and OpenCL), while the RX 6500 XT has ten recorded scores across DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, compute, and 2D tests. The GTX 870M's higher percentile relative to its average score suggests its limited test set skews favorable.

The RX 6500 XT's individual benchmark results show a wide range. In Passmark DirectX 9, it scores 108; in DirectX 10, it drops to 60; in DirectX 11, it rises to 90; and in DirectX 12, it falls to 38. Its Passmark G3D score is 9,608, with a G2D score of 815 and a GPU compute score of 4,456. In 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12), it manages 235 points. The Geekbench Vulkan score is 54,724, which is notably higher than its OpenCL score of 48,289, suggesting strong driver optimization for Vulkan workloads.

The GTX 870M's only other recorded benchmark is Geekbench Metal, where it scores 7,288. This is lower than its OpenCL result, which is typical for older architectures on newer API wrappers. The lack of DirectX or Vulkan scores for the GTX 870M means direct comparisons in those APIs are impossible from the data. However, the OpenCL result alone establishes a clear hierarchy: the AMD card dominates in raw compute throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT has an average benchmark score of 11,842, compared to 9,959 for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M. That is an 18.9% advantage for the RX 6500 XT.

Q: How much faster is the RX 6500 XT in the only shared benchmark?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6500 XT scores 48,289 versus 12,630 for the GTX 870M, a 282.3% difference. This is the only head-to-head test recorded in the database.

Q: What percentile does each GPU occupy relative to all GPUs?

A: The RX 6500 XT is in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 870M is in the 48th percentile. Despite the large OpenCL gap, their percentile rankings are close due to different benchmark sets.

Q: Does the GTX 870M have any benchmark where it wins?

A: No. The recorded data shows zero wins for the GTX 870M and one win for the RX 6500 XT in the head-to-head comparison.

Q: What APIs does each GPU support?

A: The RX 6500 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 870M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Q: How do their memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The RX 6500 XT has a bandwidth of 143.9 GB/s, while the GTX 870M has 120.0 GB/s. The AMD card offers 19.9% more bandwidth despite using a narrower 64-bit bus.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 6500 XT wins every recorded benchmark category. Its strengths are most pronounced in compute-heavy workloads, as shown by the 282.3% OpenCL lead. The card also demonstrates solid DirectX performance across multiple versions: it scores 108 in Passmark DirectX 9, 90 in DirectX 11, and 60 in DirectX 10. DirectX 12 performance is comparatively weaker at 38, but still functional. The Vulkan score of 54,724 suggests the RDNA 2.0 architecture is particularly well-suited to modern low-level APIs. For users running Vulkan-native games or OpenCL compute tasks, the RX 6500 XT is clearly the superior choice.

The GTX 870M, despite being decisively slower in raw compute, still holds relevance in specific scenarios. Its Geekbench Metal score of 7,288 indicates it can handle Apple's Metal API, which is absent from the AMD card's benchmark list. However, this is a niche advantage: the GTX 870M is a portable MXM module, meaning it was designed for laptops and mobile workstations. In that context, its 100 W TDP and lack of power connectors make it a low-power option for older mobile systems. The RX 6500 XT, with its 107 W TDP and 6-pin connector, is a desktop card that requires a 300 W power supply. So the practical use case for the GTX 870M is limited to upgrading legacy mobile workstations where the RX 6500 XT physically cannot fit.

For gaming, the RX 6500 XT's higher texture rate (180.2 GTexel/s versus 108.3 GTexel/s) and pixel rate (90.08 GPixel/s versus 27.08 GPixel/s) give it a substantial fill-rate advantage. The AMD card also has 16 ray accelerators, which the GTX 870M lacks entirely, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing where supported.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification. The RX 6500 XT uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, while the GTX 870M uses 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 192-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, the AMD card achieves higher bandwidth: 143.9 GB/s versus 120.0 GB/s. Clock speeds show a similar pattern: the RX 6500 XT has a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2815 MHz, while the GTX 870M runs at 941 MHz base and 967 MHz boost. The memory clocks also diverge: 2248 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.

Shader resources differ in interesting ways. The GTX 870M has more shading units (1,344 versus 1,024) and more texture mapping units (112 versus 64), but fewer ROPs (24 versus 32). The AMD card compensates with higher clock speeds, resulting in better real-world throughput. The RX 6500 XT also has 16 ray tracing cores, which the GTX 870M does not have. Power consumption is similar: 107 W for AMD versus 100 W for NVIDIA. However, the RX 6500 XT requires a 1x 6-pin power connector and a 300 W power supply, while the GTX 870M uses an MXM-B (3.0) interface with no power connectors.

The bus interfaces tell the story of their intended platforms. The RX 6500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x4, a modern desktop interface. The GTX 870M uses MXM-B (3.0), a mobile module format. Display outputs also differ: the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the NVIDIA card's outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary by laptop implementation.

Architecture Differences

The RX 6500 XT is built on AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It uses the Navi 24 chip, which contains 5,400 million transistors on a 107 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 50.5 million per mm². This is a modern, dense design from the Radeon RX 6000 series, specifically the Navi II generation. The architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and includes dedicated ray tracing hardware.

The GTX 870M is based on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture, using the GK104 chip on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. It packs 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, resulting in a density of just 12.0 million transistors per mm². This reflects an older manufacturing node and a less efficient design. The Kepler architecture supports DirectX 12 (11_0), which is a feature-limited implementation, and Vulkan 1.2.175. It has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, and its FP16 support is not listed.

The transistor density difference is stark: 50.5M/mm² versus 12.0M/mm², a 4.2x advantage for the AMD chip. This explains how the RX 6500 XT achieves higher performance despite having fewer shading units. The process node difference (6 nm versus 28 nm) also contributes to the AMD card's higher clock speeds and better efficiency. The RX 6500 XT's FP32 throughput is 5.765 TFLOPS, while the GTX 870M manages 2.599 TFLOPS, a 2.2x gap. The AMD card also has FP16 support at 11.53 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the NVIDIA chip has no recorded FP16 capability.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for almost any use case. The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M in the only direct benchmark they share by 282.3%, and it holds a 18.9% advantage in average benchmark score. It wins on bandwidth, texture rate, pixel rate, FP32 compute, and API support. It has ray tracing hardware, a smaller and more efficient chip, and a modern architecture. The GTX 870M only offers a Metal benchmark score, which is irrelevant for most Windows-based users.

However, the verdict depends on platform compatibility. The GTX 870M is an MXM module for laptops, while the RX 6500 XT is a desktop card requiring a PCIe slot and a 6-pin power connector. If the target system is a legacy mobile workstation with an MXM-B slot, the GTX 870M is the only option that fits. In that context, its 100 W TDP and no-connector design are advantages.

For anyone building or upgrading a desktop system, the RX 6500 XT is the superior choice. It offers modern features, better performance, and support for the latest APIs. The GTX 870M is a decade-old mobile part that, while functional for basic tasks, cannot compete in compute, gaming, or content creation workloads. The percentile rankings (51st versus 48th) understate the performance gap because the GTX 870M's limited benchmark set inflates its relative standing. The RX 6500 XT's launch MSRP was 199 USD, but the data cannot speak to current pricing. The conclusion is straightforward: choose the RX 6500 XT for desktops, and only consider the GTX 870M for specialized mobile upgrades where no other modern option exists.