NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile vs NVIDIA P106-100 Comparison

NVIDIA P106-100 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile

The data presents a decisive generational gap between the NVIDIA P106-100, a Pascal-era mining card from 2017, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile, a Blackwell 2.0 laptop part from 2025. Across every shared benchmark, the RTX 5060 Mobile delivers a commanding victory, with the P106-100 failing to win a single test. The average benchmark scores reflect the overall performance tier: the P106-100 averages 23,249 points against the RTX 5060 Mobile's 22,435, a difference of only 3.6% in favor of the older card despite the newer part's massive lead in individual compute tests. This paradox stems from the benchmark suite composition, which weights different workloads unevenly.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most dramatic separation occurs in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, a modern DirectX 12 benchmark. The RTX 5060 Mobile scores 3,013.5 points, while the P106-100 manages only 899 points. This represents a 70.2% deficit for the P106-100, meaning the RTX 5060 Mobile is roughly 3.3 times faster in this workload. The gap is stark: the newer GPU's Blackwell architecture with dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores allows it to handle the geometry and shading complexity of contemporary DX12 titles, while the Pascal card's older design struggles to keep pace. The RTX 5060 Mobile's 3,328 shading units versus the P106-100's 1,280 provide a raw compute advantage, but the architectural efficiency is the larger factor.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5060 Mobile scores 96,969 against the P106-100's 35,951, a 62.9% delta. This test measures general-purpose compute performance, and the results show the RTX 5060 Mobile delivering 2.7 times the throughput. The FP32 compute figures support this: the RTX 5060 Mobile achieves 9.684 TFLOPS compared to the P106-100's 4.375 TFLOPS, a 2.2x advantage. Interestingly, the FP16 numbers are even more lopsided. The RTX 5060 Mobile delivers 9.684 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while the P106-100 is limited to 68.36 GFLOPS FP16 at a 1:64 ratio. This means the newer card has 141 times the FP16 throughput, a massive advantage for AI inference and workloads that leverage half-precision math.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story. The RTX 5060 Mobile scores 96,451 versus the P106-100's 32,897, a 65.9% delta. This 2.9x performance gap in Vulkan indicates that the RTX 5060 Mobile's newer driver stack and hardware features—such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shaders—translate into substantial real-world gains in cross-platform graphics APIs. Notably, the P106-100's nearest rivals in the average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23,250, 0% delta), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,273, -0.1%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23,276, -0.1%). The RTX 5060 Mobile's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (22,549, -0.5%), AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22,170, 1.2%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22,729, -1.3%). These rival placements show that while the RTX 5060 Mobile has a lower average score, it sits in a competitive tier with desktop-class cards from the previous generation.

Where Each One Wins

The P106-100's only nominal advantage appears in the average benchmark score metric, where it edges out the RTX 5060 Mobile by 814 points (23,249 vs 22,435). However, this is a statistical artifact of the benchmark distribution. The P106-100 has only three benchmark entries—all in the 899 to 35,951 range—while the RTX 5060 Mobile has ten entries, including several low-scoring Passmark tests (DirectX 9 at 203, DirectX 11 at 168, DirectX 10 at 119, DirectX 12 at 87) that drag down its average. The RTX 5060 Mobile's Passmark G3D score of 18,852 and GPU compute score of 7,607 are substantial, but the legacy DirectX tests penalize it heavily. The P106-100's average is buoyed by its Geekbench scores, which are respectable for a 2017 card but far below the RTX 5060 Mobile's equivalents.

For actual workload wins, the RTX 5060 Mobile dominates every measurable category. In memory bandwidth, it offers 384.0 GB/s versus the P106-100's 192.2 GB/s, a 2x advantage that benefits texture-heavy scenes and large data transfers. The texture rate tells a similar story: 151.3 GTexel/s for the RTX 5060 Mobile against 136.7 GTexel/s for the P106-100. However, the P106-100 does win on pixel rate, achieving 82.03 GPixel/s compared to the RTX 5060 Mobile's 69.84 GPixel/s. This is because the P106-100's higher boost clock (1709 MHz vs 1455 MHz) and identical 48 ROPs allow it to fill pixels faster, though this advantage is unlikely to translate into real-world wins given the RTX 5060 Mobile's superior shader and geometry throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA P106-100 has a higher average benchmark score of 23,249 points compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile's 22,435 points, a difference of 814 points. However, this is skewed by the RTX 5060 Mobile's inclusion of low-scoring Passmark DirectX tests.

Q: How large is the performance gap in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The RTX 5060 Mobile scores 3,013.5 points against the P106-100's 899 points, giving the newer card a 70.2% lead. This means the RTX 5060 Mobile is approximately 3.3 times faster in this modern DX12 benchmark.

Q: Does the P106-100 support any modern features like ray tracing?

A: No. The P106-100 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, while the RTX 5060 Mobile has 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores. Additionally, the P106-100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), whereas the RTX 5060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The P106-100 has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 192-bit bus with 192.2 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 5060 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, providing double the bandwidth despite the narrower bus.

Q: How do the power requirements compare?

A: The P106-100 has a TDP of 120 W and requires a 1x 6-pin power connector with a suggested 300 W PSU. The RTX 5060 Mobile has a TDP of 45 W, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU, reflecting its mobile IGP form factor.

Q: Which GPU has better FP16 compute performance?

A: The RTX 5060 Mobile delivers 9.684 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while the P106-100 manages only 68.36 GFLOPS FP16 at a 1:64 ratio. This makes the RTX 5060 Mobile approximately 141 times faster in half-precision workloads.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification. The P106-100 uses a GP106 chip on a 16 nm TSMC process with 4,400 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 22.0M per mm². The RTX 5060 Mobile uses a GB206 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process with 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die, achieving a density of 121.0M per mm². This represents a 5.5x increase in transistor density, explaining the RTX 5060 Mobile's superior performance despite a smaller physical die.

The shading units differ significantly: the P106-100 has 1,280, while the RTX 5060 Mobile has 3,328, a 2.6x increase. Texture mapping units also differ: 80 on the P106-100 versus 104 on the RTX 5060 Mobile. Both have 48 ROPs. Clock speeds are counterintuitive: the P106-100 has a higher base clock (1506 MHz vs 952 MHz) and boost clock (1709 MHz vs 1455 MHz), but the RTX 5060 Mobile's architectural efficiency and higher shader count more than compensate. Memory speeds reflect technological progress: the P106-100 runs at 2002 MHz with 8 Gbps effective GDDR5, while the RTX 5060 Mobile runs at 1500 MHz with 24 Gbps effective GDDR7.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is fundamental. The P106-100 is built on the Pascal architecture, designed for mining workloads with no display outputs. It has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, and its FP16 throughput is severely limited at a 1:64 ratio. The RTX 5060 Mobile uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, featuring 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing, DLSS, and AI-assisted features. Its FP16 performance is fully enabled at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, making it suitable for compute-heavy workloads beyond gaming.

The memory subsystem differs in type and generational capability. The P106-100 uses GDDR5 memory with a 192-bit bus, while the RTX 5060 Mobile uses GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 5060 Mobile achieves 384.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 192.2 GB/s, a 2x improvement thanks to the higher data rate. The bus interface also leaps forward: the P106-100 uses PCIe 1.0 x16, while the RTX 5060 Mobile uses PCIe 5.0 x16, providing significantly more host-to-device bandwidth. The P106-100 is a dual-slot card with a 250 mm length and a 1x 6-pin power connector, while the RTX 5060 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics package) with no slot width, no power connectors, and portable-device-dependent display outputs. The P106-100 has no display outputs at all, reflecting its mining-only purpose, whereas the RTX 5060 Mobile's outputs depend on the host laptop design.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile is the superior GPU for any modern workload. It wins all three head-to-head benchmarks by margins of 62.9% to 70.2%, and its architectural features—ray tracing cores, tensor cores, full-rate FP16, GDDR7 memory—place it in a completely different performance class. The RTX 5060 Mobile's 3,328 shading units and 9.684 TFLOPS FP32 compute represent a 2.2x raw compute advantage over the P106-100, while its 141x FP16 advantage opens up AI and compute workloads that the Pascal card cannot handle. The P106-100's only wins are the pixel rate (82.03 GPixel/s vs 69.84 GPixel/s) and the average benchmark score (23,249 vs 22,435), the latter being a statistical artifact of benchmark distribution rather than a meaningful performance indicator.

For buyers, the choice depends on use case. Users needing a GPU for legacy applications, particularly those relying on DirectX 12_1 or older APIs, might find the P106-100's higher pixel fill rate useful, though its lack of display outputs makes it impractical for any visual output. The RTX 5060 Mobile is the clear pick for gaming, content creation, and compute tasks. Its percentile ranking of 67 versus the P106-100's 68 is nearly identical, but the RTX 5060 Mobile's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile, indicating it competes with modern mid-range desktop GPUs. The P106-100's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 and RX 6600M, placing it in an older performance tier. The RTX 5060 Mobile's 45 W TDP versus the P106-100's 120 W TDP also makes it significantly more power-efficient, delivering over 2x the performance at under half the power draw. The verdict is clear: the RTX 5060 Mobile is the only sensible choice for contemporary workloads.