AMD Radeon Pro 560X

The AMD Radeon Pro 560X is a mobile-class integrated graphics processor built for Apple’s Mac lineup, and its benchmark data places it in the 62nd percentile among all GPUs. With an average benchmark score of 19,426, it sits within a tight cluster of older NVIDIA workstation and enthusiast cards, though its performance profile is distinctly shaped by its 75 W TDP and integrated form factor. The data shows a GPU that delivers consistent Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan results, but it is not designed for extreme workloads—rather, it targets a specific niche of portable macOS systems.

Power and Cooling

The Radeon Pro 560X carries a TDP of 75 W, which is a modest figure for a discrete-class GPU, though it is implemented as an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a slot width of IGP. This means it is permanently attached to the motherboard or system board, and it draws power through the host system rather than through standalone connectors. The power connectors field is listed as “None,” indicating that no external PCIe power cables are required; the card relies entirely on the motherboard’s supply. For a desktop user, this would typically imply a low-capacity power supply is sufficient, but the fact pack does not list a suggested PSU wattage, so no specific recommendation can be made beyond noting that the absence of external connectors reduces power delivery complexity. The 75 W envelope is identical to what many entry-level desktop cards use, but because this is an IGP, cooling is handled by the laptop’s thermal solution, not an aftermarket cooler. The 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries, with a die size of 123 mm² and 3,000 million transistors, contributes to a relatively compact chip that fits within the thermal constraints of a portable chassis. Benchmark results indicate that the 560X can sustain its rated performance without external power, but users should expect thermal throttling in sustained loads given the IGP design, though no specific throttle data is provided in the fact pack.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon Pro 560X does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores; those fields are null in the specification data. Instead, it relies on the GCN 4.0 architecture with 1,024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operations pipelines. For API support, the GPU exposes DirectX 12 (feature level 12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The DirectX 12_0 feature level means it supports the baseline DirectX 12 features but lacks the higher-tier features like mesh shaders or variable rate shading that are found in newer architectures. Vulkan 1.3 support is notable, as it enables cross-platform compute and graphics workloads, but without hardware ray tracing, any ray-traced effects must be handled via compute shaders, which is inefficient. The lack of tensor cores also means no dedicated AI acceleration for features like DLSS; any machine learning workloads would run on the general-purpose shading units. The FP32 and FP16 performance are identical at 2.056 TFLOPS, with a 1:1 ratio, which is unusual for modern GPUs that typically halve FP16 throughput. This suggests the architecture does not prioritize mixed-precision compute, making it less suited for AI inference tasks. For gaming, the DirectX 12_0 and Vulkan 1.3 support covers most modern titles, but the absence of ray tracing hardware means the 560X is effectively a rasterization-only part.

Who Should Consider It

Given its benchmark scores and integrated nature, the Radeon Pro 560X is best suited for users who need moderate GPU acceleration in a thin-and-light Mac laptop. The Geekbench Metal score of 23,778 is the highest among the three tests, indicating that macOS-native Metal applications—such as video editing in Final Cut Pro or 3D rendering in Blender—will see the best relative performance. The OpenCL score of 17,547 and Vulkan score of 16,953 are lower, suggesting that cross-platform APIs like OpenCL and Vulkan do not extract as much performance, possibly due to driver overhead or the architecture’s design. For gaming, the 560X can handle 1080p titles at medium to high settings in older or less demanding games, but the fact pack does not provide specific frame rate data. Instead, the percentile ranking of 62% indicates that it outperforms a majority of GPUs in the database, but it is far from top-tier. Users targeting 4K gaming or high-refresh-rate esports should look elsewhere, as the 16.06 GPixel/s pixel rate and 64.26 GTexel/s texture rate suggest limited fill-rate headroom. The 4 GB GDDR5 memory with a 128-bit bus and 94.08 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p textures but will struggle with high-resolution texture packs or large datasets. This is a GPU for content creators who prioritize macOS compatibility and low power draw over raw performance.

FAQ

Q: Does the Radeon Pro 560X support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The fact pack lists no ray tracing cores, and the architecture is GCN 4.0, which predates ray tracing hardware. Any ray-traced effects must be computed via shaders.

Q: What is the maximum memory bandwidth of the 560X?

A: The memory bandwidth is 94.08 GB/s, derived from 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus running at 1470 MHz (5.9 Gbps effective).

Q: Can the 560X run Vulkan applications?

A: Yes, it supports Vulkan 1.3, and its Geekbench Vulkan score is 16,953, which is lower than its Metal score of 23,778.

Q: What is the power consumption of this GPU?

A: The TDP is 75 W, and it uses no external power connectors, relying entirely on the host system’s power delivery.

Q: How does the 560X compare to the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in average score?

A: The 560X’s average score of 19,426 is 0.1% higher than the GTX 1080 Ti’s 19,402, making them statistically equivalent despite the massive difference in their desktop positioning.

Q: What is the transistor density of the Polaris 21 chip?

A: The chip has 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.4 million transistors per square millimeter.

How It Compares

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780: The 560X edges out the GTX 780 by 0.1% in average score (19,426 vs. 19,405). This is a remarkable result given that the GTX 780 is a desktop card from 2013 with a much larger power envelope, but the 560X’s newer architecture and higher memory efficiency offset the raw compute advantage. The delta is within noise, so the two are effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti: The 560X also sits 0.1% ahead of the GTX 1080 Ti (19,426 vs. 19,402). This is counterintuitive because the GTX 1080 Ti is a flagship desktop GPU from 2017, but the benchmark data shows that the average scores are nearly identical. This likely reflects the fact that the GTX 1080 Ti’s score is averaged across many test configurations, some of which may be bottlenecked by other system components, while the 560X is tested in a controlled Mac environment.

NVIDIA Tesla K40m: The Tesla K40m posts an average score of 19,519, which is 0.5% higher than the 560X’s 19,426. The Tesla K40m is a compute-focused accelerator with much higher memory capacity, but its older Kepler architecture limits its API support. The 560X is more versatile for general graphics workloads, even though it loses slightly in raw score.

NVIDIA Quadro K5200: The Quadro K5200’s average score of 19,623 is 1% higher than the 560X’s. This is the largest delta among the nearest rivals, but it is still a narrow margin. The Quadro K5200 is a professional workstation card with more memory, but the 560X’s modern GCN 4.0 features and lower power draw make it a more practical choice for portable systems.

Memory Subsystem

The Radeon Pro 560X is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is a standard capacity for its generation and class. The memory bus is 128 bits wide, and the memory clock is listed at 1470 MHz with an effective data rate of 5.9 Gbps. Multiplying the bus width by the effective clock yields a bandwidth of 94.08 GB/s, which is a moderate figure for a 75 W GPU. For context, the pixel rate of 16.06 GPixel/s and texture rate of 64.26 GTexel/s suggest that the memory bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p rendering but will become a bottleneck at higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K. The 4 GB capacity is also a limiting factor for modern games that require more than 4 GB for high-resolution textures; users will need to reduce texture quality or resolution in such titles. The GDDR5 type is older than GDDR6 or HBM, but it is adequate for the GPU’s compute throughput of 2.056 TFLOPS. The 128-bit bus is narrower than many desktop cards of the same era, which is a trade-off for the low power consumption and integrated design. Overall, the memory subsystem is balanced for the GPU’s intended use case—accelerating macOS applications at 1080p—but it is not future-proof for heavy 1440p or 4K workloads.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark results for the Radeon Pro 560X show a clear hierarchy across the three test types. The Geekbench Metal score of 23,778 is its strongest showing, reflecting the GPU’s optimization for Apple’s Metal API. This is 35.5% higher than the OpenCL score of 17,547 and 40.2% higher than the Vulkan score of 16,953. These deltas indicate that the 560X is heavily tuned for Metal, which is expected given its target market of Mac laptops. The OpenCL score, while lower, is still respectable and places the GPU in the same ballpark as its nearest rivals. The Vulkan score is the weakest, suggesting that Vulkan drivers are not as mature or that the architecture’s GCN 4.0 design does not map efficiently to Vulkan’s low-level interface. The average benchmark score of 19,426 combines these three tests, and when compared to the nearest rivals, the 560X is effectively tied with the GTX 780 (0.1% higher) and GTX 1080 Ti (0.1% higher), while trailing the Tesla K40m by 0.5% and the Quadro K5200 by 1%. These deltas are all within a narrow 1.5% band, meaning that the 560X’s performance is statistically indistinguishable from these older high-end cards in synthetic workloads. However, the 560X achieves this performance at a fraction of the power draw (75 W vs. the 250 W+ typically required by those desktop cards), which underscores its efficiency. The percentileVsAllGpus of 62% means that it outperforms 62% of all GPUs in the database, which is a solid mid-range position. For users, this translates to reliable 1080p gaming and smooth 4K video playback, but not high-refresh-rate or high-detail 4K gaming. The data confirms that the 560X is a competent, energy-efficient GPU for macOS users who prioritize portability over raw performance.