NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop) vs AMD Radeon Pro 560 vs AMD Radeon Pro 555X

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 SLI is a high-end DirectX 12-compatible graphics solution for laptops, consisting of two GeForce GTX 980 cards. Each card has a 28 nm GM204 GPU based on the Maxwell architecture with similar specifications as the desktop GeForce GTX 980. The clocks for the SLI-setup are usually identical to a single GTX 980.

With SLI, each card renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro-stuttering in low fps ranges of 30 fps. This happens because of different time-spans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).

The performance is on a level with the two desktop GTX 980 cards in SLI. Due to the different cooling solutions, the long-term performance may be slightly lower compared to a well cooled desktop, but Nvidia assures there will only be small degrades in performance. As with all SLI combinations, the performance depends on the driver support for the used benchmark and game. In our tests with an MSI GT80S, the 980 SLI was the fastest graphics solution for laptops. The 980M SLI was 17% slower, a single 980 26% slower. Therefore, the 980 SLI for laptops offers enough performance for all demanding games from 2015 in high details and 4K resolution.

The core features are also the same as the desktop 980, so expect support for DirectX 12 (FL 12_1). There will be no support for the new H.265 video engine as found on the desktop GTX 950.

The power consumption of a single card is a lot higher than other mobile graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 980M (100 Watt TDP). According to Nvidia, the TDP of the reference design is still 165 Watt like in the desktop version. So, the TDP of the SLI combination may be as high as 330 Watt. Therefore, only big laptops with efficient cooling methods can house the GeForce GTX980 for laptops.

AMD Radeon Pro 560

The AMD Radeon Pro 560 is a mobile graphics card based on the small Polaris 21 chip (not verified) from AMD. It is an option for the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Mid 2017) and is probably very similar to the Radeon Pro 460 (except for the slightly improved process for the new Polaris 21 chip). It is similar to the desktop Radeon RX 460, but not with all 1024 shader units.

Compared to the slower Radeon Pro 555 (entry-level model), the Radeon pro 460 is equipped with 4 GB GDDR5 memory. The average gaming performance in Windows of the Radeon Pro 460 is just above the GeForce GTX 960M and below an average GTX 965M ein. Compared to the slightly raised clocks of the desktop 500-series models, the Radeon Pro 560 should only be slightly faster.

The mobile Radeon Pro 560 should support all features of the desktop RX 460/560 like DisplayPort 1.2 (Polaris actually supports up to 1.4), HDMI 2.0 (via USB-C adapter), new H.265 video de- and encoder as well as architectural improvements. More information about the Polaris architecture is available in our dedicated review.

The Polaris 21 chip is manufactured in a slightly improved 14nm FinFET process according to AMD. The power consumption of the Radeon Pro 460 is 35 Watts according to AMD, so this should also be the case for the Pro 560.

AMD Radeon Pro 555X

The AMD Radeon Pro 555X is a mobile graphics card based on the small Polaris 21 chip from AMD. It is available in the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro (Mid 2018 model with Coffee Lake) and is the performance is similar to the old Radeon Pro 455 / 555. The difference is the slightly higher clock rate of 907 MHz versus 855 MHz (+6%) and the bigger graphics memory (4 GB versus 2 GB GDDR5). The Polaris 21 chip is produced in a 14nm FinFET process and is the smaller Polaris chip.

Both the performance and the power consumption are roughly on par with the Nvidia GeForce MX150 (laptop version of the GT 1030), which is also equipped with 2 GB GDDR5-VRAM.

More information about the Polaris architecture is available in our dedicated article. More benchmarks including gaming tests are listed on the dedicated page for the similarly powerful Radeon Pro 555 / Radeon Pro 455.