AMD Radeon 8050S vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive advantage for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile in the two shared benchmark tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831 against 65,818 for the AMD Radeon 8050S, a delta of -63.6% in favor of the NVIDIA part. That is a lead of roughly 2.75 times the AMD score, placing the RTX 4090 Mobile in a different performance tier entirely.

The Vulkan test tells a similar story. The NVIDIA GPU posts 170,774 points, while the AMD Radeon 8050S manages 58,398. The delta here is -65.8%, meaning the RTX 4090 Mobile outperforms the Radeon 8050S by a factor of approximately 2.92. In both compute-oriented API workloads, the NVIDIA part dominates by a wide margin, and there is no benchmark in the database where the AMD Radeon 8050S records a win. The head-to-head tally is 0 wins for the AMD part and 2 wins for the NVIDIA part.

Looking at average benchmark scores across all recorded tests, the RTX 4090 Mobile averages 43,667 points, while the Radeon 8050S averages 62,108. This inversion is notable: the AMD part has a higher average score despite losing both head-to-head tests. The explanation lies in the benchmark sets available for each GPU. The RTX 4090 Mobile has nine recorded tests, including several Passmark legacy DX9, DX10, and DX11 results that score in the low hundreds, dragging its average down. The Radeon 8050S has only two recorded tests, both of which are in the 58,000 to 66,000 range. The average score therefore favors the AMD part, but the direct comparison in identical workloads favors NVIDIA overwhelmingly.

The percentile rankings reflect this split. The AMD Radeon 8050S sits at the 89th percentile against all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile sits at the 84th percentile. Again, this is a function of the different test sets, not a contradiction of the head-to-head results. In the tests they share, NVIDIA wins by a large margin. The percentile figure for the AMD part is boosted by its limited but consistently high-scoring benchmark entries.

For context, the nearest rivals in the database for the AMD Radeon 8050S are the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (average score 61,896, delta +0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (63,693, delta -2.5%), the AMD Radeon RX 7600M (63,775, delta -2.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP (63,830, delta -2.7%). The Radeon 8050S is essentially at parity with these parts, within roughly 3% in either direction. For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,301, delta +0.8%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43,268, delta +0.9%), the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262, delta +0.9%), and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44,075, delta -0.9%). These deltas show the RTX 4090 Mobile's average score is tightly clustered with those workstation and mobile parts, all within roughly 1%.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and foundry processes. The AMD Radeon 8050S uses the Strix Halo chip built on RDNA 3.5, fabricated on a 4 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile uses the AD103 chip built on Ada Lovelace, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The die sizes differ: the AMD chip measures 308 mm², while the NVIDIA chip measures 379 mm². The NVIDIA part has a documented transistor count of 45,900 million and a transistor density of 121.1M per mm², while the AMD part's transistor count is listed as unknown.

The compute resources are dramatically different. The AMD Radeon 8050S has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, 64 ROPs, and 32 ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 76 RT cores, and 304 tensor cores. The NVIDIA part has no direct tensor core equivalent on the AMD side, as the Radeon 8050S lists no tensor cores. The raw throughput figures follow the same pattern: the AMD part delivers 11.47 TFLOPS FP32 and 11.47 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1), while the NVIDIA part delivers 32.98 TFLOPS FP32 and 32.98 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1). The NVIDIA part is roughly 2.87 times higher in FP32 compute. Pixel and texture rates also favor NVIDIA: the Radeon 8050S reaches 179.2 GPixel/s and 358.4 GTexel/s, while the RTX 4090 Mobile reaches 189.8 GPixel/s and 515.3 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA part is about 6% faster in pixel throughput and about 44% faster in texture throughput.

Clock behavior differs as well. The AMD Radeon 8050S has a base clock of 1295 MHz and a boost clock of 2800 MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has a base clock of 1335 MHz and a boost clock of 1695 MHz. The AMD part has a much higher boost ceiling, but the NVIDIA part compensates with a far larger shader count. The memory architecture is another major divider. The AMD Radeon 8050S uses system shared memory, with the memory type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as system dependent. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has 16 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with the memory clock listed at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The power envelopes also differ: the AMD part is rated at 55 W, while the NVIDIA part is rated at 120 W. Both are integrated into portable devices with no power connectors listed, and both use the IGP slot width.

The bus interfaces diverge: the AMD Radeon 8050S uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Both support the same API set: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Display outputs for both are portable device dependent. The release dates are roughly two years apart: the NVIDIA part launched on January 2, 2023, and the AMD part on January 5, 2025. The AMD predecessor is Polaris Mobile, while the NVIDIA predecessor is GeForce 30 Mobile and its successor is GeForce 50 Mobile.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile wins decisively in raw compute throughput. In the shared Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan workloads, it leads by 63.6% and 65.8% respectively, and in theoretical FP32, FP16, texture, and pixel rates it is ahead by wide margins. This makes it the stronger choice for compute-heavy tasks such as rendering, machine learning inference where tensor cores are relevant, and high-resolution gaming with ray tracing enabled. The 16 GB dedicated GDDR6 frame buffer with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth is a clear advantage for workloads that need large, fast local memory, such as 4K texture sets, large scene graphs, or GPU-accelerated video processing. The 120 W power envelope also suggests the RTX 4090 Mobile is designed for larger, more power-tolerant laptops where sustained performance matters.

The AMD Radeon 8050S wins in efficiency-oriented scenarios. Its 55 W TDP is less than half the NVIDIA part's 120 W rating, making it suitable for thinner, lighter systems with tighter thermal budgets. The shared memory architecture means the GPU can draw on system RAM, which may simplify system design and allow flexible memory allocation, though the bandwidth is system dependent and not directly comparable to the NVIDIA part's dedicated 576.0 GB/s. The higher boost clock of 2800 MHz suggests the AMD part can spike to high frequencies in short bursts, which may benefit latency-sensitive workloads that do not sustain full load. The AMD part also uses PCIe 5.0 x16, which offers a newer bus interface than the NVIDIA part's PCIe 4.0 x16, though the practical impact depends on system-level support.

In terms of average benchmark score, the AMD Radeon 8050S actually records a higher figure (62,108) than the NVIDIA part (43,667), but this is an artifact of the different test sets. The AMD part only has two high-scoring compute tests, while the NVIDIA part has nine tests including older DX9, DX10, and DX11 Passmark results that score between 107 and 310. Those legacy tests are not representative of modern workloads, but they do lower the NVIDIA average. For users comparing across the full database, the percentile rankings put the AMD part at 89 and the NVIDIA part at 84, again reflecting the different benchmark portfolios. Direct comparisons in identical workloads are the more reliable signal, and they uniformly favor NVIDIA.

FAQ

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

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831, which is 63.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 8050S's 65,818.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon 8050S win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. The database records 0 wins for the AMD part and 2 wins for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile across the shared Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests.

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The AMD Radeon 8050S has an average score of 62,108, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has an average of 43,667. The AMD part is higher, but this is because the NVIDIA part has additional legacy Passmark tests in its set that score very low (as low as 107 in DX12 and 173 in DX10).

Q: What memory configurations do the two GPUs use?

A: The AMD Radeon 8050S uses system shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do the TDP ratings compare between the two parts?

A: The AMD Radeon 8050S is rated at 55 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is rated at 120 W. The NVIDIA part draws more than double the power budget of the AMD part.

Q: What are the FP32 compute figures for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon 8050S delivers 11.47 TFLOPS FP32 (and 11.47 TFLOPS FP16), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers 32.98 TFLOPS FP32 (and 32.98 TFLOPS FP16). The NVIDIA part is approximately 2.87 times higher in FP32.

Specification Differences

• Architecture: AMD RDNA 3.5 (Strix Halo, 4 nm TSMC) vs NVIDIA Ada Lovelace (AD103, 5 nm TSMC). Die size is 308 mm² for AMD and 379 mm² for NVIDIA. Transistor count is unknown for AMD and 45,900 million for NVIDIA, with a density of 121.1M per mm² for the NVIDIA part.
• shading units: 2,048 for AMD vs 9,728 for NVIDIA. TMUs are 128 for AMD vs 304 for NVIDIA. ROPs are 64 for AMD vs 112 for NVIDIA RT cores are 32 for AMD vs 76 NVIDIA. Tensor cores are not listed for AMD vs 304 NVIDIA.
• Clocks: base 1295 MHz boost 2800 MHz for AMD vs base 1335 MHz boost 1695 MHz for NVIDIA Memory clock is system shared for AMD vs 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.
• Memory: size is system shared for AMD vs 16 GB for NVIDIA Type system shared for AMD vs GDDR6 for NVIDIA bus width system shared for AMD vs 256 bit NVIDIA Bandwidth system dependent for AMD vs 576.0 GB/s for NVIDIA.
• Rates: pixel rate 179.2 GPixel/s for AMD vs 189.8 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rate 358.4 GTexel/s AMD vs 515. TDP 55W AMD vs NVIDIA.
• Bus interface: PCIe 5.0 x16 for AMD vs PCIe 4.0 x16 NVIDIA. Both are IGP slot width with no power connectors
• Release date: AMD launched January 5, 2025, NVIDIA launched on January 2, 2023. AMD predecessor Polaris Mobile, NVIDIA predecessor GeForce 30 Mobile successor GeForce 50 Mobile
• **API support is identical for both DX 12 , OpenGL 4.6 Vulkan 1.4
• Benchmark portfolio differs: AMD has 2 tests (OpenCL 65, Vulkan 58, NVIDIA has 9 tests (OpenCL 180, Vulkan 170, Vulkan 170, passmark DX10 173 DX11 262 DX12 107 DX9 310 G2D 984 G3D 27, compute 12,