AMD Radeon 820M vs NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation Comparison

The AMD Radeon 820M and the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation occupy opposite ends of the mobile graphics spectrum. The Radeon 820M is an integrated processor graphics solution built on RDNA 3.5, while the RTX 3500 is a discrete-class Ada Lovelace part with a 100 W TDP. The database records no direct head-to-head benchmark matches for these two products, and neither has an average benchmark score or a list of nearest rivals. Consequently, the analysis below relies entirely on the recorded architectural and specification data to compare their capabilities.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no head-to-head benchmark results between the AMD Radeon 820M and the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation. The winsA and winsB fields are both zero, and the headToHeadBenchmarks array is empty. This means there is no direct measurement of application performance, gaming frame rates, or compute workloads that pits these two GPUs against each other in the same test environment.

Without direct comparisons, the specification data provides the only measurable differences. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation delivers an FP32 throughput of 15.82 TFLOPS, while the AMD Radeon 820M delivers 716.8 GFLOPS. Converting the Radeon figure to TFLOPS gives 0.7168 TFLOPS. The RTX 3500 therefore provides approximately 22 times the raw single-precision compute throughput. This is the largest single numerical gap between the two products.

Texture and pixel throughput show similarly decisive separation. The RTX 3500 reaches 247.2 GTexel/s and 98.88 GPixel/s, while the Radeon 820M reaches 22.40 GTexel/s and 11.20 GPixel/s. The NVIDIA part is roughly 11 times faster in texture fill and about 8.8 times faster in pixel fill. These figures indicate that the RTX 3500 can sustain far higher shader complexity and resolution loads before becoming fill-rate limited.

Memory bandwidth presents another major differentiator. The RTX 3500 has a 192-bit GDDR6 interface with 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon 820M uses system shared memory with bandwidth described as system dependent, meaning its effective bandwidth varies with the host platform’s memory configuration. In any realistic configuration, the dedicated 432.0 GB/s of the RTX 3500 will exceed what an integrated GPU can draw from shared system memory, though the exact margin depends on the laptop’s memory speed and architecture.

Clock speeds show a contrasting picture. The Radeon 820M has a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2800 MHz, while the RTX 3500 has a base clock of 1110 MHz and a boost clock of 1545 MHz. The AMD part’s boost clock is about 81 percent higher than the NVIDIA part’s boost clock, reflecting the typical trade-off between many small, high-frequency cores and fewer, larger, higher-power cores. However, the RTX 3500 compensates with 5120 shading units versus 128, a 40-fold advantage in shader count that overwhelms the clock speed difference.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural families and process nodes. The AMD Radeon 820M uses the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm TSMC process. It belongs to the Navi III IGP generation for Strix Point Mobile and uses the Krackan Point 2 chip. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation uses the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm TSMC process, with the AD104 chip. The AMD part is fabricated on a smaller process node, which typically improves transistor density and power efficiency per area, though the database does not record the Radeon’s transistor count or die size for a direct comparison.

The transistor data is recorded only for the NVIDIA part: 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter. The Radeon 820M’s transistor count and die size are listed as unknown, so no density comparison is possible. The RTX 3500’s large die and high transistor count reflect its role as a full-featured mobile workstation GPU with dedicated ray tracing and tensor hardware.

Compute unit organization differs substantially. The Radeon 820M has 128 shading units, 8 texture mapping units, 4 ROPs, and 2 ray tracing cores. The RTX 3500 has 5120 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 40 ray tracing cores. The RTX 3500 also includes 160 tensor cores for AI-accelerated workloads, while the Radeon 820M records no tensor core count. This means the NVIDIA part supports dedicated AI acceleration, while the AMD part relies on its general-purpose shader units for any neural network tasks.

Memory architecture is fundamentally different. The Radeon 820M uses system shared memory for both capacity and type, with a system shared bus width and system dependent bandwidth. The RTX 3500 has 12 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s. The integrated nature of the Radeon means it competes with the CPU for memory access, whereas the RTX 3500 has exclusive access to its own memory pool.

Both parts support the same API feature set: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This means both are capable of DirectX ray tracing and mesh shaders at the API level. The Radeon 820M’s 2 ray tracing cores provide a minimal hardware ray tracing path, while the RTX 3500’s 40 ray tracing cores provide a far more substantial one. The Radeon 820M’s FP16 throughput equals its FP32 at 716.8 GFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, and the RTX 3500 similarly has a 1:1 FP16 ratio at 15.82 TFLOPS.

Power consumption is a defining difference. The Radeon 820M has a TDP of 15 W, while the RTX 3500 has a TDP of 100 W. The RTX 3500 draws nearly 6.7 times the power of the Radeon 820M. Both are listed as IGP slot width with no power connectors, but the RTX 3500’s 100 W envelope requires substantial cooling and battery capacity in a laptop chassis, while the 15 W Radeon can be integrated into a thin-and-light design. Both use PCIe 4.0, with the Radeon using x8 lanes and the RTX 3500 using x16 lanes.

Release timing also differs. The Radeon 820M was released on 2025-02-28, while the RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation was released on 2023-03-20. The Radeon is nearly two years newer. The predecessor relationships also differ: the Radeon 820M’s predecessor is Navi II IGP, while the RTX 3500’s predecessor is Ampere-MW and its successor is Blackwell-MW.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon 820M wins in scenarios where low power consumption and system integration are the primary constraints. Its 15 W TDP allows deployment in compact, fanless or lightly cooled mobile devices where a 100 W discrete GPU would be impossible to accommodate. The database shows no benchmark scores for either part, so the Radeon’s advantage here is strictly about power envelope and physical integration, not measured performance.

The Radeon 820M also wins on peak clock speed. Its 2800 MHz boost clock exceeds the RTX 3500’s 1545 MHz boost clock. In workloads that scale with clock frequency and are not limited by shading unit count or memory bandwidth, the Radeon’s higher frequency could provide a relative advantage, though the massive difference in shader count means this benefit rarely materializes in compute-heavy tasks.

The RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation wins in every measured performance category. Its FP32 throughput of 15.82 TFLOPS versus 716.8 GFLOPS makes it the clear choice for scientific computing, video rendering, and any workload that uses single-precision floating point. Its 432.0 GB/s dedicated memory bandwidth versus system dependent shared memory makes it superior for large datasets that exceed the capacity of a shared memory pool or that require repeated memory access.

The RTX 3500 wins decisively in ray tracing and AI workloads. Its 40 ray tracing cores versus 2 on the Radeon 820M, and its 160 tensor cores versus none, give it hardware acceleration for ray-traced rendering and deep learning inference that the Radeon cannot match. The RTX 3500’s 12 GB dedicated GDDR6 memory also allows larger models and textures to reside locally, avoiding the latency of system memory.

For gaming at high resolutions and detail settings, the RTX 3500’s 64 ROPs and 247.2 GTexel/s texture rate dominate the Radeon’s 4 ROPs and 22.40 GTexel/s. Pixel fill rate determines how quickly a GPU can rasterize frames at high resolutions, and the RTX 3500’s 98.88 GPixel/s is roughly 8.8 times the Radeon’s 11.20 GPixel/s. The Radeon 820M is suitable for light, older, or low-resolution gaming, while the RTX 3500 targets demanding titles and high refresh rate displays.

The Radeon 820M wins on process node size, using 4 nm versus 5 nm for the RTX 3500. This does not translate into a performance win in the measured data, but it indicates a more modern fabrication process that may offer efficiency benefits per unit of compute. The Radeon 820M also wins on release recency, launching in 2025 versus 2023 for the RTX 3500, meaning it benefits from more recent architectural refinements in the RDNA 3.5 line.

The Verdict

The recorded data shows two products designed for different purposes with no overlapping performance measurements. The AMD Radeon 820M is an integrated GPU with 128 shading units, 15 W TDP, and system shared memory. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation is a high-end mobile GPU with 5120 shading units, 100 W TDP, 12 GB dedicated GDDR6, and 15.82 TFLOPS FP32 compute.

A user who needs maximum compute, ray tracing, tensor acceleration, and dedicated memory should choose the RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation. Every performance-related specification in the database favors this part. A user who needs a low-power integrated solution for a thin laptop, with minimal graphics demands and a 15 W power envelope, should choose the AMD Radeon 820M. The Radeon’s 4 nm process and 2800 MHz boost clock are its only specification wins, and neither compensates for the RTX 3500’s 40-fold shader advantage.

Because the database contains no benchmark scores, no nearest rivals, and no head-to-head results for either product, the verdict rests entirely on specification data. The RTX 3500’s 15.82 TFLOPS FP32, 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, 40 ray tracing cores, and 160 tensor cores define a workstation-class mobile GPU. The Radeon 820M’s 716.8 GFLOPS FP32, shared memory, and 2 ray tracing cores define a basic integrated graphics solution. The choice depends on whether the workload demands discrete-class performance or minimal power draw.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation has 15.82 TFLOPS FP32, while the AMD Radeon 820M has 716.8 GFLOPS FP32.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each GPU have?

A: The RTX 3500 has 432.0 GB/s from 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. The Radeon 820M uses system shared memory with bandwidth listed as system dependent.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon 820M have tensor cores?

A: No. The Radeon 820M records no tensor core count, while the RTX 3500 has 160 tensor cores.

Q: What are the TDP values for both GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon 820M has a TDP of 15 W, and the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation has a TDP of 100 W.

Q: Which GPU has more ray tracing cores?

A: The RTX 3500 has 40 ray tracing cores, while the Radeon 820M has 2 ray tracing cores.

Q: What process nodes are used for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon 820M uses a 4 nm TSMC process, and the NVIDIA RTX 3500 uses a 5 nm TSMC process. The RTX 3500’s die is 294 mm² with 35,800 million transistors; the Radeon’s die size and transistor count are unknown.