AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile sit at opposite ends of the mobile GPU spectrum, yet both land in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The data shows a stark performance gulf between the two, with the RTX 4090 Mobile dominating every shared benchmark. However, the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has its own niche: it is an end-of-life, integrated-class part designed for Mac systems, while the RTX 4090 Mobile is an active, high-end notebook GPU. The following analysis breaks down exactly where each part stands, based strictly on benchmark scores and architectural specifications.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 41,772, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831. That is a delta of -76.9%, meaning the NVIDIA part is roughly 4.3 times faster in this compute workload. The Vulkan test tells the same story: AMD scores 39,601 versus NVIDIA's 170,774, a -76.8% delta. The RTX 4090 Mobile wins both of the two shared benchmarks, giving it a 2-0 sweep in head-to-head wins.

What these numbers mean in practice is that the RTX 4090 Mobile delivers over four times the raw compute throughput in both OpenCL and Vulkan. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT's average benchmark score of 45,384 is actually higher than the RTX 4090 Mobile's 43,667, but that is a misleading figure because the averages are drawn from different benchmark suites. The RTX 4090 Mobile has nine recorded benchmarks, including Passmark tests where it scores 27,212 in G3D and 12,347 in GPU compute, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT only has three Geekbench entries. Looking at the nearest rivals for each card clarifies the picture: the Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits within 1.3% of the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti (score 44,795) and the RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152), while the RTX 4090 Mobile is within 0.9% of the Quadro M6000 and RTX 5050 Mobile. In direct competition, the RTX 4090 Mobile is simply in another league.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is as wide as the performance gap. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses the Navi 14 chip built on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm TSMC process. It packs 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 40.5M per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile uses the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, on a 5 nm TSMC process. It contains 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, with a density of 121.1M per mm². That is a 7.2x increase in transistor count and a 3x increase in density, which explains the massive compute advantage.

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 4090 Mobile has 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. NVIDIA also brings dedicated hardware that AMD lacks entirely: 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The RTX 4090 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4090 Mobile also has a 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio, both at 32.98 TFLOPS, whereas the Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses a 2:1 ratio, delivering 10.80 TFLOPS FP16 versus 5.398 TFLOPS FP32. This means the NVIDIA GPU does not sacrifice half-rate FP16 performance, which matters for mixed-precision workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45,384, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has 43,667. However, the RTX 4090 Mobile wins every shared benchmark, and its average is pulled down by a larger test suite that includes older DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 Passmark tests.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 Mobile support ray tracing?

A: Yes. The RTX 4090 Mobile has 76 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature completely absent from the Radeon Pro 5500 XT, which has no RT cores listed.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4090 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is 2.57x more bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU is more power-efficient per the data?

A: The RTX 4090 Mobile has a TDP of 120 W, slightly lower than the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 125 W, despite delivering roughly 4x the compute performance in shared benchmarks. Neither card uses external power connectors, as both are integrated-class (IGP) parts.

Q: Are these GPUs comparable for gaming?

A: In raw compute, no. The RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 41,772 for the Radeon Pro 5500 XT, a -76.9% delta. The RTX 4090 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT only supports DirectX 12 (12_1), so newer game features will favor NVIDIA.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is marked as end-of-life, released on 2020-08-03. The RTX 4090 Mobile is active, released on 2023-01-02, with a predecessor in GeForce 30 Mobile and a successor in GeForce 50 Mobile.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measurable specification. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses a 7 nm process, while the RTX 4090 Mobile uses 5 nm. Transistor counts are 6,400 million versus 45,900 million. Die size is 158 mm² versus 379 mm². Memory is 8 GB versus 16 GB, with bus widths of 128-bit versus 256-bit. Bandwidth is 224.0 GB/s versus 576.0 GB/s. Shading units are 1,536 versus 9,728. TMUs are 96 versus 304. ROPs are 32 versus 112. Ray tracing cores are absent on AMD and 76 on NVIDIA. Tensor cores are absent on AMD and 304 on NVIDIA.

Clock speeds differ as well: the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a base clock of 1187 MHz and boost of 1757 MHz, while the RTX 4090 Mobile has a base of 1335 MHz and boost of 1695 MHz. Memory clock is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) versus 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). Pixel rate is 56.22 GPixel/s versus 189.8 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 168.7 GTexel/s versus 515.3 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 5.398 TFLOPS versus 32.98 TFLOPS. FP16 is 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 32.98 TFLOPS (1:1). TDP is 125 W versus 120 W. Bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 versus PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs are "No outputs" versus "Portable Device Dependent". The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the RTX 4090 Mobile has none listed. DirectX support is 12 (12_1) versus 12 Ultimate (12_2).

The Verdict

Based strictly on the data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is the superior performer in every shared benchmark. It wins 2-0 in head-to-head tests, with a 76.9% lead in OpenCL and a 76.8% lead in Vulkan. It has more than 6x the shading units, 3.5x the TMUs, 3.5x the ROPs, and 6.1x the FP32 throughput. It also has dedicated RT and tensor cores, double the memory, and over double the bandwidth. The only specification where AMD wins is TDP, and even that is marginal: 125 W versus 120 W, so NVIDIA is both faster and slightly more power-efficient.

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 84th percentile ranking and average score of 45,384 place it near the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 5090 Mobile, but those are different benchmark suites. When compared directly, the RTX 4090 Mobile is the clear choice for any application that uses OpenCL or Vulkan. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is an end-of-life part with no display outputs, so it is not a general-purpose card. The RTX 4090 Mobile is active, supports the latest DirectX feature set, and has a successor in development. For anyone choosing between these two, the data overwhelmingly favors NVIDIA.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile wins in every benchmark category that the two share. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 180,831 versus 41,772. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 170,774 versus 39,601. It also wins on architectural features: ray tracing, tensor cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate, and a 256-bit memory bus. It is the choice for compute-heavy workloads, modern gaming, and any task that benefits from FP16 performance at full rate.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has no benchmark wins in the shared tests. Its only advantages are a lower TDP by 5 W, a smaller die size, and a lower transistor count, which are not performance advantages. It also has a higher boost clock (1757 MHz versus 1695 MHz), but that does not translate into real-world speed. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 84th percentile ranking and near-parity with the RTX 4070 Ti in average score suggest it is a competent mid-range GPU for its era, but it is outclassed by the RTX 4090 Mobile in every measurable way. The data shows no scenario where the Radeon Pro 5500 XT comes out ahead in a direct comparison.