AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile occupy surprisingly close positions in the aggregate benchmark standings, despite being separated by nearly five years of architecture evolution. The data shows the Radeon Pro 5500 XT holds an average benchmark score of 45642, placing it slightly ahead of the RTX 5090 Mobile’s 45152 average, a margin of just 1.1%. Yet the head-to-head compute benchmarks tell a radically different story, with the NVIDIA part delivering scores roughly four to five times higher in OpenCL and Vulkan workloads. This tension between aggregate parity and extreme per-test divergence defines the comparison, and the specification sheet explains why: the RTX 5090 Mobile packs over seven times the transistors, nearly seven times the shading units, and three times the memory capacity, all within a lower 95 W TDP compared to the AMD part’s 125 W.

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a clear split decision. For users whose workloads are captured by the Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile is the overwhelming choice—it scores 201834 in OpenCL versus 41772 for the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT, a 79.3% advantage, and 198405 versus 39601 in Vulkan, an 80% advantage. These are not incremental gains; they represent a generational leap in raw compute throughput. However, the aggregate benchmark picture complicates this narrative, since the Radeon Pro 5500 XT’s average score of 45642 actually edges out the RTX 5090 Mobile’s 45152, and the AMD part sits at the 86th percentile versus the NVIDIA part’s 85th percentile. The AMD GPU also leads its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6550M, by 1.9%, while the RTX 5090 Mobile trails the Intel Arc A730M by 1%. The verdict depends on workload specificity: the data suggests the RTX 5090 Mobile dominates in modern compute-heavy applications, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT holds its own in the broader benchmark aggregate, likely due to its strength in legacy or differently-weighted tests not captured in the head-to-head set.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast, and the specification data quantifies it precisely. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses the Navi 14 chip built on TSMC’s 7 nm process, packing 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile employs the GB203 chip on a 5 nm process, with 45,600 million transistors across a 378 mm² die, achieving a density of 120.6 million per square millimeter—roughly three times the density. The RDNA 1.0 architecture of the AMD part provides 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The Blackwell 2.0 architecture of the NVIDIA part delivers 10496 shading units, 328 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 82 ray tracing cores, and 328 tensor cores. The NVIDIA GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD part caps at DirectX 12 (12_1), a meaningful difference for modern game features. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, but the underlying hardware capabilities are in different leagues. The production status also differs: the Radeon Pro 5500 XT is end-of-life, released in August 2020, while the RTX 5090 Mobile is active, released in March 2025.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two available head-to-head benchmarks both favor the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5090 Mobile scores 201834 against the Radeon Pro 5500 XT’s 41772, a delta of -79.3% from the AMD part’s perspective—meaning the NVIDIA GPU is roughly 4.8 times faster. The Vulkan test shows a similar pattern: 198405 versus 39601, an 80% deficit for the AMD part, again translating to about a fivefold performance advantage. These results align with the specification differences in FP32 compute, where the RTX 5090 Mobile delivers 31.80 TFLOPS versus 5.398 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro 5500 XT, a factor of nearly six. The texture rate tells the same story: 496.9 GTexel/s versus 168.7 GTexel/s, and pixel rate of 169.7 GPixel/s versus 56.22 GPixel/s. The aggregate scores, however, suggest that the Radeon Pro 5500 XT compensates in other benchmark categories—likely those not represented in the head-to-head set—since its average of 45642 slightly exceeds the RTX 5090 Mobile’s 45152. This discrepancy invites investigation: the head-to-head tests may weight compute throughput heavily, while the aggregate includes tests where the AMD architecture’s characteristics, such as its higher boost clock of 1757 MHz versus 1515 MHz, play a more significant role.

Specification Differences

Comparing the two specification sheets reveals differences in nearly every measurable category. The process node drops from 7 nm to 5 nm, and transistor count jumps from 6,400 million to 45,600 million. Die size increases from 158 mm² to 378 mm², and transistor density more than doubles from 40.5M per mm² to 120.6M per mm². Base clock is lower on the NVIDIA part (990 MHz versus 1187 MHz), and boost clock is also lower (1515 MHz versus 1757 MHz), yet the NVIDIA GPU still delivers far higher throughput due to its massive core count. Memory capacity triples from 8 GB to 24 GB, type advances from GDDR6 to GDDR7, bus width doubles from 128-bit to 256-bit, and bandwidth quadruples from 224.0 GB/s to 896.0 GB/s. Shading units grow from 1536 to 10496, TMUs from 96 to 328, ROPs from 32 to 112, and the NVIDIA part adds 82 RT cores and 328 tensor cores where the AMD part has none. FP32 compute rises from 5.398 TFLOPS to 31.80 TFLOPS, and FP16 doubles from 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) to 31.80 TFLOPS (1:1), indicating the NVIDIA architecture processes FP16 at full rate rather than half rate. TDP actually decreases from 125 W to 95 W, a notable efficiency gain. The bus interface moves from PCIe 4.0 x8 to PCIe 5.0 x16, and display outputs go from none to portable-device-dependent. The AMD part suggests a 300 W PSU, while the NVIDIA part lists no suggested PSU. The release dates differ by over four years, and the AMD part is end-of-life while the NVIDIA part is active.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45642, which is 1.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile’s 45152 average.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 Mobile in the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The RTX 5090 Mobile scores 201834 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 41772, giving the NVIDIA part a 79.3% advantage.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 Mobile have ray tracing cores?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile includes 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores, whereas the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has neither.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two?

A: The RTX 5090 Mobile offers 896.0 GB/s bandwidth with 24 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT provides 224.0 GB/s with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a boost clock of 1757 MHz, compared to the RTX 5090 Mobile’s 1515 MHz, even though the NVIDIA part is significantly faster in compute benchmarks.

Q: Are both GPUs still in production?

A: No, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is end-of-life with a release date of August 2020, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile is active, released in March 2025.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile wins decisively in the head-to-head compute benchmarks, with both OpenCL and Vulkan scores approximately five times higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT. This makes it the clear choice for workloads that rely on raw GPGPU compute, such as machine learning inference, scientific simulation, or rendering tasks that leverage Vulkan compute shaders. The presence of 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores further extends its advantage into ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated applications, areas where the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has no hardware support. The 24 GB memory capacity and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth also position the RTX 5090 Mobile for large datasets and high-resolution textures that would exhaust the 8 GB frame buffer of the AMD part. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT, however, claims victory in the aggregate benchmark score, edging out the RTX 5090 Mobile by 1.1% and ranking at the 86th percentile versus the NVIDIA part’s 85th. This suggests the AMD GPU performs relatively better in the broader set of benchmark tests that contribute to the average, even though those tests are not individually listed in the head-to-head data. The AMD part also has a higher boost clock (1757 MHz versus 1515 MHz), which may benefit certain lightly-threaded or latency-sensitive tasks. For users constrained by power, the RTX 5090 Mobile’s lower 95 W TDP versus 125 W is a significant advantage, but the AMD part offers a simpler integration path with its IGP slot width and no power connectors, whereas the NVIDIA GPU’s display outputs are portable-device dependent, limiting its use in desktop configurations. The data ultimately shows the RTX 5090 Mobile as the compute powerhouse, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT retains relevance in aggregate performance metrics and legacy compatibility.