AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile Comparison

# Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head data paints a clear picture: NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile takes both shared benchmark victories, and it does so decisively. In OpenCL workloads, the A1000 Mobile scores 48,703 against the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 41,772, a 16.6% advantage. Vulkan testing shows an even larger gap, with the NVIDIA part reaching 46,782 versus 39,601 for AMD — an 18.1% lead. These are not marginal wins; they represent a consistent performance tier separation across two distinct graphics APIs.

However, the AMD card has its own exclusive arena. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT was tested in Apple's Metal API, where it posts 54,779 — a score that sits above both of NVIDIA's results in OpenCL and Vulkan. This Metal result is significant because it suggests the AMD card's architecture is particularly well-suited to Apple's ecosystem, though the NVIDIA GPU has no Metal score in the data to provide a direct comparison.

Looking at average benchmark scores, the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile averages 47,743 across its tested workloads, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT averages 45,384. That is a 5.2% overall difference in favor of NVIDIA. Both GPUs sit in the same performance neighborhood — the A1000 Mobile holds an 85th percentile rank among all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits just one point behind at 84th percentile. The percentile closeness suggests these are comparable products in the broader GPU landscape, but the direct benchmark comparisons show NVIDIA winning where both are tested.

# Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. NVIDIA's RTX A1000 Mobile uses the GA107 chip built on Ampere architecture, manufactured by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The chip packs 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. AMD's Radeon Pro 5500 XT counters with the Navi 14 chip on RDNA 1.0 architecture, built by TSMC on a more advanced 7 nm node. This smaller process allows AMD to fit 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, though the density of 40.5 million per square millimeter is slightly lower than NVIDIA's.

Feature support marks one of the clearest divides. The NVIDIA GPU includes 16 RT cores for ray tracing and 64 tensor cores for AI acceleration, while the AMD card lists neither RT cores nor tensor cores. This hardware difference translates into API support: NVIDIA reaches DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while AMD tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, so those remain neutral ground.

Clock behavior also diverges sharply. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT boosts to 1,757 MHz from a base of 1,187 MHz, while the RTX A1000 Mobile runs substantially lower at 1,140 MHz boost and 630 MHz base. Despite the clock disadvantage, NVIDIA's higher shading unit count — 2,048 versus 1,536 — helps close the raw compute gap. The AMD card actually leads in FP32 throughput at 5.398 TFLOPS versus 4.669 TFLOPS for NVIDIA, and it more than doubles NVIDIA's FP16 output at 10.80 TFLOPS versus 4.669 TFLOPS. Yet benchmark scores tell a different story, suggesting NVIDIA's architecture extracts more real-world performance from its lower theoretical peak.

# FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more memory, and does it matter for the benchmark results?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT ships with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, double the 4 GB found on the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile. Despite this capacity advantage, AMD still loses both shared benchmarks, indicating the A1000 Mobile's performance lead comes from other architectural factors rather than memory size.

Q: How do the power requirements compare between these two cards?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile draws 60 W, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT consumes 125 W — more than double. AMD also lists a 300 W suggested PSU, whereas NVIDIA lists no suggested PSU requirement. The NVIDIA card achieves higher benchmark scores while using significantly less power.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production, and when did they launch?

A: Both are end-of-life products. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile launched on March 29, 2022, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT came earlier on August 3, 2020. NVIDIA lists the Quadro Turing-M as its predecessor and Ada-MW as its successor; AMD lists no direct predecessor or successor in the data.

Q: What display outputs does each card provide?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary by laptop implementation. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has "No outputs" listed, suggesting it is designed for compute tasks or as a secondary GPU rather than direct display driving.

Q: How do these cards compare to other GPUs in their respective performance tiers?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile falls within 1.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, 2.2% of the RX 6550M, 2.4% of the Intel Arc A530M, and 2.5% of the RX 5600M. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits within 0.5% of the Intel Arc A730M, 0.5% of the RTX 5090 Mobile, 1.3% of the RTX 5880 Ada Generation, and 1.3% of the RTX 4070 Ti.

Q: Which card wins in each shared benchmark, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile wins both. In OpenCL, it scores 48,703 versus 41,772, a 16.6% margin. In Vulkan, it scores 46,782 versus 39,601, an 18.1% margin.

# Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal several clear divergences between these two mobile workstation GPUs.

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile | AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | GA107 | Navi 14 |

| Architecture | Ampere | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process node | 8 nm (Samsung) | 7 nm (TSMC) |

| Transistors | 8,700 million | 6,400 million |

| Die size | 200 mm² | 158 mm² |

| Transistor density | 43.5M / mm² | 40.5M / mm² |

| Base clock | 630 MHz | 1,187 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1,140 MHz | 1,757 MHz |

| Memory size | 4 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory clock | 1,375 MHz (11 Gbps effective) | 1,750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) |

| Memory bandwidth | 176.0 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 2,048 | 1,536 |

| TMUs | 64 | 96 |

| ROPs | 32 | 32 |

| RT cores | 16 | None |

| Tensor cores | 64 | None |

| Pixel rate | 36.48 GPixel/s | 56.22 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 72.96 GTexel/s | 168.7 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 4.669 TFLOPS | 5.398 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 4.669 TFLOPS (1:1) | 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 60 W | 125 W |

| Suggested PSU | None | 300 W |

| DirectX version | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Display outputs | Portable Device Dependent | No outputs |

| Release date | 2022-03-29 | 2020-08-03 |

The memory bus width is identical at 128 bit, and both use GDDR6 memory. Both cards are IGP slot width with no power connectors listed, and both use PCIe 4.0 x8 interfaces.

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison between these two GPUs is limited to two benchmark suites, but the results are emphatic. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile wins both tests outright, giving it a 2-0 record in head-to-head competition.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the A1000 Mobile scores 48,703 against the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 41,772. That 6,931-point gap translates to a 16.6% advantage for NVIDIA. This is a substantial margin in a compute-oriented API like OpenCL, which stresses raw throughput. The AMD card's higher theoretical FP32 output — 5.398 TFLOPS versus 4.669 TFLOPS — does not translate into a win here, suggesting that NVIDIA's Ampere architecture handles OpenCL workloads more efficiently despite lower peak numbers.

The Vulkan test shows an even wider gulf. NVIDIA scores 46,782, while AMD manages 39,601 — a difference of 7,181 points and an 18.1% delta. Vulkan is a low-overhead API that often favors well-optimized drivers and efficient hardware scheduling. The A1000 Mobile's tensor cores and RT cores may contribute indirectly to its Vulkan dominance, even in non-ray-traced workloads, by enabling more flexible compute paths.

What makes this interesting is how the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's Metal score complicates the narrative. At 54,779, the AMD card's Metal result is 12.4% higher than its own OpenCL score and 16.4% higher than its Vulkan score. It also exceeds NVIDIA's best benchmark result (48,703 in OpenCL) by 12.5%. The data suggests AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture is particularly well-tuned for Apple's Metal API, while NVIDIA's strengths emerge in cross-platform APIs like OpenCL and Vulkan.

# The Verdict

The data points to distinct use cases for each GPU. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is the stronger all-around performer where both cards are tested, winning OpenCL by 16.6% and Vulkan by 18.1%. Its 60 W power draw combined with higher benchmark scores makes it the more efficient choice for mobile workstations. The presence of RT cores and tensor cores, alongside DirectX 12 Ultimate support, gives it a feature-set advantage for modern graphics workloads. The 85th percentile ranking versus AMD's 84th, combined with the 5.2% higher average benchmark score, reinforces this position.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is not without its arguments, however. Its 8 GB memory capacity is double NVIDIA's 4 GB, which matters for larger datasets even if the benchmarks here do not capture that advantage. The Metal score of 54,779 is the single highest result among all tests for either card, suggesting AMD's GPU is the better choice for Apple-centric workflows. Its higher pixel rate (56.22 GPixel/s versus 36.48 GPixel/s) and texture rate (168.7 GTexel/s versus 72.96 GTexel/s) indicate superior rasterization throughput in certain conditions.

For users working in OpenCL or Vulkan environments, the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is the clear pick from the data — it wins both shared tests with margins exceeding 16%. For those in Apple's Metal ecosystem, the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's exclusive Metal score of 54,779 makes it the only viable option among these two, since the NVIDIA card has no Metal benchmark data. The 2022 release date and 8 nm process make NVIDIA's card the newer design, while AMD's 2020 launch on 7 nm shows the age of the RDNA 1.0 architecture. Ultimately, the choice hinges on API priority: NVIDIA for cross-platform compute, AMD for Metal-specific environments.