AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains one directly comparable benchmark result between the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB: the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this test, the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB scores 66,998 points, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 41,772 points. This represents a 37.7% advantage for the NVIDIA card, a substantial margin that underscores the performance gap between these two workstation-oriented GPUs.

The OpenCL result is particularly telling because it measures raw compute throughput across a wide range of workloads. The RTX A2000 12 GB delivers nearly two-thirds more performance in this metric, which aligns with its higher FP32 rating of 7.987 TFLOPS compared to the Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 5.398 TFLOPS. The recorded delta of -37.7% (expressed from the AMD card's perspective) places the NVIDIA card firmly ahead in general-purpose GPU compute tasks.

However, the broader benchmark landscape requires context. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45,384 across all recorded tests, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 34,154, placing it in the 79th percentile. This apparent contradiction, where the NVIDIA card wins the single head-to-head test but has a lower average score, stems from the fact that the two cards were evaluated under different benchmark suites. The AMD card's average includes results from Geekbench Metal (54,779), Geekbench OpenCL (41,772), and Geekbench Vulkan (39,601), while the NVIDIA card's average is drawn from 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (1,309) and Geekbench OpenCL (66,998).

The nearest rivals data further contextualizes each card's standing. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits within 1.3% of the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45,972), within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152), and within 0.5% of the Intel Arc A730M (45,592) on the low side. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB, meanwhile, trades places within 0.6% of the NVIDIA TITAN V (34,355), within 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (34,207), and within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 480 (33,997). These proximity scores indicate that the AMD card competes in a higher performance tier despite losing the OpenCL comparison, likely because its other benchmark results (Metal and Vulkan) pull its average upward.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the only directly comparable benchmark in the database?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 66,998 against the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 41,772, a 37.7% difference.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card, and how do they rank overall?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45,384 and ranks in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB has an average benchmark score of 34,154 and ranks in the 79th percentile.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card offer more memory bandwidth than the AMD card?

A: Yes. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth over a 192-bit bus, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT provides 224.0 GB/s over a 128-bit bus.

Q: What are the FP32 compute ratings for the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB is rated at 7.987 TFLOPS FP32, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is rated at 5.398 TFLOPS FP32.

Q: How do the nearest rivals compare for each card?

A: The AMD card's closest rival is the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation at 45,972 (1.3% higher), followed by the Intel Arc A730M at 45,592 (0.5% lower). The NVIDIA card's closest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A1000 at 34,207 (0.2% higher), with the AMD Radeon RX 480 at 33,997 (0.5% lower).

Q: Which card has more shading units and texture mapping units?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB has 3,328 shading units and 104 TMUs. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 1,536 shading units and 96 TMUs.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB wins the only direct benchmark comparison, and its strengths extend to several key specifications. Its FP32 compute throughput of 7.987 TFLOPS is roughly 48% higher than the AMD card's 5.398 TFLOPS, making it the clear choice for compute-heavy workloads such as scientific simulation, ray-traced rendering, or data-parallel processing in OpenCL environments. The NVIDIA card also offers 12 GB of GDDR6 memory compared to 8 GB on the AMD side, along with a wider 192-bit memory bus and higher bandwidth (288.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s). These memory advantages matter for large datasets, high-resolution textures, or multi-application workflows where capacity and bandwidth become limiting factors. Additionally, the RTX A2000 12 GB includes 26 RT cores and 104 tensor cores, which are absent from the AMD card, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI inference tasks that the Radeon Pro 5500 XT cannot accelerate through dedicated hardware.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT, despite losing the OpenCL test, holds a higher overall percentile ranking (84th versus 79th) and a higher average benchmark score (45,384 versus 34,154). This suggests that in certain API-specific workloads, particularly Metal and Vulkan, the AMD card performs strongly. Its Geekbench Metal score of 54,779 and Vulkan score of 39,601 demonstrate competitive or superior performance in those environments, likely benefiting from AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture optimizations. The card also has a higher texture rate (168.7 GTexel/s versus 124.8 GTexel/s), meaning it can process textured geometry faster, which is relevant for traditional rasterization workloads. For users operating in macOS environments (given the card's "Radeon Pro Mac" generation designation) or applications that favor Metal or Vulkan APIs, the AMD card may deliver a smoother experience despite lower raw compute numbers.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every measured specification. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses a 7 nm process node from TSMC, while the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB uses an 8 nm node from Samsung. This process difference contributes to a notable transistor density gap: the AMD chip packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die (40.5 million per mm²), while the NVIDIA chip contains 12,000 million transistors across a 276 mm² die (43.5 million per mm²).

Clock speeds also diverge significantly. The AMD card has a base clock of 1187 MHz and a boost clock of 1757 MHz, whereas the NVIDIA card operates at a much lower 562 MHz base and 1200 MHz boost. Memory clocks differ as well: the AMD card runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), and the NVIDIA card runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). Despite the lower clocks, the NVIDIA card achieves higher bandwidth due to its wider bus.

The memory subsystem shows clear differences: 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus for AMD versus 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus for NVIDIA. Pixel rates are nearly identical (56.22 GPixel/s for AMD, 57.60 GPixel/s for NVIDIA), but texture rates favor AMD (168.7 GTexel/s versus 124.8 GTexel/s). Power consumption differs sharply: the AMD card is rated at 125 W TDP with a suggested 300 W PSU, while the NVIDIA card draws only 70 W TDP with a suggested 250 W PSU. The AMD card is listed as an IGP (integrated GPU) with no display outputs and no power connectors, while the NVIDIA card is a dual-slot, 167 mm long, 69 mm tall card with four mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and no external power connectors. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD versus PCIe 4.0 x16 for NVIDIA.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is substantial. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture using the Navi 14 chip, while the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB uses the Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip. These are fundamentally different designs from different generations: the AMD card belongs to the "Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series)" generation, whereas the NVIDIA card belongs to the "Workstation Ampere (Ax000)" generation.

The NVIDIA card includes dedicated hardware features that the AMD card entirely lacks. It has 26 RT cores for ray tracing acceleration and 104 tensor cores for AI and deep learning workloads. The AMD card lists no RT cores or tensor cores, meaning it relies entirely on shader-based processing for these tasks. The shading unit count reflects this architectural difference: NVIDIA packs 3,328 shading units, while AMD has 1,536. The NVIDIA card also has more ROPs (48 versus 32) and more TMUs (104 versus 96), but AMD's higher clock speed allows it to achieve a higher texture fill rate.

FP16 compute reveals another architectural difference. The AMD card achieves 10.80 TFLOPS FP16 using a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, indicating it uses packed math for half-precision workloads. The NVIDIA card delivers 7.987 TFLOPS FP16 with a 1:1 ratio, meaning it processes FP16 at the same rate as FP32, a design choice that prioritizes consistent throughput across precisions. DirectX support also differs: the AMD card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes additional features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading.

The production timeline and lineage also differ. The AMD card was released on 2020-08-03 and is now end-of-life, while the NVIDIA card was released on 2021-11-22 and is also end-of-life. The NVIDIA card lists the Quadro Turing as its predecessor and Workstation Ada as its successor, while the AMD card lists no predecessor or successor in the database. These architectural and generational differences explain why the NVIDIA card, despite lower clock speeds, delivers superior compute performance in the OpenCL benchmark.