AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M: a matchup spanning two distinct mobile GPU generations. The data shows a decisive overall victory for the AMD part, which wins all three head-to-head benchmark comparisons by substantial margins, yet the analysis of where each card stands relative to its own peers reveals a more nuanced picture than a simple score gap might suggest.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the clear winner in every benchmark where both cards have recorded scores. It takes the Geekbench Metal test with a score of 38235 against the NVIDIA's 8319, a delta of 359.6%. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD scores 31088 versus 12769, a 143.5% advantage. For Geekbench Vulkan, the AMD achieves 35134 compared to 12696, a 176.7% lead. These are not marginal wins; they are generational leaps in compute performance.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M claims a different kind of victory: consistency within its own benchmark ecosystem. While the AMD card has a broader set of recorded tests, including PassMark DirectX 9/10/11/12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute scores, the NVIDIA card's available data is limited to just the three Geekbench tests. Within those, the GTX 780M shows a balanced profile across different APIs, whereas the AMD card's performance varies more significantly depending on the test. For instance, the AMD's PassMark DirectX 9 score of 96 is far higher proportionally than its DirectX 12 score of 29, indicating the RDNA 1.0 architecture favors older API paths in these specific tests.

The AMD card also wins on architectural efficiency. Its 7 nm process node versus the NVIDIA's 28 nm node means the AMD achieves its performance at a lower TDP of 85 W compared to 122 W for the NVIDIA. This is a significant win for mobile deployments where thermal and power budgets are constrained.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures from different eras. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M uses the Navi 14 chip based on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It contains 6,400 million transistors on a die size of 158 mm², yielding a transistor density of 40.5M / mm². The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M uses the GK104 chip based on the older Kepler architecture, also fabricated at TSMC but on a 28 nm process. It packs 3,540 million transistors onto a much larger 294 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of just 12.0M / mm².

Memory configurations differ substantially. The AMD card features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth with an effective memory clock of 12 Gbps. The NVIDIA card has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a wider 256-bit bus, but the lower 5 Gbps effective clock yields only 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card thus offers both more capacity and higher bandwidth.

Compute resources are similar in shading unit count—both have 1536 shading units—but the AMD card has 96 texture mapping units versus the NVIDIA's 128, and both have 32 ROPs. However, clock speeds tell a different story: the AMD runs at a 1000 MHz base and 1450 MHz boost, while the NVIDIA runs at 771 MHz base and 797 MHz boost. This clock advantage translates directly to throughput: the AMD card achieves 4.454 TFLOPS FP32 and 8.909 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), while the NVIDIA card manages only 2.448 TFLOPS FP32 and has no FP16 capability listed. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: 46.40 GPixel/s and 139.2 GTexel/s for AMD versus 25.50 GPixel/s and 102.0 GTexel/s for NVIDIA.

The AMD card uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface, while the NVIDIA uses an MXM-B (3.0) form factor. Both are end-of-life products, but their release dates are separated by over six years: the NVIDIA launched on 2013-05-10, while the AMD launched on 2019-11-12. API support also differs, with the AMD supporting DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, while the NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench Metal test shows the most extreme disparity. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 38235, which is 359.6% higher than the NVIDIA's 8319. This is a massive gap, reflecting both the AMD's higher raw compute throughput and its optimization for Apple's Metal API, given its Radeon Pro Mac generation branding. The NVIDIA card, designed for the GeForce 700M series, was never optimized for this API, making this comparison particularly lopsided.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card scores 31088 against the NVIDIA's 12769, a 143.5% advantage. This is a more general-purpose compute test, and while the AMD still wins decisively, the margin is smaller than in Metal. The AMD's 4.454 TFLOPS FP32 versus the NVIDIA's 2.448 TFLOPS provides a theoretical 82% advantage, but the actual benchmark shows a larger gap, suggesting the AMD's newer architecture extracts better real-world efficiency from its compute units.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows the AMD scoring 35134 versus the NVIDIA's 12696, a 176.7% lead. Vulkan is a modern cross-platform API, and the AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture was designed with Vulkan 1.4 support in mind, whereas the NVIDIA's Kepler architecture only supports Vulkan 1.2.175. This generational gap in API support likely contributes to the performance difference.

Looking at the broader benchmark suite for the AMD card, its PassMark G3D score of 6732 and GPU compute score of 3240 indicate strong performance in DirectX-based workloads. The NVIDIA card lacks these specific benchmark scores in the data, so a direct comparison on those tests is not possible. However, the AMD's average benchmark score of 11528 places it slightly above the NVIDIA's 11261, a 2.4% difference according to the nearestRivals data.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally favors the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M for anyone prioritizing raw compute performance. It wins all three head-to-head benchmarks by margins ranging from 143.5% to 359.6%, offers double the memory capacity (8 GB vs 4 GB), higher bandwidth (192.0 GB/s vs 160.0 GB/s), and significantly higher FP32 throughput (4.454 TFLOPS vs 2.448 TFLOPS). The AMD card also runs at a lower TDP of 85 W versus 122 W, making it more suitable for thermally constrained laptops.

However, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M is not without merit when viewed in its own context. It has a higher transistor count per die area is lower, but it uses a wider 256-bit memory bus, which could be advantageous in specific bandwidth-sensitive workloads. Its 50th percentile ranking versus the AMD's 51st percentile shows they are statistically peers when compared against all GPUs, despite the AMD's superior raw scores. This suggests the NVIDIA card performs relatively better in its own generation than the AMD does in its own, given the vast technological gap between their release dates.

For users running modern compute workloads, particularly those leveraging Metal, OpenCL, or Vulkan, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the obvious choice. For legacy applications that were optimized for Kepler architecture or that specifically require MXM-B form factor compatibility, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M remains a functional, if dated, option. The data does not support choosing the NVIDIA card for performance reasons in any benchmark where both are measured, but its unique form factor and bus interface may be the deciding factor in specific hardware deployments.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has higher memory bandwidth at 192.0 GB/s, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M's 160.0 GB/s, despite the NVIDIA card having a wider 256-bit bus versus the AMD's 128-bit bus.

Q: What is the difference in FP32 compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M delivers 4.454 TFLOPS FP32, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M delivers 2.448 TFLOPS FP32, making the AMD card approximately 82% faster in theoretical peak FP32 throughput.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the Geekbench Metal benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 38235, which is 359.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M's score of 8319, representing the largest performance gap in any head-to-head test.

Q: Which card has a lower power consumption?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has a TDP of 85 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M has a TDP of 122 W, making the AMD card more power-efficient.

Q: What are the production statuses of these GPUs?

A: Both the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M are listed as end-of-life products, with the NVIDIA card released in 2013 and the AMD card released in 2019.

Q: How do these cards rank against all other GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M ranks in the 51st percentile against all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M ranks in the 50th percentile, showing they are statistically similar when compared to the entire GPU landscape.