AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions, but they represent vastly different eras and design philosophies. The GTX 960A, built on NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture and a 28 nm process, is a modest entry from 2015, while the Radeon Pro 5500M, using AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture on a 7 nm node, is a much newer and more powerful part from 2019. The data shows a clear performance hierarchy, with the AMD part dominating the single shared benchmark, yet the specification sheets reveal a more nuanced story about power, efficiency, and intended use cases.

FAQ

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in the shared OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 31,088 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A scores 11,998. This represents a 61.4% delta, meaning the AMD part is significantly faster in this compute test.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density, and what does that indicate?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has a transistor density of 40.5M per mm², compared to the GTX 960A's 12.6M per mm². This indicates a much more advanced manufacturing process for the AMD chip, allowing for more transistors in a similar physical space.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The GTX 960A has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 80.19 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 5500M has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: How do their clock speeds differ?

A: The GTX 960A has a base clock of 1097 MHz and a boost clock of 1176 MHz. The Radeon Pro 5500M has a lower base clock of 1000 MHz but a significantly higher boost clock of 1450 MHz.

Q: Which GPU offers a higher pixel and texture fill rate?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M offers a pixel rate of 46.40 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 139.2 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A offers a pixel rate of 18.82 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 47.04 GTexel/s.

Q: What is the difference in their floating-point performance?

A: The Radeon Pro 5500M delivers 4.454 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 8.909 TFLOPS of FP16 performance. The GTX 960A delivers 1.505 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and has no listed FP16 capability.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the superior performer for compute tasks. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 31,088 is roughly 2.6 times higher than the GTX 960A's 11,998, and it wins the only head-to-head comparison. Furthermore, the Radeon Pro 5500M's additional benchmark results, such as a Geekbench Metal score of 38,235 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 35,134, show it is a far more versatile and capable processor. The GTX 960A, with its single benchmark score, offers no competitive advantage in any measured metric.

For users prioritizing raw compute, graphics, or memory capacity, the Radeon Pro 5500M is the clear choice. The data shows it not only outperforms the GTX 960A decisively but also competes closely with much more recent desktop parts, as indicated by its nearest rivals list. The GTX 960A, however, has a lower TDP of 75 W compared to the 85 W of the Radeon Pro 5500M, which could be a consideration for extremely power-constrained systems, though this is its only potential advantage. There is no scenario in the data where the GTX 960A is the recommended pick over the Radeon Pro 5500M for performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the result is a landslide victory for the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M. The AMD card scores 31,088 points, whereas the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A scores 11,998 points. The delta is -61.4%, which signifies the performance gap from the perspective of the GTX 960A, meaning it is that much slower than its rival. This is not a close contest; the Radeon Pro 5500M is in a different performance tier.

Expanding the analysis to the full benchmark suite for the Radeon Pro 5500M, the data shows consistent strength across different APIs. Its Geekbench Metal score of 38,235 and Vulkan score of 35,134 are both higher than its OpenCL score, indicating strong performance across modern graphics and compute interfaces. The Passmark results, while using a different scoring system, also show a capable chip, with a G3D score of 6,732 and a GPU compute score of 3,240. The GTX 960A has no other benchmark results to compare against, so the OpenCL test remains the sole point of reference.

The GTX 960A’s nearest rival list provides some context for its performance level. It sits just 0.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and 1.3% above the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT in average score. This places it in a surprisingly competitive position relative to those much newer cards in the aggregate benchmark database. The Radeon Pro 5500M, on the other hand, is 0.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and 1.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, showing it is also within striking distance of modern desktop parts, despite being a mobile Pro card. The raw score difference between the two reviewed GPUs, however, dwarfs these rival deltas.

Specification Differences

The specifications of the two cards are almost entirely different, reflecting their separate generations and market positions.

• Process Node: The GTX 960A uses a 28 nm process, while the Radeon Pro 5500M uses a 7 nm process.
• Transistors: The AMD chip contains 6,400 million transistors, compared to the NVIDIA chip's 1,870 million.
• Die Size: The Radeon Pro 5500M has a die size of 158 mm², slightly larger than the GTX 960A's 148 mm².
• Clock Speeds: The GTX 960A has a higher base clock (1097 MHz vs 1000 MHz) but a lower boost clock (1176 MHz vs 1450 MHz).
• Memory Size: The Radeon Pro 5500M has 8 GB of VRAM, four times the 2 GB of the GTX 960A.
• Memory Type & Bandwidth: The Radeon Pro 5500M uses GDDR6 with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 960A uses GDDR5 with 80.19 GB/s.
• Memory Clock: The Radeon Pro 5500M's memory runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), while the GTX 960A's runs at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective).
• Shader Units: The Radeon Pro 5500M has 1536 shading units, compared to 640 on the GTX 960A.
• TMUs & ROPs: The AMD card has 96 texture mapping units and 32 render output units; the NVIDIA card has 40 TMUs and 16 ROPs.
• Compute Power: The Radeon Pro 5500M has an FP32 rating of 4.454 TFLOPS and FP16 of 8.909 TFLOPS, while the GTX 960A has an FP32 rating of 1.505 TFLOPS and no FP16.
• TDP: The GTX 960A is rated at 75 W, while the Radeon Pro 5500M is rated at 85 W.
• Bus Interface: The GTX 960A uses MXM-B (3.0), while the Radeon Pro 5500M uses PCIe 4.0 x8.
• DirectX Support: The Radeon Pro 5500M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), whereas the GTX 960A supports DirectX 12 (11_0).

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A is based on the Maxwell architecture, utilizing the GM107 chip. This is an older design from the GeForce 900A generation, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, in contrast, is based on the RDNA 1.0 architecture, using the Navi 14 chip. It belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Mobile) generation and is built on a much more advanced 7 nm process, also at TSMC.

The architectural differences have profound implications for capabilities. The RDNA 1.0 architecture in the Radeon Pro 5500M is designed for modern workloads, offering support for DirectX 12 (12_1) and delivering substantial FP16 compute performance at 8.909 TFLOPS, which is useful for AI and certain compute tasks. The older Maxwell architecture in the GTX 960A is limited to a lower DirectX feature level of 11_0 and has no FP16 capability listed. The transistor density figures highlight this generational leap: the Radeon Pro 5500M packs 40.5M transistors per mm² versus the GTX 960A's 12.6M per mm². This density allows the AMD GPU to integrate far more shading units (1536 vs 640) and TMUs (96 vs 40) in a similar die area, directly translating to higher fill rates and compute throughput. The GTX 960A's power connector is listed as "None" and its slot width is "MXM Module," whereas the Radeon Pro 5500M's slot width is not specified.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M wins in every measurable category. It has a decisive victory in the OpenCL compute test, and its additional benchmark scores across Metal, Vulkan, and various Passmark tests demonstrate a breadth of capability that the GTX 960A cannot match. The Radeon Pro 5500M is the clear winner for any task involving compute, 3D rendering, or modern graphics APIs.

The GTX 960A's only potential advantage lies in its power consumption. With a TDP of 75 W compared to the Radeon Pro 5500M's 85 W, it draws less power. This could make it a preferable option in a system with extremely strict thermal or power delivery limits, though this advantage does not show up in any performance metric. The GTX 960A also has a higher base clock speed, but this is irrelevant given the Radeon Pro 5500M's much higher boost clock and overall architectural superiority. In a direct performance comparison, the GTX 960A has no wins, and the data offers no scenario where it outperforms the Radeon Pro 5500M.