AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs NVIDIA Tesla M2090 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data splits cleanly between these two cards, but the split is not symmetrical. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M wins the only direct head-to-head comparison available in the database, and it also holds a much broader set of test results across multiple API frameworks. The NVIDIA Tesla M2090, by contrast, has exactly one benchmark entry: a Geekbench OpenCL score of 13075. That single result places it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the AMD card sits at the 51st percentile based on its average score of 11528.

The interesting wrinkle here is that the M2090's OpenCL score is actually its only data point, and that score is relatively modest when placed against its nearest rivals. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, however, shows a much richer benchmark profile: it has results for Metal (38235), OpenCL (31088), Vulkan (35134), and a full Passmark suite covering DirectX 9 through 12, 2D, 3D, and compute workloads. This means the AMD card wins on versatility and sheer number of measurable workloads, while the NVIDIA card wins on nothing except a single OpenCL score that is far lower.

Looking at where each card would be preferred, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the obvious choice for any workload that touches modern graphics APIs. Its Vulkan score of 35134 and Metal score of 38235 indicate strong performance in cross-platform and Apple-centric environments. The M2090 has no Vulkan support listed at all, and its OpenCL score is less than half of the AMD card's OpenCL result. For compute-heavy tasks that rely on OpenCL, the AMD part dominates. For legacy DirectX 9 or 10 workloads, the AMD card also has measurable results, while the M2090 has none in those categories.

The M2090's only potential advantage is its position in the percentile ranking relative to its own single benchmark. At the 53rd percentile, it sits slightly above the AMD card's 51st percentile, but that is a function of how the average is calculated across different benchmark sets. The M2090's average benchmark score is identical to its OpenCL score (13075), while the AMD card's average of 11528 pulls together ten different tests, several of which are low-scoring DirectX legacy tests. In raw compute terms, the AMD card is far ahead.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher OpenCL score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 31088 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 scores 13075. The delta is 57.9% in favor of AMD.

Q: How do these cards compare in their nearest rival groups?

A: The M2090's nearest rivals include the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (delta 0.7% ahead), the GeForce GTX 950 (0.9% behind), the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (1% ahead), and the RX 580 (1.1% ahead). The AMD Pro 5500M's nearest rivals include the Tesla K20c (0.4% ahead), the RX 7800 XT (0.8% behind), the GTX 1660 (1.3% behind), and the GTX 780M (2.4% ahead). Both cards sit within a few percentage points of their closest competitors.

Q: Does the AMD card support Vulkan?

A: Yes, the Radeon Pro 5500M lists Vulkan 1.4 support and scores 35134 in Geekbench Vulkan. The Tesla M2090 lists no Vulkan support in the database.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has 1536 shading units, while the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 has 512 shading units.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The AMD card has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 177.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel rate?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has a pixel rate of 46.40 GPixel/s, while the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 has a pixel rate of 20.83 GPixel/s.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one direct comparison between these two cards, and it is decisive. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 31088 against the NVIDIA Tesla M2090's 13075. That is a 57.9% margin in favor of AMD. To put that in context, the M2090's OpenCL score is roughly equivalent to what its nearest rivals achieve: the GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986 (0.7% lower), the GTX 950 scores 13189 (0.9% higher), the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 12940 (1% lower), and the RX 580 scores 12928 (1.1% lower). The M2090 is squarely in that neighborhood, which means it is not an outlier for its generation; it is simply an older card that happens to land near mid-range GPUs from later years.

The AMD card's OpenCL score of 31088, however, is more than double that of any of its nearest rivals. Its nearest rival, the Tesla K20c, averages 11479, which is 0.4% behind. The RX 7800 XT averages 11627 (0.8% ahead of the Pro 5500M's average), the GTX 1660 averages 11680 (1.3% ahead), and the GTX 780M averages 11261 (2.4% behind). None of these rivals come close to the AMD card's OpenCL result. This suggests that the Pro 5500M's OpenCL performance is exceptionally strong relative to its average score, which is dragged down by the low DirectX legacy tests.

The broader AMD benchmark suite shows a pattern: the card excels in modern API tests (Metal 38235, Vulkan 35134, OpenCL 31088) but performs poorly in legacy DirectX tests (Passmark DirectX 9 at 96, DirectX 10 at 36, DirectX 11 at 42, DirectX 12 at 29). The M2090 has no comparable data for those legacy tests, so the database cannot confirm whether it would outperform there. What is clear is that the only shared test, OpenCL, shows a massive AMD advantage.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The NVIDIA Tesla M2090 uses a 40 nm process node, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M uses a 7 nm node. Both are manufactured by TSMC, but the transistor counts are vastly different: the M2090 has 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, giving a density of 5.8M per mm². The AMD card has 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, yielding a density of 40.5M per mm². That is a seven-fold density improvement.

Memory is another major split. The M2090 has 6 GB of GDDR5 with a 384-bit bus and 177.4 GB/s bandwidth. The Pro 5500M has 8 GB of GDDR6 with a 128-bit bus and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. Despite the narrower bus, the AMD card achieves higher bandwidth thanks to faster memory clock speeds: 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) versus the M2090's 924 MHz (3.7 Gbps effective).

Compute resources differ sharply. The M2090 has 512 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The AMD card has 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and only 32 ROPs. Pixel rate favors AMD at 46.40 GPixel/s versus 20.83 GPixel/s, and texture rate is even more lopsided: 139.2 GTexel/s versus 41.66 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 4.454 TFLOPS for AMD versus 1,332.2 GFLOPS for NVIDIA. The AMD card also lists FP16 performance at 8.909 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the M2090 has no FP16 figure.

Power and physical characteristics differ as well. The M2090 has a 250 W TDP, requires a 600 W suggested PSU, uses dual-slot cooling with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors, and measures 248 mm (9.8 inches) in length. It has no display outputs. The AMD card has an 85 W TDP, no power connectors, and its display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent." The bus interface differs: PCIe 2.0 x16 for NVIDIA versus PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD.

API support also diverges. The M2090 lists DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, with no Vulkan. The AMD card lists DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Tesla M2090 is built on the GF110 chip using Fermi 2.0 architecture, part of the Tesla Fermi generation. This is a 40 nm design from 2011, positioned as a compute-focused accelerator with no display outputs. Its architecture is rooted in the Fermi design philosophy, which emphasized raw FP32 throughput and large memory buses for high-bandwidth compute workloads. The 512 shading units and 64 TMUs reflect a design optimized for dense mathematical operations rather than graphics rendering.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M uses the Navi 14 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, part of the Radeon Pro Mac generation for mobile devices. This is a 7 nm design from 2019. RDNA 1.0 represents a significant architectural shift from older GCN designs, with a focus on improving instruction-level efficiency and reducing latency. The 1536 shading units are organized differently than NVIDIA's Fermi layout, and the 96 TMUs provide higher texture throughput. The AMD card is designed for mobile integration, as indicated by its lack of power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs.

The transistor density difference is the clearest architectural signal. The M2090 packs 3,000 million transistors into 520 mm², while the Pro 5500M crams 6,400 million into just 158 mm². This is a direct result of the process node improvement from 40 nm to 7 nm. The AMD card also supports FP16 operations at a 2:1 ratio, which the Fermi architecture does not offer at all. Memory technology differs as well: GDDR5 with a wide 384-bit bus versus GDDR6 with a narrow 128-bit bus, showing two different approaches to achieving bandwidth.

The M2090's PCIe 2.0 x16 interface is two generations older than the Pro 5500M's PCIe 4.0 x8, though the latter's narrower link width partially offsets the bandwidth advantage. For compute workloads that rely on CPU-to-GPU data transfer, the newer interface on the AMD card should provide a meaningful advantage, though the database does not include direct measurements of that effect.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the stronger card in every shared metric. Its OpenCL score of 31088 is 57.9% higher than the M2090's 13075. Its pixel rate is more than double, its texture rate is more than triple, and its FP32 throughput is over three times higher. It has more memory, faster memory, and a newer architecture with a dramatically smaller die and higher transistor density. It also supports Vulkan and DirectX 12 (12_1), while the M2090 only reaches DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan.

The NVIDIA Tesla M2090 does have one narrow point in its favor: its 53rd percentile ranking versus the AMD's 51st percentile, based on their respective average benchmark scores. But that ranking is misleading because the M2090's average is derived from a single OpenCL test, while the AMD card's average includes several low-scoring legacy DirectX tests that pull it down. In the one test they share, the AMD card wins decisively.

For a user choosing between these two, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the clear pick for any modern workload. It supports current APIs, has higher compute throughput, and runs at a fraction of the power draw (85 W versus 250 W). The M2090 is an older compute-focused accelerator with no display outputs, and its only benchmark result places it far behind the AMD card. The database shows no workload category where the M2090 wins, aside from the ambiguous single-test percentile ranking. The verdict is straightforward: pick the AMD card for performance, compatibility, and efficiency. The M2090's only realistic use case would be a legacy system that specifically requires Fermi architecture and cannot use a newer card, but the recorded data offers no performance justification for that choice.