AMD Radeon Pro 575X vs NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile Comparison

NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro 575X are both end-of-life mobile workstation GPUs, but they represent vastly different approaches to the same task. The RTX A500 Mobile, built on the 8nm Ampere architecture, is a modern, power-efficient design. The Radeon Pro 575X, using the older 14nm GCN 4.0 architecture, is a larger and more power-hungry chip. Their average benchmark scores are remarkably close, with the AMD card achieving a 39836 average and the NVIDIA card scoring 39568, a difference of only 0.7%. However, this near-parity in overall score masks significant architectural and performance differences that show up in specific workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available for these two GPUs is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results show a clear victory for the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile. In this test, the RTX A500 Mobile scores 41263, while the Radeon Pro 575X scores 35017. This translates to a substantial 17.8% performance advantage for the NVIDIA GPU. This is a significant margin, indicating that in compute-heavy OpenCL workloads, the newer Ampere architecture provides a considerable performance uplift over the GCN-based chip.

While the OpenCL test is the only head-to-head data point, the broader benchmark picture from the `benchmarks` and `nearestRivals` fields provides additional context. The RTX A500 Mobile also has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 37873, which is a strong result and suggests solid performance in modern graphics APIs. The Radeon Pro 575X counters with a Geekbench Metal score of 44655, which is its best result and highlights its strength in Apple's Metal API, a crucial ecosystem for the Radeon Pro Mac series.

The overall average scores, however, tell a different story. The Radeon Pro 575X has a higher average score (39836) compared to the RTX A500 Mobile (39568), even though it loses the OpenCL head-to-head. This is likely because the average score incorporates results from different benchmark suites, where the AMD card's strong Metal performance helps it pull ahead. Looking at the nearest rivals for each card, the RTX A500 Mobile sits just 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, while the Radeon Pro 575X sits a mere 0.1% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64. This places both cards in a very tight performance cluster, with the RTX A500 Mobile being the faster of the two specifically in OpenCL, but the Radeon Pro 575X having a slight edge in the overall average.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 575X has a higher average benchmark score of 39836, compared to the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile's 39568. This gives the AMD card a 0.7% advantage in overall average performance.

Q: In which specific benchmark does the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile win?

A: The RTX A500 Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, scoring 41263 against the Radeon Pro 575X's 35017, a 17.8% difference.

Q: Are there any benchmarks that the AMD Radeon Pro 575X wins?

A: While there is no direct head-to-head benchmark where it wins, the Radeon Pro 575X has a strong Geekbench Metal score of 44655, which is higher than any single score recorded for the RTX A500 Mobile in the provided data.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in terms of their percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 575X has a slightly higher percentile ranking, at 83, compared to the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile's 82. This indicates that the AMD card performs better than a slightly larger percentage of all GPUs in the database.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX A500 Mobile and its closest rival, the Radeon RX 9070 XT?

A: The RTX A500 Mobile has an average score of 39568, which is only 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT's average score of 39647, making them nearly identical in overall performance.

Q: Does the RTX A500 Mobile support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RTX A500 Mobile is equipped with 16 ray tracing cores, a feature notably absent from the Radeon Pro 575X, which has no ray tracing cores.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is based on the GA107S chip, using the modern Ampere architecture. It is manufactured on an 8nm process at Samsung, packing 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². This design includes 16 dedicated ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores, making it a fully-featured modern GPU. In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro 575X is built on the Ellesmere chip with the older GCN 4.0 architecture, produced on a 14nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 5,700 million transistors on a larger 232 mm² die, leading to a lower transistor density of 24.6M per mm². The AMD chip has no ray tracing or tensor cores, reflecting its older design.

These architectural differences lead to different feature sets. The RTX A500 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro 575X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The process node difference is also crucial: the 8nm process of the NVIDIA chip allows for significantly higher transistor density and improved power efficiency compared to the 14nm process of the AMD chip.

Specification Differences

The specifications of the two cards diverge significantly in several key areas, despite both having 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs. The memory subsystems are particularly distinct. The RTX A500 Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, providing 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 575X also has 4 GB of memory, but it is GDDR5 on a much wider 256-bit bus, yielding a substantially higher 217.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The texture units also differ, with the AMD card having 128 TMUs compared to the NVIDIA card's 64 TMUs. This results in the AMD card having a higher texture rate of 140.3 GTexel/s, while the NVIDIA card's is 98.37 GTexel/s. However, the NVIDIA card has a higher pixel rate of 49.18 GPixel/s versus the AMD's 35.07 GPixel/s.

Clock speeds and compute performance also show a notable split. The RTX A500 Mobile has a base clock of 832 MHz and a boost clock of 1537 MHz, while the Radeon Pro 575X has no listed base or boost clocks. The memory clock for the NVIDIA card is 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), while the AMD card's is 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective). In raw FP32 compute, the NVIDIA card is significantly ahead, offering 6.296 TFLOPS compared to the AMD card's 4.489 TFLOPS. The power envelope is a major differentiator: the RTX A500 Mobile has a TDP of just 30 W, whereas the Radeon Pro 575X has a TDP of 150 W. The bus interface also differs, with the NVIDIA card using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the AMD card using PCIe 3.0 x16.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is the clear winner in raw compute performance and efficiency. Its 6.296 TFLOPS FP32 performance is 40% higher than the AMD card's 4.489 TFLOPS, and its 17.8% lead in the OpenCL benchmark demonstrates this advantage in practice. The presence of ray tracing and tensor cores also makes it the superior choice for workloads that can leverage these features, such as ray-traced rendering and AI-accelerated tasks. Its incredibly low 30 W TDP is a massive advantage for mobile devices, allowing for thinner and lighter designs with better battery life. The newer PCIe 4.0 interface also provides a bandwidth advantage over the older PCIe 3.0 standard.

The AMD Radeon Pro 575X, on the other hand, wins in memory throughput and overall average benchmark score. Its 217.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth is more than double that of the NVIDIA card, which is a critical advantage for memory-bound tasks like large texture loads or data-heavy compute workloads. Its higher 140.3 GTexel/s texture rate also makes it potentially faster in certain fill-rate-limited scenarios. The higher average benchmark score of 39836 and its higher percentile ranking (83 vs 82) indicate that, across a diverse range of benchmark suites, it edges out the NVIDIA card. Its strong Geekbench Metal score of 44655 suggests it is particularly well-suited for applications that utilize Apple's Metal graphics API.

The Verdict

The choice between these two GPUs depends entirely on the specific requirements of the user. The data indicates that the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is the better choice for users prioritizing raw compute performance, modern features, and power efficiency. Its 17.8% lead in OpenCL, higher FP32 throughput, and support for ray tracing and tensor cores make it a more future-proof and versatile option for professional 3D and compute workloads. The 30 W TDP is transformative for mobile workstation design, and the newer PCIe 4.0 interface is a bonus.

The AMD Radeon Pro 575X is the better pick for users whose workloads are heavily dependent on memory bandwidth or who operate within the Apple ecosystem. Its 217.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is a decisive advantage in specific scenarios, and its superior Geekbench Metal score makes it a strong performer in macOS environments. The higher overall average benchmark score and percentile ranking, while slight, are notable.

In summary, for a general-purpose mobile workstation, the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile offers a more compelling package due to its architectural advantages and efficiency. However, for a user with a specific need for high memory bandwidth or a primary focus on Metal-based applications, the AMD Radeon Pro 575X remains a capable and competitive option. The performance difference between the two is small, but the architectural philosophies are profoundly different.