AMD Radeon Pro 580 vs NVIDIA CMP 50HX Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA CMP 50HX compare to the AMD Radeon Pro 580 in raw compute benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 50HX wins both shared benchmark tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 56,135 versus 38,457 for the AMD Radeon Pro 580, a 46% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 47,445 versus 43,285, a 9.6% lead.

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

A: The NVIDIA CMP 50HX has an average benchmark score of 51,790 and sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 averages 40,318 and sits in the 82nd percentile. The NVIDIA card outperforms the AMD card by roughly 28% based on these averages.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth, and what are the specifications?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 50HX offers 560.0 GB/s of bandwidth using 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 provides 217.0 GB/s using 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. The NVIDIA card delivers more than double the memory bandwidth.

Q: Are there differences in API support between the two cards?

A: Yes. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The NVIDIA card has a newer DirectX feature level and a higher Vulkan version.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size for each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 50HX uses 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, manufactured on TSMC's 12 nm process. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 uses 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, manufactured on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process.

Q: What are the closest rivals for these GPUs according to the database?

A: For the NVIDIA CMP 50HX, the nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (average score 50,951, delta 1.6%), followed by the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50,001, delta 3.6%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957, delta 3.7%), and Intel Arc A550M (49,737, delta 4.1%). For the AMD Radeon Pro 580, the nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40,063, delta 0.6%), with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377, delta -0.1%) and AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870, delta -1.4%) nearby.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear performance hierarchy: the NVIDIA CMP 50HX is the stronger GPU in every shared benchmark. It wins both head-to-head tests, with a 46% margin in OpenCL and a 9.6% margin in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 51,790 places it comfortably above the AMD Radeon Pro 580's 40,318, a gap of roughly 28%.

For users whose workloads rely on OpenCL compute, the choice is unambiguous. The NVIDIA card delivers a 46% advantage in that specific test, which is substantial for any compute-oriented task. The Vulkan gap is narrower at 9.6%, but still favors NVIDIA consistently.

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 does have one unique capability: it is the only card of the two with a Metal benchmark score (39,213). This suggests it may be relevant for macOS environments, as the card belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (500 Series) generation. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX, by contrast, has no display outputs and is classified under Mining GPUs, meaning it is not designed for general graphics work.

The percentile rankings reinforce this split. The NVIDIA card sits at the 86th percentile, while the AMD card sits at the 82nd percentile. Both are above average, but the NVIDIA card occupies a higher tier of overall performance.

In practical terms, the NVIDIA CMP 50HX is the pick for raw compute throughput, particularly in OpenCL. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 is the pick for systems requiring integrated graphics (it is listed as an IGP) and portable device dependent display outputs, which points toward laptop or all-in-one Mac deployments.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The shared benchmark suite consists of two tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX wins both.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA CMP 50HX scores 56,135, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 38,457. The delta is 46%, meaning the NVIDIA card is nearly half again as fast in this compute workload. This is the largest margin in the head-to-head comparison, and it aligns with the NVIDIA card's higher FP32 throughput of 11.07 TFLOPS versus 5.530 TFLOPS for the AMD card.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap narrows considerably. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX scores 47,445, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 43,285. The delta is 9.6%, still a clear win for NVIDIA but a much closer contest. Interestingly, the AMD card's Vulkan score of 43,285 is actually higher than its OpenCL score of 38,457, suggesting Vulkan is a relatively stronger workload for the AMD architecture. Conversely, the NVIDIA card's Vulkan score of 47,445 is lower than its OpenCL score of 56,135, indicating OpenCL is the more favorable test for NVIDIA.

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 also has a Geekbench Metal score of 39,213, but there is no corresponding Metal score for the NVIDIA CMP 50HX in the database. This means Metal performance cannot be compared directly. The presence of this test for the AMD card, combined with its absence for the NVIDIA card, suggests the AMD card is positioned for Apple-centric workflows.

The win tally is 2-0 in favor of the NVIDIA CMP 50HX. No benchmark in the shared suite favors the AMD card.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification category.

Memory capacity: the NVIDIA CMP 50HX has 10 GB of GDDR6, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580 has 8 GB of GDDR5. The memory bus width is 320-bit for NVIDIA versus 256-bit for AMD. Memory bandwidth stands at 560.0 GB/s for NVIDIA versus 217.0 GB/s for AMD.

Clock speeds: the NVIDIA card has a base clock of 1350 MHz and a boost clock of 1545 MHz. The AMD card has a base clock of 1100 MHz and a boost clock of 1200 MHz. Memory clock is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA versus 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective) for AMD.

Compute units: the NVIDIA card has 3584 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The AMD card has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA card also includes 56 RT cores and 448 tensor cores, while the AMD card has no RT cores or tensor cores listed.

Rates: pixel rate is 123.6 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 38.40 GPixel/s for AMD. Texture rate is 296.6 GTexel/s for NVIDIA versus 172.8 GTexel/s for AMD. FP32 throughput is 11.07 TFLOPS for NVIDIA versus 5.530 TFLOPS for AMD. FP16 throughput is 22.15 TFLOPS (2:1) for NVIDIA versus 5.530 TFLOPS (1:1) for AMD.

Power and physical: the NVIDIA card has a TDP of 250 W, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a suggested PSU of 600 W. It is dual-slot with dimensions of 267 mm length, 116 mm height, and 35 mm width. The AMD card has a TDP of 185 W, no power connectors, and is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no dimensions provided.

Interfaces: the NVIDIA card uses PCIe 1.0 x4, while the AMD card uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The NVIDIA card has no display outputs, while the AMD card has portable device dependent outputs.

Release timing: the NVIDIA CMP 50HX was released on June 23, 2021. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 was released on June 4, 2017.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA CMP 50HX is built on the Turing architecture with the TU102 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 12 nm process. It packs 18,600 million transistors into a 754 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.7M per mm². Turing brings dedicated RT cores (56) and tensor cores (448), which are absent from the AMD card. This architecture also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4.

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 uses the GCN 4.0 architecture with the Ellesmere chip, fabricated on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. It has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². GCN 4.0 has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware. It supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

The transistor density is nearly identical between the two (24.7M versus 24.6M per mm²), which is notable given the four-year gap in release dates. The key differentiator is scale: the NVIDIA chip has more than three times the transistor count and more than three times the die area.

The NVIDIA card's FP16 performance is listed as 22.15 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, indicating the Turing architecture's ability to accelerate half-precision workloads. The AMD card's FP16 performance is identical to its FP32 at 5.530 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning no dedicated FP16 acceleration.

The bus interface difference is also architectural: PCIe 1.0 x4 for NVIDIA versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD. This is unusual, as the NVIDIA card is newer but uses an older PCIe specification. However, the NVIDIA card's mining-oriented design (no display outputs) may not require high host bandwidth.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA CMP 50HX wins in every shared benchmark category. Its 46% lead in OpenCL makes it the dominant choice for compute-intensive workloads that rely on OpenCL. The 9.6% lead in Vulkan extends this dominance to Vulkan-based applications. The card's higher memory bandwidth (560.0 GB/s versus 217.0 GB/s) and larger memory pool (10 GB versus 8 GB) support larger datasets and more demanding textures. The presence of RT cores and tensor cores adds capabilities for ray-traced workloads and AI inference, though no specific benchmarks for these features are recorded.

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 wins in the context of system integration. It is classified as an IGP, meaning it is designed to be integrated into a host system rather than installed as a discrete card. Its display outputs are portable device dependent, which indicates it is intended for laptops or all-in-one systems. The card's Metal benchmark score of 39,213 is a data point the NVIDIA card cannot match, as no Metal score exists for the CMP 50HX. This positions the AMD card for macOS-based workflows where Metal is the primary graphics API.

The AMD card also has a lower TDP at 185 W versus 250 W for NVIDIA, and it requires no external power connectors. For systems with limited power delivery, the AMD card is the more feasible option. The NVIDIA card's 2x 8-pin connectors and 600 W suggested PSU demand a more robust power supply.

The NVIDIA card's mining-oriented design (no display outputs, PCIe 1.0 x4 interface) makes it unsuitable for standard desktop use. The AMD card's portable device dependent outputs and IGP classification make it suitable for integrated systems. The choice between the two depends entirely on the deployment context: raw compute throughput points to NVIDIA, while system integration and Metal support point to AMD.