AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile occupy very different corners of the GPU market, yet their overlapping 8 GB memory capacity makes them frequent comparison points for portable and workstation-class systems. The database shows a clear split: the AMD part is a legacy professional accelerator built for compute-heavy workloads, while the NVIDIA part is a modern mobile gaming and AI-focused chip. Their benchmark averages, percentiles, and architectural traits paint a picture of two GPUs that win in entirely separate scenarios, with the RTX 5050 Mobile holding a decisive edge in raw OpenCL throughput.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is the stronger choice for legacy workstation applications that rely on broad shading and texture throughput. Its 3072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines give it a substantial fixed-function advantage over the RTX 5050 Mobile, which has only 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. In pixel and texture fill rate, the Vega 48 posts 76.80 GPixel/s and 230.4 GTexel/s, versus 48.00 GPixel/s and 120.0 GTexel/s for the NVIDIA chip. That is a 60% advantage in pixel throughput and a 92% lead in texture rate, making the AMD part better suited for older OpenGL-based CAD or DCC tasks where raw rasterization matters.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile wins decisively in modern compute and API compatibility. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 84171 crushes the Vega 48's 53757, a 36.1% gap. The RTX 5050 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega 48 tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. For any workload that uses ray tracing, mesh shaders, or the latest Vulkan extensions, the RTX 5050 is the only viable option. Additionally, the RTX 5050's fp32 throughput of 7.680 TFLOPS edges out the Vega 48's 7.373 TFLOPS, and its fp16 performance is identical at 7.680 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) versus the Vega 48's 14.75 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), which means the NVIDIA chip does not rely on rate conversion to deliver full-rate half-precision compute.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are generations apart in design philosophy. The Radeon Pro Vega 48 uses GCN 5.0 architecture on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, packing 12,500 million transistors into a massive 495 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 25.3 million per mm², a figure that reflects the older, less efficient process. The RTX 5050 Mobile, by contrast, is built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm node, fitting 16,900 million transistors into just 149 mm². Its density of 113.4 million per mm² is more than four times higher, explaining how NVIDIA delivers more raw compute in a fraction of the silicon area.

Memory architecture also diverges sharply. The Vega 48 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, achieving 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5050 Mobile uses 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s. Despite the narrow bus, the newer memory technology keeps bandwidth competitive, though the AMD part retains a 4.8% bandwidth advantage. Clock behavior differs as well: the RTX 5050 has a base clock of 1020 MHz and a boost of 1500 MHz, while the Vega 48's base and boost clocks are not recorded in the database. The RTX 5050 also includes dedicated hardware that the Vega 48 lacks entirely: 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison in the database is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is lopsided. The RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84171, while the Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 53757. That is a 36.1% deficit for the AMD part, a massive gap in a compute-centric test that should favor the Vega 48's wider memory bus and higher shading unit count. The results indicate that the Blackwell architecture's compute efficiency, combined with its 5 nm process and higher transistor density, more than compensates for the AMD chip's raw resource advantages.

Looking at average benchmark scores across all recorded tests, the picture is more nuanced. The Vega 48 has an average score of 60140, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The RTX 5050 Mobile has an average score of 43268, sitting in the 83rd percentile. That discrepancy comes from the benchmark mix: the Vega 48's recorded tests include Geekbench Metal (69010), Geekbench OpenCL (53757), and Geekbench Vulkan (57653), all of which are high-scoring compute workloads. The RTX 5050's recorded tests include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2365, which drags its average down despite the strong OpenCL result. The data suggests the RTX 5050 is more versatile across gaming and compute, while the Vega 48 is specialized for high-throughput compute in its limited test set.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher peak FP32 performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile leads with 7.680 TFLOPS, slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48's 7.373 TFLOPS, a difference of about 4.2%.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The Vega 48 has no ray tracing cores, while the RTX 5050 Mobile includes 20 dedicated ray tracing cores.

Q: How do memory bandwidths compare?

A: The Vega 48's HBM2 memory delivers 402.4 GB/s over a 2048-bit bus, while the RTX 5050's GDDR7 memory provides 384.0 GB/s over a 128-bit bus. The AMD part has a 4.8% bandwidth advantage.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 5050 Mobile has a density of 113.4 million transistors per mm², versus 25.3 million per mm² for the Vega 48, a 4.5x difference.

Q: What is the production status of each GPU?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 48 is end-of-life, released in March 2019. The GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile is active, released in June 2025.

Q: Which API levels does each GPU support?

A: The Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every key specification. The Vega 48 uses GCN 5.0 architecture on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, while the RTX 5050 uses Blackwell 2.0 on TSMC's 5 nm node. Transistor counts are 12,500 million versus 16,900 million, with die sizes of 495 mm² and 149 mm² respectively. The Vega 48 has 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs; the RTX 5050 has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 5050 adds 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, which the Vega 48 lacks. Memory types differ: HBM2 with a 2048-bit bus versus GDDR7 with a 128-bit bus. Bandwidth is 402.4 GB/s versus 384.0 GB/s. Pixel rates are 76.80 GPixel/s versus 48.00 GPixel/s, and texture rates are 230.4 GTexel/s versus 120.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 7.373 TFLOPS versus 7.680 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 14.75 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 7.680 TFLOPS (1:1). The Vega 48 has no recorded TDP, while the RTX 5050 draws 50 W. Bus interfaces are PCIe 3.0 x16 versus PCIe 5.0 x16. The Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3; the RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. Release dates are March 2019 versus June 2025, and production status is end-of-life versus active.