AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X represent two very different generations of professional mobile graphics. The data shows a clear overall winner in raw compute, but the story is more nuanced when considering the specific workloads each card was designed for. The RTX A5500 Mobile, built on Ampere, posts an average benchmark score of 113944, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. The Radeon Pro Vega 64X, based on GCN 5.0, averages 80959, sitting in the 92nd percentile. While the percentile gap is narrow, the raw score difference is substantial, and the head-to-head benchmark reveals a dominant performance lead for the NVIDIA part.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available in the data is the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this benchmark, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124287, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X scores 78467. This results in a delta of 58.4% in favor of the NVIDIA card. That is not a marginal win; it is a decisive margin that highlights the generational leap in compute architecture. The RTX A5500 Mobile’s FP32 throughput is listed at 22.27 TFLOPS, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64X manages 12.03 TFLOPS. The OpenCL score reflects this nearly two-fold difference in raw floating-point performance.

Interestingly, the AMD card does have a separate benchmark result: Geekbench Metal, where it scores 83450. This test is not available for the NVIDIA card in the FACT PACK, so a direct comparison is impossible. However, the Metal score is higher than its own OpenCL score of 78467, suggesting that the Vega 64X is better optimized for Apple’s Metal API, which aligns with its “Radeon Pro Mac” generation label. Still, in the only apples-to-apples test, NVIDIA wins outright.

The nearest rivals for each card provide additional context. The RTX A5500 Mobile’s average score of 113944 places it just 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB (114395) and 2.7% behind the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (117088). It is 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (110725). This tells us that the A5500 Mobile is competitive with much larger, desktop-class accelerators. For the Radeon Pro Vega 64X, its average of 80959 is 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (81995) and 1.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (79842). That means the Vega 64X, despite being older, still trades blows with modern consumer flagships in this specific aggregate metric.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins the only head-to-head benchmark, and it wins it by a wide margin. Its architecture is clearly built for sustained compute workloads. The 58.4% lead in OpenCL suggests that for general-purpose GPU computing, OpenCL-based rendering, or scientific simulations, the A5500 Mobile is the superior choice. The card also has dedicated RT cores (58) and tensor cores (232), which enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI inference. The FACT PACK shows support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, meaning it can handle the latest graphics APIs.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X, on the other hand, wins in the context of macOS ecosystems. Its generation label is “Radeon Pro Mac,” and its only benchmark victory is in Geekbench Metal, where it scores 83450. This indicates that for Metal-accelerated applications—common in video editing, motion graphics, and certain 3D tools on Apple platforms—the Vega 64X is a capable performer. It also has a higher texture rate (375.8 GTexel/s) compared to the A5500 Mobile’s 348.0 GTexel/s, and more texture mapping units (256 vs 232). In texture-heavy workloads, the AMD card could hold an advantage, even if the overall compute throughput is lower.

The power envelope tells a different story. The RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64X draws 250 W. This means the NVIDIA card delivers far more performance per watt, a critical factor for mobile workstations where thermal and battery constraints are tight. The AMD card’s higher power draw limits its practicality in thin-and-light systems.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by three years of development and fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip on an 8 nm process from Samsung, packing 22,000 million transistors onto a 496 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The architecture is Ampere, which supports features like hardware ray tracing and tensor cores. The card has 7424 shading units, 232 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Its memory subsystem is 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 1500 MHz with a base of 975 MHz.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X uses the Vega 10 chip on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. It contains 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, with a transistor density of 25.3M per mm². This is a GCN 5.0 architecture, which lacks dedicated RT cores and tensor cores. The card has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Its memory is 16 GB of HBM2 on a massive 2048-bit bus, also delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Interestingly, both cards have identical memory bandwidth, but they achieve it through very different methods: GDDR6 with a narrower bus versus HBM2 with a much wider bus.

The clock speeds favor AMD in base frequency (1250 MHz vs 975 MHz) but NVIDIA in boost (1500 MHz vs 1468 MHz). The FP16 performance is a notable split: NVIDIA achieves 22.27 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio to FP32, while AMD achieves 24.05 TFLOPS but with a 2:1 ratio. This means AMD’s FP16 is only half the rate of its FP32, whereas NVIDIA offers full-rate FP16. For mixed-precision workloads, NVIDIA has an advantage. The Radeon Pro Vega 64X also supports only DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, missing the newer 12_2 features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 113944, compared to the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X’s 80959. This represents a difference of roughly 40.7%.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA card in OpenCL?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124287 versus the Vega 64X’s 78467, a delta of 58.4% in favor of NVIDIA.

Q: Does the AMD card have any benchmark where it outperforms NVIDIA?

A: The data includes no direct head-to-head where AMD wins. However, the Vega 64X scores higher in Geekbench Metal (83450) than in Geekbench OpenCL (78467), suggesting its performance is better optimized for Metal-based applications.

Q: What are the TDP differences?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64X has a TDP of 250 W. The NVIDIA card is more power-efficient.

Q: Do both cards have the same memory bandwidth?

A: Yes, both offer 512.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, but the NVIDIA card uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the AMD card uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus.

Q: Which card supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile includes 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X has no RT cores or tensor cores listed.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous for general compute: the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is the stronger GPU. Its 58.4% lead in OpenCL, higher FP32 throughput (22.27 TFLOPS vs 12.03 TFLOPS), and full-rate FP16 performance make it the choice for OpenCL-based rendering, simulation, or machine learning tasks. The presence of RT and tensor cores adds capabilities the AMD card simply cannot offer, such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI inference. The lower TDP of 165 W also makes it more suitable for mobile workstations.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is not without merit, but its advantages are narrower. Its higher texture rate (375.8 GTexel/s) and more TMUs (256) could benefit texture-bound workloads. Its better Metal score (83450) suggests it is a solid pick for macOS environments that rely on Metal. However, the lack of RT cores, older API support (DirectX 12_1), and higher power draw (250 W) limit its appeal for modern professional workloads.

For a mobile workstation user who needs maximum compute performance, the RTX A5500 Mobile is the clear winner. For someone locked into a Mac ecosystem with Metal-based applications, the Vega 64X may be a necessary compromise, but the data shows it is significantly slower in raw terms. The verdict is simple: choose NVIDIA for performance, choose AMD only if the software environment demands it.

Specification Differences

| Field | NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile | AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X |

|-------|-------------------------|--------------------------|

| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 5.0 |

| Process Node | 8 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | Samsung | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 22,000 million | 12,500 million |

| Die Size | 496 mm² | 495 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 44.4M / mm² | 25.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 975 MHz | 1250 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1500 MHz | 1468 MHz |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 2048 bit |

| Shading Units | 7424 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 232 | 256 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 58 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 232 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 144.0 GPixel/s | 93.95 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 348.0 GTexel/s | 375.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 22.27 TFLOPS | 12.03 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 22.27 TFLOPS (1:1) | 24.05 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 165 W | 250 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| DirectX | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Slot Width | Not specified | IGP |

| Release Date | 2022-03-21 | 2019-03-18 |