AMD Radeon Pro Vega II vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II represent two fundamentally different approaches to high-performance computing, separated by architecture, process technology, and intended deployment. The RTX A5500 Mobile is a mobile-first Ampere part built for laptops and portable workstations, while the Radeon Pro Vega II is a massive, quad-slot desktop accelerator designed for Apple Mac Pro systems. The benchmark data shows a clear overall winner, but the story is more nuanced when examining specific workloads and hardware characteristics.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is built on the GA103 chip using the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip packs 22,000 million transistors into a 496 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II uses the Vega 20 chip with GCN 5.1 architecture, manufactured on a more advanced 7 nm process at TSMC. The Vega 20 die is smaller at 331 mm² and holds 13,230 million transistors, resulting in a lower density of 40.0M per mm². The 7 nm process gives AMD an efficiency edge per transistor, but NVIDIA compensates with a larger chip and nearly 70% more transistors.

Core configuration further separates the two. The RTX A5500 Mobile fields 7,424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It also includes 58 dedicated ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Radeon Pro Vega II, which has no ray tracing or tensor hardware. The Vega II counters with 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Despite having fewer shading units, the Vega II's texture rate of 440.3 GTexel/s exceeds the RTX A5500 Mobile's 348.0 GTexel/s, while the NVIDIA part wins in pixel rate at 144.0 GPixel/s versus 110.1 GPixel/s.

Clock speeds tell a contrasting story. The Radeon Pro Vega II operates at a base clock of 1574 MHz and boosts to 1720 MHz, significantly higher than the RTX A5500 Mobile's 975 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost. However, the NVIDIA GPU's much larger shader count allows it to achieve higher raw compute throughput. The RTX A5500 Mobile delivers 22.27 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the Vega II manages 14.09 TFLOPS. In FP16, the tables turn: the Vega II outputs 28.18 TFLOPS thanks to a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A5500 Mobile matches its FP32 figure at 22.27 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio. Memory subsystems diverge completely. The NVIDIA part uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD part uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a massive 4096-bit bus, achieving 825.3 GB/s — a 61% bandwidth advantage. The Vega II's memory clock of 806 MHz (1612 Mbps effective) is paired with that enormous bus, while the RTX A5500 Mobile runs its memory at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

In the two shared benchmark tests, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins both, but with vastly different margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124,287 against the Radeon Pro Vega II's 99,405, a decisive 25% advantage. This result aligns with the FP32 compute gap, as OpenCL workloads typically stress general-purpose shader performance. The NVIDIA part's 22.27 TFLOPS versus 14.09 TFLOPS explains the magnitude of this victory. The Vega II's higher clocks and superior texture rate cannot compensate for the NVIDIA GPU's 81% more shading units in this compute-heavy test.

The Geekbench Vulkan test is far closer. The RTX A5500 Mobile scores 103,601, while the Vega II trails at 100,312, a narrow 3.3% margin. Vulkan workloads often benefit from lower-level hardware optimizations and driver efficiency, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II's GCN architecture shows its competitive side here. The NVIDIA part still wins, but the delta shrinks dramatically from 25% to 3.3%. The Vega II's superior memory bandwidth (825.3 GB/s vs 512.0 GB/s) and higher clock speeds likely narrow the gap in this API, which can be more sensitive to memory latency and fill-rate characteristics. The RTX A5500 Mobile's ray tracing and tensor cores do not factor into these particular tests, meaning the raw rasterization and compute engines are solely responsible for the results.

It is worth remembering the Radeon Pro Vega II also has a Geekbench Metal score of 130,183, a test not available for the RTX A5500 Mobile. This score exceeds the NVIDIA part's OpenCL result, suggesting the AMD GPU is highly optimized for Apple's Metal API, which is relevant given its primary market. However, since no direct comparison exists on Metal, this cannot be counted as a head-to-head win. Across the two directly comparable benchmarks, the RTX A5500 Mobile secures 2 wins with 0 losses.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5500 Mobile is the clear victor in general-purpose compute and cross-platform graphics APIs. Its 25% OpenCL lead and 3.3% Vulkan advantage indicate that for most professional workloads — rendering, simulation, data processing — the NVIDIA part delivers more raw performance per frame or per operation. The 22.27 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is a substantial asset for tasks like finite element analysis, scientific computing, and video encoding where FP32 precision is standard. Additionally, the presence of 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores means the RTX A5500 Mobile is future-proofed for ray-traced rendering and AI-accelerated workloads, capabilities the Vega II completely lacks. For mobile workstations, the 165 W TDP is also more manageable than the Vega II's 475 W draw, though power figures are not directly comparable across form factors.

The Radeon Pro Vega II wins in specific niches where its hardware advantages are decisive. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory with 825.3 GB/s bandwidth is a massive asset for large datasets that exceed the RTX A5500 Mobile's 16 GB frame buffer. Workloads like 8K video editing, massive 3D scenes, or scientific visualization that require holding large working sets in GPU memory will favor the Vega II, despite its lower compute throughput. The 2:1 FP16 ratio, delivering 28.18 TFLOPS, is another advantage for machine learning training or inference that uses half-precision arithmetic, though the lack of tensor cores means this is pure shader-based FP16. The Vega II's 440.3 GTexel/s texture rate also makes it competitive in texture-bound scenarios like high-resolution texture filtering in CAD or GIS applications. Finally, the Metal benchmark score of 130,183 suggests that within macOS environments, the Vega II may outperform its cross-platform scores, particularly for Metal-optimized professional software.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile | AMD Radeon Pro Vega II |

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

| Chip | GA103 | Vega 20 |

| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 5.1 |

| Process Node | 8 nm (Samsung) | 7 nm (TSMC) |

| Transistors | 22,000 million | 13,230 million |

| Die Size | 496 mm² | 331 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 44.4M / mm² | 40.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 975 MHz | 1574 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1500 MHz | 1720 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) | 806 MHz (1612 Mbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 16 GB GDDR6 | 32 GB HBM2 |

| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 4096 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 512.0 GB/s | 825.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 7424 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 232 | 256 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 58 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 232 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 144.0 GPixel/s | 110.1 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 348.0 GTexel/s | 440.3 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 22.27 TFLOPS | 14.09 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 22.27 TFLOPS (1:1) | 28.18 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 165 W | 475 W |

| Slot Width | None specified | Quad-slot |

| Suggested PSU | None specified | 850 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | Apple MPX |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 4x Thunderbolt |

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

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2022-03-21 | 2019-06-02 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 2,199 USD |

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile delivers 22.27 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 58% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II's 14.09 TFLOPS. This directly correlates with the 25% OpenCL benchmark advantage for the NVIDIA part.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II have ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The Vega II has no RT cores and no tensor cores, as indicated by null values for both specifications. The RTX A5500 Mobile includes 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores, providing dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI workloads that the AMD GPU cannot accelerate.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each GPU provide?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II provides 825.3 GB/s of bandwidth from its 32 GB HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile offers 512.0 GB/s from 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The Vega II's bandwidth advantage is 61%.

Q: Which GPU wins in Vulkan benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 103,601 versus 100,312 for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II, a 3.3% margin. This is a much narrower gap than the 25% OpenCL difference, suggesting the Vega II is more competitive in Vulkan workloads.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II draws 475 W. The Vega II also requires an 850 W suggested power supply and occupies a quad-slot form factor, whereas the RTX A5500 Mobile uses no dedicated power connectors and is portable-device dependent.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 113,944, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II averages 109,967. This puts the NVIDIA part 3.6% ahead, and the RTX A5500 Mobile's nearest rival data shows it is also 0.8% behind the Vega II Duo and 2.7% behind the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation.