AMD Radeon Pro W5500 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M are separated by roughly five years of GPU architecture and target completely different market segments. The data shows the Radeon Pro W5500 is in a different performance class entirely, delivering a 214.4% higher Geekbench OpenCL score and a 193.9% higher Geekbench Vulkan score than the GTX 965M. The GTX 965M is a mobile part from 2015, while the Radeon Pro W5500 is a professional desktop card from 2020, and the benchmark results reflect that gap clearly.

The Verdict

The Radeon Pro W5500 is the clear choice for any workload that benefits from raw compute throughput. Its 5.224 TFLOPS FP32 performance is 2.68 times the GTX 965M's 1.946 TFLOPS, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory at 224.0 GB/s bandwidth dwarfs the GTX 965M's 2 GB of GDDR5 at 80.19 GB/s. If your task is GPU-accelerated rendering, OpenCL compute, or Vulkan-based workloads, the W5500 wins outright — the 214.4% lead in Geekbench OpenCL is not a marginal improvement, it is a generational leap.

The GTX 965M only makes sense if you are constrained by a laptop chassis. It is an MXM Module with no power connectors, designed for portable devices, while the W5500 is a 241 mm single-slot card requiring a 300 W PSU and a 6-pin connector. There is no scenario in the data where the GTX 965M wins a benchmark, so its only advantage is form factor and the ability to fit into a notebook.

For desktop users with a PCIe slot, the W5500 is the only rational pick. The data shows it sits at the 58th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the GTX 965M's 56th percentile. More importantly, the W5500's nearest rivals include the GTX 1080 Ti (0.8% higher average score) and RX 7700 (1.1% lower), placing it in modern mid-range territory. The GTX 965M's nearest rivals are the RX Vega 11 (0.1% higher) and GTX TITAN (0.2% higher), which are integrated graphics and a 2013 flagship — a completely different performance bracket.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more VRAM?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 has 8 GB of GDDR6, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M has 2 GB of GDDR5. This is a 4x capacity difference, which matters for large textures or datasets.

Q: How much faster is the W5500 in OpenCL?

A: The W5500 scores 45615 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 14509 for the GTX 965M, a 214.4% advantage. This is the largest head-to-head gap in the data.

Q: Are both GPUs end-of-life products?

A: Yes, both are marked as "End-of-life" in production status. The W5500 was released on 2020-02-09, and the GTX 965M on 2015-01-08.

Q: Do these GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. API compatibility is identical, so the performance gap is purely from hardware capability, not software feature support.

Q: What is the power requirement for the W5500?

A: The W5500 has a 125 W TDP and requires a 300 W suggested PSU with a single 6-pin power connector. The GTX 965M has no listed TDP and uses no power connectors, as it draws power through the MXM slot.

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The W5500 averages 15679 across all benchmark tests, while the GTX 965M averages 14404. The W5500's average is 8.8% higher, but its wins in individual compute tests are far more dramatic.

Architecture Differences

The Radeon Pro W5500 uses the Navi 14 chip built on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5 million per mm². The GTX 965M uses the GM204 chip on Maxwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process also at TSMC, with 5,200 million transistors on a much larger 398 mm² die — a transistor density of just 13.1 million per mm². The process node difference is the fundamental architectural gap: 7 nm versus 28 nm.

The W5500 has 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The GTX 965M has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Neither GPU has ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The W5500's RDNA 1.0 design delivers 59.36 GPixel/s pixel fill rate and 163.2 GTexel/s texture fill rate, versus the GTX 965M's 30.40 GPixel/s and 60.80 GTexel/s. The W5500 also supports FP16 compute at 10.45 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the GTX 965M has no FP16 capability listed.

The W5500's memory subsystem is GDDR6 at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) over a 128-bit bus, achieving 224.0 GB/s. The GTX 965M uses GDDR5 at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective) on the same 128-bit bus, achieving only 80.19 GB/s. This means the W5500 has 2.79 times the memory bandwidth, which is critical for compute workloads that stream data.

Specification Differences

The most obvious spec gap is process node: 7 nm for the W5500 versus 28 nm for the GTX 965M. Die size also differs massively — 158 mm² versus 398 mm² — yet the W5500 packs more transistors (6,400 million versus 5,200 million) into less than half the space. Clock speeds favor the W5500: base 1744 MHz versus 924 MHz, boost 1855 MHz versus 950 MHz. The GTX 965M cannot match the W5500's clocks even at its boost state.

Memory capacity is 8 GB versus 2 GB, and bandwidth is 224.0 GB/s versus 80.19 GB/s. Shader count is 1408 versus 1024, TMUs are 88 versus 64, and ROPs are identical at 32. FP32 throughput is 5.224 TFLOPS versus 1.946 TFLOPS. The W5500 has a 125 W TDP and requires a 6-pin power connector, while the GTX 965M has no TDP listed and no power connectors.

Form factor separates them decisively: the W5500 is a single-slot 241 mm (9.5 inches) card with a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The GTX 965M is an MXM Module using the MXM-B (3.0) bus, with display outputs described as "Portable Device Dependent." The W5500 has a launch MSRP of 399 USD; the GTX 965M has no launch MSRP listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two shared benchmarks in the data are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In OpenCL, the W5500 scores 45615 against the GTX 965M's 14509, a 214.4% delta. In Vulkan, the W5500 scores 42021 against 14299, a 193.9% delta. These are not close contests — the W5500 more than triples the GTX 965M's OpenCL score and nearly triples its Vulkan score.

Looking at the W5500's other benchmarks, it scores 54302 in Geekbench Metal, 8978 in Passmark G3D, and 4804 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its Passmark DirectX scores are low — 47 in DX10, 56 in DX11, 39 in DX12, and 126 in DX9 — suggesting its strength is compute rather than legacy rasterization. The GTX 965M has no comparable data beyond the two shared Geekbench tests.

The average benchmark score difference tells a similar story: 15679 for the W5500 versus 14404 for the GTX 965M. However, this 8.8% average gap understates the real difference because the GTX 965M only has two benchmark entries. The head-to-head deltas of 214.4% and 193.9% are the truest measure of performance separation.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro W5500 wins everywhere the data measures. It wins in OpenCL compute by 214.4%, in Vulkan by 193.9%, and it has the higher average benchmark score (15679 versus 14404). Its 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for professional workloads like video editing, 3D rendering, and GPU compute tasks that exceed the GTX 965M's 2 GB capacity. The W5500's 5.224 TFLOPS FP32 is in a league the GTX 965M cannot approach.

The GTX 965M's only "win" is portability. As an MXM Module with no power connectors, it can exist in a laptop where a 241 mm single-slot card cannot. It also has no TDP figure, meaning it consumes less power by design — the W5500 is rated at 125 W and needs a 300 W PSU. The GTX 965M is a 2015 mobile part whose predecessor is GeForce 800M and successor is GeForce 10 Mobile, so it sits in a legacy laptop ecosystem.

For anyone building or upgrading a desktop, the W5500 is the only option with data support. Its nearest rivals (GTX 1080 Ti at 0.8% higher, RX 7700 at 1.1% lower) show it competes with much newer hardware. The GTX 965M's nearest rivals (RX Vega 11 at 0.1% higher, GTX TITAN at 0.2% higher) include integrated graphics, confirming it is only viable for basic tasks or as a stopgap in an old notebook. The verdict is straightforward: the W5500 is a professional-grade compute card, the GTX 965M is a legacy mobile part with no benchmark wins.