AMD Radeon Pro W6900X vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data shows a decisive overall victory for the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X, which wins both of the shared tests. In the Geekbench OpenCL workload, the AMD card scores 130,035 against 105,307 for the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile, a 23.5% advantage. That margin is substantial enough to indicate a meaningful performance gap in compute-heavy tasks that scale well across the graphics pipeline.

The Geekbench Vulkan test is where the separation becomes dramatic. The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X delivers 148,865 points, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile manages only 76,960. That works out to a 93.4% delta, meaning the AMD card nearly doubles the NVIDIA mobile part in this specific API workload. Vulkan results often reflect raw throughput and driver efficiency, and the data here points to a massive lead for the RDNA 2 architecture in this scenario.

Looking at the average benchmark score, the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X sits at 168,574, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is far behind at 91,134. That puts the AMD card at roughly 85% higher on average, a gap that spans across all recorded tests. The percentile rankings reinforce this: the AMD part falls in the 97th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA mobile chip sits at the 93rd percentile. Both are strong performers in absolute terms, but the W6900X is clearly in a higher performance tier.

For context on the AMD side, the nearest rivals based on average score are the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation at 166,094 (1.5% slower), the NVIDIA RTX A5500 at 165,217 (2% slower), the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 at 164,894 (2.2% slower), and the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB at 162,504 (3.7% slower). The W6900X edges out all of these, but the margins are tight, indicating it competes at the top of the professional desktop GPU segment.

On the NVIDIA mobile side, the RTX A4500 Mobile is bracketed by the NVIDIA RTX A4500 at 91,671 (0.6% faster), the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 at 92,466 (1.4% faster), the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 at 87,445 (4.2% slower), and the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 at 87,108 (4.6% slower). The mobile chip is essentially at parity with its desktop counterpart, which is notable for a laptop-class component, but it remains far below the desktop W6900X.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X is the superior GPU for raw performance in every benchmark recorded. If the workload involves Vulkan rendering or OpenCL compute, the choice is not close. The 93.4% delta in Vulkan and 23.5% delta in OpenCL are decisive. For a workstation user who needs maximum throughput in these APIs, the W6900X is the pick.

However, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile serves a completely different purpose. It is a mobile part, designed for portable workstations, and its 140 W power envelope reflects that. The recorded data shows it still performs well, landing at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs. It trades blows with desktop parts like the RTX A4500 and Quadro GP100, which is impressive for a laptop GPU. If the requirement is a capable professional GPU in a laptop form factor, the RTX A4500 Mobile is the only option here, and the data confirms it holds its own within that context.

The verdict depends entirely on the use case. For a fixed workstation with power to spare, the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X dominates. For a mobile workstation where the GPU must fit into a laptop chassis and run within a 140 W budget, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is the appropriate choice, and its benchmark scores show it is not a weak performer, just a slower one than the desktop flagship.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using the Navi 21 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This node difference matters: the AMD chip packs 26,800 million transistors into a 520 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 51.5M per mm². The NVIDIA chip contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, for a density of 44.4M per mm². The AMD part is larger and denser, which helps explain its performance advantage.

The core configurations differ significantly. The AMD card has 5,120 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, along with 80 ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA card counters with 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 46 ray tracing cores, and 184 tensor cores. The AMD card has more TMUs and ROPs, which boosts its fillrate, while the NVIDIA card has more shading units and adds tensor cores for AI workloads. The ray tracing core counts favor AMD in this comparison, though the NVIDIA part includes tensor cores that the AMD chip lacks entirely.

The FP32 compute figures reflect the architectural split. The AMD card delivers 22.23 TFLOPS in FP32, while the NVIDIA card produces 17.66 TFLOPS. For FP16, the AMD card reaches 44.46 TFLOPS using a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card stays at 17.66 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio. The AMD architecture clearly prioritizes raw throughput, while the NVIDIA design leans on tensor cores for tasks like deep learning inference.

Both GPUs support the same API levels: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This means software compatibility is broadly similar, though the performance within those APIs differs sharply, as the Vulkan benchmark shows.

Specification Differences

The most obvious difference is memory capacity. The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X carries 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile has 16 GB. Both use a 256 bit memory bus, and both achieve 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, so the AMD card doubles the capacity at the same speed. For large datasets or high-resolution textures, that extra capacity is a clear advantage.

Clock speeds also diverge. The AMD card has a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2171 MHz. The NVIDIA mobile chip runs at 930 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost. The NVIDIA part is clocked far lower, which is expected for a mobile GPU trying to manage thermals and power. The memory clock is identical at 2000 MHz, translating to 16 Gbps effective on both cards.

Power draw is another major split. The AMD card has a TDP of 300 W and requires a suggested PSU of 700 W. The NVIDIA mobile part has a TDP of 140 W and no power connectors, since it is designed to draw power from the laptop motherboard. Physical dimensions differ as well: the AMD card measures 267 mm in length and 120 mm in height, while the NVIDIA card has no recorded dimensions, being a mobile chip soldered onto a board.

The bus interfaces are different. The AMD card uses Apple MPX, while the NVIDIA part uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs also differ: the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 4x Thunderbolt, while the NVIDIA card is listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning its outputs depend on the laptop design. The AMD card has a launch MSRP of 5,999 USD, while the NVIDIA mobile part has no recorded launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in the Geekbench Vulkan test?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X scores 148,865 versus 76,960 for the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile, a 93.4% advantage for AMD.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X has an average score of 168,574, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile averages 91,134.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, and the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. Both use a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The AMD card has a TDP of 300 W and a suggested PSU of 700 W. The NVIDIA mobile chip has a TDP of 140 W and requires no power connectors.

Q: Which card has more ray tracing cores?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X has 80 ray tracing cores, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile has 46.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No, both are listed as end-of-life. The AMD card was released on 2021-08-02, and the NVIDIA card on 2022-03-21.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro W6900X wins in every recorded benchmark. Its OpenCL score of 130,035 beats the NVIDIA mobile part by 23.5%, and its Vulkan score of 148,865 nearly doubles the NVIDIA result. The AMD card also wins on memory capacity with 32 GB versus 16 GB, and it has higher pixel rate at 277.9 GPixel/s versus 144.0 GPixel/s, plus higher texture rate at 694.7 GTexel/s versus 276.0 GTexel/s. For any workload that scales with raw compute or fillrate, such as rendering, simulation, or large model inference, the W6900X is the clear choice.

The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile wins on portability and power efficiency. It draws 140 W compared to 300 W, which is a 160 W difference, and it requires no external power connectors. It also has tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks, making it potentially better suited for workloads that leverage those cores, though no benchmark data in the database covers that scenario. The NVIDIA card also has more shading units at 5,888 versus 5,120, which could help in certain compute paths, but the measured benchmarks do not reflect any such advantage.

For a builder assembling a desktop workstation, the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X is the obvious pick based on the data. For a professional needing a mobile workstation, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is the only viable option, and its 93rd percentile ranking shows it is a capable performer despite the large gap to the desktop AMD part. The choice comes down to whether the workload demands maximum performance or a portable form factor.