AMD Radeon R9 M290X vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile is a modern Ampere-based professional mobile GPU, while the AMD Radeon R9 M290X is a legacy GCN 1.0 part from the early 2010s. Benchmark data shows a single head-to-head comparison, with the NVIDIA part delivering a decisive victory. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 points against the R9 M290X’s 22,028 points, a delta of 403.3%. This places the A5000 Mobile in the 70th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 24,763, while the R9 M290X sits in the 68th percentile with an average score of 23,276.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark between these two cards is Geekbench OpenCL, and the results are lopsided. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile outputs 110,877 points, dwarfing the AMD Radeon R9 M290X’s 22,028 points. That is a 403.3% advantage for the NVIDIA card, meaning it delivers over five times the raw compute throughput in this API. This magnitude of difference is not incremental; it reflects two entirely different eras of GPU design.

For context, the RTX A5000 Mobile’s average benchmark score of 24,763 places it just 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 590 (24,744) and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M (24,647). It also edges out the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (24,442) by 1.3% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24,277) by 2.0%. These are close margins, suggesting that in aggregate workloads, the A5000 Mobile performs similarly to mid-range desktop gaming cards from its generation.

The R9 M290X, by contrast, has an average score of 23,276, which is statistically tied with the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,273, delta 0%) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23,250, delta 0.1%). It is also within 0.1% of the NVIDIA P106-100 (23,249) and trails the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (23,315) by 0.2%. Despite being an older card, its average score is only about 6% lower than the A5000 Mobile’s average, but that average aggregates different benchmark suites; the OpenCL head-to-head shows the true gulf in compute performance.

The data shows no benchmark where the R9 M290X wins. In the single head-to-head test, the A5000 Mobile claims victory with a 403.3% margin. This is a clean sweep, with winsA equal to 1 and winsB equal to 0.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile in compute benchmarks?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 versus 22,028 for the AMD Radeon R9 M290X, a 403.3% advantage.

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 24,763, while the R9 M290X averages 23,276. The difference is approximately 6.4% in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: How do these cards rank against their nearest rivals?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile is 0.1% ahead of the AMD RX 590, 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M, 1.3% ahead of the RX 6600 XT, and 2.0% ahead of the GTX 1630. The R9 M290X is tied with the RX 6600M and 0.1% behind the Pro Vega 16.

Q: What percentile do these GPUs occupy?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile sits in the 70th percentile of all GPUs, while the R9 M290X is in the 68th percentile.

Q: Does the R9 M290X have any benchmark wins?

A: No. In the head-to-head comparison, the R9 M290X records zero wins, while the RTX A5000 Mobile records one win.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The R9 M290X has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 153.6 GB/s bandwidth.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile is the clear choice for any compute-heavy workload. Its OpenCL score of 110,877 is in a different league from the R9 M290X’s 22,028, making it suitable for GPU-accelerated rendering, scientific simulation, and machine learning inference. The card also benefits from a 70th-percentile ranking, meaning it outperforms the majority of GPUs in the database, and its average score of 24,763 rivals modern desktop parts like the RX 590 and RX 6600 XT.

The AMD Radeon R9 M290X, despite its age, still holds its own in aggregate benchmarks. Its average score of 23,276 places it in the 68th percentile, just two points behind the A5000 Mobile in percentile terms. This suggests that for legacy DirectX 9/10/11 titles or older OpenGL workloads, the R9 M290X may still provide playable performance, especially given its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. However, it lacks the raw compute throughput for modern demanding tasks.

For users prioritizing longevity and feature support, the A5000 Mobile wins decisively. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, while the R9 M290X is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The A5000 Mobile also has dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, which the R9 M290X lacks entirely. If the workload is legacy gaming or basic 2D/3D acceleration, the R9 M290X remains functional; for anything modern, the A5000 Mobile is the only rational pick.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measurable specification. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile is built on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the AMD Radeon R9 M290X uses a 28 nm TSMC process. Transistor counts are 17,400 million versus 2,800 million, and die sizes are 392 mm² versus 212 mm², leading to transistor densities of 44.4M per mm² and 13.2M per mm², respectively.

Clock speeds show a modest difference: the A5000 Mobile has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost of 1575 MHz, while the R9 M290X runs at 850 MHz base and 900 MHz boost. Memory clocks are 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the NVIDIA card and 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) for the AMD card. Memory capacity is 16 GB GDDR6 versus 4 GB GDDR5, with bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s.

Compute resources are vastly different. The A5000 Mobile has 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, compared to 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs on the R9 M290X. The NVIDIA card also has 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, which the AMD card does not have at all. Pixel rates are 151.2 GPixel/s versus 28.80 GPixel/s, and texture rates are 302.4 GTexel/s versus 72.00 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 19.35 TFLOPS versus 2.304 TFLOPS. The R9 M290X has no listed FP16 performance, while the A5000 Mobile achieves 19.35 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1).

Power draw is 150 W for the A5000 Mobile and 100 W for the R9 M290X. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 on the NVIDIA card versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the AMD card. The R9 M290X is an MXM Module, while the A5000 Mobile has no specified slot width.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is generational. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on the GA104 chip, while the AMD Radeon R9 M290X is based on GCN 1.0 on the Neptune chip. Ampere introduces dedicated RT cores and tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. GCN 1.0 predates these technologies, offering only traditional rasterization.

The process node difference is significant: 8 nm Samsung versus 28 nm TSMC. This allows the A5000 Mobile to pack 17,400 million transistors into 392 mm², while the R9 M290X fits 2,800 million into 212 mm². The newer node also enables higher clock speeds at lower power per transistor, though the A5000 Mobile draws 50 W more than the R9 M290X.

API support reflects the architectural evolution. The A5000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading, while the R9 M290X is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1). Vulkan support is 1.4 on the NVIDIA card versus 1.2.170 on the AMD card, and both support OpenGL 4.6.

The memory subsystem also differs architecturally. The A5000 Mobile uses GDDR6 with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the R9 M290X uses GDDR5 with the same bus width but only 153.6 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card’s memory clock is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) versus 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) on the AMD card. This quadrupling of bandwidth is crucial for high-resolution textures and compute workloads.

Finally, the feature sets diverge. The A5000 Mobile includes 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, enabling real-time ray tracing and AI acceleration. The R9 M290X has none of these, relying on its 1280 shading units for all work. The R9 M290X’s FP32 throughput of 2.304 TFLOPS is a fraction of the A5000 Mobile’s 19.35 TFLOPS, underscoring the generational leap in raw compute capability.