AMD Radeon R9 M395X vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one directly comparable benchmark result for these two mobile workstation graphics processors: Geekbench OpenCL. This single data point is decisive in favor of the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. The NVIDIA part records a score of 97,178, while the AMD Radeon R9 M395X achieves 17,829. The delta is 81.7 percent in favor of the RTX A4000 Mobile, meaning the NVIDIA GPU delivers more than five times the OpenCL compute throughput of the older AMD part in this specific workload. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X also has a Geekbench Metal result of 33,953, which is not directly comparable to any NVIDIA result in the database, as the RTX A4000 Mobile has no Metal benchmark recorded. The RTX A4000 Mobile also holds additional recorded scores across PassMark suites: DirectX 9 at 157, DirectX 10 at 105, DirectX 11 at 127, DirectX 12 at 66, G2D at 585, G3D at 14,796, and GPU compute at 6,394. It also records a Geekbench Vulkan score of 73,002. The AMD part has no corresponding entries in those test categories, so the head-to-head comparison is limited to the OpenCL result.

The average benchmark score calculation tells a similar story, though with less dramatic separation. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X has an average benchmark score of 25,891 across its two recorded tests, while the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has an average of 21,379 across its nine recorded tests. This apparent inversion is a consequence of the test mix: the AMD part's Metal score is relatively high, and the RTX A4000 Mobile's PassMark DirectX 10 and DirectX 12 scores are low in absolute terms. However, when the two parts meet on the same test, OpenCL, the NVIDIA GPU dominates. The percentile ranking versus all GPUs in the database places the AMD Radeon R9 M395X at the 71st percentile, while the RTX A4000 Mobile sits at the 66th percentile. These percentiles are not directly comparable because the underlying test sets differ, but they do indicate that both parts sit in the upper-middle range of all recorded GPUs.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each part provides additional context for their respective standing. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X is bracketed by the AMD FirePro W7100 at 25,856 (delta 0.1 percent), the AMD FirePro D700 at 25,842 (delta 0.2 percent), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT at 26,011 (delta minus 0.5 percent), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile at 25,740 (delta 0.6 percent). These deltas are all within a single percentage point, indicating that the R9 M395X's average score is tightly clustered with these four other parts. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile, by contrast, has nearest rivals that are substantially lower in average score: the AMD Radeon HD 8970M at 21,237 (delta 0.7 percent), the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 21,153 (delta 1.1 percent), the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 at 21,629 (delta minus 1.2 percent), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 at 21,035 (delta 1.6 percent). The RTX A4000 Mobile's average score is slightly below these rivals, which reflects the drag from its low DirectX 9 and DirectX 12 PassMark numbers. Yet in the OpenCL test that both parts share, the RTX A4000 Mobile is far ahead.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for compute-heavy workloads: the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. The 81.7 percent lead in Geekbench OpenCL is not a marginal difference; it is a generational gap. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X is an end-of-life product from 2015, built on a 28 nm process with GCN 3.0 architecture, while the RTX A4000 Mobile is an end-of-life product from 2021, built on an 8 nm process with Ampere architecture. The recorded specifications support the benchmark result: the RTX A4000 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, 80 render output units, and 40 ray tracing cores, plus 160 tensor cores. The AMD part has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no ray tracing or tensor cores. The RTX A4000 Mobile also has a higher memory bandwidth at 384.0 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s, and a higher pixel rate at 134.4 GPixel/s versus 23.14 GPixel/s. The FP32 throughput is 17.20 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA part versus 2.961 TFLOPS for the AMD part.

For users who prioritize the specific OpenCL workload, the RTX A4000 Mobile is the only rational choice. The AMD part's Metal score of 33,953 is its strongest recorded result, but no NVIDIA Metal score exists in the database for comparison, so the AMD part cannot claim a Metal advantage based on recorded data. The RTX A4000 Mobile also has a Vulkan score of 73,002, which is more than double the AMD part's OpenCL score, though again these are different test suites. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X does have a higher percentile ranking (71 versus 66), but this is likely an artifact of the limited test set for the AMD part. A GPU with only two benchmark scores can achieve a higher percentile than a GPU with nine scores that includes older DirectX tests, since the older tests tend to produce lower absolute numbers. The verdict is straightforward: the RTX A4000 Mobile wins the head-to-head on the shared test, and its specification sheet is uniformly superior in compute resources, memory bandwidth, and feature support.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R9 M395X wins in exactly one recorded category: Geekbench Metal, where it scores 33,953. This is the only benchmark result for the AMD part that is not matched by a corresponding NVIDIA result in the database. The RTX A4000 Mobile has no Metal score, so the AMD part holds an uncontested advantage in that specific Apple-oriented compute API. The AMD part also has a lower thermal design power at 75 W versus 115 W for the NVIDIA part, which could matter in tightly constrained mobile chassis, though the database does not record any thermal performance tests to confirm this. The AMD part uses GDDR5 memory while the NVIDIA part uses GDDR6, but the NVIDIA part has higher effective memory speed (12 Gbps versus 5 Gbps) and higher bandwidth, so the memory type difference favors NVIDIA, not AMD.

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile wins in every other recorded category. It has the OpenCL score of 97,178, the Vulkan score of 73,002, and the full set of PassMark results: DirectX 9 at 157, DirectX 10 at 105, DirectX 11 at 127, DirectX 12 at 66, G2D at 585, G3D at 14,796, and GPU compute at 6,394. The G3D score of 14,796 is particularly notable, as it represents a general 3D graphics workload that is substantially higher than the AMD part's average benchmark score of 25,891, though the AMD part has no PassMark G3D result for a direct comparison. The RTX A4000 Mobile's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) versus the AMD part's DirectX 12 (12_0) is another clear advantage, as is the Vulkan 1.4 support versus the AMD part's Vulkan 1.2.170. The RTX A4000 Mobile also has a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface versus the AMD part's PCIe 3.0 x16, which matters for data transfer to the host system.

For use-case splits, the AMD Radeon R9 M395X is the choice for any workload that relies exclusively on Metal, such as macOS-based applications, since it holds the only Metal score in this comparison. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile is the choice for OpenCL compute, Vulkan-based applications, and any DirectX workload, given its recorded scores in all four DirectX versions. The NVIDIA part also has ray tracing and tensor cores, though no benchmark in the database isolates these features, so their practical impact cannot be quantified from the recorded data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile scores 97,178 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD Radeon R9 M395X scores 17,829. The NVIDIA part leads by 81.7 percent.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon R9 M395X win any benchmark in this comparison?

A: The AMD part has a Geekbench Metal score of 33,953, which is the only recorded benchmark result for the AMD part that has no corresponding NVIDIA result in the database. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has no Metal score recorded.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for these two GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M395X has an average benchmark score of 25,891 across its two recorded tests (Geekbench Metal and Geekbench OpenCL). The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 21,379 across its nine recorded tests.

Q: How do these GPUs rank against all other GPUs in the database?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M395X sits at the 71st percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile sits at the 66th percentile. These percentiles are based on different test sets, so they are not directly comparable.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, while the AMD Radeon R9 M395X has 2,048 shading units. The NVIDIA part also has 160 tensor cores and 40 ray tracing cores, while the AMD part has neither.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has 384.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth (8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus), while the AMD Radeon R9 M395X has 160.0 GB/s (8 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus). The NVIDIA part's memory runs at 12 Gbps effective, while the AMD part's memory runs at 5 Gbps effective.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent different architectural generations and manufacturing processes. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X uses the Amethyst chip, built on GCN 3.0 architecture, and belongs to the Gem System generation (R9 M300 series). It is fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, with 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 13.7 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip, built on Ampere architecture, and belongs to the Ampere-MW generation (Ax000 series). It is fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung, with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The transistor density difference is substantial: the NVIDIA part packs more than three times as many transistors per square millimeter.

The core configurations differ significantly. The AMD part has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, with no ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The NVIDIA part has 5,120 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, plus 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores. The FP32 performance is 2.961 TFLOPS for the AMD part and 17.20 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA part, a 5.8x difference. Both parts have identical FP16 and FP32 throughput, meaning they operate at a 1:1 ratio for these precisions. The pixel rate is 23.14 GPixel/s for the AMD part and 134.4 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA part. The texture rate is 92.54 GTexel/s for the AMD part and 268.8 GTexel/s for the NVIDIA part.

Memory architecture differs in type and bandwidth. Both parts have 8 GB of memory on a 256-bit bus, but the AMD part uses GDDR5 at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA part uses GDDR6 at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). This yields 160.0 GB/s for the AMD part and 384.0 GB/s for the NVIDIA part. The thermal design power is 75 W for the AMD part and 115 W for the NVIDIA part. The AMD part comes in an MXM module form factor, while the NVIDIA part has no recorded slot width. Neither part requires external power connectors, and both have display outputs that are portable device dependent. The AMD part uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the NVIDIA part uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

API support also differs. The AMD part supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA part supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA part's DirectX 12 Ultimate support includes features beyond the AMD part's DirectX 12 baseline, and its Vulkan version is newer. The release dates are May 4, 2015 for the AMD part and April 11, 2021 for the NVIDIA part. The AMD part's predecessor is the Solar System generation and its successor is Polaris Mobile. The NVIDIA part's predecessor is Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW. Both parts are end-of-life products in the database.