AMD Radeon R9 M395X vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

# AMD Radeon R9 M395X vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile

The AMD Radeon R9 M395X and NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile represent two distinct eras of mobile graphics, separated by six years of architectural evolution. The data shows a decisive victory for the newer NVIDIA part, but the older AMD GPU still holds relevance in specific legacy workloads. The RTX A5000 Mobile dominates the single shared benchmark by an 83.9% margin, yet both cards occupy similar overall percentile rankings (71st vs 70th) due to the different benchmark suites used to generate their average scores.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark between these two GPUs is Geekbench OpenCL, and the result is not close. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 points, while the AMD Radeon R9 M395X manages just 17,829 points. That translates to an 83.9% deficit for the AMD part, meaning the RTX A5000 Mobile delivers roughly six times the raw compute throughput in this OpenCL workload. This is the single largest performance gap in the comparison, and it reflects the generational leap between the two architectures.

The RTX A5000 Mobile's other benchmark results provide additional context. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 88,144 points — a strong showing that reinforces its modern API capabilities. Its Passmark scores tell a more nuanced story: 15,779 in G3D, 6,945 in GPU Compute, and DirectX-specific results of 169 (DX9), 133 (DX11), 115 (DX10), and 72 (DX12). These numbers suggest the NVIDIA GPU performs best in legacy DirectX 9 workloads, with diminishing returns as API complexity increases — DX12 scores less than half of DX9.

The AMD Radeon R9 M395X, for its part, posts a Geekbench Metal score of 33,953 points, a benchmark the RTX A5000 Mobile cannot run. This gives the older GPU a niche advantage on Apple's Metal API ecosystem. However, the AMD part's OpenCL score of 17,829 is less than one-sixth of the RTX A5000 Mobile's OpenCL result, highlighting how far behind it is in vendor-neutral compute.

When examining average benchmark scores, the picture becomes more balanced. The RTX A5000 Mobile averages 24,763 points across its test suite, placing it just 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 590 (24,744) and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M (24,647). The AMD Radeon R9 M395X averages 25,891 points, sitting 0.1% ahead of the AMD FirePro W7100 (25,856) and 0.2% ahead of the AMD FirePro D700 (25,842). Notably, the R9 M395X's average is actually 4.6% higher than the RTX A5000 Mobile's, despite losing the head-to-head OpenCL test so decisively — a reminder that average scores depend heavily on which benchmarks are included.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile is dramatically faster, scoring 110,877 in Geekbench OpenCL compared to the AMD Radeon R9 M395X's 17,829 — an 83.9% lead for NVIDIA.

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

A: The data shows the R9 M395X does not win any head-to-head benchmark against the RTX A5000 Mobile — it records 0 wins versus 1 win for NVIDIA. However, it does post a Geekbench Metal score of 33,953, a test the RTX A5000 Mobile does not have results for.

Q: How do these GPUs compare in overall benchmark averages?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M395X has a higher average benchmark score of 25,891 compared to the RTX A5000 Mobile's 24,763. This is because the AMD part's average is drawn from a smaller, different set of benchmarks than the NVIDIA GPU's more extensive test suite.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each GPU?

A: The R9 M395X's nearest rival is the AMD FirePro W7100 (0.1% difference in average score), while the RTX A5000 Mobile's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 590 (also 0.1% difference). The RTX A5000 Mobile also sits close to the Intel Arc A350M (0.5%), AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (1.3%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (2%).

Q: Which GPU supports more modern DirectX features?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the R9 M395X only supports DirectX 12 (12_0). This means the NVIDIA part can handle newer rendering features unavailable to the AMD GPU.

Q: How do the GPUs compare in transistor density?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has a transistor density of 44.4 million per mm² on TSMC's 8nm process, while the R9 M395X has 13.7 million per mm² on TSMC's 28nm process — a 3.2x density advantage for NVIDIA.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X uses the GCN 3.0 architecture on a 28nm TSMC process, packing 5,000 million transistors into a 366 mm² die — a transistor density of 13.7 million per mm². The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile employs the Ampere architecture on an 8nm Samsung process, with 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. That yields a density of 44.4 million per mm², more than triple AMD's figure.

The RTX A5000 Mobile introduces dedicated hardware the R9 M395X lacks entirely: 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. These enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, respectively. The AMD part has no equivalent features. The NVIDIA GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, while the R9 M395X is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.2.170, and OpenGL 4.6.

Shader resources differ massively. The RTX A5000 Mobile has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 96 render output units (ROPs). The R9 M395X has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs — roughly one-third the shaders, two-thirds the TMUs, and one-third the ROPs. This translates to a theoretical throughput gap: 19.35 TFLOPS FP32 versus 2.961 TFLOPS FP32, and 302.4 GTexel/s versus 92.54 GTexel/s.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification category. Memory capacity: the RTX A5000 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6, while the R9 M395X has 8 GB of GDDR5. Memory bandwidth: 448.0 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s — nearly triple the NVIDIA part. Memory clock: 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective). Both use a 256-bit bus.

Clock speeds: the RTX A5000 Mobile has a base clock of 900 MHz and boost of 1575 MHz, while the R9 M395X has no listed base or boost clocks. Power: the NVIDIA GPU draws 150 W TDP, double the R9 M395X's 75 W TDP. Process node: 8nm versus 28nm. Transistors: 17,400 million versus 5,000 million. Die size: 392 mm² versus 366 mm².

Interface: the RTX A5000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the R9 M395X uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The NVIDIA part has 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores; the AMD part has none. Pixel rate: 151.2 GPixel/s versus 23.14 GPixel/s. Texture rate: 302.4 GTexel/s versus 92.54 GTexel/s. FP16 performance: 19.35 TFLOPS versus 2.961 TFLOPS. The slot width differs, with the AMD card using an MXM Module form factor while the NVIDIA card has no listed slot width.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins in virtually every compute-heavy scenario. Its 83.9% OpenCL advantage makes it the clear choice for GPGPU workloads, scientific computing, and any application leveraging OpenCL acceleration. The 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 448 GB/s bandwidth provides three times the memory bandwidth of the AMD part, which matters for large datasets and high-resolution textures. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support, ray tracing cores, and tensor cores make it suitable for modern gaming, 3D rendering with ray tracing, and AI inference tasks. For professionals running Vulkan-based applications, its 88,144 Vulkan score further cements its superiority.

The AMD Radeon R9 M395X wins in the niche scenario of Metal API workloads, where its 33,953 Geekbench Metal score demonstrates functional performance. For users locked into Apple's Metal ecosystem, the R9 M395X offers a valid path, though the RTX A5000 Mobile has no Metal benchmark data to compare against. Additionally, the R9 M395X's higher average benchmark score (25,891 vs 24,763) suggests that in a mixed workload environment drawing from its available benchmarks, it can hold its own — though this is an artifact of benchmark selection rather than genuine performance parity.

For legacy DirectX applications, the RTX A5000 Mobile's Passmark scores show an interesting pattern: it performs best in DX9 (169), with progressively lower scores in DX10 (115), DX11 (133), and DX12 (72). This suggests the NVIDIA GPU handles older API workloads particularly well, while its DX12 performance relative to its own scores is weaker. The AMD R9 M395X has no DirectX-specific benchmark data in this comparison, so its legacy API performance cannot be quantified here.

In power-constrained environments, the R9 M395X's 75 W TDP gives it a 2x efficiency advantage in raw power draw. For thin-and-light laptops or systems with limited thermal headroom, the AMD part draws significantly less power than the RTX A5000 Mobile's 150 W TDP. However, this power advantage comes with a corresponding performance penalty — the RTX A5000 Mobile delivers roughly 6.5x the FP32 throughput per watt (19.35 TFLOPS / 150 W versus 2.961 TFLOPS / 75 W), making the NVIDIA GPU substantially more power-efficient despite drawing more total power.