AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between the AMD Radeon RX 470 and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, with the NVIDIA part winning both head-to-head tests. The largest margin comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 against the RX 470’s 33,568. That is a 69.7% deficit for the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA solution delivers more than three times the compute throughput in this workload. OpenCL is a common proxy for general-purpose GPU compute, so this result signals a major advantage for the Ampere-based mobile chip in tasks like rendering, simulation, or data processing.

The second head-to-head test, Geekbench Vulkan, narrows the gap but still favors NVIDIA. The RTX A5000 Mobile posts 88,144, while the RX 470 manages 39,884. The delta here is 54.8%, so while the AMD card closes some ground relative to its OpenCL performance, it still trails by more than half. Vulkan is a low-level graphics API, and the result suggests the RTX A5000 Mobile’s architecture and driver stack extract substantially more performance from the same workload type. Across both tests, the RTX A5000 Mobile claims two wins, and the RX 470 records zero.

Looking beyond the direct comparisons, the average benchmark scores paint a similar picture. The RX 470 holds an average score of 28,996 across its tested workloads, which places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M at 28,874 (0.4% behind), the Intel Arc A370M at 29,175 (0.6% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH at 29,197 (0.7% ahead). These are tight margins, indicating the RX 470 sits in a crowded mid-range cluster where small differences separate cards.

The RTX A5000 Mobile, by contrast, has an average score of 24,763, which puts it in the 70th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 590 at 24,744 (0.1% behind), the Intel Arc A350M at 24,647 (0.5% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT at 24,442 (1.3% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 at 24,277 (2% behind). The RTX A5000 Mobile leads this group, but the margins are small, suggesting that its average score is pulled down by the Passmark DirectX tests, where it records unusually low figures (115 in DirectX 10, 133 in DirectX 11, 72 in DirectX 12, 169 in DirectX 9). Those numbers are far below its Geekbench results, likely reflecting the mobile part’s driver behavior or power management in specific legacy workloads.

The RX 470’s higher average score, despite losing both head-to-head tests, is explained by its benchmark set. The RX 470 has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 842, a Geekbench Metal score of 41,690, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 39,884. The Metal result is particularly strong and contributes to its 74th percentile ranking. The RTX A5000 Mobile lacks a Metal score in the database, so its average relies on Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan, and the Passmark suite, which drags it down.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear choice for compute-heavy workloads: the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile dominates in OpenCL and Vulkan, with margins of 69.7% and 54.8% respectively. Anyone running OpenCL-based applications, such as certain scientific or engineering tools, should favor the RTX A5000 Mobile without hesitation. Its 19.35 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 19.35 TFLOPS of FP16 performance, both at 1:1 ratio, provide a substantial raw compute advantage over the RX 470’s 4.940 TFLOPS in both precision formats.

For Vulkan gaming or rendering, the RTX A5000 Mobile still wins, but the smaller margin suggests the RX 470 is less outclassed in this API. The RX 470’s higher average benchmark score (28,996 vs 24,763) and better percentile ranking (74th vs 70th) indicate that it holds up well in certain legacy or specialized tests, particularly Metal (41,690) and 3DMark Steel Nomad (842). The RX 470’s nearest rival comparisons show it trading blows with the RX 6800M and Arc A370M, which are newer parts, so its overall standing is respectable for a 2016 release.

The RTX A5000 Mobile, despite its lower average score, is the stronger GPU in modern, high-throughput scenarios. Its Passmark DirectX results are anomalously low, and any buyer should weigh those against the Geekbench results, which are more representative of current workloads. The verdict is simple: pick the RTX A5000 Mobile for compute and modern API performance, pick the RX 470 only if the workload specifically favors Metal or if the Passmark legacy scores are irrelevant to the use case.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and foundries. The AMD Radeon RX 470 uses the Ellesmere chip built on GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The chip packs 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip based on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The RTX A5000 Mobile’s die is 69% larger and holds over three times as many transistors, which directly enables its higher core counts and feature set.

The RX 470 relies on GCN 4.0, a design that emphasizes scalar throughput and has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware. The RTX A5000 Mobile, as an Ampere part, includes 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, which are absent from the RX 470. These hardware blocks enable DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2 feature level) on the NVIDIA card, while the RX 470 only reaches DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support also differs: the RX 470 supports Vulkan 1.3, while the RTX A5000 Mobile supports Vulkan 1.4. OpenGL support is identical at 4.6 for both.

The memory subsystems reflect the generational leap. The RX 470 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 211.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on the same 256-bit bus, but with more than double the bandwidth at 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is also higher on the NVIDIA part: 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) versus 1650 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective) on the AMD card. This bandwidth advantage is critical for the RTX A5000 Mobile’s higher shading unit count and tensor core throughput.

The RX 470 belongs to the Arctic Islands (RX 400) generation, with its predecessor being Pirate Islands and its successor Polaris. The RTX A5000 Mobile belongs to the Ampere-MW (Ax000) generation, with its predecessor being Quadro Turing-M and its successor Ada-MW. Both are marked as end-of-life in the database, so neither is a current production part.

Specification Differences

The specification tables reveal a wide gap in raw resources. The RTX A5000 Mobile has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units, while the RX 470 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This gives the NVIDIA part three times the shading units, 1.5 times the TMUs, and three times the ROPs. The pixel rate is 151.2 GPixel/s for the RTX A5000 Mobile versus 38.59 GPixel/s for the RX 470, a 292% advantage. The texture rate is 302.4 GTexel/s versus 154.4 GTexel/s, a 96% advantage.

Clock speeds differ in interesting ways. The RX 470 has a higher base clock at 926 MHz compared to 900 MHz on the RTX A5000 Mobile, but the NVIDIA card boosts much higher at 1575 MHz versus 1206 MHz. This boost behavior, combined with the larger core count, explains the performance gap. The RX 470’s FP32 throughput is 4.940 TFLOPS, while the RTX A5000 Mobile reaches 19.35 TFLOPS, a 292% difference. FP16 is identical to FP32 on both cards (1:1 ratio), so the same proportional difference applies.

The RX 470 has a TDP of 120 W and requires a 1x 6-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 300 W. It is a dual-slot card measuring 240 mm in length, 95 mm in height, and 35 mm in width. The RTX A5000 Mobile has a TDP of 150 W, uses no power connectors (as it is a mobile part), and has no listed dimensions or slot width. The RX 470 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RTX A5000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs also differ: the RX 470 has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RTX A5000 Mobile’s outputs are listed as portable device dependent.

The RX 470 has a launch MSRP of 179 USD. The RTX A5000 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP. The RX 470 was released on 2016-08-03, and the RTX A5000 Mobile on 2021-04-11.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins with a score of 110,877 versus 33,568 for the AMD Radeon RX 470, a 69.7% margin.

Q: How do the two compare in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile leads again with 88,144 against the RX 470’s 39,884, a 54.8% advantage.

Q: Does the RX 470 have a higher average benchmark score?

A: Yes, the RX 470 has an average score of 28,996 and sits in the 74th percentile, while the RTX A5000 Mobile averages 24,763 and sits in the 70th percentile.

Q: What ray tracing and tensor hardware does each GPU have?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The RX 470 has none of either.

Q: How does memory bandwidth differ?

A: The RX 470 has 211.2 GB/s bandwidth with 4 GB of GDDR5, while the RTX A5000 Mobile has 448.0 GB/s bandwidth with 16 GB of GDDR6.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The RX 470 has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, while the RTX A5000 Mobile has 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die.