AMD Radeon RX 5500M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark in the data is Geekbench OpenCL, and the result is not close. The AMD Radeon RX 5500M scores 38,725 against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570’s 13,515. That is a 65.1% deficit for the older NVIDIA card, which is a massive gap in raw compute throughput. The RX 5500M wins the only head-to-head test available, giving it a 1–0 sweep in direct comparisons.

This OpenCL result is worth putting in context. The GTX 570’s 13,515 puts it in the 54th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7770M at 13,536 (-0.2%), the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT at 13,543 (-0.2%), the NVIDIA P106-090 at 13,470 (+0.3%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 at 13,407 (+0.8%). The GTX 570 is essentially tied with those cards, all within a single percentage point. That means the GTX 570 is not a weak card in absolute terms — it sits in the middle of the pack — but the RX 5500M is operating in a completely different tier.

The RX 5500M’s OpenCL score of 38,725 places it in the same 54th percentile overall, which is surprising given the raw number. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro M6100 at 13,354 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon HD 8950M at 13,376 (-0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro 555X at 13,321 (+0.3%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 at 13,407 (-0.4%). Notice that the RX 5500M’s rivals all score around 13,300–13,400, which is nearly identical to the GTX 570’s rivals. The average benchmark score for the RX 5500M is 13,356, while the GTX 570’s average is 13,515 — the NVIDIA card actually has a slightly higher average across all its benchmarks, but the OpenCL test specifically is a landslide for AMD.

The RX 5500M also has additional benchmark data that the GTX 570 lacks. In Geekbench Metal it scores 50,359, in Vulkan it scores 35,693, and in Passmark tests it shows a mixed profile: 5,848 in G3D, 2,316 in GPU compute, 414 in G2D, and low DirectX scores (39 in DX10, 35 in DX11, 28 in DX12, but 100 in DX9). Those DirectX numbers are interesting — the DX9 score of 100 is far higher than the others, suggesting the architecture is heavily optimized for legacy APIs, while DX11 and DX12 performance lags. The GTX 570 has no corresponding Passmark or Metal/Vulkan data, so no direct comparison is possible there.

The Verdict

From the data, the choice is straightforward for compute workloads: the RX 5500M is the superior card. It delivers 2.86 times the OpenCL score of the GTX 570 (38,725 vs 13,515), which is a decisive margin. If you are running OpenCL-based applications, the RX 5500M is overwhelmingly faster. The GTX 570’s only consolation is that its average benchmark score (13,515) is marginally higher than the RX 5500M’s average (13,356), but that is driven by the RX 5500M’s low Passmark DirectX scores dragging down its mean — not by any real advantage in the compute test.

The GTX 570’s percentile rank (54th) is identical to the RX 5500M’s (54th), but that percentile is computed against all GPUs, not against each other. Both cards sit in the same broad performance band when averaged across all benchmarks, but the only head-to-head test shows a massive gap. The GTX 570 is an end-of-life product from 2010 with a 40 nm process, while the RX 5500M is a 2019 mobile part on 7 nm. The architectural age difference shows up directly in the compute scores.

If you need raw OpenCL throughput, the RX 5500M is the only rational pick. If you are constrained to the GTX 570’s era or platform (PCIe 2.0, dual-slot, 2x 6-pin power), it still holds its own against contemporaries like the HD 7770M and RX 9070 XT, where it trails by only 0.2%. But against the RX 5500M, there is no contest. The verdict is clear: the RX 5500M wins on every head-to-head metric available.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 570 is built on NVIDIA’s Fermi 2.0 architecture, using the GF110 chip, fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC. It packs 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 5.8 million per square millimeter. The RX 5500M uses AMD’s RDNA 1.0 architecture, with the Navi 14 chip, on a 7 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 6,400 million transistors on a much smaller 158 mm² die, achieving a density of 40.5 million per square millimeter — nearly 7 times denser. This density difference is the single biggest architectural story: the RX 5500M fits more than twice the transistors in less than a third of the silicon area.

The shading resources differ dramatically. The GTX 570 has 480 shading units, 60 texture mapping units, and 40 ROPs. The RX 5500M has 1,408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 5500M has nearly 3 times the shader count and 47% more TMUs, but 20% fewer ROPs. That ROP deficit explains why the pixel rate gap is smaller than the compute gap: the RX 5500M’s pixel rate is 52.64 GPixel/s versus 21.96 GPixel/s for the GTX 570, a 2.4x advantage, while the texture rate is 144.8 GTexel/s versus 43.92 GTexel/s, a 3.3x advantage.

The FP32 compute figures underscore the generational leap. The GTX 570 delivers 1,405.4 GFLOPS, while the RX 5500M delivers 4.632 TFLOPS (4,632 GFLOPS) — a 3.3x difference. The RX 5500M also supports FP16 at 9.265 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the GTX 570 has no FP16 capability listed. The GTX 570 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but no Vulkan. The RX 5500M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. That Vulkan support is a meaningful feature difference for modern games and compute workloads.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems are radically different. The GTX 570 has 1,280 MB of GDDR5 on a 320-bit bus, with memory clocked at 950 MHz (3.8 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 152.0 GB/s. The RX 5500M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, with memory at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The RX 5500M has more than 3 times the capacity and 47% more bandwidth, despite a much narrower bus. The narrower bus is compensated by the faster GDDR6 memory.

Clock behavior is another split. The GTX 570 has no base or boost clock listed — only memory clock. The RX 5500M has a base clock of 1375 MHz, a boost of 1645 MHz, and a game clock of 1448 MHz. This means the RX 5500M has a well-defined dynamic clock range, while the GTX 570’s core clock is unspecified in the data.

Power and physical design differ sharply. The GTX 570 has a TDP of 219 W, requires a dual-slot cooler, uses 2x 6-pin power connectors, and suggests a 550 W PSU. It measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length. The RX 5500M has a TDP of 85 W, no slot width specified, no power connectors (portable device dependent), and no suggested PSU. It is clearly a mobile part, with display outputs listed as "Portable Device Dependent," whereas the GTX 570 has 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a.

The bus interfaces also differ: the GTX 570 uses PCIe 2.0 x16, while the RX 5500M uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides more bandwidth per lane, which helps the narrower memory bus. The GTX 570 launched with a price of 349 USD; the RX 5500M has no launch MSRP listed. The GTX 570’s production status is end-of-life, as is the RX 5500M’s.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RX 5500M wins decisively. Its OpenCL score is 38,725 versus 13,515 for the GTX 570, a 65.1% margin. The FP32 figures confirm this: 4.632 TFLOPS for the RX 5500M versus 1,405.4 GFLOPS for the GTX 570.

Q: Do these cards have similar overall performance levels?

A: No. Their average benchmark scores are close (13,515 for the GTX 570, 13,356 for the RX 5500M), but that is misleading. The RX 5500M’s average is dragged down by low Passmark DirectX scores (28–39), while its OpenCL and Metal scores are far higher. The only shared benchmark shows a huge RX 5500M advantage.

Q: What are the biggest architectural differences?

A: The GTX 570 uses Fermi 2.0 on 40 nm with 3,000 million transistors on a 520 mm² die. The RX 5500M uses RDNA 1.0 on 7 nm with 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die. The RX 5500M has 1,408 shading units versus 480, and supports Vulkan 1.4 while the GTX 570 does not.

Q: Which card has better memory bandwidth?

A: The RX 5500M has 224.0 GB/s versus 152.0 GB/s for the GTX 570, a 47% advantage. The RX 5500M achieves this with 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the GTX 570 uses 1,280 MB of GDDR5 on a 320-bit bus.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The GTX 570 has a 219 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, 2x 6-pin power connectors, and a 550 W suggested PSU. The RX 5500M has an 85 W TDP, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU — it is a mobile part.

Q: Which card is better for modern APIs?

A: The RX 5500M supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 570 only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan. The RX 5500M also has FP16 support at 9.265 TFLOPS, which the GTX 570 lacks.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 5500M wins in every compute-heavy scenario. Its OpenCL score of 38,725 is 2.86 times the GTX 570’s 13,515, so any workload that leverages OpenCL — scientific computing, rendering, or GPU-accelerated applications — will heavily favor the AMD card. The RX 5500M’s FP32 throughput of 4.632 TFLOPS and FP16 capability of 9.265 TFLOPS make it suitable for half-precision workloads, which the GTX 570 cannot do at all. The RX 5500M also has 4 GB of memory versus 1,280 MB, so larger datasets and textures fit without spilling to system memory. Its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and GDDR6 memory give it a modern I/O advantage.

The GTX 570’s wins are narrower and more specific. It has a higher average benchmark score (13,515 vs 13,356), driven by the RX 5500M’s weak Passmark DirectX results. In the Passmark DX9 test, the RX 5500M scores 100, but in DX10, DX11, and DX12 it scores 39, 35, and 28 respectively — indicating poor modern DirectX performance. The GTX 570’s 40 ROPs versus 32 on the RX 5500M means it has more pixel output capacity relative to its shading power, which could help in fill-rate-limited scenarios. The GTX 570 also has a 320-bit memory bus, which provides more parallel memory paths, though the RX 5500M’s higher bandwidth (224.0 vs 152.0 GB/s) negates that advantage in practice.

For legacy DirectX 9 applications, the RX 5500M’s Passmark DX9 score of 100 is the highest of its DirectX results, suggesting it retains strong backward compatibility. But for DX11 and DX12 gaming, the RX 5500M’s Passmark scores (35 and 28) are abysmal, and the GTX 570’s lack of Vulkan support means it cannot do modern cross-platform graphics. The practical split is this: the RX 5500M for OpenCL, Metal, Vulkan, and memory-heavy tasks; the GTX 570 only for scenarios where its specific ROP configuration or higher average score matters, which the data does not strongly support. The GTX 570’s 219 W TDP and 550 W PSU requirement make it a desktop-only card, while the RX 5500M’s 85 W TDP and portable-device-dependent outputs make it a mobile solution. Choose the RX 5500M unless you specifically need the GTX 570’s desktop form factor and are willing to accept a 65.1% compute deficit.