AMD Radeon RX 5500M vs NVIDIA Tesla M2090 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 5500M and NVIDIA Tesla M2090 are two very different products from different eras, and the benchmark data reflects a clear generational gap. The RX 5500M is a modern mobile gaming GPU built on a 7nm process, while the Tesla M2090 is an older, high-power compute accelerator from 2011. The single head-to-head benchmark shows the AMD card is dramatically faster in OpenCL compute, but the Tesla’s larger memory pool and compute-oriented design still have specific use cases where they matter.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for most users: pick the AMD Radeon RX 5500M if you need a balanced, efficient GPU that excels in both graphics and compute. It wins the only direct benchmark comparison by a massive 196.2% margin, scoring 38,725 in Geekbench OpenCL versus the Tesla’s 13,075. This card also has a much broader benchmark profile, with scores across Metal, Vulkan, and DirectX tests, making it a viable choice for gaming and general-purpose workloads. Its 54th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it just above the Tesla’s 53rd percentile, though the RX 5500M’s average benchmark score of 13,356 is only slightly higher than the Tesla’s 13,075.

Pick the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 only if your workload specifically demands more memory capacity or you are working with legacy compute stacks. The Tesla offers 6 GB of VRAM versus the RX 5500M’s 4 GB, and it has a wider 384-bit memory bus. However, it is a compute-only card with no display outputs, requires dual-slot space and a 600W power supply, and its 250W TDP is nearly three times higher than the RX 5500M’s 85W. In raw performance, it is far behind; the data shows the RX 5500M delivers over 3.4 times the FP32 throughput (4.632 TFLOPS vs 1,332.2 GFLOPS). The Tesla is for niche, memory-bound compute tasks where its 6 GB capacity matters more than speed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5500M is overwhelmingly faster. It scores 38,725 in Geekbench OpenCL compared to the Tesla M2090’s 13,075, a 196.2% advantage. Its FP32 rating is 4.632 TFLOPS versus 1,332.2 GFLOPS for the Tesla.

Q: Does the Tesla M2090 have any advantage in memory capacity?

A: Yes. The Tesla M2090 has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, while the RX 5500M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The Tesla’s bandwidth is lower at 177.4 GB/s vs 224.0 GB/s, but its capacity is 50% larger.

Q: Can the Tesla M2090 be used for gaming?

A: The data suggests no. The Tesla M2090 has "No outputs" for display connections and its benchmark profile only includes a single OpenCL test. The RX 5500M, by contrast, has benchmarks for DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, Metal, and Vulkan, plus a Passmark G3D score of 5,848.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5500M is far more efficient. It has an 85W TDP versus the Tesla’s 250W. The RX 5500M also uses a 7nm process with 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, while the Tesla uses a 40nm process with 3,000 million transistors on a much larger 520 mm² die.

Q: How do these cards compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The RX 5500M’s average score of 13,356 is nearly identical to the AMD FirePro M6100 (13,354, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro 555X (13,321, +0.3% delta). The Tesla M2090’s average of 13,075 is within 1.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 580 (12,928) and just 0.7% below the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986).

Architecture Differences

The architecture gap between these two GPUs is massive. The AMD Radeon RX 5500M uses the RDNA 1.0 architecture on a 7nm TSMC process, a modern design optimized for gaming efficiency. It packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5 million per mm². The NVIDIA Tesla M2090, in contrast, uses the older Fermi 2.0 architecture on a 40nm TSMC process. It has only 3,000 million transistors but on a much larger 520 mm² die, resulting in a low density of 5.8 million per mm². This explains why the RX 5500M achieves far higher performance with lower power draw. The RX 5500M also supports modern APIs including DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the Tesla M2090 only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, with no Vulkan support listed. The RX 5500M has 1,408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, whereas the Tesla has just 512 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The RX 5500M also supports FP16 at 9.265 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), which the Tesla does not list at all.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in almost every core specification. The RX 5500M runs at a base clock of 1375 MHz and boost of 1645 MHz, with a game clock of 1448 MHz, while the Tesla M2090 has no listed base, boost, or game clocks—only its memory clock of 924 MHz (3.7 Gbps effective). The RX 5500M's memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) and delivers 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, compared to the Tesla's 177.4 GB/s. The RX 5500M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the Tesla has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus. Pixel and texture rates also favor the AMD card: 52.64 GPixel/s and 144.8 GTexel/s versus 20.83 GPixel/s and 41.66 GTexel/s, respectively. The RX 5500M uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the Tesla uses PCIe 2.0 x16. Power requirements are starkly different—the RX 5500M is 85W with no power connectors, while the Tesla is 250W with a dual-slot design, 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors, and a suggested 600W power supply. The Tesla is also 248 mm (9.8 inches) long, while the RX 5500M is portable-device dependent. The RX 5500M was released on 2019-10-06, while the Tesla M2090 came out on 2011-07-24, both now end-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is a decisive victory for the AMD Radeon RX 5500M. The AMD card scores 38,725 versus the Tesla M2090’s 13,075, giving the RX 5500M a 196.2% advantage. This means the RX 5500M is nearly three times faster in this general-purpose compute benchmark. The result aligns with the raw specifications: the RX 5500M’s FP32 throughput of 4.632 TFLOPS dwarfs the Tesla’s 1,332.2 GFLOPS. Even if the Tesla’s larger 6 GB memory pool helps in some memory-bound tasks, the sheer compute deficit is insurmountable in this test. The RX 5500M also shows far broader capability—it has 10 benchmark entries spanning multiple APIs and test types, while the Tesla has only this single OpenCL result. This suggests the RX 5500M is a more versatile card, capable of handling graphics workloads that the Tesla cannot even display.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 5500M wins in nearly every measurable category. It dominates compute performance, with the 196.2% OpenCL lead being the headline figure. Its pixel rate (52.64 GPixel/s) is 2.5 times higher than the Tesla’s (20.83 GPixel/s), and its texture rate (144.8 GTexel/s) is 3.5 times higher (41.66 GTexel/s). This makes it the clear choice for gaming, real-time graphics, and any workload that leverages DirectX, Vulkan, or Metal. Its 7nm process and 85W TDP make it far more suitable for mobile or power-conscious builds. The RX 5500M also has a Passmark G3D score of 5,848 and a GPU compute score of 2,316, indicating solid performance in both rasterization and compute tasks. Its 54th percentile ranking and average score of 13,356 place it just above its direct rivals like the FirePro M6100 and Radeon Pro 555X.

The NVIDIA Tesla M2090 wins only in memory capacity, offering 6 GB versus 4 GB, and in memory bus width, with 384-bit versus 128-bit. This makes it theoretically better for workloads that require holding large datasets in VRAM, such as certain scientific simulations or deep learning inference with large batch sizes, provided the data fits within its slower 177.4 GB/s bandwidth. However, this advantage is purely theoretical in the benchmark data—there is no test showing the Tesla winning. Its 53rd percentile ranking and average score of 13,075 are slightly lower than the RX 5500M’s. The Tesla also has a larger ROP count (48 vs 32), which could help in specific pixel-heavy compute tasks, but its overall pixel rate is still far lower due to the clock speed differences. For any practical purpose where performance matters, the RX 5500M is the superior card; the Tesla M2090 is only relevant for legacy compute environments or memory-capacity-bound scenarios.