AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile and AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT are both end-of-life graphics solutions, yet they represent two distinct philosophies in GPU design. The data shows a clear overall winner in raw compute, but the AMD card claws back ground in specific legacy and 2D workloads. This is a comparison of a mobile professional workstation part against a desktop gaming card, and the benchmark results reflect that fundamental split.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile dominates the head-to-head results, winning seven of the nine compared tests. The most decisive victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the A4000 Mobile scores 97,178 against the RX 5600 XT's 68,537, a 41.8% advantage. This is a massive gap that points to the NVIDIA card's superior raw compute throughput, bolstered by its 17.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the AMD card's 7.188 TFLOPS. The pattern continues in Geekbench Vulkan, with NVIDIA winning 73,002 to 56,218, a 29.9% lead.

DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 results show equally lopsided margins. In Passmark DirectX 10, the A4000 Mobile scores 105 versus 73, a 43.8% delta that is the largest relative win for NVIDIA in the entire suite. DirectX 11 sees a 32.3% advantage (127 vs 96), and even in DirectX 12, where modern architectures typically shine, the A4000 Mobile holds a 26.9% lead (66 vs 52). These results suggest that the NVIDIA card's Ampere architecture, with its 40 dedicated RT cores and 160 tensor cores, provides a more robust feature set for contemporary graphics APIs.

The Passmark G3D score, a holistic gaming-oriented metric, also favors NVIDIA, but by a much narrower margin. The A4000 Mobile scores 14,796 against the RX 5600 XT's 13,457, a 10% advantage. This is a significant win, but it is less dramatic than the compute-heavy tests, indicating that the AMD card's RDNA 1.0 architecture is competitive in pure rasterization scenarios. The closest contest is in Passmark GPU Compute, where NVIDIA wins by a razor-thin 1.6% (6,394 vs 6,296), suggesting that the compute advantage narrows when the workload is more general-purpose rather than graphics-specific.

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT wins two tests, and both are telling. In Passmark DirectX 9, the AMD card scores 202 against NVIDIA's 157, a 22.3% lead. This is a legacy API, and the result indicates that the RDNA architecture retains strong performance for older titles. The more significant win for AMD is in Passmark G2D, a 2D graphics test, where it scores 870 versus 585, a 32.8% delta. This is the largest margin of victory for either card in any test, and it suggests that the RX 5600 XT has a more efficient 2D rendering pipeline or better memory latency characteristics for such workloads.

In aggregate, the average benchmark score tells the story: the A4000 Mobile averages 21,379 across all tests, while the RX 5600 XT averages 20,713. That is a 3.2% overall lead for NVIDIA. Both cards sit at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, placing them in the same performance tier, but the A4000 Mobile is consistently ahead where it matters most for modern applications.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 21,379, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT's 20,713, representing a 3.2% overall advantage.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA card in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile scores 97,178 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 41.8% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT's score of 68,537.

Q: In which benchmark does the AMD card perform best relative to NVIDIA?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT achieves its largest win in Passmark G2D, scoring 870 against NVIDIA's 585, a 32.8% advantage.

Q: Do the two GPUs have similar DirectX 12 performance?

A: No. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile leads in Passmark DirectX 12 with a score of 66, which is 26.9% higher than the AMD card's score of 52.

Q: What is the difference in FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile delivers 17.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT delivers 7.188 TFLOPS, making the NVIDIA card more than twice as powerful in this metric.

Q: Are these GPUs in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT are rated at the 66th percentile among all GPUs.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip based on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 44.4 million per mm². In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT uses the Navi 10 chip based on the RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. This chip has 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, yielding a density of 41.0 million per mm².

The NVIDIA chip is significantly larger and more complex, which explains its higher transistor count and compute capabilities. The Ampere architecture includes dedicated hardware for ray tracing, with 40 RT cores, and machine learning, with 160 tensor cores. The AMD card has no equivalent dedicated RT or tensor cores, relying instead on the shader-based approach of RDNA 1.0. This architectural difference is reflected in the DirectX 12 Ultimate support of the NVIDIA card, which enables features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing, versus the DirectX 12 (12_1) support on the AMD card.

Shading unit counts also differ dramatically. The NVIDIA card has 5,120 shading units, 160 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 80 render output units (ROPs). The AMD card has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card's higher pixel rate of 134.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 268.8 GTexel/s outperform the AMD card's 99.84 GPixel/s and 224.6 GTexel/s, respectively. The FP16 performance is also telling: NVIDIA achieves 17.20 TFLOPS in a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while AMD achieves 14.38 TFLOPS in a 2:1 ratio, meaning NVIDIA's FP16 throughput is more useful for compute workloads that require precision.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems differ substantially. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Both use 12 Gbps effective memory clocks, but the NVIDIA card's wider bus gives it a 33% bandwidth advantage.

Clock speeds are surprisingly close. The NVIDIA card has a base clock of 1140 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, while the AMD card has a base clock of 1130 MHz and a boost clock of 1560 MHz, with a game clock of 1375 MHz. The NVIDIA card has a 120 MHz boost advantage. Power consumption is reversed: the NVIDIA card has a TDP of 115 W and requires no power connectors, while the AMD card has a TDP of 150 W and requires a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 450 W.

The physical form factors are also distinct. The AMD card is a dual-slot desktop card measuring 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length, with display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The NVIDIA card has no fixed dimensions or display outputs, as it is described as "portable device dependent," reflecting its mobile nature. The AMD card launched with an MSRP of 279 USD, while the NVIDIA card has no listed launch MSRP. Both cards use a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The release dates differ, with the AMD card launching on 2020-01-20 and the NVIDIA card on 2021-04-11.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture for most workloads: the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile is the more capable GPU. It wins seven of nine head-to-head benchmarks, including all modern API tests, and holds a 3.2% lead in average benchmark score. Its 41.8% OpenCL advantage and 29.9% Vulkan lead make it the obvious choice for compute-heavy applications, while its 10% G3D lead ensures it is also competitive for gaming. The 8 GB memory capacity and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth provide a significant buffer for high-resolution textures and complex scenes.

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is not without merit. Its 32.8% win in Passmark G2D and 22.3% win in DirectX 9 indicate that it handles 2D and legacy workloads more efficiently. The narrower 1.6% gap in GPU compute suggests that for certain general-purpose tasks, the two cards are nearly equal. The AMD card also has a lower transistor density and smaller die, which may translate to different thermal characteristics, though both cards are specified at similar TDP ranges relative to their form factors.

For a mobile professional workstation, the RTX A4000 Mobile is the clear choice. Its Ampere architecture with RT and tensor cores, combined with higher compute throughput and more memory, makes it suitable for rendering, AI, and professional visualization tasks. For a desktop gaming build focused on older titles or 2D applications, the RX 5600 XT offers competitive performance at a lower power draw in a desktop context, though its legacy API advantages are niche. The verdict is straightforward: if your workload touches modern graphics APIs, choose NVIDIA; if you prioritize legacy compatibility and 2D performance, the AMD card holds its own.