AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a complete sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 across the three shared benchmark tests. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 4090 scores 9,223 points against 1,320 for the AMD Radeon RX 5600M, a delta of 598.7%. This is the largest relative gap of the three comparisons, and it reflects the enormous difference in raw rasterization throughput between a desktop flagship and a mobile part.

Geekbench OpenCL results follow the same pattern, with the RTX 4090 delivering 255,416 points versus 59,589 for the RX 5600M, a 328.6% advantage. The Vulkan test narrows the gap slightly in percentage terms, but the absolute difference remains vast: 271,631 against 48,843, which is 456.1% higher. The RX 5600M does not win a single head-to-head test in the database, and its closest result is still over three times slower than the RTX 4090 in OpenCL.

The average benchmark score for the RTX 4090 is 60,347, while the RX 5600M averages 46,601. That 29.5% overall gap is smaller than the head-to-head deltas because the average includes different test suites, but the direction is unambiguous. In percentile terms, the RTX 4090 ranks in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600M sits at the 85th percentile. Both are strong placements, yet the RTX 4090 dominates the actual workload results where both cards were measured directly against one another.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4090 wins every category where direct comparisons exist. In DX12 gaming workloads, represented by 3DMark Steel Nomad, it is nearly seven times faster than the RX 5600M. For compute-oriented tasks, Geekbench OpenCL shows a 328.6% lead, and the Vulkan result demonstrates similar superiority at 456.1%. The RTX 4090 also holds advantages in its broader benchmark suite, including PassMark G3D at 38,194 and PassMark GPU Compute at 26,613, though the RX 5600M was not tested in those specific workloads.

The RX 5600M does have a niche where it is not directly comparable: it was tested in Geekbench Metal, scoring 76,653, a test that the RTX 4090 does not appear in. That is a platform-specific metric rather than a competitive benchmark, so it does not indicate a functional win. The RX 5600M also carries a much lower power draw, with a 150 W TDP versus 450 W for the RTX 4090, and it is an integrated mobile part with no power connectors, while the RTX 4090 requires a 16-pin connector and an 850 W suggested PSU. For battery-powered systems, the RX 5600M is the only realistic option, but on pure performance, the data gives the RTX 4090 every win.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different design generations and market segments. The RTX 4090 is built on TSMC's 5 nm process, using the AD102 chip with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. The RX 5600M uses TSMC's 7 nm node with the Navi 10 chip, packing 10,300 million transistors into 251 mm². Transistor density tells the story: the RTX 4090 reaches 125.3 million transistors per mm², while the RX 5600M manages 41.0 million per mm². That is a 3x density advantage for the newer process.

The RTX 4090 runs the Ada Lovelace architecture with 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units. It also includes 128 dedicated ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores, neither of which the RX 5600M has. The RX 5600M, based on RDNA 1.0, offers 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with no RT or tensor hardware at all. Its FP32 output is 5.829 TFLOPS, while the RTX 4090 reaches 82.58 TFLOPS, a 14.2x difference. FP16 on the RTX 4090 is identical to FP32 at 82.58 TFLOPS, whereas the RX 5600M doubles its FP32 rate to 11.66 TFLOPS in FP16, indicating a different execution model.

Memory is another major divider. The RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s. The RTX 4090's bandwidth is 3.5x higher, and its memory clock runs at 21 Gbps effective versus 12 Gbps for the AMD part. Pixel rate stands at 443.5 GPixel/s for the RTX 4090 and 80.96 GPixel/s for the RX 5600M, while texture rates are 1,290.2 GTexel/s and 182.2 GTexel/s respectively.

The API support also differs. The RTX 4090 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX 5600M is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4090 is a triple-slot desktop card measuring 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 61 mm in width, with display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 5600M is an integrated GPU with no dimensions listed and display outputs described as portable device dependent. The RTX 4090 was released in September 2022, while the RX 5600M launched in July 2020, and both are now end-of-life products.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 averages 60,347 points across all recorded benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600M averages 46,601 points. That is a 29.5% overall advantage for the RTX 4090.

Q: What is the largest single-test performance gap between the two?

A: The biggest delta is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RTX 4090 scores 9,223 versus 1,320 for the RX 5600M, a 598.7% difference. The smallest gap is in Geekbench OpenCL at 328.6%, still a massive margin.

Q: Does the RX 5600M have any hardware features the RTX 4090 lacks?

A: No. The RX 5600M has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 4090 has 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The RX 5600M does support Geekbench Metal, a test absent from the RTX 4090's results, but that is a software platform difference, not a hardware advantage.

Q: How do the memory subsystems compare?

A: The RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The RX 5600M has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s. The RTX 4090's effective memory speed is 21 Gbps versus 12 Gbps for the RX 5600M.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 4090 has a 450 W TDP, requires a single 16-pin power connector, and suggests an 850 W PSU. The RX 5600M has a 150 W TDP, uses no power connectors, and has no suggested PSU rating, as it is an integrated mobile part.

Q: Which card ranks higher relative to all GPUs?

A: The RTX 4090 is in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 5600M is in the 85th percentile. Despite the large performance gap in head-to-head tests, both cards sit near the top of the overall distribution, though the RTX 4090 holds the higher position.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 5600M in every shared benchmark by a factor of 4.3x to 7.0x. Its nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Arc Pro A60, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and AMD Radeon PRO V710, with average scores ranging from 58,657 to 61,896, all within 2.9% of the RTX 4090's 60,347 average. The RX 5600M, by contrast, sits alongside the Intel Arc A530M, AMD Radeon RX 6550M, NVIDIA RTX A2000, and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation, all clustered around 46,000 points.

For desktop users with access to a robust power supply and a triple-slot chassis, the RTX 4090 is the clear choice based on raw performance. It offers 24 GB of memory, 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, and full DirectX 12 Ultimate support, all of which the RX 5600M cannot approach. The RX 5600M is only suitable for portable systems where power draw and physical size matter more than speed, and even there, its 85th percentile ranking is respectable, but it has no path to competitive performance against the RTX 4090.

The RTX 4090's launch MSRP was 1,599 USD, and it is now an end-of-life product, as is the RX 5600M. Neither card represents current-generation hardware, but the performance gulf between them is so large that any buyer needing maximum frame rates or compute throughput would select the RTX 4090 without hesitation. The RX 5600M remains relevant only in the context of low-power mobile systems, where the RTX 4090 cannot physically fit. In every measurable way, the RTX 4090 is the superior product, and the benchmark data confirms it across all three shared workloads.