AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile Comparison

# AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is decisively faster than the AMD Radeon RX 5600M in every shared benchmark, with the RTX 4090 Mobile delivering roughly 3x the compute performance in OpenCL and over 3.5x in Vulkan. However, these two mobile GPUs occupy fundamentally different tiers: the RX 5600M is an end-of-life RDNA 1.0 part from 2020, while the RTX 4090 Mobile is an active Ada Lovelace flagship from 2023. The data shows a generational and architectural chasm, not a competitive matchup.

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head benchmark data shows a clean sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, which wins both shared tests by massive margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831 versus the RX 5600M's 59,589, a 67% delta. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens further: 170,774 versus 48,843, a 71.4% delta. There are zero benchmark wins for the AMD Radeon RX 5600M in this comparison.

The RX 5600M's only claim to relevance comes from its average benchmark score and percentile placement. Its average score of 46,601 places it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals like the Intel Arc A530M (46,614, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 6550M (46,702, -0.2% delta). The RTX 4090 Mobile's average score of 43,667 puts it in the 84th percentile, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44,075, -0.9% delta) and NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,301, 0.8% delta). This is a statistical curiosity: the RX 5600M has a higher average benchmark score and percentile, yet loses every head-to-head test by a wide margin.

The practical interpretation is straightforward: the RTX 4090 Mobile wins every workload captured by the shared benchmarks, while the RX 5600M's higher average score reflects a different benchmark mix (including 3DMark Steel Nomad and Geekbench Metal scores that the RTX 4090 Mobile does not share). For users comparing these two specifically, the RTX 4090 Mobile is the clear performance winner.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is substantial and explains the performance gap. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M uses the RDNA 1.0 architecture on a 7 nm TSMC process, featuring the Navi 10 chip with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die. Transistor density sits at 41.0 million per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile uses Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm TSMC process, with the AD103 chip packing 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. That is a 121.1 million transistors per mm² density, roughly 3x the density of the RX 5600M.

Core counts tell a similar story. The RX 5600M has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4090 Mobile has 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs — more than 4x the shading units and more than double the TMUs and ROPs. The RTX 4090 Mobile also brings 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, hardware that the RX 5600M lacks entirely (both fields are null in the data). This reflects the RDNA 1.0 generation's limited ray tracing support versus Ada Lovelace's dedicated RT and AI acceleration.

Memory configurations are equally divergent. The RX 5600M uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth with 12 Gbps effective memory speed. The RTX 4090 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth with 18 Gbps effective memory speed. That is 2.67x more memory capacity and exactly 2x the bandwidth. Clock speeds also favor NVIDIA: the RTX 4090 Mobile runs at a 1335 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost, versus 1035 MHz base and 1265 MHz boost for the RX 5600M.

Compute throughput is where the gap becomes overwhelming. The RX 5600M delivers 5.829 TFLOPS FP32 and 11.66 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The RTX 4090 Mobile delivers 32.98 TFLOPS FP32 and 32.98 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio) — 5.66x more FP32 throughput and nearly 3x more FP16 throughput. Pixel rate is 80.96 GPixel/s versus 189.8 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 182.2 GTexel/s versus 515.3 GTexel/s. The RTX 4090 Mobile achieves all this at a lower TDP of 120 W versus the RX 5600M's 150 W, a remarkable efficiency advantage from the 5 nm process.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two shared benchmarks in the data are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and both show the RTX 4090 Mobile dominating. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 Mobile scores 180,831 against the RX 5600M's 59,589. The 67% delta means the NVIDIA part is roughly 3x faster in raw compute workloads that leverage OpenCL. This is consistent with the 5.66x FP32 advantage, though the real-world delta is slightly compressed by memory and driver overhead.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 4090 Mobile scores 170,774 against 48,843 for the RX 5600M, a 71.4% delta. This is an even larger relative gap than OpenCL, suggesting the Ada Lovelace architecture scales better under Vulkan's explicit API model. The RX 5600M's RDNA 1.0 Vulkan drivers and older architecture cannot match the newer NVIDIA implementation.

Outside the shared tests, each GPU has additional benchmarks in the data. The RX 5600M posts a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,320, a Geekbench Metal score of 76,653, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 48,843 (the same as in the head-to-head). The RTX 4090 Mobile has a broader suite: Passmark G3D at 27,212, Passmark G2D at 984, Passmark GPU Compute at 12,347, and Passmark DirectX 9/10/11/12 scores of 310, 173, 262, and 107 respectively. These Passmark scores are not directly comparable to the Geekbench tests but show the RTX 4090 Mobile's strength in legacy DirectX workloads (310 in DX9) and compute (12,347 in GPU Compute).

The verdict from the head-to-head data is unambiguous: the RTX 4090 Mobile wins both shared benchmarks by margins that are not competitive. The RX 5600M's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,320 is its best standalone showing, but with no RTX 4090 Mobile score for that test, it cannot be used for direct comparison.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5600M has a higher average benchmark score of 46,601, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile's 43,667. However, the RTX 4090 Mobile wins every shared head-to-head benchmark.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 Mobile in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 4090 Mobile scores 170,774 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 48,843 for the RX 5600M, a 71.4% delta — meaning the NVIDIA GPU is roughly 3.5x faster.

Q: Does the RX 5600M support ray tracing?

A: The data shows no ray tracing cores for the RX 5600M (the field is null), while the RTX 4090 Mobile has 76 RT cores. The RX 5600M's RDNA 1.0 architecture does not include dedicated hardware for this workload.

Q: What are the TDP differences between these two GPUs?

A: The RX 5600M has a TDP of 150 W, while the RTX 4090 Mobile has a lower TDP of 120 W. This means the RTX 4090 Mobile delivers far higher performance with 30 W less power draw.

Q: Which GPU has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4090 Mobile has 576.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 288.0 GB/s for the RX 5600M — exactly double. The RTX 4090 Mobile also has 16 GB of memory versus 6 GB.

Q: What is the release date difference?

A: The RX 5600M was released on July 6, 2020, and is end-of-life. The RTX 4090 Mobile was released on January 2, 2023, and is still in active production.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 5600M | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Ada Lovelace |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 10,300 million | 45,900 million |

| Die Size | 251 mm² | 379 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 41.0M / mm² | 121.1M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1035 MHz | 1335 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1265 MHz | 1695 MHz |

| Memory Size | 6 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory Bus Width | 192 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 288.0 GB/s | 576.0 GB/s |

| Memory Speed | 12 Gbps effective | 18 Gbps effective |

| Shading Units | 2304 | 9728 |

| TMUs | 144 | 304 |

| ROPs | 64 | 112 |

| RT Cores | None (null) | 76 |

| Tensor Cores | None (null) | 304 |

| Pixel Rate | 80.96 GPixel/s | 189.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 182.2 GTexel/s | 515.3 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 5.829 TFLOPS | 32.98 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 11.66 TFLOPS (2:1) | 32.98 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 150 W | 120 W |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2020-07-06 | 2023-01-02 |

The Verdict

The data supports only one conclusion: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is the superior GPU in every measurable shared benchmark, and the margins are enormous. A 67% lead in OpenCL and a 71.4% lead in Vulkan are not incremental improvements; they represent a different performance class entirely. The RTX 4090 Mobile achieves this with 4.2x more shading units, 5.66x more FP32 throughput, 2x the memory bandwidth, and 2.67x the memory capacity, all while consuming 30 W less power. The architectural advantages of Ada Lovelace — 76 RT cores, 304 tensor cores, 1:1 FP16 ratio, and a denser 5 nm process — make it the clear choice for any workload that can use these features.

The AMD Radeon RX 5600M's case rests on its higher average benchmark score (46,601 vs 43,667) and its 85th percentile placement versus the RTX 4090 Mobile's 84th. But this is a statistical artifact of different benchmark suites, not evidence of competitive performance. The RX 5600M's nearest rivals are the Intel Arc A530M and AMD Radeon RX 6550M, both within 0.2% of its average score — these are the GPUs it actually competes with. The RTX 4090 Mobile's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and Quadro M6000, which bracket its score within 0.9%. These are workstation-class parts, not mainstream mobile GPUs.

For a user choosing between these two specific GPUs, the RTX 4090 Mobile wins on every shared metric. It is faster, more efficient, more memory-rich, and architecturally modern. The RX 5600M should only be considered if the workload is exclusively tied to 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 or Geekbench Metal — tests where the RTX 4090 Mobile has no comparative data — or if the higher average benchmark score is the primary selection criterion. Otherwise, the data is unambiguous: the RTX 4090 Mobile is the definitive choice.