AMD Radeon RX 590 GME vs NVIDIA RTX A1000 Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A1000 and AMD Radeon RX 590 GME are two graphics cards from different eras with contrasting design philosophies. The data shows a split verdict: the RTX A1000 dominates in compute-oriented OpenCL workloads, while the RX 590 GME takes the lead in gaming-focused DirectX 12 and Vulkan tests. With the A1000 achieving an average benchmark score of 34207 against the RX 590 GME’s 32601, the NVIDIA card holds a 4.9% overall advantage, but the AMD card wins two of the three head-to-head tests.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive result in the comparison is the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the NVIDIA RTX A1000 scores 52078 against the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME’s 36294. That is a 43.5% advantage for the A1000, a massive margin that reflects the fundamental differences in their compute architectures. This single result skews the overall average heavily, as the A1000’s score is nearly 50% higher than its nearest rival’s in this specific workload.

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME fights back in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, scoring 1001 versus the RTX A1000’s 969. The delta here is only 3.2% in AMD’s favor, making it a narrow victory. This is a modern DirectX 12 Ultimate benchmark, and despite the RX 590 GME’s older GCN architecture lacking dedicated ray tracing cores, it still edges out the Ampere-based A1000 in rasterization performance under this API.

The Vulkan results show another win for AMD, but with a much larger margin. The RX 590 GME scores 60508 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RTX A1000 manages 49574. That translates to an 18.1% lead for the AMD card. The pattern is clear: AMD wins the graphics-API tests, while NVIDIA wins the general-purpose compute test. The A1000’s single victory is substantial enough to give it the higher average score, but the RX 590 GME demonstrates superior raw graphics throughput in both modern gaming APIs tested.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A1000 is the clear choice for compute-heavy applications that rely on OpenCL. Its 43.5% lead over the RX 590 GME in that benchmark indicates hardware designed for professional workloads, scientific computing, and AI-adjacent tasks. The A1000’s 72 tensor cores and 18 ray tracing cores provide capabilities the RX 590 GME simply does not have, as the AMD card lists null values for both. This is a workstation card, and the benchmark data supports that positioning.

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME wins in traditional gaming rasterization scenarios. Its victories in both the DirectX 12 Steel Nomad test and the Vulkan benchmark suggest that for pure frame-pushing in games, the older Polaris architecture remains competitive. The 3.2% win in DX12 is marginal, but the 18.1% win in Vulkan is substantial. Gamers using Vulkan-based titles would see a noticeable performance advantage with the RX 590 GME. The card also offers a wider 256-bit memory bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, which helps in high-resolution texture-heavy workloads common in gaming.

For mixed usage, the data suggests a trade-off. The A1000’s 50 W TDP versus the RX 590 GME’s 175 W means the NVIDIA card delivers its compute performance at a fraction of the power draw. Users prioritizing energy efficiency and compute should choose the A1000, while those prioritizing gaming API performance should lean toward the RX 590 GME.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different architectural eras. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 is built on the Ampere architecture using the GA107 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME uses the older GCN 4.0 architecture with the Polaris 20 chip, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 5,700 million transistors on a larger 232 mm² die, resulting in a lower density of 24.6M per mm².

The transistor count difference is stark: the A1000 has 34.5% more transistors packed into a smaller area. This explains its superior compute throughput in OpenCL. However, the RX 590 GME compensates with a different internal layout. It has 144 texture mapping units (TMUs) versus the A1000’s 72, giving it double the texture processing capability. This is reflected in the texture rates: the RX 590 GME reaches 204.5 GTexel/s while the A1000 manages only 105.3 GTexel/s. The AMD card’s texture rate is nearly double that of the NVIDIA card, which contributes to its gaming performance wins.

The A1000 introduces hardware features absent from the RX 590 GME. It has 18 ray tracing cores and 72 tensor cores, enabling DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support. The RX 590 GME is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and has no ray tracing or tensor core hardware. The NVIDIA card also supports Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card is limited to Vulkan 1.3. The A1000 is a single-slot card with no power connectors and a 250 W suggested PSU, whereas the RX 590 GME is dual-slot, requires a single 8-pin power connector, and needs a 450 W PSU.

Specification Differences

The most significant specification differences between the two cards are in clock speeds and memory configuration. The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME has a much higher base clock of 1257 MHz compared to the RTX A1000’s 727 MHz, though the boost clocks are closer at 1420 MHz versus 1462 MHz. The A1000 actually boosts slightly higher, but its memory operates at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed, while the RX 590 GME’s memory runs at 2000 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed.

Memory bandwidth is a major differentiator. The RX 590 GME uses GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The A1000 uses GDDR6 on a narrower 128-bit bus, resulting in 192.0 GB/s. The AMD card provides 33.3% more memory bandwidth, which is critical for gaming performance. Both cards have 8 GB of memory, but the type and bus width differences favor AMD in bandwidth-sensitive tasks.

The shading unit count is identical at 2304 for both cards, and both have 32 ROPs. The pixel rates are nearly equal at 46.78 GPixel/s for the A1000 and 45.44 GPixel/s for the RX 590 GME, a difference of only 2.9%. The FP32 compute performance is also close: the A1000 achieves 6.737 TFLOPS while the RX 590 GME achieves 6.543 TFLOPS, a 2.9% advantage for NVIDIA. The FP16 rates are identical to the FP32 rates for both cards, indicating 1:1 ratios.

Physical dimensions and connectivity differ substantially. The A1000 is 163 mm long and 69 mm tall, while the RX 590 GME is 241 mm long. The A1000 offers 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the RX 590 GME provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The bus interfaces also differ: the A1000 uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RX 590 GME uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The A1000 was released in 2024 and remains active in production, while the RX 590 GME was released in 2020 and is end-of-life.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 has an average benchmark score of 34207, which is 4.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME’s 32601.

Q: How much does the RTX A1000 lead in the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The RTX A1000 scores 52078 in Geekbench OpenCL versus the RX 590 GME’s 36294, a 43.5% advantage for NVIDIA.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two cards?

A: The RX 590 GME offers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth on a 256-bit bus, while the RTX A1000 provides 192.0 GB/s on a 128-bit bus, giving AMD a 33.3% bandwidth advantage.

Q: Does the RTX A1000 have hardware ray tracing support?

A: Yes, the RTX A1000 has 18 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the RX 590 GME has no ray tracing cores and is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0).

Q: Which card requires more power from the system PSU?

A: The RX 590 GME has a 175 W TDP and requires a 450 W suggested PSU, while the RTX A1000 has a 50 W TDP and only needs a 250 W suggested PSU.

Q: How do the two cards compare in texture processing?

A: The RX 590 GME has 144 TMUs and achieves 204.5 GTexel/s, while the RTX A1000 has 72 TMUs and achieves 105.3 GTexel/s, giving AMD nearly double the texture throughput.

The Verdict

The data points to two distinct user profiles. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 is the superior choice for compute-intensive professional workloads. Its 43.5% lead in OpenCL, combined with the presence of tensor cores and ray tracing cores, makes it the more capable card for scientific computing, AI inference, and rendering tasks that leverage these features. The fact that it achieves this while drawing only 50 W versus 175 W is a significant efficiency advantage. Its 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, versus the RX 590 GME’s 77th, reinforces its higher overall standing.

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME is the better option for gamers focused on Vulkan and DirectX 12 titles. It wins the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test by 3.2% and the Geekbench Vulkan test by 18.1%. Its double TMU count and superior memory bandwidth make it more responsive in texture-heavy gaming scenarios. However, its end-of-life production status and lack of modern features like ray tracing mean it is a legacy product, while the A1000 is an active product with forward-looking capabilities.

For most users, the choice hinges on workload. Gaming performance favors the RX 590 GME, but the margin is modest in DX12 and significant only in Vulkan. Compute performance overwhelmingly favors the RTX A1000. The NVIDIA card’s higher average score, better percentile ranking, lower power consumption, and active production status make it the more broadly capable and future-proof option. The RX 590 GME wins two benchmarks, but the A1000 wins the one that matters more for professional and compute applications.