AMD Radeon RX 590 GME vs NVIDIA T600 Mobile Comparison

NVIDIA T600 Mobile and AMD Radeon RX 590 GME are both end-of-life products that occupy the same 77th percentile of all GPUs, with near-identical average benchmark scores. The data shows a clear split: the AMD card dominates in raw compute and graphics API performance, while the NVIDIA card offers a dramatically more efficient package. The RX 590 GME wins both head-to-head tests, but the T600 Mobile's 40 W TDP versus 175 W TDP tells a story of specialization rather than outright superiority.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME wins both direct comparisons, but the margin tells two different stories. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 590 GME scores 36,294 against the T600 Mobile's 35,486, a narrow 2.2% advantage. This is a close contest—the delta is small enough that real-world differences would be difficult to perceive outside synthetic loads. Both cards land within a tight cluster: the T600 Mobile's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P104-100 at 32,982 (-0.4%) and the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at 32,540 (+0.9%), while the RX 590 GME sits near the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at 32,540 (+0.2%) and AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE at 32,456 (+0.4%). The OpenCL result is essentially a tie within measurement noise.

The Geekbench Vulkan test is a different matter entirely. The RX 590 GME posts 60,508 versus the T600 Mobile's 30,211—a 50.1% lead for AMD. This is a decisive, generational gap in Vulkan performance. The T600 Mobile's score is roughly half of AMD's, indicating that the Turing-based NVIDIA card struggles with Vulkan workloads compared to the GCN 4.0 architecture. The average benchmark scores reflect this disparity: the T600 Mobile averages 32,849 (with a 0.8% edge over the RX 590 GME), while the RX 590 GME averages 32,601. These averages are pulled in different directions by the Vulkan result, yet the overall standings remain similar because the OpenCL test dominates the weighting.

What the numbers show is that the RX 590 GME is the faster card in every measured category, with its Vulkan advantage being the single largest differentiator. The T600 Mobile's average score of 32,849 puts it slightly ahead of the RX 590 GME's 32,601 in the aggregate, but that is a statistical artifact of benchmark weighting—in direct competition, AMD wins both tests.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA T600 Mobile uses the TU117 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process, while the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME uses the Polaris 20 chip on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process. NVIDIA's transistor count is 4,700 million on a 200 mm² die, yielding a density of 23.5M transistors per mm². AMD packs 5,700 million transistors onto a 232 mm² die, achieving 24.6M transistors per mm²—a slightly higher density despite the older node.

The compute architecture diverges sharply. The T600 Mobile has 896 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, while the RX 590 GME has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. AMD's card has 2.6 times the shading units and 2.6 times the texture units, directly explaining its higher texture fill rate of 204.5 GTexel/s versus 78.96 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. Pixel rates are nearly identical: 45.44 GPixel/s for AMD and 45.12 GPixel/s for NVIDIA, both tied to their matching 32 ROPs.

Clock speeds reveal a key efficiency story. The T600 Mobile runs at a 780 MHz base and 1410 MHz boost, while the RX 590 GME runs at 1257 MHz base and 1420 MHz boost. Despite the similar boost clocks, NVIDIA's FP32 throughput is only 2.527 TFLOPS against AMD's 6.543 TFLOPS—a 2.6-fold difference that mirrors the shading unit count. The FP16 story is equally telling: NVIDIA achieves 5.053 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while AMD achieves 6.543 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), meaning AMD does not sacrifice FP16 performance.

Memory subsystems also differ substantially. The T600 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s bandwidth at 12 Gbps effective. The RX 590 GME has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s at 8 Gbps effective. AMD offers double the capacity and 33% more bandwidth, though on older memory technology. The TDP gap is the largest architectural distinction: 40 W for NVIDIA versus 175 W for AMD, a 4.4-fold difference. The RX 590 GME requires a 1x 8-pin power connector and a 450 W suggested PSU, while the T600 Mobile is an IGP with no power connectors.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 590 GME wins decisively in Vulkan-heavy workloads, as shown by its 50.1% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. This makes it the choice for applications that leverage Vulkan's lower overhead and explicit control. Its 8 GB memory capacity and 256-bit bus also favor large texture datasets and higher-resolution rendering, where the extra 4 GB of VRAM prevents swapping. The FP32 throughput of 6.543 TFLOPS is more than double the T600 Mobile's 2.527 TFLOPS, making the RX 590 GME better suited for general compute tasks that are not memory-bandwidth limited.

The T600 Mobile's wins are in efficiency and portability. Its 40 W TDP is a fraction of AMD's 175 W, and its IGP form factor with no power connectors means it can fit into systems where the dual-slot, 8-pin-connected RX 590 GME would be physically and thermally impossible. The T600 Mobile's 12 nm process and Turing architecture deliver respectable OpenCL performance (35,486) that is within 2.2% of AMD's much larger card, suggesting that NVIDIA achieves competitive compute per watt. The T600 Mobile also supports Vulkan 1.4 versus AMD's Vulkan 1.3, and DirectX 12_1 versus AMD's 12_0, giving it a slight API feature edge.

For a laptop or compact workstation, the T600 Mobile is the only viable option given its IGP design. For a desktop with power headroom, the RX 590 GME provides superior raw performance across both benchmark categories, particularly Vulkan where it doubles the NVIDIA score.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher average benchmark scores?

A: The NVIDIA T600 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 32,849, which is 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME's 32,601. However, in direct head-to-head tests, the RX 590 GME wins both Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: The RX 590 GME scores 60,508 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 30,211 for the T600 Mobile, representing a 50.1% advantage for AMD. This is the largest single benchmark difference between the two cards.

Q: What memory configurations do the two cards have?

A: The T600 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 590 GME has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The T600 Mobile supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RX 590 GME supports DirectX 12 (12_0). Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the T600 Mobile supports Vulkan 1.4 versus the RX 590 GME's Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the TDP difference?

A: The T600 Mobile has a 40 W TDP and requires no power connectors, while the RX 590 GME has a 175 W TDP, requires a 1x 8-pin power connector, and a 450 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card is larger physically?

A: The RX 590 GME is a dual-slot card measuring 241 mm (9.5 inches) in length. The T600 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no listed dimensions, indicating it is designed for direct board mounting.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA T600 Mobile | AMD Radeon RX 590 GME |

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

| Chip | TU117 | Polaris 20 |

| Architecture | Turing | GCN 4.0 |

| Process Node | 12 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 4,700 million | 5,700 million |

| Die Size | 200 mm² | 232 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 23.5M / mm² | 24.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 780 MHz | 1257 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1410 MHz | 1420 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz / 12 Gbps effective | 2000 MHz / 8 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 192.0 GB/s | 256.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 896 | 2304 |

| TMUs | 56 | 144 |

| ROPs | 32 | 32 |

| Pixel Rate | 45.12 GPixel/s | 45.44 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 78.96 GTexel/s | 204.5 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 2.527 TFLOPS | 6.543 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 5.053 TFLOPS (2:1) | 6.543 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 40 W | 175 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | N/A | 450 W |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2021-04-11 | 2020-03-08 |

| Predecessor | Quadro Pascal-M | Arctic Islands |

| Successor | Ampere-MW | Vega |

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 590 GME is the faster card in every head-to-head benchmark, with its 50.1% Vulkan advantage being the single most decisive metric. It also offers double the memory (8 GB versus 4 GB), 33% more bandwidth (256.0 GB/s versus 192.0 GB/s), and more than double the FP32 throughput (6.543 TFLOPS versus 2.527 TFLOPS). For any workload that is compute-bound or Vulkan-based, the RX 590 GME is clearly superior.

The NVIDIA T600 Mobile wins on efficiency and form factor. Its 40 W TDP is 135 W lower than the RX 590 GME, it needs no power connectors, and its IGP design allows installation in systems where a dual-slot 241 mm card with an 8-pin connector cannot fit. The T600 Mobile also maintains a 0.8% higher average benchmark score due to benchmark weighting, and it supports newer API versions (DirectX 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4).

Choose the RX 590 GME if you have a desktop with adequate power delivery and cooling, and if you prioritize raw performance, memory capacity, and Vulkan throughput. Choose the T600 Mobile if you need a low-power, compact solution for mobile or space-constrained systems, and if your applications favor OpenCL over Vulkan—the OpenCL gap is only 2.2%, making the T600 Mobile a surprisingly competitive option at a fraction of the power draw. The data does not support a single "winner"; it supports two different winners for two different use cases.