AMD Radeon RX 590 vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data sets these two cards apart in clear, measurable ways. The AMD Radeon RX 590 posts an average benchmark score of 24,744, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 records 21,629. That is a 14.4% advantage for the RX 590 in the aggregate database average, a notable margin given the different market positions of the two products.

The RX 590 also holds a slight edge in percentile ranking against all GPUs. It sits at the 70th percentile, while the Quadro RTX 5000 lands at the 67th. Looking at the nearest rivals for each card reinforces this separation. The RX 590's closest competitor is the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile with an average score of 24,763, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the RX 590 essentially trades blows with that mobile workstation part. It is also 0.4% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M, 1.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, and 1.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630. These are narrow margins, but the pattern is consistent: the RX 590 outperforms its immediate neighbors.

The Quadro RTX 5000, by contrast, sits in a different competitive cluster. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, which averages 21,856, a delta of -1%, meaning the GTX 1060 actually edges it out. The Quadro RTX 5000 is 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile, 1.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 8970M, and 2.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL. These deltas are small, but the direction matters: the Quadro RTX 5000's average score places it in a bracket where it is barely above or barely below several older or lower-tier parts.

In direct application tests, the picture is more nuanced. The RX 590 has two recorded benchmarks. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1,081. In Geekbench Metal, it scores 48,407. The Quadro RTX 5000 has no equivalent entries for those tests, but its own benchmark suite tells a different story about its strengths. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 78,999. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 92,309. These are substantially higher raw numbers than the RX 590's Metal result, which suggests the Quadro RTX 5000 has far more compute throughput in certain API workloads.

The Passmark suite for the Quadro RTX 5000 shows a mixed profile. Its DirectX 9 score is 195, DirectX 10 is 113, DirectX 11 is 140, and DirectX 12 is 59. The G2D score is 709, G3D is 15,616, and GPU compute is 6,525. The low DirectX 12 score of 59 relative to the G3D score of 15,616 is striking. It indicates that the Quadro RTX 5000's architecture, while strong in general 3D rendering tasks, does not translate that strength into modern DirectX 12 workloads as effectively. The RX 590, with its DirectX 12 (12_0) API support and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,081, appears better aligned with contemporary gaming API demands.

The data does not show a head-to-head benchmark table between these two specific cards, so there are no direct wins recorded for either side. Instead, the recorded averages and individual test scores must speak for themselves. The RX 590 wins on the aggregate average and percentile. The Quadro RTX 5000 wins on raw compute scores in OpenCL and Vulkan. Neither card dominates across every category, which makes the choice highly workload-dependent.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 590 has an average benchmark score of 24,744, which is 14.4% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000's average of 21,629.

Q: How does the RX 590 compare to its closest rival?

A: The RX 590's nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, which averages 24,763. The RX 590 is 0.1% behind that part, effectively a statistical tie.

Q: What is the Quadro RTX 5000's strongest benchmark result?

A: The Quadro RTX 5000 scores 92,309 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is its highest recorded benchmark score in the database.

Q: Does the RX 590 perform better in DirectX 12?

A: The RX 590 records a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,081. The Quadro RTX 5000 records a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 59, which is low relative to its other Passmark results.

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference?

A: The RX 590 is at the 70th percentile against all GPUs, while the Quadro RTX 5000 is at the 67th percentile.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The Quadro RTX 5000 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 590 has 8 GB of GDDR5 with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split based on intended use. For general 3D acceleration and gaming-oriented workloads, the AMD Radeon RX 590 is the stronger pick. Its average benchmark score of 24,744 places it 14.4% ahead of the Quadro RTX 5000, and its 70th percentile ranking versus 67th confirms that advantage holds across the broader GPU landscape. The RX 590 also shows better DirectX 12 performance, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,081, which is meaningful for modern gaming APIs.

For compute-heavy professional tasks that leverage OpenCL or Vulkan, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 is the better option. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 78,999 and Vulkan score of 92,309 dwarf the RX 590's Geekbench Metal score of 48,407. The Quadro RTX 5000 also brings hardware features the RX 590 lacks, including 48 ray tracing cores and 384 tensor cores, which the recorded data confirms. Those features, combined with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, make it suited for rendering, simulation, and AI-adjacent workloads where raw compute and memory capacity matter more than aggregate gaming scores.

The RX 590 is the choice for gamers and general-purpose users who prioritize consistent performance across a broad set of 3D applications. The Quadro RTX 5000 is the choice for professionals who need high compute throughput in specific APIs and have workloads that can use its specialized hardware. There is no universal winner in this comparison; the recorded data simply favors different cards for different tasks.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification. The RX 590 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Quadro RTX 5000 uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on the same 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. That is a 75% bandwidth advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Clock speeds also differ. The RX 590 has a base clock of 1469 MHz and a boost clock of 1545 MHz. The Quadro RTX 5000 has a base clock of 1620 MHz and a boost clock of 1815 MHz. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) for the RX 590 versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the Quadro RTX 5000.

Compute resources are heavily skewed toward the Quadro RTX 5000. It has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RX 590 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The Quadro RTX 5000 also has 48 ray tracing cores and 384 tensor cores, while the RX 590 has none. Pixel rate is 116.2 GPixel/s for the Quadro RTX 5000 versus 49.44 GPixel/s for the RX 590. Texture rate is 348.5 GTexel/s versus 222.5 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 11.15 TFLOPS versus 7.119 TFLOPS. FP16 performance is 22.30 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 7.119 TFLOPS (1:1).

Power and physical dimensions diverge as well. The RX 590 has a TDP of 175 W with a single 8-pin power connector and a suggested PSU of 450 W. The Quadro RTX 5000 has a TDP of 230 W with a 6-pin plus 8-pin configuration and a suggested PSU of 550 W. The RX 590 is 241 mm (9.5 inches) long. The Quadro RTX 5000 is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long and 111 mm (4.4 inches) tall. Both are dual-slot cards with PCIe 3.0 x16 interfaces.

Display outputs differ. The RX 590 has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Quadro RTX 5000 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C. API support also differs: the RX 590 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Quadro RTX 5000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is fundamental. The AMD Radeon RX 590 is built on the Polaris 30 chip using the GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6 million per mm². The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 uses the TU104 chip with the Turing architecture, also on a 12 nm process but at TSMC. It contains 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, for a density of 25.0 million per mm².

The transistor count difference is stark: the Quadro RTX 5000 has more than double the transistors of the RX 590. That extra silicon enables the Turing architecture's specialized hardware. The Quadro RTX 5000 includes 48 ray tracing cores and 384 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the RX 590. The RX 590's GCN 4.0 architecture has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware, relying instead on general-purpose shader units.

Turing also brings a different FP16 strategy. The Quadro RTX 5000 achieves 22.30 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, meaning it can double its throughput on half-precision workloads. The RX 590 runs FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, matching its FP32 rate of 7.119 TFLOPS. For workloads that leverage FP16, the Quadro RTX 5000 has a 3.1x advantage.

The memory architecture reflects the generational divide. The RX 590 uses GDDR5, while the Quadro RTX 5000 uses GDDR6. The Quadro RTX 5000 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like ray tracing and mesh shaders, while the RX 590 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0). Vulkan support is newer on the Quadro RTX 5000 at version 1.4 versus 1.3 on the RX 590.

The foundries differ as well: GlobalFoundries produces the RX 590's chip, while TSMC produces the Quadro RTX 5000's. Both use a 12 nm process, but the transistor density is slightly higher on the TU104 at 25.0M per mm² versus 24.6M per mm². The die size difference is substantial, with the TU104 measuring 545 mm² versus 232 mm² for Polaris 30.

The generation and release timeline also differ. The RX 590 belongs to the Polaris (RX 500) generation and was released in November 2018. The Quadro RTX 5000 belongs to the Quadro Turing (Tx000) generation and was released in August 2018. Both are marked as end-of-life in the database. The RX 590's predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega. The Quadro RTX 5000's predecessor is Quadro Volta and its successor is Workstation Ampere.