AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data presents a striking imbalance. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT wins eight of the nine recorded comparisons, while the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile takes only one. The most dramatic margin is in the Passmark DirectX 9 test, where the AMD card leads by 43.2% (242 versus 169). This is not a marginal edge; it is a generational gap in legacy API performance that suggests the RDNA 2.0 architecture retains strong compatibility with older workloads.

The Passmark DirectX 11 result reinforces this pattern, with the AMD card scoring 173 against 133, a 30.1% advantage. The G2D test shows an even larger gap at 51.2% (951 versus 629), which indicates that 2D rendering and desktop composition tasks run substantially faster on the Radeon hardware. The GPU compute benchmark also favors AMD decisively: 9336 versus 6945, a 34.4% lead. For compute-heavy applications that rely on OpenCL or generic GPU acceleration, the RX 6700 XT appears to be the stronger candidate.

However, the single NVIDIA win is not trivial. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110877 against 44152, a 60.2% swing. This is the largest margin in either direction across the entire comparison. The OpenCL result suggests that NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, with its dedicated tensor cores and different compute scheduling, can dramatically outperform the AMD part in specific compute frameworks. The question is whether that one benchmark reflects a real-world advantage or an isolated optimization.

The Geekbench Vulkan test goes the other way, with AMD winning 93500 to 88144, a 6.1% margin. This is a modest win, but it shows that in modern graphics APIs, the RX 6700 XT holds a slight edge. The Passmark DirectX 12 test is similarly close, with AMD ahead by 6.9% (77 versus 72). The DirectX 10 result favors AMD by 7.8% (124 versus 115). In the G3D aggregate, AMD leads by 25.4% (19786 versus 15779), which aligns with the overall trend.

The average benchmark score tells a consistent story. The RX 6700 XT averages 27425 across all recorded tests, while the RTX A5000 Mobile averages 24763. The AMD part sits at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, while the NVIDIA part sits at the 70th. The nearest rival data for the AMD card includes the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile at 27435 (a 0% delta), the RTX 3090 at 27565 (a -0.5% delta), and the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell at 27135 (a 1.1% delta). For the NVIDIA mobile card, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 590 at 24744 (0.1% delta), the Intel Arc A350M at 24647 (0.5% delta), and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT at 24442 (1.3% delta). The AMD card competes with desktop-class GPUs, while the NVIDIA mobile part sits closer to midrange desktop and mobile parts.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT uses the Navi 22 chip on RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC with 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The transistor density reflects this: AMD achieves 51.3 million transistors per mm², while NVIDIA manages 44.4 million per mm². The denser process node allows AMD packs more logic into less space, though NVIDIA's larger die compensates with more raw transistor count.

The compute resources differ sharply. The AMD card has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, producing 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The NVIDIA card counters with 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and 19.19 TFLOPS FP32. The shading unit count advantage of 6144 versus 2560 is enormous on paper, and the FP32 output of 19.19 TFLOPS is roughly 40% higher than AMD's 13.21 TFLOPS. The RT cores also differ: AMD has 40 RT cores, while NVIDIA has 48 RT cores plus 192 tensor cores. Tensor cores are a feature AMD does not implement at all on RDNA 2.0, and NVIDIA's tensor core count of 192, each contributing to FP16 at a 1:1 ratio (19.1 TFLOPS), indicates a hardware path for AI-accelerated workloads that the AMD part lacks entirely. AMD's FP16 output of 26.43 TFLOPS uses a 2:1 ratio, which suggests it is not a true native FP16 throughput.

Memory configurations also diverge. The AMD card has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The wider bus and larger capacity give the NVIDIA part a clear advantage in memory-bound scenarios, but the AMD card's memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) compared to NVIDIA's 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The higher clock on the AMD side partially offsets the narrower bus.

The power profiles are drastically different. The AMD card draws 230 W TDP with a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector setup and a suggested 550 W PSU. The NVIDIA card draws only 150 W TDP with no power connectors, as it is designed for portable devices. The AMD card is dual-slot with fixed dimensions of 267 mm length, 110 mm height, and 40 mm width, while the NVIDIA card has no listed dimensions, indicating a mobile form factor. The NVIDIA part is also portable-device dependent for display outputs, whereas the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Both support PCIe 4.0 x16, DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT wins eight of the nine recorded comparisons. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins only one, the Geekbench OpenCL test, by a 60.2% margin.

Q: How large is the AMD card's lead in DirectX 9 performance?

A: The AMD card scores 242 versus 169 in Passmark DirectX 9, a 43.2% advantage. This is the second-largest margin of any test in the comparison.

Q: What is the most significant NVIDIA win?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 110877 against 44152, a 60.2% delta. This is the largest single-test margin in either direction.

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The AMD card averages 27425 across all recorded tests, while the NVIDIA card averages 24763. The AMD part sits at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, the NVIDIA part at the 70th.

Q: Which GPU has more memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile has 448.0 GB/s bandwidth on a 256-bit bus with 16 GB of GDDR6. The AMD card has 384.0 GB/s on a 192-bit bus with 12 GB of GDDR6.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The NVIDIA chip has 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, while the AMD chip has 17,200 million on a 335 mm² die. The AMD die is smaller but denser at 51.3 million transistors per mm² versus 44.4 million for NVIDIA.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split in intended use. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the better general-purpose GPU according to the recorded benchmarks. It wins the aggregate G3D score by 25.4%, the compute score by 34.4%, and every legacy DirectX test by margins ranging from 6.9% to 43.2%. Its average benchmark score of 27425 and 72nd percentile ranking place it alongside desktop-class rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (27435) and the RTX 3090 (27565). For gaming, desktop rendering, and most compute tasks in the DirectX family, the AMD card is measurably superior.

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, despite its single OpenCL win, should not be dismissed. Its 60.2% lead in Geekbench OpenCL suggests a specific strength in OpenCL compute workloads. Combined with 16 GB of memory, 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, 192 tensor cores, and 19.19 TFLOPS FP32, the NVIDIA part offers a different kind of capability set. The 150 W TDP and portable-device-dependent design also make it suitable for thin-and-light systems where the AMD card's 230 W TDP and dual-slot design cannot fit.

The percentile data reinforces the gap. The NVIDIA card's 70th percentile and average score of 24763 place it near the AMD Radeon RX 590 (24744) and the Intel Arc A350M (24647). The AMD card's nearest rivals are all higher-performing parts. In a direct comparison, the RX 6700 XT is the stronger performer in eight out of nine tests, and the only NVIDIA win is in a single compute framework. The verdict is that the AMD card dominates the tested metrics, while the NVIDIA card's appeal rests on its specific OpenCL advantage, memory capacity, and mobile form factor.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across every major specification category. The manufacturing process differs: the AMD card uses a 7 nm TSMC process, while the NVIDIA card uses an 8 nm Samsung process. The transistor counts are nearly identical (17,200 million versus 17,400 million), but the die sizes differ significantly: 335 mm² for AMD and 392 mm² for NVIDIA, yielding a transistor density of 51.3 million per mm² for AMD versus 44.4 million per mm² for NVIDIA.

The clock speeds differ substantially. The AMD card has a base clock of 2321 MHz, a boost clock of 2581 MHz, and a game clock of 2424 MHz. The NVIDIA card has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 1575 MHz, with no game clock listed. The memory clocks also differ: 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.

The memory subsystem is different in size, bus width, and bandwidth. The AMD card has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The compute units also differ: 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs for AMD; 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs for NVIDIA. The RT core counts are 40 for AMD and 48 for NVIDIA, and NVIDIA adds 192 tensor cores, a feature AMD lacks.

The output rates differ in a notable way. The AMD card has a higher pixel rate at 165.2 GPixel/s versus 151.2 GPixel/s for NVIDIA, and a higher texture rate at 413.0 GTexel/s versus 302.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is higher for NVIDIA at 19.35 TFLOPS versus 13.21 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 26.43 TFLOPS (2:1) for AMD versus 19.35 TFLOPS (1:1) for NVIDIA.

The power and physical characteristics are polar opposites. The AMD card draws 230 W TDP with a dual-slot design, a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connector setup, and a suggested 550 W PSU. The NVIDIA card draws 150 W TDP with no power connectors and no suggested PSU, reflecting its mobile nature. The AMD card has fixed dimensions (267 mm length, 110 mm height, 40 mm width) and display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a), while the NVIDIA card has no dimensions listed and display outputs described as portable-device dependent. The production status is end-of-life for both, with the AMD card released on 2021-03-02 and the NVIDIA card on 2021-04-11.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT wins in the majority of tested scenarios. It dominates the DirectX family of benchmarks, winning DirectX 9 by 43.2%, DirectX 11 by 30.1%, DirectX 10 by 7.8%, and DirectX 12 by 6.9%. It also wins the G2D test by 51.2%, the G3D test by 25.4%, and the GPU compute test by 34.4%. The Vulkan test goes to AMD by 6.1%. Any workload that relies on these APIs or on general GPU compute will see better performance on the AMD card. The higher texture rate (413.0 GTexel/s versus 302.4 GTexel/s) and pixel rate (165.2 GPixel/s versus 151.2 GPixel/s) support this pattern, indicating faster rasterization and texture processing.

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins only the Geekbench OpenCL test, but it wins by a wide margin: 110877 versus 44152, a 60.2% delta. This suggests that OpenCL-specific workloads, such as certain scientific computing or rendering tasks, will perform dramatically better on the NVIDIA hardware. The NVIDIA card also has advantages in memory capacity (16 GB versus 12 GB), memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s versus 384.0 GB/s), and FP32 compute (19.35 TFLOPS versus 13.21 TFLOPS). The 192 tensor cores provide a hardware path for AI and machine learning workloads that the AMD card does not have. The lower 150 W TDP also makes it suitable for portable devices where power draw is a constraint.

The use-case split is therefore clear. For gaming, desktop rendering, legacy DirectX applications, and general compute via DirectX or Vulkan, the AMD card is the stronger choice based on the recorded data. For OpenCL compute, large memory footprints, AI workloads through tensor cores, and thin-and-light mobile systems, the NVIDIA card has specific advantages. Neither card is a universal winner, but the AMD card wins eight of the nine head-to-head tests and carries the higher average benchmark score.