AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT vs NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive overall win for the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. In the two shared benchmark tests, the AMD card wins both, giving it a 2-0 sweep over the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile. The average benchmark score for the RX 6800 XT is 48,477, while the RTX A500 Mobile sits at 39,568, a gap of roughly 22.5% in favor of the AMD part.

The most striking result comes from Geekbench OpenCL. Here, the RX 6800 XT scores 171,304, while the RTX A500 Mobile manages only 41,263. This translates to a delta of 315.2%, meaning the AMD card delivers more than four times the compute throughput in this workload. The data indicates that the RX 6800 XT is not just faster, it is in a completely different performance tier for general-purpose GPU compute.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin narrows but remains overwhelming. The RX 6800 XT records 136,875 points against 37,873 for the RTX A500 Mobile, a delta of 261.4%. While both cards support Vulkan 1.4, the raw execution resources of the AMD part, including its 4608 shading units and 72 ray accelerators, simply outclass the 2048 shading units and 16 ray accelerators found on the NVIDIA mobile chip.

Looking at the broader database context, the RX 6800 XT's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (average score 47,743, a 1.5% deficit), the Intel Arc A550M (49,737, a 2.5% lead over the AMD card), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957, a 3% lead). This places the RX 6800 XT in a competitive mid-to-high range of mobile and desktop parts, though it is slightly behind the newest generation of GeForce cards.

For the RTX A500 Mobile, its nearest rivals are all AMD Radeon Pro parts. The AMD Radeon Pro 575 matches it exactly at 39,555 (0% delta), the Pro 575X trails by 1.2% (39,116), the Pro WX 7100 leads by 1.2% (40,063), and the Pro 580 leads by 1.9% (40,318). This shows the RTX A500 Mobile is clustered with older workstation GPUs, not desktop gaming cards.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins every benchmark category where both cards have recorded scores. Its wins in OpenCL and Vulkan suggest it is the clear choice for any workload that leverages heterogeneous computing, such as rendering, simulation, or machine learning inference. The score of 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 and 41.47 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio) reinforces that this is a high-throughput compute engine.

The RTX A500 Mobile has no recorded wins in the head-to-head data. However, its strengths lie elsewhere, specifically in its power profile and form factor. With a TDP of 30 W and an IGP slot width, it is designed for portable workstations where battery life and thermal headroom are the primary constraints. The RX 6800 XT, by contrast, draws 300 W and requires a dual-slot cooler with 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 700 W suggested PSU.

For users who need sustained compute on a laptop, the RTX A500 Mobile offers a baseline level of performance. Its 6.296 TFLOPS FP32 is sufficient for light CAD, basic rendering, and professional visualization tasks. But the data makes it clear that for any performance-sensitive application, the RX 6800 XT is superior by a factor of over 3 in raw FP32 throughput.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on RDNA 2.0, using the Navi 21 chip on a 7 nm TSMC process. It contains 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 51.5 million per mm². This is a large, power-hungry desktop chip designed for maximum throughput.

The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA107S chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, a density of 43.5 million per mm². This is a smaller, more efficient chip tailored for mobile integration where space and power are limited.

The memory subsystems are radically different. The RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A500 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding only 96.00 GB/s. This 5.33x bandwidth advantage for the AMD card directly impacts texture-heavy workloads and large dataset manipulation.

Both architectures support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 6800 XT has 72 ray accelerators (rtCores) and no dedicated tensor cores. The RTX A500 Mobile has 16 ray accelerators and 64 tensor cores. The presence of tensor cores on the NVIDIA part suggests an advantage for workloads that use TensorFlow or other tensor-based libraries, though the benchmark data does not include a direct test for this feature.

Specification Differences

The following specifications differ between the two cards, based solely on the recorded data:

• Process Node: 7 nm (TSMC) for AMD vs 8 nm (Samsung) for NVIDIA.
• Transistors: 26,800 million vs 8,700 million.
• Die Size: 520 mm² vs 200 mm².
• Transistor Density: 51.5M / mm² vs 43.5M / mm².
• Base Clock: 1825 MHz vs 832 MHz.
• Boost Clock: 2250 MHz vs 1537 MHz.
• Game Clock: 2015 MHz (AMD only, NVIDIA has no game clock).
• Memory Clock: 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) vs 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective).
• Memory Size: 16 GB vs 4 GB.
• Memory Bus Width: 256 bit vs 64 bit.
• Memory Bandwidth: 512.0 GB/s vs 96.00 GB/s.
• Shading Units: 4608 vs 2048.
• TMUs: 288 vs 64.
• ROPs: 128 vs 32.
• RT Cores: 72 vs 16.
• Tensor Cores: None vs 64.
• Pixel Rate: 288.0 GPixel/s vs 49.18 GPixel/s.
• Texture Rate: 648.0 GTexel/s vs 98.37 GTexel/s.
• FP32: 20.74 TFLOPS vs 6.296 TFLOPS.
• FP16: 41.47 TFLOPS (2:1) vs 6.296 TFLOPS (1:1).
• TDP: 300 W vs 30 W.
• Slot Width: Dual-slot vs IGP.
• Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin vs None.
• Suggested PSU: 700 W vs None.
• Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 vs PCIe 4.0 x8.
• Display Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C vs Portable Device Dependent.
• Dimensions: 267 mm length, 120 mm height, 50 mm width vs no recorded dimensions.
• Release Date: 2020-10-27 vs 2022-03-21.
• Predecessor: Navi vs Quadro Turing-M.
• Successor: Navi III vs Ada-MW.
• Launch MSRP: The RX 6800 XT has a launch MSRP of 649 USD. The RTX A500 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 48,477, compared to 39,568 for the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RX 6800 XT scores 171,304 versus 41,263 for the RTX A500 Mobile, a delta of 315.2%.

Q: Does the RTX A500 Mobile have any tensor cores?

A: Yes, it has 64 tensor cores. The RX 6800 XT has no tensor cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RX 6800 XT has 512.0 GB/s, while the RTX A500 Mobile has 96.00 GB/s.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient?

A: The RTX A500 Mobile has a TDP of 30 W, while the RX 6800 XT has a TDP of 300 W. The NVIDIA card is designed for mobile integration.

Q: What is the percentile ranking for each card?

A: The RX 6800 XT is in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A500 Mobile is in the 82nd percentile.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the superior performer by every measured metric. It wins both shared benchmarks by margins of 261.4% and 315.2%, has a 22.5% higher average score, and sits in a higher percentile of all GPUs. For any user prioritizing raw compute, rendering, or gaming performance on a desktop system, this is the clear choice.

The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile, however, serves a different purpose. Its 30 W TDP, IGP form factor, and lack of power connectors make it suitable for thin-and-light mobile workstations. It offers a baseline level of performance for professional tasks, and its 64 tensor cores provide a capability the AMD card lacks. But the benchmark results show that it cannot compete with the RX 6800 XT on any level of performance.

The verdict depends entirely on the use case. If the requirement is maximum throughput and the system can accommodate a 300 W dual-slot card, select the RX 6800 XT. If the requirement is portability with modest compute needs, the RTX A500 Mobile is the only viable option of the two. The data does not support any scenario where the RTX A500 Mobile outperforms the RX 6800 XT in raw speed.