AMD Radeon RX 7800M vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M records an average benchmark score of 27,883, while the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile averages 24,763. That puts the AMD part roughly 12.6% higher overall, and it sits at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs versus the NVIDIA part's 70th percentile.

Q: How do the two compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The gap is substantial. The RX 7800M scores 126,668 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 43.7% ahead of the RTX A5000 Mobile's 88,144. This is the largest single-test delta in the head-to-head comparison.

Q: Does the NVIDIA GPU win any benchmark at all?

A: Yes, one test out of nine. The RTX A5000 Mobile wins Passmark DirectX 10 with a score of 115 versus 99 for the RX 7800M, a 13.9% margin in NVIDIA's favor. Every other recorded head-to-head test goes to AMD.

Q: What are the memory configurations?

A: The RX 7800M has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A5000 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA part has more capacity and slightly higher bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units and ray tracing cores?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 6,144 shading units and 48 RT cores, while the RX 7800M has 3,840 shading units and 60 RT cores. AMD also fields 192 tensor cores on the NVIDIA side, whereas the AMD part has none listed.

Q: What is the production status of each?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M is listed as Active, released on 2024-09-10. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile is End-of-life, released on 2021-04-11, with its successor listed as Ada-MW.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for most use cases: the AMD Radeon RX 7800M. It wins eight of nine head-to-head benchmarks, and the margins are often decisive. In Geekbench Vulkan it leads by 43.7%, in Passmark G2D by 41.8%, in GPU compute by 34.5%, and in DirectX 11 by 32.3%. Its average score is roughly 12.6% higher than the RTX A5000 Mobile's, and it holds a better percentile rank (73rd versus 70th).

That said, the RTX A5000 Mobile is not without arguments. It carries 16 GB of memory versus 12 GB, which matters for workloads that exceed 12 GB of framebuffer. It also has a higher shading unit count (6,144 versus 3,840) and includes 192 tensor cores, which the AMD part lacks entirely. In the single head-to-head test it wins, DirectX 10, it leads by 13.9%. For users who need NVIDIA-specific features, the tensor cores and larger memory pool are meaningful. The RX 7800M is the faster GPU in the recorded benchmarks, but the A5000 Mobile is the more feature-complete professional package on paper.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The biggest win for the AMD Radeon RX 7800M comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 126,668 against 88,144 for the RTX A5000 Mobile. That is a 43.7% lead, the largest delta in the entire comparison. The gap suggests AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture handles Vulkan workloads substantially better in this mobile configuration.

Passmark G2D is another major victory for AMD, with 892 versus 629, a 41.8% advantage. This measures 2D graphics performance, and the RX 7800M's margin is striking. GPU compute also favors AMD heavily: 9,342 versus 6,945, a 34.5% lead. For compute-heavy tasks, the RX 7800M is clearly ahead in these measurements.

DirectX 11 shows a 32.3% win for AMD (176 versus 133), and DirectX 12 shows a 23.6% win (89 versus 72). The RX 7800M also takes DirectX 9 by a narrow 3% (174 versus 169) and Passmark G3D by 11.6% (17,613 versus 15,779). Geekbench OpenCL goes to AMD by 8.9% (120,778 versus 110,877).

The sole NVIDIA win is Passmark DirectX 10, where the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 115 versus 99, a 13.9% margin. This is an isolated result; the pattern across all other tests is consistent AMD dominance. The fact that the RTX A5000 Mobile's best showing comes in an older DirectX API is worth noting, as it may reflect driver optimization priorities or architectural strengths in legacy paths.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs diverge significantly in their core configurations. The RX 7800M has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX A5000 Mobile has 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. AMD's part has more texture units but the same ROP count, while NVIDIA's part has 60% more shading units.

Ray tracing hardware differs: the RX 7800M has 60 RT cores, the RTX A5000 Mobile has 48. Conversely, the NVIDIA part has 192 tensor cores while the AMD part has none listed. Clock speeds also differ: the RX 7800M runs at 1295 MHz base and 2335 MHz boost, while the RTX A5000 Mobile runs at 900 MHz base and 1575 MHz boost. The AMD part has a 760 MHz higher boost clock.

Memory configurations are close but not identical. The RX 7800M uses 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA part has 4 GB more capacity and 16 GB/s more bandwidth.

Pixel and texture rates favor AMD: 224.2 GPixel/s versus 151.2 GPixel/s, and 560.4 GTexel/s versus 302.4 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is also higher on AMD: 35.87 TFLOPS versus 19.35 TFLOPS. Power draw is lower on the NVIDIA part at 150 W TDP versus 180 W for AMD, though both are listed as having no power connectors and being portable device dependent.

Architecture Differences

The RX 7800M is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The RTX A5000 Mobile uses Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, yielding 44.4M per mm². The AMD chip is more than twice as dense per square millimeter.

AMD's architecture is RDNA 3.0, with the chip codenamed Navi 32 and the generation listed as Navi Mobile (RX 7000M). NVIDIA's architecture is Ampere, with the GA104 chip and the generation listed as Ampere-MW (Ax000). Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and both use PCIe 4.0 x16.

The transistor count difference is substantial: 28,100 million versus 17,400 million, a 61.5% advantage for AMD. Yet the RTX A5000 Mobile has a larger die at 392 mm² versus 346 mm², which reflects the different manufacturing processes. AMD's 5 nm process allows far more transistors in a smaller area.

NVIDIA's part includes tensor cores, which AMD's does not. This is a fundamental architectural difference: the RTX A5000 Mobile has dedicated hardware for tensor operations, while the RX 7800M relies on its shader units. The RT core counts also differ, with AMD having 60 versus NVIDIA's 48, though NVIDIA's RT implementation in Ampere is architecturally distinct from AMD's RDNA 3.0 approach.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M wins in virtually every recorded benchmark category. It leads in Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan, Passmark G3D, GPU compute, G2D, DirectX 9, DirectX 11, and DirectX 12. Its strengths are most pronounced in Vulkan (43.7% lead), G2D (41.8%), GPU compute (34.5%), and DirectX 11 (32.3%). For users running modern APIs, compute workloads, or 2D-heavy applications, the RX 7800M is the clear choice based on the data.

The RTX A5000 Mobile wins only in Passmark DirectX 10, with a 13.9% margin. This is a legacy API, and the win is narrow in absolute terms (115 versus 99). However, the NVIDIA part offers advantages that benchmarks do not capture directly: 16 GB of memory versus 12 GB, and 192 tensor cores. For workloads that require more than 12 GB of framebuffer or that leverage tensor operations, the RTX A5000 Mobile has a structural edge. Its lower TDP of 150 W versus 180 W also suggests it may fit into thinner chassis, though both are portable device dependent.

In terms of nearest rivals, the RX 7800M sits just 0.2% above the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 and 0.3% below the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X, placing it in a tight cluster. The RTX A5000 Mobile sits 0.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 590 and 2% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630. The RX 7800M's nearest rivals are all professional or high-end desktop parts, while the RTX A5000 Mobile's nearest rivals are mostly mainstream desktop GPUs, which contextualizes their relative standing in the broader market.