AMD Radeon RX 7900M vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and AMD Radeon RX 7900M are both high-end mobile graphics solutions aimed at demanding professional and enthusiast workloads, yet the benchmark data reveals they are fundamentally different tools. The RTX A5500 Mobile, built on the Ampere architecture, is positioned as a professional workstation GPU, while the RX 7900M, using RDNA 3.0, is AMD’s flagship mobile gaming and compute part. Both cards share the same 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, indicating they are in the upper echelon of performance, but their strengths diverge sharply depending on the application programming interface and workload type. The following analysis breaks down where each card wins, the architectural reasons behind those wins, and what the data says about choosing between them.

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head benchmark results are decisive but narrow in scope, with the AMD Radeon RX 7900M winning both recorded tests. The most significant victory for the RX 7900M comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where it scores 158760 points against the RTX A5500 Mobile’s 103601 points. This is a substantial 34.7% lead for AMD, a delta that underscores the RX 7900M’s raw throughput advantage in a modern, low-level graphics API. The second win for AMD is in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 129499 points versus NVIDIA’s 124287 points, a smaller but still meaningful 4% advantage. In total, the data shows the AMD card winning two out of two head-to-head tests, leaving the NVIDIA card without a single benchmark victory in this comparison.

However, these wins are not universal across all possible workloads. The average benchmark score tells a different story about overall consistency. The RTX A5500 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 113944, which is higher than the RX 7900M’s average of 97487. This suggests that while the RX 7900M excels in the specific Vulkan and OpenCL tests recorded, the NVIDIA card may perform more consistently across a broader suite of benchmarks, as its average is pulled up by other tests not listed in the head-to-head data. For users prioritizing raw peak performance in Vulkan or OpenCL, the RX 7900M is the clear winner. For those who need a more balanced performer across varied test conditions, the RTX A5500 Mobile’s higher average score indicates it may be the safer choice.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes, which explains their divergent performance profiles. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip based on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip contains 22,000 million transistors on a die size of 496 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 44.4 million transistors per square millimeter. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 7900M uses the Navi 31 chip based on RDNA 3.0, fabricated on a more advanced 5 nm process at TSMC. This chip packs 57,700 million transistors into a slightly larger die size of 529 mm², achieving a much higher transistor density of 109.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The smaller process node gives AMD a significant efficiency and density advantage, allowing for more transistors in a similar physical footprint.

The compute architectures also differ markedly. The NVIDIA card features 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. It also includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores, the latter being a key feature for AI and machine learning workloads that the AMD card lacks entirely, as its tensor core field is null. The AMD card, by contrast, has fewer shading units at 4608 but compensates with 288 TMUs and 192 ROPs, nearly double the ROP count of the NVIDIA card. AMD’s ray tracing core count is higher at 72, but without tensor cores, its feature set is geared more toward traditional rasterization and compute rather than AI acceleration. Clock speeds further differentiate them: the RTX A5500 Mobile runs at a base of 975 MHz and boosts to 1500 MHz, while the RX 7900M operates at a much higher base of 1825 MHz and boosts to 2090 MHz. This clock advantage, combined with the architecture differences, drives the AMD card’s higher peak throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 113944, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 7900M’s average of 97487. This indicates the NVIDIA card is more consistent across a wider range of tests, despite losing the two head-to-head comparisons.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap in the head-to-head tests?

A: The largest gap is in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the AMD Radeon RX 7900M scores 158760 points versus the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile’s 103601 points, a 34.7% difference in favor of AMD.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card have tensor cores?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile includes 232 tensor cores, which are designed for AI and machine learning tasks. The AMD Radeon RX 7900M does not list any tensor cores in its specifications.

Q: What are the memory bandwidth figures for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900M has a memory bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s, while the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has a lower bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. Both cards use 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor count and density?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900M has a higher transistor count of 57,700 million and a higher density of 109.1 million transistors per square millimeter, compared to the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile’s 22,000 million transistors and 44.4 million per square millimeter.

Q: How do their power consumptions compare?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900M has a TDP of 180 W, which is higher than the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile’s TDP of 165 W. This suggests the AMD card may require more cooling and power delivery in a laptop chassis.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every major specification category, reflecting their distinct design goals. The process node is a key difference: the NVIDIA card uses an 8 nm Samsung process, while the AMD card uses a 5 nm TSMC process, giving AMD a clear manufacturing advantage. The transistor counts are vastly different, with AMD’s 57,700 million transistors more than double NVIDIA’s 22,000 million, and the die size also differs, with AMD at 529 mm² versus NVIDIA’s 496 mm². The transistor density is more than twice as high on the AMD card at 109.1M per mm² compared to 44.4M per mm² on the NVIDIA card.

Clock speeds are another major differentiator: the NVIDIA card runs at a base clock of 975 MHz and a boost clock of 1500 MHz, while the AMD card has a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2090 MHz. This is a substantial clock advantage for AMD. The memory subsystems differ in bandwidth, with AMD offering 576.0 GB/s versus NVIDIA’s 512.0 GB/s, though both use 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The core configurations are also distinct: NVIDIA has more shading units (7424 vs 4608) and tensor cores (232 vs none), while AMD has more TMUs (288 vs 232), ROPs (192 vs 96), and ray tracing cores (72 vs 58). The TDP also differs, with AMD at 180 W and NVIDIA at 165 W. The NVIDIA card is marked as end-of-life with a release date of 2022-03-21, while the AMD card is active with a release date of 2023-10-18. The NVIDIA card’s predecessor is Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW, while the AMD card’s predecessor is Polaris Mobile and it has no successor listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two recorded head-to-head benchmarks clearly favor the AMD Radeon RX 7900M, but the margins vary significantly by test. In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the RX 7900M scores 158760 points, which is 34.7% higher than the RTX A5500 Mobile’s score of 103601. This is the dominant win for AMD and likely reflects the RX 7900M’s higher clock speeds, larger ROP count, and more efficient RDNA 3.0 architecture when handling low-level graphics commands. The 34.7% delta is substantial enough to be the defining metric in this comparison, indicating that for Vulkan-based games or applications, the AMD card is the vastly superior choice.

In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RX 7900M wins again, scoring 129499 points versus 124287 points for the RTX A5500 Mobile. This 4% difference is much narrower, suggesting that in OpenCL workloads, the two cards are closely matched, with AMD holding a slight edge. The RTX A5500 Mobile’s tensor cores and higher shading unit count may help it close the gap in certain compute tasks, but not enough to overcome AMD’s overall throughput advantage. The data shows zero wins for the NVIDIA card in these tests, but its higher average benchmark score of 113944 versus AMD’s 97487 hints that other untested benchmarks might favor NVIDIA. The average score gap of 16,457 points is notable, suggesting that the RX 7900M’s performance is more variable, excelling in some tests while underperforming in others, whereas the RTX A5500 Mobile is more steady across the board.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the data, the AMD Radeon RX 7900M is the superior choice for users who prioritize peak performance in Vulkan and OpenCL workloads. Its 34.7% lead in Vulkan and 4% lead in OpenCL are clear, measurable advantages that would translate to better frame rates in Vulkan-based games and faster execution in OpenCL compute tasks. The card’s higher clock speeds, larger ROP count, and greater memory bandwidth all support this conclusion. For a laptop user who runs modern games or GPU-accelerated applications that leverage these APIs, the RX 7900M is the data-backed pick.

However, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile should not be dismissed. Its higher average benchmark score of 113944 indicates that it is a more consistent performer overall, likely due to its tensor cores and higher shading unit count, which may benefit AI workloads and other compute tasks not covered in the head-to-head tests. For professionals who need a reliable, balanced GPU for a variety of tasks, including machine learning, the RTX A5500 Mobile’s feature set is more compelling. The NVIDIA card is also more power-efficient at 165 W versus 180 W, which could be a factor in thinner laptops. Ultimately, the choice comes down to workload: AMD wins on raw speed in the tested APIs, while NVIDIA wins on consistency and AI capabilities.