AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between these two workstation-oriented GPUs. Across the two shared benchmark workloads, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins both, with the largest margin appearing in the OpenCL compute test. In geekbench_opencl, the NVIDIA part scores 124287 against 76111 for the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, a delta of 63.3% in favor of the laptop-class NVIDIA GPU. This is a substantial lead, more than half again the AMD card's score, indicating that raw compute throughput in this workload is heavily skewed toward the Ampere-based design.

The second shared test, geekbench_vulkan, also goes to NVIDIA, albeit with a narrower margin. The RTX A5500 Mobile records 103601 while the Vega Frontier Edition reaches 71937, producing a 44% delta. That result still represents a clear victory, but the reduced gap compared to OpenCL suggests the Vulkan workload does not expose the same degree of advantage. Both tests point in the same direction: the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is the faster card in every measurable head-to-head comparison in this database.

For context, the RTX A5500 Mobile's average benchmark score of 113944 places it in the 94th percentile among all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB at 114395 (a 0.4% difference against the A5500) and the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation at 117088 (2.7% higher). The AMD Vega Frontier Edition, by contrast, averages 73370 across its three recorded benchmarks, good for the 91st percentile, with closest competitors such as the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 at 72379 (1.4% lower) and the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal at 72098 (1.8% lower). The A5500 Mobile's average score is roughly 55% higher than the Vega Frontier Edition's average, a figure consistent with the individual OpenCL and Vulkan deltas.

It is notably the Vega Frontier Edition has an additional benchmark, geekbench_metal, where it scores 72061. The NVIDIA card has no Metal result in the database, so this workload cannot be compared directly. The absence of a Metal score for the RTX A5500 Mobile likely reflects its target platform, but the available shared tests provide sufficient evidence of the overall ranking.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and design philosophies. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 22,000 million transistors into a 496 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses the Vega 10 chip with GCN 5.0 architecture, produced on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. That chip contains 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, for a density of 25.3 million per square millimeter. The die sizes are nearly identical, but the A5500 Mobile fits far more transistors into that space thanks to the denser node.

Core configurations differ sharply. The NVIDIA GPU has 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. It also includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the AMD card, which has no ray tracing or tensor hardware. The Vega Frontier Edition counters with 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Despite having fewer shaders and ROPs, the AMD GPU actually has more TMUs, which helps its texture fill rate. The pixel rate tells that story: NVIDIA achieves 144.0 GPixel/s while AMD reaches 102.4 GPixel/s. Texture rate, however, favors AMD at 409.6 GTexel/s versus 348.0 GTexel/s for NVIDIA, a direct consequence of the extra texture units and higher clock speeds.

Clock behavior also separates the two. The RTX A5500 Mobile runs at a 975 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost, while the Vega Frontier Edition starts at 1382 MHz base and boosts to 1600 MHz. The AMD card's higher clocks do not compensate for the NVIDIA chip's larger shader count, though they do help explain the texture rate advantage. Floating point performance follows the shader counts: NVIDIA delivers 22.27 TFLOPS for FP32, while AMD manages 13.11 TFLOPS. In FP16, the AMD card actually doubles its rate to 26.21 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, whereas NVIDIA maintains a 1:1 ratio at 22.27 TFLOPS. The database shows no ray tracing or tensor core counts for AMD, reinforcing the feature gap.

Memory subsystems present another fundamental difference. Both cards have 16 GB of memory, but NVIDIA uses GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. AMD uses HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus, achieving 483.8 GB/s. The wider bus on the AMD card is a hallmark of the Vega design, but the higher clocked GDDR6 on the NVIDIA part ultimately provides more bandwidth. Memory clock figures differ: NVIDIA lists 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective, AMD lists 945 MHz with 1890 Mbps effective. The effective rates reflect the different memory technologies and bus widths.

Power and physical characteristics diverge as well. The RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W with no power connectors listed, consistent with a mobile design that draws power through the laptop's internal supply. The Vega Frontier Edition is a dual-slot desktop card with a 300 W TDP, requiring 2x 8-pin power connectors and a suggested 700 W power supply. Its dimensions are 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The NVIDIA card lists no dimensions, and its display outputs are described as portable device dependent, whereas AMD provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. Bus interfaces also differ: PCIe 4.0 x16 for NVIDIA, PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD.

API support shows NVIDIA with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while AMD lists DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA card's newer DirectX feature level and Vulkan version reflect its later release. Production status for both is end-of-life. The RTX A5500 Mobile was released on 2022-03-21, succeeding Quadro Turing-M and preceding Ada-MW. The Vega Frontier Edition launched on 2017-06-26, succeeding Radeon Pro Polaris and preceding Radeon Pro Navi.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile outperforms the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition in every shared workload, with deltas of 63.3% in OpenCL and 44% in Vulkan. The average benchmark score difference, 113944 versus 73370, places the NVIDIA card in the 94th percentile against all GPUs while AMD sits in the 91st percentile. For any workload represented by these tests, the data favors NVIDIA.

The AMD card does retain some advantages in specific architectural areas. Its higher texture fill rate and FP16 throughput, combined with the 2:1 FP16 ratio, could benefit compute tasks that rely heavily on half-precision math. The larger memory bus and HBM2 technology, while providing slightly lower bandwidth than the NVIDIA card, may offer different latency characteristics in certain workloads. However, no benchmark in the database captures those potential advantages, and the recorded scores do not show AMD winning any shared test.

For users choosing between these two based strictly on the database measurements, the RTX A5500 Mobile is the stronger pick. It wins both head-to-head comparisons, has a higher average score, and sits closer to top-tier rivals like the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation and Tesla V100 SXM2. The Vega Frontier Edition, while still a capable card in the 91st percentile, trails by margins too large to ignore. Its nearest rivals are older or lower-tier parts, and its 1.4% advantage over the Radeon Pro Vega 64 shows it is closely matched with its own family, not with the Ampere generation.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile | AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | GA103 | Vega 10 |

| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 5.0 |

| Process Node | 8 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | Samsung | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 22,000 million | 12,500 million |

| Die Size | 496 mm² | 495 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 44.4M / mm² | 25.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 975 MHz | 1382 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1500 MHz | 1600 MHz |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 2048 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 512.0 GB/s | 483.8 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 7424 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 232 | 256 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 58 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 232 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 144.0 GPixel/s | 102.4 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 348.0 GTexel/s | 409.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 22.27 TFLOPS | 13.11 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 22.27 TFLOPS (1:1) | 26.21 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 165 W | 300 W |

| Power Connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | None | 700 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2022-03-21 | 2017-06-26 |

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile averages 113944 across its recorded benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition averages 73370.

Q: How large is the OpenCL performance gap between the two cards?

A: In geekbench_opencl, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124287 versus 76111 for the AMD card, a 63.3% advantage for NVIDIA.

Q: Does the AMD card win any shared benchmark?

A: No. The database lists two head-to-head tests, geekbench_opencl and geekbench_vulkan, and the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins both. The AMD card has no recorded victories in shared workloads.

Q: What memory technologies do the two cards use?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus with 483.8 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the AMD card have ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The database lists no RT cores or tensor cores for the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile includes 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores.

Q: Which card has higher FP16 throughput?

A: The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition achieves 26.21 TFLOPS in FP16 with a 2:1 ratio, which is higher than the NVIDIA card's 22.27 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio. However, the NVIDIA card wins in FP32 with 22.27 TFLOPS versus 13.11 TFLOPS for AMD.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins in every shared benchmark category recorded in the database. Its OpenCL score of 124287 versus 76111 and Vulkan score of 103601 versus 71937 establish a clear overall performance lead. The card also wins on raw compute metrics: FP32 throughput at 22.27 TFLOPS, pixel rate at 144.0 GPixel/s, and memory bandwidth at 512.0 GB/s. It has 7424 shading units, 232 tensor cores, and 58 RT cores, making it the stronger choice for any workload that leverages these features. Its 94th percentile ranking and proximity to rivals like the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation further reinforce its standing.

The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition wins in a narrower set of specifications, though not in any recorded benchmark. Its texture rate of 409.6 GTexel/s exceeds the NVIDIA card's 348.0 GTexel/s, and its FP16 output of 26.21 TFLOPS is higher than NVIDIA's 22.27 TFLOPS. The 2048 bit memory bus is wider than NVIDIA's 256 bit bus, and the card carries more TMUs at 256 versus 232. Its higher base and boost clocks, 1382 MHz and 1600 MHz, also exceed the NVIDIA card's 975 MHz and 1500 MHz. For workloads that rely on texture throughput, half-precision math, or memory bus width, the Vega Frontier Edition has theoretical advantages. The database does not include benchmarks that isolate these strengths, so they remain unverified in measured performance. The card's 91st percentile ranking and close competition with the Radeon Pro Vega 64 and TITAN X Pascal place it in a lower performance tier than the NVIDIA offering.