AMD Radeon VII vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a clear generational divide. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile wins every head-to-head test recorded in the database, and it wins by substantial margins. The AMD Radeon VII, despite being a desktop part with a higher TDP, cannot keep pace with the mobile NVIDIA flagship in any of the three shared benchmarks.

For a user prioritizing raw performance in modern DirectX 12 workloads and compute-heavy applications, the RTX 5090 Mobile is the obvious choice. It delivers over double the performance in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test and more than double in both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests. The Radeon VII still holds a respectable position in the overall database, sitting at the 90th percentile, but its average benchmark score of 66004 is higher than the RTX 5090 Mobile's 45152 average. This is a notable quirk: the Radeon VII has a higher average score across all recorded tests, yet loses every shared test to the newer card.

The Radeon VII is a product of its time, launched in early 2019 with HBM2 memory and a 295 W TDP. The RTX 5090 Mobile, released in 2025, achieves its wins while being rated at just 95 W, making it dramatically more efficient. If you need a mobile solution with top-tier performance, the RTX 5090 Mobile is the only choice between these two. If you are constrained to a desktop platform and already own a Radeon VII, the data shows it remains competitive in its percentile ranking, but it will lose decisively to the newer NVIDIA part in any direct comparison.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural eras and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon VII uses the Vega 20 chip built on GCN 5.1 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It packs 13,230 million transistors onto a 331 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile uses the GB203 chip with Blackwell 2.0 architecture, also built by TSMC but on a 5 nm process. It contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 120.6M per mm².

Memory technology differs significantly. The Radeon VII uses 16 GB of HBM2 across a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5090 Mobile uses 24 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus, providing 896.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the newer GDDR7 memory runs at 28 Gbps effective, which keeps bandwidth competitive.

The shading engine configurations are vastly different. The Radeon VII has 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 5090 Mobile has 10496 shading units, 328 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. Critically, the NVIDIA part includes 82 RT cores and 328 tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks entirely. This means hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor-based features are only available on the NVIDIA side.

Compute throughput tells a similar story. The Radeon VII offers 13.44 TFLOPS of FP32 and 26.88 TFLOPS of FP16 at a 2:1 ratio. The RTX 5090 Mobile offers 31.80 TFLOPS of FP32 and 31.80 TFLOPS of FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, meaning it does not halve its rate for half-precision work. The interface also differs: the Radeon VII uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RTX 5090 Mobile uses PCIe 5.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records three shared tests between these two GPUs, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile wins all three. The largest gap appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The Radeon VII scores 2304, while the RTX 5090 Mobile scores 5871. That is a delta of -60.8% for the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA part is roughly 2.5 times faster in this modern DirectX 12 workload.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon VII scores 91947, while the RTX 5090 Mobile reaches 201834. The delta is -54.4%, again indicating the NVIDIA card is more than double the performance. This test is often representative of general compute workloads, and the 10496 shading units of the NVIDIA part provide a massive advantage over the 3840 units in the AMD card.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a similar pattern. The Radeon VII scores 91788, and the RTX 5090 Mobile scores 198405, a delta of -53.7%. The RTX 5090 Mobile's support for Vulkan 1.4, compared to the Radeon VII's Vulkan 1.3, may contribute to the better scaling in this API.

The Radeon VII has no wins in any head-to-head test. Its only benchmark scores in the database are the three shared tests plus a Geekbench Metal score of 77975, which has no NVIDIA equivalent to compare. The RTX 5090 Mobile also has additional PassMark scores, including a G3D score of 30034 and a GPU compute score of 13401, but there are no corresponding Radeon VII results for those tests.

Specification Differences

The table below highlights only the fields where the two GPUs differ:

| Specification | AMD Radeon VII | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile |

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

| Architecture | GCN 5.1 | Blackwell 2.0 |

| Generation | Vega II (Radeon VII) | GeForce 50 Mobile |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 13,230 million | 45,600 million |

| Die Size | 331 mm² | 378 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 40.0M / mm² | 120.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1400 MHz | 990 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1750 MHz | 1515 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1000 MHz, 2 Gbps effective | 1750 MHz, 28 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 16 GB | 24 GB |

| Memory Type | HBM2 | GDDR7 |

| Memory Bus Width | 4096 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 1.02 TB/s | 896.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 10496 |

| TMUs | 240 | 328 |

| ROPs | 64 | 112 |

| RT Cores | None | 82 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 328 |

| Pixel Rate | 112.0 GPixel/s | 169.7 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 420.0 GTexel/s | 496.9 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 13.44 TFLOPS | 31.80 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1) | 31.80 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 295 W | 95 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

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

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | None |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

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

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

| Vulkan Support | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2019-02-06 | 2025-03-26 |

| Predecessor | Vega | GeForce 40 Mobile |

| Successor | Navi | None |

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile scores 5871, while the AMD Radeon VII scores 2304. The NVIDIA card leads by 60.8%.

Q: Does the Radeon VII have ray tracing hardware?

A: No. The Radeon VII has no RT cores. The RTX 5090 Mobile includes 82 RT cores.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The Radeon VII has 16 GB of HBM2, while the RTX 5090 Mobile has 24 GB of GDDR7.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The Radeon VII has 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth, which is higher than the RTX 5090 Mobile's 896.0 GB/s.

Q: What is the TDP difference between the two?

A: The Radeon VII is rated at 295 W, while the RTX 5090 Mobile is rated at 95 W.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking in the database?

A: The Radeon VII is at the 90th percentile, while the RTX 5090 Mobile is at the 84th percentile.

Where Each One Wins

The data shows a clean sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile in all shared benchmarks. There is no recorded test where the AMD Radeon VII comes out ahead. The RTX 5090 Mobile wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 by a 60.8% margin, in Geekbench OpenCL by 54.4%, and in Geekbench Vulkan by 53.7%.

For a desktop user who already owns a Radeon VII, the card still holds value. Its 90th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 66004 place it above the RTX 5090 Mobile's 45152 average, though this comparison mixes different test suites. The Radeon VII's nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 at -1.1%, the Tesla P40 at +1.4%, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 at +2.8%, and the NVIDIA CMP 30HX at +3.4%. These are all professional or mining cards, suggesting the Radeon VII sits in a workstation-adjacent performance tier.

The RTX 5090 Mobile, despite its lower average score, is the clear winner in any head-to-head scenario. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT at -0.5%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at +0.8%, the Intel Arc A730M at -1%, and the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation at -1.8%. This places it in a competitive range with desktop mid-range to high-end cards, but its mobile form factor and 95 W TDP make it an entirely different product class.

For modern gaming, the RTX 5090 Mobile wins decisively due to its DirectX 12 Ultimate support, hardware ray tracing, and tensor cores. For compute workloads that rely on raw FP32 throughput, the NVIDIA card again wins with 31.80 TFLOPS versus 13.44 TFLOPS. The only area where the Radeon VII holds an advantage on paper is memory bandwidth, where its 1.02 TB/s exceeds the 896.0 GB/s of the newer card, but this does not translate into any benchmark win.

The production status reinforces the verdict. The Radeon VII is end-of-life, with a successor in the Navi line, while the RTX 5090 Mobile is active and current. The Radeon VII has a launch MSRP of 699 USD, but no such figure exists for the RTX 5090 Mobile. For anyone building a system today, the RTX 5090 Mobile is the only rational pick based on the recorded performance data.