AMD Radeon VII vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The Verdict

The database shows a clear overall winner in the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile, which claims both recorded head-to-head benchmark victories. The A5500 Mobile leads by 35.2% in Geekbench OpenCL and by 12.9% in Geekbench Vulkan, giving it a 2-0 win record in direct comparisons. Its average benchmark score of 113,944 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon VII averages 66,004, sitting in the 90th percentile.

For users who prioritize raw compute performance in OpenCL and Vulkan workloads, the RTX A5500 Mobile is the data-backed choice. Its 94th percentile ranking and proximity to much newer workstation cards, such as the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (only 2.7% lower) and NVIDIA GB10 (2.9% lower), indicate it sits at the upper tier of recorded performance. The Radeon VII, despite being in the 90th percentile, trails more decisively among its own nearest rivals, with the NVIDIA Tesla T4 just 1.1% behind and the Tesla P40 only 1.4% lower.

The Radeon VII does retain advantages in specific architectural characteristics that the RTX A5500 Mobile lacks, such as a wider memory bus and higher memory bandwidth, but these do not translate into benchmark wins in the recorded tests. Users requiring DirectX 12 Ultimate features, hardware ray tracing cores, or tensor core acceleration should favor the RTX A5500 Mobile, as the Radeon VII has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores in the database. The Radeon VII supports only DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX A5500 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design lineages. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process node, with 22,000 million transistors on a 496 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 44.4 million per mm². It belongs to the Ampere architecture and the Ampere-MW generation. In contrast, the AMD Radeon VII uses the Vega 20 chip fabricated by TSMC on a 7 nm node, packing 13,230 million transistors into a 331 mm² die, for a density of 40.0 million per mm². The Radeon VII belongs to the GCN 5.1 architecture and the Vega II generation.

Core configurations differ sharply. The RTX A5500 Mobile houses 7,424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units. It also includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores. The Radeon VII has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, but lists no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. Despite having roughly half the shading units, the Radeon VII's texture rate of 420.0 GTexel/s exceeds the RTX A5500 Mobile's 348.0 GTexel/s, while the NVIDIA part wins in pixel rate at 144.0 GPixel/s versus 112.0 GPixel/s.

Memory subsystems take entirely different approaches. The RTX A5500 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 16 Gbps effective. The Radeon VII also has 16 GB, but it is HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, achieving 1.02 TB/s at a much lower 2 Gbps effective memory clock. The Radeon VII's memory bandwidth is double that of the RTX A5500 Mobile, yet this does not produce a benchmark advantage in the recorded tests.

Compute throughput favors the NVIDIA part in FP32, where it reaches 22.27 TFLOPS versus 13.44 TFLOPS for the Radeon VII. In FP16, the Radeon VII reaches 26.88 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A5500 Mobile delivers 22.27 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio. The RTX A5500 Mobile supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon VII uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Power requirements differ substantially, with the RTX A5500 Mobile rated at 165 W TDP and using no power connectors, while the Radeon VII draws 295 W TDP, requires two 8-pin connectors, and recommends a 600 W power supply.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these GPUs. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124,287 against the Radeon VII's 91,947, a 35.2% advantage. This is the largest margin of victory in either test. The OpenCL result aligns with the RTX A5500 Mobile's higher FP32 throughput, which is 65.6% above the Radeon VII's 13.44 TFLOPS, and its larger shading unit count.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 103,601 versus 91,788 for the Radeon VII, a 12.9% lead. The narrower margin in Vulkan suggests the Radeon VII's memory bandwidth advantage (1.02 TB/s versus 512.0 GB/s) helps close the gap when the API exercises memory-heavy workloads. Still, the NVIDIA part retains the win, likely due to its additional compute resources and newer architecture.

The Radeon VII also has a recorded 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,304, but no comparable result exists for the RTX A5500 Mobile in that test, so it cannot be used for a direct comparison. The Radeon VII's Geekbench Metal score of 77,975 also has no counterpart in the RTX A5500 Mobile's data.

Context from nearest rivals reinforces the RTX A5500 Mobile's position. Its average score of 113,944 sits within 2.9% of the NVIDIA GB10 (117,393) and 2.7% of the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (117,088), while being 2.9% above the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (110,725). The Radeon VII's average of 66,004 is just 1.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733) and 1.4% above the Tesla P40 (65,095), showing it leads its immediate peers by much smaller margins.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile averages 113,944, while the AMD Radeon VII averages 66,004. The RTX A5500 Mobile ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, and the Radeon VII ranks in the 90th.

Q: Does the Radeon VII win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. In the two recorded head-to-head tests, the RTX A5500 Mobile wins both Geekbench OpenCL (124,287 versus 91,947) and Geekbench Vulkan (103,601 versus 91,788).

Q: What memory advantages does each GPU have?

A: The Radeon VII has 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon VII's bandwidth is double, but it does not translate into benchmark wins.

Q: Does the Radeon VII support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The database lists no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores for the Radeon VII. The RTX A5500 Mobile includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores.

Q: Which GPU has a higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile reaches 22.27 TFLOPS in FP32, while the Radeon VII reaches 13.44 TFLOPS. In FP16, the Radeon VII reaches 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), which is higher than the RTX A5500 Mobile's 22.27 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

Q: What are the power requirements for each GPU?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has a 165 W TDP and uses no power connectors. The Radeon VII has a 295 W TDP, requires two 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 600 W power supply.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5500 Mobile wins in every directly comparable benchmark category, so its case is straightforward for compute-heavy applications. Its 35.2% OpenCL lead and 12.9% Vulkan lead, combined with the 94th percentile ranking, make it the stronger choice for general-purpose GPU compute, machine learning inference, and any workload that leverages FP32 throughput or hardware ray tracing. The presence of 232 tensor cores also positions it for AI and deep learning tasks that the Radeon VII cannot accelerate with dedicated hardware.

The Radeon VII's wins are confined to architectural specifications rather than benchmark results. Its 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth is double that of the RTX A5500 Mobile, which could benefit workloads that are heavily memory-bandwidth bound, even though the recorded benchmarks do not reflect this. Its FP16 throughput of 26.88 TFLOPS exceeds the RTX A5500 Mobile's 22.27 TFLOPS, so applications that can exploit the 2:1 FP16 ratio may see an advantage. The Radeon VII also offers a higher texture rate of 420.0 GTexel/s versus 348.0 GTexel/s, which could help in texture-heavy rendering pipelines.

The Radeon VII supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, while the RTX A5500 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA card is also the newer release, dated 2022-03-21, versus the Radeon VII's 2019-02-06. For users needing PCIe 4.0, only the RTX A5500 Mobile provides it. The Radeon VII is limited to PCIe 3.0.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification. The manufacturing process differs: the RTX A5500 Mobile uses Samsung's 8 nm node, while the Radeon VII uses TSMC's 7 nm node. Transistor counts are 22,000 million for NVIDIA versus 13,230 million for AMD, and die sizes are 496 mm² versus 331 mm², respectively. Transistor density is slightly higher on the NVIDIA chip at 44.4 million per mm² versus 40.0 million per mm².

Clock speeds differ notably. The RTX A5500 Mobile has a base clock of 975 MHz and a boost of 1500 MHz. The Radeon VII has a base of 1400 MHz and a boost of 1750 MHz. Memory clocks also differ, with the NVIDIA card running at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and the AMD card at 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective). Shading units are 7,424 versus 3,840, TMUs are 232 versus 240, and ROPs are 96 versus 64. The RTX A5500 Mobile has 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores; the Radeon VII has none of either.

Memory bandwidth is 512.0 GB/s for the RTX A5500 Mobile and 1.02 TB/s for the Radeon VII, with bus widths of 256 bit and 4096 bit, respectively. Pixel rates are 144.0 GPixel/s versus 112.0 GPixel/s, and texture rates are 348.0 GTexel/s versus 420.0 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 22.27 TFLOPS versus 13.44 TFLOPS, while FP16 is 22.27 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1). TDP is 165 W versus 295 W, with the NVIDIA card using no power connectors and the AMD card requiring two 8-pin connectors plus a 600 W suggested power supply. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16. The Radeon VII is a dual-slot card measuring 280 mm in length, 125 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, while the RTX A5500 Mobile has no recorded dimensions and is described as portable device dependent for display outputs. The Radeon VII's launch MSRP is 699 USD.