AMD Steam Machine GPU vs NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation Comparison

FAQ

Q: What are the core architectural differences between the AMD Steam Machine GPU and the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation?

A: The AMD part uses a Navi 33 chip built on RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 6 nm TSMC process. The NVIDIA part uses an AD104 chip built on Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm TSMC process. The AMD chip carries 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, while the NVIDIA chip carries 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The AMD Steam Machine GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Both run memory at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed.

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute throughput?

A: The AMD Steam Machine GPU reaches 17.56 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio). The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile reaches 15.82 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio). The AMD chip leads in raw floating-point throughput by 1.74 TFLOPS.

Q: What are the power requirements for each?

A: The AMD Steam Machine GPU has a TDP of 110 W, while the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile has a TDP of 100 W. Neither requires external power connectors, and both are listed as active production parts.

Q: When was each product released?

A: The AMD Steam Machine GPU was released on 2026-06-28. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation was released earlier, on 2023-03-20.

Q: How do the shading and ray tracing resources differ?

A: The AMD part has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 28 ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA part has 5120 shading units, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 40 ray tracing cores, and 160 tensor cores. The NVIDIA GPU has substantially more shading units, TMUs, and ray tracing cores, plus dedicated tensor cores.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Steam Machine GPU wins in areas tied to clock speed and pixel fill. Its base clock is 1720 MHz and boost clock is 2450 MHz, with a game clock of 2250 MHz. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile operates at a base of 1110 MHz and a boost of 1545 MHz. The AMD chip's higher clocks drive its pixel rate to 156.8 GPixel/s, which is 58.5% higher than the NVIDIA's 98.88 GPixel/s. This gives the AMD part a clear edge in rasterization-heavy workloads where pixel output is the limiting factor.

The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile wins on memory capacity, memory bandwidth, and compute resource count. Its 12 GB frame buffer exceeds the AMD part's 8 GB by 4 GB, which matters for large textures and higher-resolution asset loading. The 432.0 GB/s bandwidth is 50% higher than the AMD's 288.0 GB/s. With 5120 shading units versus 1792, the NVIDIA part has nearly three times the shading hardware. It also has 160 TMUs against 112, 40 ray tracing cores against 28, and 160 tensor cores where the AMD part has none. These resources favor the NVIDIA GPU in ray tracing, tensor-accelerated workloads, and texture-heavy scenes.

The AMD Steam Machine GPU delivers higher FP32 throughput at 17.56 TFLOPS versus 15.82 TFLOPS, a 11% lead. This suggests a slight advantage in general compute tasks that scale with raw FLOPs. However, the NVIDIA GPU's larger memory pool and higher bandwidth make it more suitable for workloads that exceed 8 GB of video memory or require rapid data streaming.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Steam Machine GPU is built on RDNA 3.0 architecture and uses the Navi 33 chip with the codename Hotpink Bonefish. It belongs to the Console GPU (Valve) generation. The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile uses Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip and belongs to the Ada-MW generation. The process nodes differ: AMD uses 6 nm TSMC, NVIDIA uses 5 nm TSMC.

Transistor counts diverge significantly. The AMD chip has 13,300 million transistors, while the NVIDIA chip has 35,800 million. Transistor density also differs: AMD achieves 65.2 million transistors per mm², NVIDIA achieves 121.8 million per mm². The NVIDIA chip is both larger in die size (294 mm² versus 204 mm²) and denser.

The AMD part includes 28 ray tracing cores but no tensor cores. The NVIDIA part includes 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores. This structural difference means the NVIDIA GPU has dedicated hardware for both ray tracing and AI-accelerated tasks, while the AMD GPU relies solely on its shading units for similar workloads.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The display outputs differ: the AMD part has 1x HDMI 2.1a and 1x DisplayPort 2.1, while the NVIDIA part's display outputs are listed as portable device dependent. The NVIDIA part uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface, while the AMD part does not list a bus interface. Power connectors are none for both, but the NVIDIA part is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a slot width of IGP, whereas the AMD part has no slot width listed.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Steam Machine GPU | NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation |

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

| Chip | Navi 33 | AD104 |

| Architecture | RDNA 3.0 | Ada Lovelace |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 13,300 million | 35,800 million |

| Die Size | 204 mm² | 294 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 65.2M / mm² | 121.8M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1720 MHz | 1110 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2450 MHz | 1545 MHz |

| Game Clock | 2250 MHz | None |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 12 GB |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 288.0 GB/s | 432.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1792 | 5120 |

| TMUs | 112 | 160 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | 28 | 40 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 160 |

| Pixel Rate | 156.8 GPixel/s | 98.88 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 274.4 GTexel/s | 247.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 17.56 TFLOPS | 15.82 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 17.56 TFLOPS (1:1) | 15.82 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 110 W | 100 W |

| Bus Interface | None | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1a, 1x DisplayPort 2.1 | Portable Device Dependent |

| Release Date | 2026-06-28 | 2023-03-20 |

The ROP count is identical at 64 for both, which means the AMD part's higher pixel rate comes entirely from its higher clock speeds. The NVIDIA part's texture rate of 247.2 GTexel/s trails the AMD's 274.4 GTexel/s, despite having more TMUs, due to the clock disadvantage. The memory type is GDDR6 for both.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows no direct benchmark scores for either GPU, as both have empty benchmark arrays and an average benchmark score of zero. However, the specification data allows for direct comparison of theoretical performance metrics.

The AMD Steam Machine GPU leads in FP32 compute with 17.56 TFLOPS versus 15.82 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile. This is a 11% advantage. In FP16 compute, the same ratio holds, as both parts run at a 1:1 ratio. The AMD part also wins in pixel rate, delivering 156.8 GPixel/s against 98.88 GPixel/s, a 58.5% advantage. Texture rate favors AMD as well, at 274.4 GTexel/s versus 247.2 GTexel/s, a 11% lead.

The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile leads in memory bandwidth with 432.0 GB/s against 288.0 GB/s, a 50% advantage. It also has 12 GB of memory versus 8 GB, a 50% capacity increase. The shading unit count favors NVIDIA overwhelmingly: 5120 versus 1792, a 186% difference. The NVIDIA part has 160 TMUs against 112, a 43% lead. Ray tracing cores number 40 against 28, a 43% lead, and the NVIDIA part has 160 tensor cores while the AMD part has none.

Clock speeds favor AMD decisively. The base clock is 1720 MHz versus 1110 MHz, a 55% advantage. The boost clock is 2450 MHz versus 1545 MHz, a 58.6% advantage. These clock differences explain why AMD achieves higher throughput despite having fewer compute units.

Transistor efficiency differs notably. The NVIDIA chip packs 121.8 million transistors per mm² versus AMD's 65.2 million per mm², a 87% density advantage. Despite this, the AMD chip delivers higher FP32 per transistor: 17.56 TFLOPS from 13,300 million transistors versus 15.82 TFLOPS from 35,800 million transistors. This indicates the RDNA 3.0 architecture extracts more floating-point work per transistor, while the Ada Lovelace chip dedicates more silicon to tensor cores, ray tracing hardware, and a larger memory interface.

Power draw is close, with AMD at 110 W and NVIDIA at 100 W. The AMD part delivers its higher compute throughput at a 10 W higher TDP. The NVIDIA part achieves its advantages in memory and resource counts at a lower power envelope.

The Verdict

The AMD Steam Machine GPU delivers higher raw compute throughput, higher pixel fill, and higher texture fill. Its FP32 output of 17.56 TFLOPS exceeds the NVIDIA part by 11%. Its pixel rate of 156.8 GPixel/s exceeds the NVIDIA part by 58.5%. Its texture rate of 274.4 GTexel/s exceeds the NVIDIA part by 11%. These metrics indicate the AMD GPU is the stronger choice for workloads dominated by raw shader throughput and fill-rate-limited rendering.

The NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation delivers a larger memory pool, higher bandwidth, and far more shading and ray tracing resources. Its 12 GB memory capacity and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth both represent 50% advantages over the AMD part. Its 5120 shading units are 186% more than the AMD's 1792. Its 40 ray tracing cores exceed the AMD's 28 by 43%. Its 160 tensor cores provide dedicated AI acceleration that the AMD part lacks entirely.

The data indicates a split decision based on workload type. For compute-bound or fill-rate-bound scenarios, the AMD Steam Machine GPU holds the advantage. For memory-intensive, ray-traced, or tensor-accelerated workloads, the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Mobile holds the advantage. Both parts sit at the 50th percentile among all GPUs in the database, indicating comparable overall standing. The NVIDIA part's earlier release date of 2023-03-20 versus 2026-06-28 for AMD means the AMD part is the newer design, but the specification data does not show a performance advantage that follows from that. The final choice depends on whether the workload prioritizes FLOPs and fill rate or memory capacity, bandwidth, and specialized compute resources.