Intel Arc A310E vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile Comparison

Intel Arc A310E and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile occupy opposite ends of the mobile graphics spectrum. The Arc A310E is a compact, low-power entry-level part from Intel's Alchemist generation, while the RTX 4090 Mobile is NVIDIA's flagship laptop GPU from the Ada Lovelace family. The benchmark database shows a massive performance gulf between the two, with the RTX 4090 Mobile delivering roughly ten times the average score. These are not direct competitors; they serve entirely different segments of the laptop and small-form-factor market.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4090 Mobile wins every measurable performance category in the database. Its average benchmark score of 43667 places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A310E sits at the 50th percentile with an average score of 0 (no benchmark entries are recorded for it). The RTX 4090 Mobile's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 at 43301 (0.8% slower), the RTX 5050 Mobile at 43268 (0.9% slower), and the RTX A6000 at 44075 (0.9% faster). This places the RTX 4090 Mobile in rarefied company among the fastest graphics processors ever measured.

The Arc A310E has no recorded benchmarks and no nearest rivals in the database, indicating it targets a niche where raw performance is not the primary objective. Its design priorities are efficiency and compactness: a 75 W TDP, single-slot form factor, 168 mm length, and no power connectors. The RTX 4090 Mobile, by contrast, draws 120 W and is packaged as an integrated graphics processor (IGP) for portable devices, meaning its thermal and power characteristics are tuned for laptop chassis rather than expansion slots.

The use case split is clear. The RTX 4090 Mobile wins outright for gaming, compute, content creation, and any workload where frame rates or render times matter. The Arc A310E wins on physical footprint and power draw, making it suitable for embedded systems, thin clients, or small-form-factor builds where space is at a premium and modest graphics capability suffices. The data shows no overlap in their intended deployment scenarios.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs share some surface-level features but diverge fundamentally in silicon. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical. Both are built by TSMC, but on different nodes: the Arc A310E uses a 6 nm process, while the RTX 4090 Mobile uses a 5 nm process. The transistor counts tell the scale story: the Arc A310E packs 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die (45.9 million per mm²), while the RTX 4090 Mobile integrates 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die (121.1 million per mm²). That is a 6.4x transistor advantage and a 2.4x die-size advantage for the NVIDIA part.

Architecturally, the Arc A310E is built on Intel's Xe-HPG architecture from the Alchemist generation, using the DG2-128 chip. The RTX 4090 Mobile uses NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip. The execution resources are starkly different: the Arc A310E has 768 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, 16 raster output units, and 6 ray tracing cores. The RTX 4090 Mobile has 9728 shading units (12.7x more), 304 TMUs (9.5x more), 112 ROPs (7x more), and 76 RT cores (12.7x more). The RTX 4090 Mobile also includes 304 tensor cores, while the Arc A310E has none listed.

Memory configurations reinforce the gap. The Arc A310E uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 124.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4090 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth, a 4.6x bandwidth advantage. Clock speeds differ in direction: the Arc A310E runs at 2000 MHz base and boost, while the RTX 4090 Mobile has a 1335 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost. The Intel part uses a higher clock but far fewer cores, resulting in 3.072 TFLOPS FP32 versus 32.98 TFLOPS for the RTX 4090 Mobile. The FP16 rates also diverge: 6.144 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) for the Arc A310E versus 32.98 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) for the RTX 4090 Mobile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct benchmark comparisons are impossible because the database records no entries for the Arc A310E. The RTX 4090 Mobile, however, has a full suite of recorded scores that illustrate its capabilities. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 180831, and in Geekbench Vulkan, 170774. Passmark results show 27212 in G3D, 12347 in GPU compute, 984 in G2D, 310 in DirectX 9, 262 in DirectX 11, 173 in DirectX 10, and 107 in DirectX 12. These numbers confirm the RTX 4090 Mobile's position near the top of the database, with its nearest rival, the RTX A6000, only 0.9% faster on average.

For the Arc A310E, the absence of benchmark data means no quantitative comparison is possible. The specification sheet provides the only basis for assessment. Its 3.072 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 124.0 GB/s bandwidth are roughly one-tenth and one-fifth of the RTX 4090 Mobile's respective figures. Pixel rate is 32.00 GPixel/s versus 189.8 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 64.00 GTexel/s versus 515.3 GTexel/s. These ratios align with the overall performance gap implied by the average score difference, even without direct head-to-head results.

The RTX 4090 Mobile's 84th percentile ranking means it outperforms the vast majority of GPUs in the database. Its average score of 43667 is nearly 1.6x the 27212 Passmark G3D score, reflecting strong compute performance beyond gaming workloads. The Arc A310E's 50th percentile placement, with no recorded scores, suggests it is an average performer at best in the entry-level segment. The data supports a verdict of categorical superiority for the RTX 4090 Mobile in every measurable dimension.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile has 9728 shading units, compared to 768 for the Intel Arc A310E, a 12.7x difference.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 4090 Mobile provides 576.0 GB/s over a 256-bit GDDR6 bus, while the Arc A310E offers 124.0 GB/s over a 64-bit bus. The NVIDIA part has 4.6x the bandwidth.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The Arc A310E has a 75 W TDP and requires a 250 W suggested PSU. The RTX 4090 Mobile has a 120 W TDP and no suggested PSU is listed, reflecting its laptop-oriented design.

Q: Are the two GPUs manufactured on the same process node?

A: No. The Arc A310E uses TSMC's 6 nm process, while the RTX 4090 Mobile uses TSMC's 5 nm process. The RTX 4090 Mobile also uses a larger die (379 mm² versus 157 mm²).

Q: What is the RTX 4090 Mobile's closest competitor in the database?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A6000 is the nearest rival at 44075 average score, which is 0.9% faster than the RTX 4090 Mobile's 43667. The Quadro M6000 is 0.8% slower, and the RTX 5050 Mobile is 0.9% slower.

Q: Does the Arc A310E support ray tracing?

A: Yes, it includes 6 ray tracing cores. The RTX 4090 Mobile includes 76 RT cores, a 12.7x advantage in ray tracing hardware.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every specification field. The Arc A310E uses the DG2-128 chip with Xe-HPG architecture from the Alchemist generation, while the RTX 4090 Mobile uses the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture from the GeForce 40 Mobile generation. Process nodes are 6 nm versus 5 nm, both TSMC. Transistor counts are 7,200 million versus 45,900 million, with die sizes of 157 mm² versus 379 mm². Transistor density is 45.9M per mm² versus 121.1M per mm².

Clock speeds show the Arc A310E at a flat 2000 MHz base and boost, while the RTX 4090 Mobile runs at 1335 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost. Memory clocks are 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective) versus 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). Memory capacity is 4 GB versus 16 GB GDDR6, with bus widths of 64 bit versus 256 bit and bandwidths of 124.0 GB/s versus 576.0 GB/s.

Compute resources differ by an order of magnitude: 768 shading units versus 9728, 32 TMUs versus 304, 16 ROPs versus 112, and 6 RT cores versus 76. The RTX 4090 Mobile adds 304 tensor cores, which the Arc A310E lacks. Pixel rates are 32.00 GPixel/s versus 189.8 GPixel/s, texture rates 64.00 GTexel/s versus 515.3 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 3.072 TFLOPS versus 32.98 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 6.144 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 32.98 TFLOPS (1:1).

Physical characteristics also diverge. The Arc A310E is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm by 69 mm by 20 mm, with four mini-DisplayPort 2.0 outputs and a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The RTX 4090 Mobile is an IGP with no listed dimensions, portable-device-dependent outputs, and a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. TDP is 75 W versus 120 W, with neither using power connectors. The Arc A310E is end-of-life with a release date of 2024-03-31, while the RTX 4090 Mobile is active with a release date of 2023-01-02. The Arc A310E's predecessor is Xe Graphics and successor is Battlemage; the RTX 4090 Mobile's predecessor is GeForce 30 Mobile and successor is GeForce 50 Mobile.