Intel Arc A550M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains only two common benchmark tests between the Intel Arc A550M and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, and the NVIDIA part wins both outright. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Intel Arc A550M scores 49,894 while the RTX 4080 Mobile reaches 159,575, a delta of -68.7% for the Intel part. That is a substantial margin, placing the NVIDIA mobile GPU at more than three times the raw compute throughput of the Intel Arc A550M in this particular workload.

The Vulkan result tells a similar story. The Intel Arc A550M posts 49,580, while the RTX 4080 Mobile delivers 145,807, corresponding to a -66% delta. The percentage gap narrows slightly compared to OpenCL, but the absolute difference remains enormous. In both tests, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile demonstrates a commanding lead, and the database records zero wins for the Intel Arc A550M across the head-to-head suite.

Context from the broader database helps interpret these scores. The Intel Arc A550M carries an average benchmark score of 49,737 and sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs tracked. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti with an average score of 49,957 (a -0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 at 50,001 (-0.5%). The Intel part is effectively a peer of those desktop-class cards in aggregate performance, trailing the RX 6900 XT by only 2.4% and beating the RX 6800 XT by 2.6%. So while the Arc A550M is competitive with a specific tier of older desktop flagships, it sits far below the mobile RTX 4080.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, by contrast, records an average benchmark score of 38,135 across a much larger test set that includes nine separate runs. Its percentile ranking is 81 among all GPUs. The nearest rivals listed are the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 with an average score of 38,299 (-0.4%), the RTX 5080 Mobile at 38,349 (-0.6%), the RTX 4070 at 37,648 (+1.3%), and the Tesla P4 at 37,628 (+1.3%). The RTX 4080 Mobile is essentially tied with a low-end MX part in the database’s aggregate metric, which highlights how the average score can be pulled down by inconsistent results across different APIs. The OpenCL and Vulkan scores, however, are far above that average, indicating strong compute performance in those specific tests.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile wins with a score of 159,575 versus 49,894 for the Intel Arc A550M, a delta of -68.7% for the Intel part.

Q: What is the performance gap in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA part scores 145,807, while the Intel Arc A550M scores 49,580. The delta is -66%, meaning the RTX 4080 Mobile is roughly three times faster in this test.

Q: How does the Intel Arc A550M compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The Arc A550M has an average score of 49,737. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 0.4%, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 by 0.5%, and the RX 6900 XT by 2.4%, while leading the RX 6800 XT by 2.6%.

Q: What is the average benchmark score of the RTX 4080 Mobile?

A: The average benchmark score is 38,135 across nine tests, which includes both compute and DirectX workloads.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 Mobile have a higher percentile ranking than the Arc A550M?

A: No. The Intel Arc A550M sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 4080 Mobile is at the 81st percentile, despite winning the head-to-head tests.

Q: How many head-to-head wins does each GPU record?

A: The Intel Arc A550M records zero wins, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile records two wins, one in OpenCL and one in Vulkan.

Architecture Differences

The Intel Arc A550M is built on the DG2-512 chip using the Xe-HPG architecture, belonging to the Alchemist generation of Arc 5 Mobile parts. The process node is 6 nm at TSMC, with 21,700 million transistors packed into a 406 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 53.4 million per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile uses the AD104 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, part of the GeForce 40 Mobile generation. It is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with 35,800 million transistors on a smaller 294 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 121.8 million per mm². The NVIDIA chip packs 65% more transistors into a 28% smaller area, reflecting the more advanced manufacturing node.

Memory configurations differ significantly. The Intel Arc A550M comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4080 Mobile offers 12 GB of GDDR6 across a 192-bit bus, with bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s, nearly double the Intel part. The memory clocks also diverge: the Intel memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA memory runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The larger bus and higher clock rate explain the bandwidth advantage.

Compute resources favor the NVIDIA part overwhelmingly. The RTX 4080 Mobile has 7,424 shading units, 232 TMUs, 80 ROPs, 58 RT cores, and 232 tensor cores. The Intel Arc A550M has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 16 RT cores, with no tensor cores listed. The NVIDIA part has 3.6 times the shading units, 1.8 times the TMUs, and 3.6 times the RT cores. These differences translate directly into peak throughput figures. The RTX 4080 Mobile achieves 24.72 TFLOPS FP32 and 24.72 TFLOPS FP16 (at 1:1 ratio), while the Intel Arc A550M reaches 8.397 TFLOPS FP32 and 16.79 TFLOPS FP16 (at 2:1 ratio). The NVIDIA part is 2.9 times faster in FP32 and 1.5 times faster in FP16. Pixel rates are close, 133.2 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 131.2 GPixel/s for Intel, but texture rate favors NVIDIA at 386.3 GTexel/s versus 262.4 GTexel/s.

Clock behavior also differs. The Intel Arc A550M has a 900 MHz base clock and a 2050 MHz boost clock, while the RTX 4080 Mobile starts at 1290 MHz base and boosts to 1665 MHz. The Intel part boosts higher but starts lower; the NVIDIA part maintains a higher floor. Power consumption is another major differentiator. The Intel part has a TDP of 60 W, while the RTX 4080 Mobile has a TDP of 110 W, nearly double. Both are integrated into mobile platforms with an IGP slot width, and both use PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces. Display outputs are portable-device dependent for both, and both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The NVIDIA part includes 232 tensor cores, which the Intel part lacks entirely. This has implications for AI workloads, although the database does not include specific tensor-core benchmarks. The RTX 4080 Mobile also has a higher ROP count (80 versus 64), which contributes to its pixel rate being slightly higher despite the massive shading-unit advantage.

The Verdict

The data leaves little ambiguity for compute-heavy tasks. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile dominates both recorded head-to-head benchmarks by wide margins, with deltas of -68.7% and -66% against the Intel Arc A550M. Anyone prioritizing raw OpenCL or Vulkan throughput should choose the NVIDIA part without hesitation. The RTX 4080 Mobile also offers more memory, 12 GB versus 8 GB, and roughly double the memory bandwidth, which can matter in texture-heavy or data-intensive workloads.

However, the Intel Arc A550M is not without merit in its own tier. Its average benchmark score of 49,737 places it at the 86th percentile of all GPUs, higher than the RTX 4080 Mobile’s 81st percentile. The Intel part matches or beats several desktop-class AMD cards, such as the RX 6800 XT and RX Vega 64, based on aggregate scores. This suggests that the Arc A550M is a capable part for its power envelope, with a 60 W TDP versus 110 W for the NVIDIA part. For thermally constrained laptops or systems where power draw is a limiting factor, the Intel part may be the more balanced choice.

The RTX 4080 Mobile’s average score of 38,135 is dragged down by low DirectX results, including a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 96 and a DirectX 10 score of 157. These numbers are anomalously low compared to its OpenCL score of 159,575, which may indicate driver overhead or workload-specific inefficiencies. The Intel Arc A550M has no such low outliers in its limited benchmark set, suggesting more consistent performance across the tests recorded. Still, in the only two tests where both parts appear, the NVIDIA GPU is decisively faster.

For gaming and general GPU compute, the RTX 4080 Mobile is the clear winner based on the head-to-head data. For users who value consistency and lower power consumption, the Intel Arc A550M offers a different trade-off, but the performance gap is too large to ignore. The verdict is straightforward: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is the superior performer in every common benchmark, while the Intel Arc A550M holds its own against older desktop parts in the database’s aggregate rankings.

Specification Differences

| Field | Intel Arc A550M | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile |

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

| Chip | DG2-512 | AD104 |

| Architecture | Xe-HPG | Ada Lovelace |

| Generation | Alchemist (Arc 5 Mobile) | GeForce 40 Mobile |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 21,700 million | 35,800 million |

| Die Size | 406 mm² | 294 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 53.4M / mm² | 121.8M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 900 MHz | 1290 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2050 MHz | 1665 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) | 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 12 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 432.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2048 | 7424 |

| TMUs | 128 | 232 |

| ROPs | 64 | 80 |

| RT Cores | 16 | 58 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 232 |

| Pixel Rate | 131.2 GPixel/s | 133.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 262.4 GTexel/s | 386.3 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 8.397 TFLOPS | 24.72 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) | 24.72 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 60 W | 110 W |

| Power Connectors | Not specified | None |

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

| Release Date | Not specified | 2023-01-02 |

| Predecessor | Not specified | GeForce 30 Mobile |

| Successor | Not specified | GeForce 50 Mobile |

The two GPUs share identical bus interfaces (PCIe 4.0 x16), slot widths (IGP), display outputs (portable device dependent), and API support (DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.4). The RTX 4080 Mobile is actively produced, while the Arc A550M is end-of-life. The NVIDIA part has a defined release date and lineage, while the Intel part lacks those entries in the database.