Intel Arc A550M vs NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile Comparison

The Intel Arc A550M and NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions aimed at the same 60 W power envelope, but the benchmark data reveals a clear performance hierarchy between them. The Intel part wins both available head-to-head tests, though the margin varies significantly depending on the API. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Arc A550M scores 49,894 against the RTX A1000 Mobile's 48,703, a 2.4% advantage. The Vulkan test shows a wider gap: Intel scores 49,580 versus NVIDIA's 46,782, translating to a 6% lead for the Arc A550M. These results place the Intel part at the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA part sits at the 85th percentile, confirming they occupy nearly the same tier in the overall performance distribution.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two benchmarks included in the data represent compute-oriented workloads rather than pure gaming rasterization. The Geekbench OpenCL test measures general-purpose GPU compute, and the Intel Arc A550M edges out the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile with a 2.4% delta. This is a modest but consistent win, suggesting that the Intel architecture handles OpenCL workloads at least as well as NVIDIA's Ampere design at equivalent power. The average benchmark score for the Arc A550M is 49,737, compared to 47,743 for the RTX A1000 Mobile, which translates to a 4.2% overall advantage for Intel when both tests are considered together.

The Vulkan test presents a more decisive result. The Arc A550M scores 49,580, beating the RTX A1000 Mobile's 46,782 by a full 6%. This is the largest margin in the entire comparison and indicates that Intel's driver stack for Vulkan is particularly well optimized relative to its OpenCL performance. For the RTX A1000 Mobile, the Vulkan score is actually its weaker result, while its OpenCL score is closer to Intel's. The data suggests that if a workload is Vulkan-based, the Intel Arc A550M is the clear choice, whereas in OpenCL the two are nearly interchangeable in practice.

Contextualizing these scores against nearest rivals reinforces the separation. The Arc A550M's average score of 49,737 puts it just 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957) and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50,001). It is 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48,477). The RTX A1000 Mobile's average of 47,743 sits 1.5% behind the RX 6800 XT and 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6550M (46,702). The Intel part also leads the RTX A1000 Mobile's closest competitor, the Intel Arc A530M (46,614), by 2.4%. These comparisons show that while both GPUs are in the same performance band, the Arc A550M consistently sits at the higher end of that band.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A550M wins both available benchmarks, so the use-case split is straightforward: it is the better choice for both OpenCL and Vulkan compute workloads. The 6% Vulkan advantage is particularly relevant for applications that leverage Vulkan for compute or for games that use Vulkan as their rendering API. The 2.4% OpenCL lead is smaller but still a win, meaning that even in OpenCL-centric applications like certain scientific computing or rendering tools, the Intel part holds a measurable edge.

The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile wins no benchmark in this comparison, but its strengths lie in specific architectural features rather than raw score supremacy. It features 64 tensor cores, which the Arc A550M lacks entirely, making it the only one of the two suited for AI acceleration workloads that rely on tensor-core-optimized libraries. Its FP16 performance is 4.669 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, identical to its FP32 throughput, whereas the Arc A550M achieves 16.79 TFLOPS FP16 via a 2:1 ratio, indicating a different precision strategy. For applications that require native FP16 with no rate penalty or that depend on NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem — which the fact pack does not detail but the tensor core count implies — the RTX A1000 Mobile retains relevance despite its lower benchmark scores.

The RTX A1000 Mobile also has a lower memory footprint at 4 GB versus 8 GB, which is a disadvantage in capacity-intensive workloads, but its 64 tensor cores and 1:1 FP16 ratio are the only clear hardware advantages it holds over the Arc A550M. The data does not include any gaming-specific benchmarks, so no conclusion can be drawn about rasterization performance. Based purely on the two compute tests, the Arc A550M is the superior performer in both.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Arc A550M has an average benchmark score of 49,737, compared to 47,743 for the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile, giving Intel a 4.2% overall lead.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap between the two?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the Intel Arc A550M scores 49,580 against the RTX A1000 Mobile's 46,782, a 6% advantage for Intel — the largest margin in the head-to-head tests.

Q: Does the RTX A1000 Mobile win any benchmark?

A: No. The data shows the RTX A1000 Mobile loses both Geekbench OpenCL (48,703 vs 49,894) and Geekbench Vulkan (46,782 vs 49,580), so the Intel Arc A550M wins 2 out of 2 tests.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT?

A: The Intel Arc A550M is 2.6% ahead of the RX 6800 XT (48,477), while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is 1.5% behind the same card, based on average benchmark scores.

Q: What is the transistor and die size difference?

A: The Intel Arc A550M uses 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile uses 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The Intel chip has a higher transistor density at 53.4M per mm² versus 43.5M per mm² for NVIDIA.

Q: Which GPU has more tensor cores?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile has 64 tensor cores, while the Intel Arc A550M has no tensor core field listed, indicating these are exclusive to the NVIDIA part.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every hardware specification except for memory type, bus width, TDP, slot width, and API support. Both use GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus and are rated at 60 W TDP with an IGP slot width. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Memory capacity and bandwidth diverge significantly. The Intel Arc A550M has 8 GB of GDDR6 with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX A1000 Mobile has 4 GB with 176.0 GB/s. This gives Intel a 48 GB/s bandwidth advantage and double the memory capacity.

The compute unit configurations differ substantially. The Arc A550M has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX A1000 Mobile also has 2,048 shading units but only 64 TMUs and 32 ROPs — exactly half of Intel's counts. Both have 16 ray tracing cores, but the RTX A1000 Mobile adds 64 tensor cores, a feature absent from the Intel part.

Clock speeds favor Intel. The Arc A550M runs at a 900 MHz base and 2050 MHz boost, while the RTX A1000 Mobile runs at 630 MHz base and 1140 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: Intel's memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) versus NVIDIA's 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective). These clock differences drive large throughput gaps: the Arc A550M achieves 131.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 262.4 GTexel/s texture rate, while the RTX A1000 Mobile manages only 36.48 GPixel/s and 72.96 GTexel/s.

Compute throughput shows the same trend. The Arc A550M delivers 8.397 TFLOPS FP32 and 16.79 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The RTX A1000 Mobile delivers 4.669 TFLOPS FP32 and 4.669 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio). The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 for Intel versus PCIe 4.0 x8 for NVIDIA. Power connectors are listed as "None" for NVIDIA, while Intel has no power connector data.

Architecture Differences

The architectural split is fundamental. The Intel Arc A550M is built on the Xe-HPG architecture with the DG2-512 chip, belonging to the Alchemist generation (Arc 5 Mobile). It is fabricated on TSMC's 6 nm process node. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA107 chip, part of the Ampere-MW (Ax000) generation. It is fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process node.

These process differences explain part of the performance gap. The Intel chip integrates 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, achieving a density of 53.4M transistors per mm². The NVIDIA chip integrates only 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, with a density of 43.5M per mm². Intel's newer and denser process node allows for more than double the transistor count, which directly enables the higher shading unit count, TMU/ROP counts, and clock speeds observed in the specifications.

The compute architecture also differs in how FP16 is handled. Intel implements a 2:1 FP16 ratio, meaning its FP16 throughput (16.79 TFLOPS) is exactly double its FP32 throughput (8.397 TFLOPS), a design choice that prioritizes mixed-precision workloads. NVIDIA implements a 1:1 ratio, keeping FP16 throughput (4.669 TFLOPS) identical to FP32 (4.669 TFLOPS), which is a simpler design but also reflects the GA107 chip's lower overall compute budget.

Both architectures include ray tracing hardware, with each GPU featuring 16 RT cores. However, NVIDIA's Ampere architecture also includes 64 dedicated tensor cores for AI acceleration, while Intel's Xe-HPG architecture in this configuration has no tensor core equivalent listed. The RTX A1000 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW, while the Arc A550M has no listed predecessor or successor. The NVIDIA part has a release date of 2022-03-29, while the Intel part has no release date listed. Both are marked as end-of-life production status.