NVIDIA A2 vs NVIDIA T550 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA A2 and NVIDIA T550 Mobile occupy different corners of the professional GPU landscape. The A2 is a low-profile server accelerator built on the Ampere architecture, while the T550 Mobile is a Turing-based mobile workstation part. Benchmark data reveals a near-even split, with each card claiming one victory in the two available tests. This analysis breaks down their performance, architecture, and specifications to clarify where each GPU holds an advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA A2 has a higher average benchmark score of 34,690, compared to the T550 Mobile’s 33,161. This places the A2 in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the T550 Mobile sits in the 77th percentile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins the OpenCL test with a score of 35,521, edging out the A2’s 35,357. The performance delta is minimal, with the T550 Mobile leading by only 0.5%.

Q: Which GPU performs better in Vulkan workloads?

A: The NVIDIA A2 dominates the Vulkan test, scoring 34,023 against the T550 Mobile’s 30,801. This represents a substantial 10.5% advantage for the A2.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each GPU?

A: The A2 comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 200.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The T550 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units and tensor cores?

A: The A2 has 1,280 shading units and 40 tensor cores. The T550 Mobile has fewer shading units at 1,024 and does not list any tensor cores.

Q: What is the thermal design power (TDP) difference between the two?

A: The A2 has a TDP of 60 W, while the T550 Mobile is rated at just 23 W. This makes the T550 Mobile significantly more power-efficient.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data paints a clear picture of two distinct strengths. The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL test, a measure often associated with compute workloads that utilize the GPU’s full processing pipeline. Its score of 35,521 is its strongest showing and gives it a narrow edge over the A2. This suggests that for certain general-purpose compute tasks, the T550 Mobile can hold its own despite its lower raw specifications.

On the other hand, the NVIDIA A2 is the clear victor in the Geekbench Vulkan test. Vulkan is a low-overhead graphics and compute API, and the A2’s score of 34,023 is 10.5% higher than the T550 Mobile’s 30,801. This significant margin indicates that the A2 is better optimized for modern, high-efficiency rendering pipelines and workloads that leverage the Vulkan API. For any application that relies on Vulkan, the A2 is the better choice.

The wins are split evenly at one each. However, the magnitude of the wins differs. The T550 Mobile’s OpenCL victory is by a razor-thin 0.5%, while the A2’s Vulkan victory is a commanding 10.5%. This asymmetry suggests that while both GPUs are capable, the A2’s advantage in Vulkan is far more decisive than the T550 Mobile’s edge in OpenCL.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on different architectures from different generations. The NVIDIA A2 is based on the Ampere architecture and uses the GA107 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It belongs to the "Workstation Ampere (Ax000)" generation. In contrast, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile is based on the older Turing architecture, using the TU117 chip, and is built on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It belongs to the "Quadro Turing-M (Tx000)" generation.

This architectural gap leads to several key differences. The A2 is built on a more advanced process node, allowing for a higher transistor density of 43.5M per mm² compared to the T550 Mobile’s 23.5M per mm². The A2 also features dedicated ray tracing cores (10) and tensor cores (40), which are entirely absent from the T550 Mobile’s specification sheet. This suggests the A2 is designed to handle modern workloads like ray-traced rendering and AI-accelerated tasks, while the T550 Mobile is limited to more traditional rasterization and compute.

The A2 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the T550 Mobile only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). This is a significant feature gap, as DirectX 12 Ultimate includes features like hardware ray tracing and mesh shaders, which the T550 Mobile cannot fully utilize. Both GPUs support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, but the underlying hardware capabilities for those APIs differ substantially due to the architectural disparity.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal major differences in almost every category. The most glaring difference is in memory: the A2 offers 16 GB of GDDR6, while the T550 Mobile offers only 4 GB. This 4x difference in capacity is accompanied by a bandwidth gap, with the A2 delivering 200.1 GB/s versus the T550 Mobile’s 96.00 GB/s. The A2 also uses a wider 128-bit memory bus, compared to the T550 Mobile’s 64-bit bus.

Compute capabilities also diverge significantly. The A2 has 1,280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The T550 Mobile has 1,024 shading units, but a higher count of 64 TMUs and the same 32 ROPs. This results in different throughput characteristics: the A2 has a higher pixel rate at 56.64 GPixel/s versus 53.28 GPixel/s, but the T550 Mobile has a much higher texture rate at 106.6 GTexel/s versus 70.80 GTexel/s.

The FP32 performance reflects the shading unit count. The A2 delivers 4.531 TFLOPS, while the T550 Mobile delivers 3.410 TFLOPS. However, in FP16, the T550 Mobile surpasses the A2 with 6.820 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) compared to the A2’s 4.531 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). This means the T550 Mobile can process half-precision data faster than the A2, which is a notable advantage for certain AI or compute workloads.

Clock speeds also differ. The A2 has a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, while the T550 Mobile has a lower base clock of 1065 MHz but a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The memory clock is similar, with the A2 at 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective) and the T550 Mobile at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective).

Power and form factor are another major differentiator. The A2 is a 60 W, single-slot card with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The T550 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with a TDP of just 23 W and no suggested PSU listed. The A2 has no display outputs, while the T550 Mobile’s outputs are described as "Portable Device Dependent." The bus interfaces also differ, with the A2 using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the T550 Mobile using PCIe 3.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two benchmark results provide a direct comparison of performance. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins with a score of 35,521. The NVIDIA A2 trails with 35,357. The delta is a mere 0.5%, indicating that the two are essentially tied in this workload. This is a surprising result given the A2’s higher FP32 throughput and larger memory subsystem. The T550 Mobile’s victory here may be attributed to its higher texture rate or its 2:1 FP16 capability, which could be leveraged in some OpenCL kernels.

In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the tables are turned decisively. The NVIDIA A2 wins with a score of 34,023, while the T550 Mobile scores 30,801. The A2’s advantage is 10.5%, a substantial margin that highlights its architectural superiority for Vulkan-based rendering. This is likely due to the A2’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate features, which share a similar feature set with Vulkan, and its dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores.

The average benchmark scores reinforce this split. The A2’s average of 34,690 is higher than the T550 Mobile’s 33,161, giving the A2 a 4.6% lead overall. The A2’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34,561, a 0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (34,541, a 0.4% delta). The T550 Mobile’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (33,170, a 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro 570 (33,207, a -0.1% delta). This context shows that the A2 is competing in a slightly higher performance tier than the T550 Mobile, despite the T550 Mobile’s single benchmark win.