NVIDIA CMP 40HX vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

# NVIDIA CMP 40HX vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile

The NVIDIA CMP 40HX and NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile occupy very different corners of the GPU market, yet both target professional workloads. In the two head-to-head benchmarks available, the CMP 40HX wins decisively in both OpenCL and Vulkan, but the RTX A3000 Mobile brings architectural advantages that matter for specific use cases. The CMP 40HX scores 93,395 in Geekbench OpenCL and 77,879 in Vulkan, while the RTX A3000 Mobile manages 79,091 and 61,189 respectively. That translates to an 18.1% lead for the CMP 40HX in OpenCL and a 27.3% lead in Vulkan, making it the clear performance winner in raw compute throughput.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive margin comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where the CMP 40HX posts 77,879 against the RTX A3000 Mobile's 61,189. That 27.3% gap is substantial and suggests the CMP 40HX handles graphics API workloads with considerably more headroom. The OpenCL result is closer but still one-sided: 93,395 versus 79,091, an 18.1% advantage for the CMP 40HX. Both scores place the CMP 40HX at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX A3000 Mobile sits at the 91st percentile — a narrow but meaningful separation in overall standing.

Looking at the broader competitive landscape, the CMP 40HX's average benchmark score of 85,637 puts it just 1.7% behind the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 (87,108) and 2.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 (87,445). It also leads the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by 4.4% and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 5.8%. The RTX A3000 Mobile's average of 70,140 lands it in a tighter cluster: it trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE by 1%, sits 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (69,986), 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (69,870), and 1.7% ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 90HX (69,000). The CMP 40HX's average score is 22.1% higher than the RTX A3000 Mobile's — a gap that reflects not just clock speed differences but fundamental architectural positioning.

The two benchmark wins for the CMP 40HX are consistent with its higher boost clock of 1650 MHz versus 1230 MHz on the RTX A3000 Mobile, and its larger memory bus. However, raw score differences don't tell the whole story, as the RTX A3000 Mobile's Ampere architecture offers features that benchmarks like Geekbench may not fully reward.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 40HX has significantly higher memory bandwidth at 448.0 GB/s, compared to 264.0 GB/s for the RTX A3000 Mobile. This stems from the CMP 40HX's 256-bit bus and 14 Gbps effective memory speed, versus the RTX A3000 Mobile's 192-bit bus and 11 Gbps effective speed.

Q: Does the RTX A3000 Mobile have more shading units than the CMP 40HX?

A: Yes, the RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, which is 77.8% more than the CMP 40HX's 2,304. Despite this, the CMP 40HX wins both benchmark tests, suggesting that clock speed and memory bandwidth play a larger role in these particular workloads.

Q: What is the power consumption difference between these two cards?

A: The CMP 40HX has a TDP of 185 W and requires a 450 W power supply with a single 8-pin connector. The RTX A3000 Mobile has a much lower TDP of 70 W and uses no power connectors, reflecting its mobile design intended for laptops.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing cores?

A: Both GPUs support ray tracing, but with different counts. The CMP 40HX has 36 RT cores, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 32 RT cores. Both also support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production?

A: No, both are end-of-life products. The CMP 40HX was released on February 24, 2021, and the RTX A3000 Mobile followed on April 11, 2021.

Q: Can the CMP 40HX output video to displays?

A: No, the CMP 40HX has no display outputs at all. It is designed purely for compute workloads. The RTX A3000 Mobile's display outputs are portable device dependent, meaning they vary by laptop implementation.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and foundries. The CMP 40HX uses the TU106 chip built on Turing architecture at TSMC's 12 nm process, packing 10,800 million transistors into a 445 mm² die. The RTX A3000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on Ampere architecture at Samsung's 8 nm process, with 17,400 million transistors on a smaller 392 mm² die. This makes the RTX A3000 Mobile significantly denser: 44.4M transistors per mm² versus 24.3M for the CMP 40HX, a density advantage of roughly 83%.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The CMP 40HX carries 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 264.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CMP 40HX's larger frame buffer and wider bus give it a clear edge in memory-heavy tasks, though the RTX A3000 Mobile's smaller footprint suits mobile constraints.

Compute resources tell a more nuanced story. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units and 128 TMUs, versus 2,304 and 144 for the CMP 40HX. Both have 64 ROPs. The CMP 40HX leads in RT cores (36 versus 32) and tensor cores (288 versus 128). The FP32 throughput favors the RTX A3000 Mobile at 10.08 TFLOPS versus 7.603 TFLOPS, a 32.6% advantage. However, FP16 performance differs fundamentally: the CMP 40HX achieves 15.21 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A3000 Mobile delivers 10.08 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio. This means the CMP 40HX has a 50.9% lead in half-precision throughput, which can be critical for AI inference workloads.

Specification Differences

The clock speeds reveal their divergent design goals. The CMP 40HX runs at a base clock of 1470 MHz and boosts to 1650 MHz, while the RTX A3000 Mobile operates at a much lower 600 MHz base and 1230 MHz boost. These are substantial differences — the CMP 40HX's boost clock is 34.1% higher.

Pixel and texture rates follow the clock disparity. The CMP 40HX achieves 105.6 GPixel/s and 237.6 GTexel/s, versus 78.72 GPixel/s and 157.4 GTexel/s for the RTX A3000 Mobile. That's a 34.2% lead in pixel fill rate and a 51% lead in texture fill rate for the CMP 40HX.

The bus interface differs as well: the CMP 40HX uses PCIe 1.0 x4, while the RTX A3000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. This is a notable disadvantage for the CMP 40HX in systems that rely on PCIe bandwidth for data transfer, though it doesn't affect on-board compute performance.

Physical specifications are only available for the CMP 40HX: it measures 229 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 35 mm in width, with a dual-slot form factor. The RTX A3000 Mobile's dimensions are not listed, reflecting its integration into laptops. The CMP 40HX had a launch MSRP of 699 USD; the RTX A3000 Mobile has no listed launch MSRP.

Where Each One Wins

The CMP 40HX wins in raw compute benchmarks across both OpenCL and Vulkan, with leads of 18.1% and 27.3% respectively. Its higher memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s versus 264.0 GB/s), larger frame buffer (8 GB versus 6 GB), and faster clocks make it the better choice for compute-heavy workloads that aren't constrained by PCIe bandwidth. Its FP16 throughput of 15.21 TFLOPS is particularly strong for AI inference and half-precision compute tasks.

The RTX A3000 Mobile wins in architectural efficiency and mobility. Its 70 W TDP is less than half the CMP 40HX's 185 W, making it suitable for portable workstations where power and cooling are limited. It also has more shading units (4,096 versus 2,304) and higher FP32 throughput (10.08 TFLOPS versus 7.603 TFLOPS), which could benefit workloads that rely heavily on shader-based single-precision math. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is a significant upgrade over the CMP 40HX's PCIe 1.0 x4, making the RTX A3000 Mobile better suited for systems that need fast data transfer between GPU and CPU.

The Verdict

The data clearly favors the NVIDIA CMP 40HX for pure compute performance. It wins both benchmarks decisively, offers more memory bandwidth, more memory capacity, and nearly double the FP16 throughput. Its 93rd percentile ranking versus the RTX A3000 Mobile's 91st percentile confirms its higher overall standing. If your workload can tolerate a 185 W desktop card with no display outputs and a PCIe 1.0 x4 interface, the CMP 40HX delivers substantially more compute per benchmark point.

The RTX A3000 Mobile is the pick for mobile workstations where power efficiency and portability matter more than raw throughput. Its 70 W TDP enables laptop integration, and its higher shading unit count and FP32 performance make it viable for single-precision workloads despite lower benchmark scores. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface also makes it more flexible in modern systems.

The choice comes down to form factor and workload type. For desktop compute tasks that prioritize raw throughput and memory bandwidth, the CMP 40HX is the stronger option based on every benchmark metric available. For mobile use or workloads that favor shader count and power efficiency, the RTX A3000 Mobile has clear advantages that benchmark scores alone don't capture. The CMP 40HX's 2-0 win record in head-to-head tests is unambiguous, but the RTX A3000 Mobile's architectural strengths make it the better fit for a different class of user.