NVIDIA CMP 40HX vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and the NVIDIA CMP 40HX occupy opposite ends of NVIDIA's product spectrum, yet both target professional workloads. The RTX A5500 Mobile is a mobile workstation GPU built on the Ampere architecture, while the CMP 40HX is a desktop mining card based on the older Turing architecture. Benchmark data shows the RTX A5500 Mobile leading decisively in every recorded test, but the specifications reveal two fundamentally different designs with distinct purposes.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 113944, while the NVIDIA CMP 40HX scores 85637. This places the RTX A5500 Mobile 33.1% ahead in Geekbench OpenCL and 33% ahead in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in terms of architecture generation?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on an 8 nm process with the GA103 chip, while the CMP 40HX uses the older Turing architecture on a 12 nm process with the TU106 chip. The Ampere part is fabricated by Samsung, whereas the Turing part is from TSMC.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CMP 40HX has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5500 Mobile doubles the capacity and offers 14.3% more bandwidth.

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

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has 7424 shading units and 232 tensor cores. The CMP 40HX has 2304 shading units and 288 tensor cores. The RTX A5500 Mobile has over three times the shading units, but the CMP 40HX has 24.1% more tensor cores.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W, while the CMP 40HX has a TDP of 185 W. Despite the CMP 40HX drawing more power, it delivers significantly lower performance in all benchmark tests.

Q: Do either of these cards support display outputs?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has display outputs described as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary by laptop implementation. The CMP 40HX has no display outputs at all, reflecting its mining-focused design.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial. The RTX A5500 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, using the GA103 chip manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip contains 22,000 million transistors on a 496 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The CMP 40HX, by contrast, uses the TU106 chip from the Turing architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 12 nm process. It packs 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die, giving a density of 24.3M per mm². The Ampere chip has twice the transistor count and nearly double the density.

The compute resources differ dramatically. The RTX A5500 Mobile features 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. It also includes 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores. The CMP 40HX has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 36 ray tracing cores and 288 tensor cores. While the RTX A5500 Mobile dominates in traditional shader count, the CMP 40HX actually has more tensor cores, suggesting a different computational balance.

Clock speeds tell another story. The CMP 40HX runs at a 1470 MHz base clock and 1650 MHz boost, whereas the RTX A5500 Mobile operates at a lower 975 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost. However, the massive shader count advantage of the RTX A5500 Mobile more than compensates, yielding 22.27 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus 7.603 TFLOPS for the CMP 40HX. The FP16 ratio also differs: the RTX A5500 Mobile achieves a 1:1 ratio with 22.27 TFLOPS, while the CMP 40HX uses a 2:1 ratio, reaching 15.21 TFLOPS.

Memory architecture reflects their divergent purposes. Both use GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, but the RTX A5500 Mobile offers 16 GB with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the CMP 40HX has 8 GB with 448.0 GB/s. The RTX A5500 Mobile's memory runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed, compared to 1750 MHz and 14 Gbps for the CMP 40HX.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124287 against the CMP 40HX's 93395, a delta of 33.1%. In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin is nearly identical: 103601 versus 77879, a 33% difference. The RTX A5500 Mobile wins both tests, giving it 2 wins and 0 losses in head-to-head comparisons.

These scores place the RTX A5500 Mobile in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the CMP 40HX sits in the 93rd percentile. Despite the seemingly close percentile ranking, the absolute performance gap is large. The RTX A5500 Mobile's average benchmark score of 113944 is 33.1% higher than the CMP 40HX's 85637.

Looking at rival comparisons provides additional context. The RTX A5500 Mobile sits just 0.4% below the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB in average score, and 2.7% below the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation. It outperforms the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 by 2.9%. The CMP 40HX, meanwhile, trails the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 by 1.7% and the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 by 2.1%, while leading the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by 4.4% and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 5.8%. These rival positions show that while the CMP 40HX is competitive with mid-range workstation cards, the RTX A5500 Mobile operates in a higher performance tier.

The Verdict

The data makes a clear case. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is the superior performer in every measured benchmark, with a 33.1% lead in OpenCL and 33% lead in Vulkan. It doubles the memory capacity, offers 14.3% more bandwidth, and delivers nearly triple the FP32 compute throughput. The architecture is two generations newer, using a smaller process node with higher transistor density.

The CMP 40HX does have advantages in specific areas: it has 24.1% more tensor cores, higher clock speeds, and a lower launch MSRP of 699 USD. Its Turing architecture supports the same DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 APIs as the Ampere part. For workloads that heavily utilize tensor cores, the CMP 40HX's 288 tensor cores versus 232 might offer some advantage, though no benchmark data confirms this.

The RTX A5500 Mobile is the clear choice for anyone needing maximum compute performance, larger memory capacity, or display output capability. The CMP 40HX is an end-of-life mining product with no display outputs, designed for a very specific purpose that no longer aligns with the general GPU market. The RTX A5500 Mobile also carries the production status of end-of-life, but its feature set makes it far more versatile.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the CMP 40HX uses the TU106 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process. Transistor counts are 22,000 million versus 10,800 million, with die sizes of 496 mm² versus 445 mm². The RTX A5500 Mobile has a transistor density of 44.4M per mm², nearly double the CMP 40HX's 24.3M per mm².

Clock speeds differ significantly: the RTX A5500 Mobile runs at 975 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost, while the CMP 40HX runs at 1470 MHz base and 1650 MHz boost. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective for the RTX A5500 Mobile, versus 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps for the CMP 40HX. Memory capacity is 16 GB versus 8 GB, though both use GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. Bandwidth is 512.0 GB/s versus 448.0 GB/s.

Compute resources show the largest gaps: 7424 versus 2304 shading units, 232 versus 144 TMUs, 96 versus 64 ROPs, and 58 versus 36 ray tracing cores. The tensor core count flips in favor of the CMP 40HX at 288 versus 232. Pixel rate is 144.0 GPixel/s versus 105.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 348.0 GTexel/s versus 237.6 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 22.27 TFLOPS versus 7.603 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 22.27 TFLOPS versus 15.21 TFLOPS.

Power and physical characteristics also differ. The RTX A5500 Mobile has a 165 W TDP with no power connectors, while the CMP 40HX has a 185 W TDP with a single 8-pin connector and a suggested PSU of 450 W. The CMP 40HX is a dual-slot card measuring 229 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 35 mm in width. The RTX A5500 Mobile has no listed dimensions. The CMP 40HX uses a PCIe 1.0 x4 interface, while the RTX A5500 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The RTX A5500 Mobile has portable-device-dependent display outputs; the CMP 40HX has none.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5500 Mobile wins in every benchmarked category. It is 33.1% faster in OpenCL and 33% faster in Vulkan. It offers double the memory capacity and 14.3% more bandwidth, making it better suited for large datasets and memory-intensive workloads. Its 22.27 TFLOPS FP32 performance is nearly triple the CMP 40HX's 7.603 TFLOPS, giving it a decisive edge in general compute tasks.

The RTX A5500 Mobile's 58 ray tracing cores versus 36 provide better ray tracing capability, and its 232 tensor cores still offer substantial AI acceleration. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides much higher host bandwidth than the CMP 40HX's PCIe 1.0 x4 connection. The ability to drive displays, though dependent on the host device, makes it functional as a general-purpose GPU.

The CMP 40HX's advantages are narrower. Its 288 tensor cores exceed the RTX A5500 Mobile's 232 by 24.1%, potentially offering better performance in tensor-heavy operations that don't rely on the rest of the GPU. Its higher base and boost clocks suggest better per-core efficiency. The 185 W TDP, while higher, is within a similar range. Its 8 GB of memory at 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is still respectable for many workloads.

The CMP 40HX also holds an advantage in launch MSRP at 699 USD, though pricing considerations are secondary to the massive performance gap. Its Turing architecture supports the same modern APIs, including DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The dual-slot design and compact dimensions make it physically easy to install.

For gaming, rendering, or general compute workloads, the RTX A5500 Mobile is overwhelmingly superior. For specific tensor-core-heavy applications where memory capacity and shader performance are less critical, the CMP 40HX's additional tensor cores might provide a niche benefit. However, the benchmark data shows that in real-world testing, the RTX A5500 Mobile's overall performance advantage is so substantial that it wins every recorded comparison.