AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT vs NVIDIA CMP 50HX Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and the NVIDIA CMP 50HX occupy opposite ends of the hardware spectrum, a mobile gaming GPU built for laptops versus a desktop mining card with no display outputs. The recorded data shows a decisive advantage for the AMD part in every shared benchmark, with the RX 6850M XT delivering a 51.5% lead in OpenCL and a 109.7% lead in Vulkan. However, the CMP 50HX counters with a larger memory bus, higher bandwidth, and a greater number of raw compute units, making it a specialized tool for compute workloads that do not rely on the same driver optimizations. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results, architectural differences, and specification gaps to determine which card wins where.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT records an average benchmark score of 78,940, while the NVIDIA CMP 50HX averages 51,790. This places the AMD part in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, compared to the 86th percentile for the NVIDIA card.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the head-to-head benchmarks?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6850M XT scores 85,040 versus 56,135 for the CMP 50HX, a delta of 51.5%. In Geekbench Vulkan, the AMD card scores 99,483 versus 47,445, a delta of 109.7%. The AMD GPU wins both recorded head-to-head tests.

Q: What are the closest rivals for each card according to the database?

A: The RX 6850M XT sits within 1.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D (which scores 77,712), and it trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB by just 0.6% and the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 0.8%. The CMP 50HX is 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, 3.6% ahead of the Radeon RX Vega 64, and 3.7% ahead of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA CMP 50HX has a 320-bit memory bus and a bandwidth of 560.0 GB/s, while the AMD RX 6850M XT uses a 192-bit bus and achieves 432.0 GB/s. Despite this advantage, the NVIDIA card loses both benchmarks.

Q: Does the CMP 50HX support display outputs?

A: No, the NVIDIA CMP 50HX has no display outputs, as it is designed for mining. In contrast, the AMD RX 6850M XT has display outputs that are portable device dependent, meaning they vary based on the laptop implementation.

Q: What is the transistor density of each chip?

A: The AMD Navi 22 chip packs 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die, yielding a density of 51.3 million transistors per square millimeter. The NVIDIA TU102 chip contains 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, resulting in a density of 24.7 million per square millimeter.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data paints a clear picture: the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT wins in every recorded test. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 85,040, which is 51.5% higher than the CMP 50HX’s 56,135. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens dramatically: the AMD card posts 99,483 against 47,445, a 109.7% advantage. These are not marginal differences; they represent a doubling of performance in one API and a 50% improvement in the other.

The CMP 50HX has no benchmark wins in the database. Its strengths lie elsewhere, specifically in theoretical specifications that do not translate to wins in the tests recorded. It has a higher shading unit count (3,584 versus 2,560), more texture mapping units (192 versus 160), more ROPs (80 versus 64), and more ray tracing cores (56 versus 40). It also has 448 tensor cores, a feature the AMD card lacks entirely. Yet none of these advantages manifest in the Geekbench results, likely due to the AMD card’s much higher clock speeds and the driver maturity of the RDNA 2.0 architecture.

The use case split is therefore stark: the RX 6850M XT is the clear winner for any workload measured by OpenCL or Vulkan, which includes most general-purpose GPU compute and modern graphics APIs. The CMP 50HX, with its mining designation and lack of display outputs, is not designed for those tasks. Its larger memory bandwidth and raw compute count might benefit specific compute kernels, but the database does not include any benchmark where it wins.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is fundamental. The AMD RX 6850M XT uses the Navi 22 chip built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX uses the TU102 chip based on Turing architecture, also built by TSMC but on a 12 nm process. This process difference is significant: the 7 nm node allows AMD to pack 17,200 million transistors into a 335 mm² die, achieving a density of 51.3 million transistors per square millimeter. The 12 nm node forces NVIDIA to use a much larger 754 mm² die to house 18,600 million transistors, yielding a density of just 24.7 million per square millimeter.

The transistor density disparity explains the clock speed difference. The AMD card runs a base clock of 2321 MHz, a boost clock of 2581 MHz, and a game clock of 2463 MHz. The NVIDIA card operates at a base of 1350 MHz and a boost of 1545 MHz. Higher clocks on the AMD side directly contribute to its benchmark dominance, despite the NVIDIA card having more shading units and tensor cores.

Memory architecture also differs. The AMD card uses 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, achieving 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card uses 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, achieving 560.0 GB/s. The wider bus gives NVIDIA a theoretical bandwidth advantage of about 30%, but the AMD card compensates with higher effective memory clock: 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Feature sets diverge as well. The AMD card has 40 ray tracing cores, while the NVIDIA card has 56. The NVIDIA card also includes 448 tensor cores, which are absent from the AMD specification. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. However, the AMD card is part of the Radeon RX 6000 series with a generation label of Navi Mobile (RX 6000M), while the NVIDIA card is classified under Mining GPUs.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification field. The AMD RX 6850M XT has 2,560 shading units, while the NVIDIA CMP 50HX has 3,584, a 40% advantage in raw shader count. Texture mapping units stand at 160 for AMD and 192 for NVIDIA. ROPs are 64 for AMD and 80 for NVIDIA. Ray tracing cores are 40 for AMD and 56 for NVIDIA. Tensor cores exist only on the NVIDIA card, with 448 units.

Clock speeds strongly favor AMD. The base clock is 2321 MHz versus 1350 MHz, the boost clock is 2581 MHz versus 1545 MHz, and the AMD game clock is 2463 MHz where NVIDIA has no game clock specified. These clock differences produce higher throughput rates for AMD: the pixel rate is 165.2 GPixel/s versus 123.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 413.0 GTexel/s versus 296.6 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 13.21 TFLOPS for AMD versus 11.07 TFLOPS for NVIDIA. FP16 performance is 26.43 TFLOPS for AMD versus 22.15 TFLOPS for NVIDIA.

Memory specifications favor NVIDIA. The AMD card has 12 GB versus 10 GB, but the bus width is 192 bit versus 320 bit. Bandwidth is 432.0 GB/s for AMD versus 560.0 GB/s for NVIDIA. Effective memory speed is 18 Gbps for AMD versus 14 Gbps for NVIDIA.

Power and physical design differ substantially. The AMD card has a TDP of 165 W and is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors, as it is designed for mobile integration. The NVIDIA card has a TDP of 250 W, is dual-slot, and requires 2x 8-pin power connectors with a suggested PSU of 600 W. The NVIDIA card measures 267 mm in length, 116 mm in height, and 35 mm in width. The AMD card has no listed dimensions.

Bus interface also differs: AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while NVIDIA uses PCIe 1.0 x4, a legacy interface that severely limits data transfer speeds. Release dates are close: AMD launched on January 3, 2022, and NVIDIA on June 23, 2021. Both are end-of-life production.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD RX 6850M XT scores 85,040 against the CMP 50HX’s 56,135. The delta of 51.5% means the AMD card delivers over half again as much performance. This is a substantial lead, especially considering that the NVIDIA card has 40% more shading units and 128 more tensor cores. The AMD advantage here likely stems from its 71% higher boost clock (2581 MHz versus 1545 MHz) and its modern RDNA 2.0 architecture, which achieves higher instructions per clock on compute workloads.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap is even more pronounced. The AMD card scores 99,483, while the NVIDIA card scores 47,445. The delta of 109.7% means the AMD card more than doubles the NVIDIA card’s performance. Vulkan is a low-level API that benefits from efficient driver overhead and high clock speeds, both of which favor the AMD part. The NVIDIA card’s PCIe 1.0 x4 interface may also hamper performance in Vulkan workloads that rely on data transfer, whereas the AMD card’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides far greater bandwidth.

These results place the RX 6850M XT well above its nearest rivals in the database. Its average benchmark score of 78,940 is within 1.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (which scores 79,842) and 1.6% ahead of the RTX 5090 D (77,712). The CMP 50HX, by contrast, sits just 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50,951) and 3.7% ahead of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957). The CMP 50HX’s average score of 51,790 is less than two-thirds of the RX 6850M XT’s average.

The Vulkan result is particularly telling. A 109.7% delta is not a marginal improvement; it is a generational leap. The AMD card’s score of 99,483 approaches six figures, while the NVIDIA card struggles to reach 50,000. This suggests that the CMP 50HX, despite its Turing architecture and tensor cores, is poorly optimized for modern graphics APIs, likely because it was designed for mining workloads that use proprietary compute kernels rather than standard graphics interfaces.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear verdict: the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is the superior GPU for any workload measured in the database. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks with deltas of 51.5% and 109.7%, and its average benchmark score of 78,940 is 52.4% higher than the CMP 50HX’s 51,790. The AMD card also holds a commanding lead in clock speed, pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32/FP16 throughput, and it does so while consuming 85 W less power (165 W versus 250 W).

The NVIDIA CMP 50HX should only be considered for workloads that specifically benefit from its unique features: 448 tensor cores, a 320-bit memory bus with 560.0 GB/s bandwidth, and a larger number of shading units. These specifications do not translate into wins in OpenCL or Vulkan, but they might matter for specialized compute tasks that are not represented in the database. However, the card’s PCIe 1.0 x4 interface, lack of display outputs, and 250 W power draw make it a niche product for mining or server-side compute, not for general use.

For gamers, content creators, or anyone running OpenCL or Vulkan workloads, the RX 6850M XT is the obvious choice. Its 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it alongside desktop flagships like the RTX 5090, while the CMP 50HX sits in the 86th percentile, near the RX 6900 XT and RTX 5070 Ti. The AMD card also offers 12 GB of memory versus 10 GB, a wider PCIe interface, and a much smaller die size (335 mm² versus 754 mm²), reflecting greater efficiency.

In summary, the RX 6850M XT wins on every recorded benchmark, holds a higher average score, and achieves better results with lower power consumption. The CMP 50HX is a specialized mining card whose theoretical advantages in memory bandwidth and raw compute count do not manifest in real-world API tests. For any task covered by the database, the AMD part is the definitive winner.