NVIDIA CMP 70HX vs NVIDIA T550 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA T550 Mobile and the NVIDIA CMP 70HX are two fundamentally different products that happen to share a manufacturer. The T550 Mobile is a low-power Turing-based mobile workstation part, while the CMP 70HX is a dual-slot Ampere mining card with no display outputs. Benchmark data shows a split decision: the T550 Mobile wins the OpenCL test by a wide margin, while the CMP 70HX takes the Vulkan test decisively.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two GPUs split their benchmark wins exactly one apiece, but the margins are not symmetrical. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile scores 35521 against the CMP 70HX's 25135. That is a 41.3% advantage for the T550 Mobile, a massive gap that suggests the T550's architecture and drivers are far better optimized for this particular compute workload. The CMP 70HX's OpenCL result is surprisingly low given its raw specifications, and it falls behind the T550 Mobile despite having nearly four times the shading units and over six times the memory bandwidth.

The Vulkan test flips the script. Here the CMP 70HX scores 35817, which is 14% ahead of the T550 Mobile's 30801. The deltaPct is reported as -14, indicating the T550 Mobile is behind by that margin. This is a significant win for the CMP 70HX, but the relative gap is much smaller than the T550's OpenCL victory. In other words, the T550 Mobile's best result is a blowout, while the CMP 70HX's best result is a solid but not overwhelming lead.

Looking at the broader context, the T550 Mobile's average benchmark score is 33161, placing it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile, scores 33170, a negligible 0% delta. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 scores 33207 (-0.1%), and the NVIDIA P104-100 scores 32982 (0.5%). The T550 Mobile is firmly in the middle of a tightly packed cluster of comparable performers.

The CMP 70HX, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 30476, putting it in the 75th percentile. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 30490 (0% delta), followed by the AMD Radeon RX 6700 at 30433 (0.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30095 (1.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at 29945 (1.8%). The CMP 70HX is slightly ahead of this group, but the differences are small — under 2% across all four rivals.

The picture is clear: these are not competing products in any practical sense. The T550 Mobile punches well above its weight in OpenCL, while the CMP 70HX does the same in Vulkan. The overall average scores favor the T550 Mobile, but neither card is dominant across the board.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA T550 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 33161, compared to the CMP 70HX's 30476. The T550 Mobile also sits at the 77th percentile of all GPUs, two points higher than the CMP 70HX's 75th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The T550 Mobile wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 35521, which is 41.3% higher than the CMP 70HX's 25135. This is the largest performance gap between the two cards in any test.

Q: What about Vulkan performance?

A: The CMP 70HX takes the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 35817, beating the T550 Mobile's 30801 by 14%. This is the CMP 70HX's only benchmark win.

Q: Are these cards comparable in terms of raw specifications?

A: No. The CMP 70HX has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, while the T550 Mobile has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The CMP 70HX also has 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, versus 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus for the T550 Mobile.

Q: What is the intended use case for each card?

A: The T550 Mobile is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) designed for portable devices, with a 23 W TDP and no power connectors. The CMP 70HX is a dual-slot mining GPU with a 200 W suggested PSU, a single 12-pin power connector, and no display outputs.

Q: Which card has better driver support for modern APIs?

A: The CMP 70HX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the T550 Mobile supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is enormous, reflecting their completely different design goals. The T550 Mobile is built on the TU117 chip, which uses the Turing architecture and a 12 nm process from TSMC. It packs 4,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 23.5M per mm². This is a small, efficient chip designed for low-power mobile workloads.

The CMP 70HX, in contrast, uses the GA104 chip with the Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 44.4M per mm² — nearly double that of the T550 Mobile. The CMP 70HX also features 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, which the T550 Mobile lacks entirely. These hardware units are designed for ray tracing and AI workloads, respectively, and their presence on the CMP 70HX but not the T550 Mobile highlights the generational leap in feature support.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The T550 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, delivering 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The CMP 70HX has 8 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, achieving 608.3 GB/s — more than six times the bandwidth. The CMP 70HX also runs its memory at 19 Gbps effective, versus 12 Gbps for the T550 Mobile.

Compute capabilities follow the same pattern. The T550 Mobile delivers 3.410 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 6.820 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio). The CMP 70HX delivers 10.71 TFLOPS of FP32 and 10.71 TFLOPS of FP16 (1:1 ratio). The CMP 70HX's FP16 throughput is not double its FP32 rate — it's identical, which indicates a different execution model for half-precision work.

Clock speeds tell a more nuanced story. The T550 Mobile has a base clock of 1065 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The CMP 70HX has a higher base clock of 1365 MHz but a much lower boost clock of just 1395 MHz — a mere 30 MHz above its base. This suggests the CMP 70HX is heavily power-limited in its boost behavior, likely to keep temperatures and power draw manageable in a mining configuration.

The Verdict

The data does not support a simple "which is better" answer. In OpenCL, the T550 Mobile is 41.3% faster, an overwhelming margin. In Vulkan, the CMP 70HX is 14% faster. The T550 Mobile has the higher average benchmark score (33161 vs 30476) and higher percentile ranking (77th vs 75th), but the CMP 70HX has vastly superior hardware specifications.

For a user who needs a low-power mobile GPU with strong OpenCL compute performance, the T550 Mobile is the clear choice. Its 23 W TDP and IGP form factor make it suitable for portable devices where space and power are at a premium. It has no power connectors, no slot width beyond IGP, and its display outputs are portable-device dependent — meaning it's designed to drive a laptop or similar device's internal display.

For a user who needs raw compute throughput in Vulkan and has the power budget to accommodate it, the CMP 70HX is the better option. It is a dual-slot card requiring a 200 W PSU and a single 12-pin power connector. It has no display outputs at all, so it cannot drive a monitor. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are far superior to the T550 Mobile's 4 GB GDDR6 at 96.00 GB/s. The CMP 70HX also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, while the T550 Mobile is limited to DirectX 12_1.

The CMP 70HX is an end-of-life mining product, and the T550 Mobile is also end-of-life. Neither card is a current-generation product. The T550 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Pascal-M and its successor is Ampere-MW, while the CMP 70HX has no listed predecessor or successor. This reinforces that the CMP 70HX was a one-off mining part, while the T550 Mobile belongs to a longer product lineage.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The T550 Mobile uses the TU117 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process, while the CMP 70HX uses the GA104 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process. Transistor counts are 4,700 million versus 17,400 million, and die sizes are 200 mm² versus 392 mm². Transistor density is 23.5M per mm² for the T550 Mobile and 44.4M per mm² for the CMP 70HX.

Memory specs diverge completely: the T550 Mobile has 4 GB GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the CMP 70HX has 8 GB GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus with 608.3 GB/s bandwidth. Memory clocks are 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for the T550 Mobile and 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) for the CMP 70HX.

Compute units differ by design generation. The T550 Mobile has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The CMP 70HX has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, plus 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. Pixel rates are 53.28 GPixel/s for the T550 Mobile and 89.28 GPixel/s for the CMP 70HX. Texture rates are 106.6 GTexel/s versus 167.4 GTexel/s.

Power and physical specs are equally different. The T550 Mobile has a 23 W TDP, IGP slot width, and no power connectors. The CMP 70HX has no listed TDP, a dual-slot width, a single 12-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 200 W. The CMP 70HX measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length and 112 mm (4.4 inches) in height. The T550 Mobile has no listed dimensions.

Bus interfaces differ: the T550 Mobile uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the CMP 70HX uses PCIe 1.0 x4 — a significantly older and slower interface. Display outputs are portable-device dependent for the T550 Mobile and absent entirely for the CMP 70HX.

Where Each One Wins

The T550 Mobile wins in OpenCL compute, where its 41.3% lead over the CMP 70HX is the single largest performance gap between the two. It also wins on power efficiency, with a 23 W TDP compared to the CMP 70HX's 200 W suggested PSU. The T550 Mobile is the only one of the two that can drive a display, making it suitable for any mobile workstation use case. Its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is also more modern than the CMP 70HX's PCIe 1.0 x4.

The CMP 70HX wins in Vulkan performance, beating the T550 Mobile by 14%. It also wins decisively on raw specifications: more shading units, more TMUs, more ROPs, more memory, wider memory bus, and higher bandwidth. The CMP 70HX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, a feature the T550 Mobile lacks. Its 8 GB frame buffer is double the T550 Mobile's 4 GB, and its 608.3 GB/s memory bandwidth is over six times higher. For workloads that can leverage these resources — particularly Vulkan-based compute or rendering tasks — the CMP 70HX is clearly the stronger card.

The benchmark split mirrors this hardware divide. The T550 Mobile excels at the OpenCL workload, likely due to driver maturity and architecture efficiency in that API. The CMP 70HX excels at Vulkan, likely due to its newer Ampere architecture and dedicated RT and tensor cores. Neither card is a general-purpose winner; each dominates in its preferred API and use case. The T550 Mobile is a capable mobile workstation GPU with a narrow but strong compute profile. The CMP 70HX is a specialized mining card with broad hardware capabilities but limited software support outside its intended niche. Choose based on the API you need and the power budget you have.