NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile records an average benchmark score of 27435, while the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile trails at 24763. The RTX 4070 Mobile also sits at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, compared to the 70th percentile for the RTX A5000 Mobile.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two in any single test?

A: The biggest difference appears in the Passmark DirectX 11 test, where the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 179 versus 133 for the RTX A5000 Mobile, a 34.6% advantage. The second-largest gap is in Passmark DirectX 9, where the RTX 4070 Mobile leads by 32%.

Q: Does the RTX A5000 Mobile win any benchmark at all?

A: Yes, one test. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110877 against 109197 for the RTX 4070 Mobile, a 1.5% margin. This is the only benchmark out of nine where the RTX A5000 Mobile comes out ahead.

Q: How do the two compare in memory capacity and bandwidth?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s. The RTX A5000 Mobile offers double the capacity and 75% more bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has higher theoretical compute throughput?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile leads in raw FP32 and FP16 performance with 19.35 TFLOPS each, versus 15.62 TFLOPS for the RTX 4070 Mobile. However, the RTX 4070 Mobile still wins the majority of real-world benchmark tests despite the lower peak compute figure.

Q: What are the process node and die size differences?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile uses a 5 nm process at TSMC with a 188 mm² die containing 22,900 million transistors. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses an 8 nm process at Samsung with a larger 392 mm² die but fewer transistors at 17,400 million. The RTX 4070 Mobile achieves a transistor density of 121.8M per mm², versus 44.4M per mm² for the RTX A5000 Mobile.

The Verdict

The benchmark database clearly favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile in nearly every measured workload. It wins 8 out of 9 head-to-head tests, with wins ranging from a narrow 0.9% margin in Passmark DirectX 10 to a commanding 34.6% lead in Passmark DirectX 11. Its average benchmark score of 27435 places it alongside the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which scores 27565 (a 0.5% gap), and ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT at 27425.

The RTX 4070 Mobile is the pick for users prioritizing DirectX performance, Vulkan throughput, and general 3D rendering. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 108367 exceeds the RTX A5000 Mobile's 88144 by 22.9%, and its Passmark G3D score of 19587 beats 15779 by 24.1%. It also delivers a 20.9% advantage in Passmark GPU Compute, making it the stronger choice for compute-heavy applications despite lower theoretical TFLOPS.

The RTX A5000 Mobile, however, retains relevance for specific use cases. Its 16 GB memory capacity and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are double and 75% higher, respectively, than the RTX 4070 Mobile's 8 GB and 256.0 GB/s. This makes it the sensible option for workloads that demand large datasets resident in VRAM. It also wins the only OpenCL benchmark, scoring 110877 against 109197.

For most buyers, the data points to the RTX 4070 Mobile as the faster, more efficient part. The RTX A5000 Mobile appeals primarily to those who need the extra memory capacity and can accept lower frame rates and compute scores in exchange.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RTX 4070 Mobile dominates the benchmark suite with decisive victories in seven of nine tests. The largest margin is in Passmark DirectX 11, where the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 179 versus 133, a 34.6% advantage. This indicates a substantial lead in legacy DirectX 11 workloads, which remain common in many current games and applications.

Passmark DirectX 9 shows a similar pattern: the RTX 4070 Mobile scores 223 against 169, a 32% lead. These two legacy API tests suggest the RTX 4070 Mobile's architecture handles older rendering paths much more efficiently than the RTX A5000 Mobile's Ampere design.

In modern API workloads, the RTX 4070 Mobile maintains its edge. Geekbench Vulkan sees the RTX 4070 Mobile score 108367 versus 88144 for the RTX A5000 Mobile, a 22.9% advantage. The RTX 4070 Mobile also leads in Passmark DirectX 12, scoring 85 against 72, an 18.1% margin.

The 3D rendering tests reinforce the same conclusion. Passmark G3D has the RTX 4070 Mobile at 19587, which is 24.1% ahead of the RTX A5000 Mobile's 15779. The RTX 4070 Mobile also wins Passmark GPU Compute with 8399 versus 6945, a 20.9% lead, and Passmark G2D with 763 versus 629, a 21.3% margin.

Passmark DirectX 10 is the closest contest, with the RTX 4070 Mobile scoring 116 against 115, a mere 0.9% difference. This near-tie suggests that in this specific workload, the two GPUs perform essentially identically.

The RTX A5000 Mobile's only victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 110877 against 109197, a 1.5% margin. This is a narrow win, and it stands in contrast to the RTX 4070 Mobile's large advantages in every other test. The data suggests the RTX A5000 Mobile may have a slight edge in certain OpenCL compute paths, but this does not translate into broader benchmark success.

Specification Differences

Memory configuration is the most significant specification gap. The RTX A5000 Mobile offers 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4070 Mobile offers 8 GB on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s. The RTX A5000 Mobile doubles capacity and provides 75% more bandwidth, which directly impacts memory-bound workloads.

The chip designs differ substantially. The RTX 4070 Mobile uses the AD106 chip with 4,608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip with 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RTX A5000 Mobile has 33% more shading units, 33% more TMUs, and double the ROPs.

Ray tracing and tensor resources also favor the RTX A5000 Mobile. It has 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, versus 36 RT cores and 144 tensor cores for the RTX 4070 Mobile. These are increases of 33% in each category.

Clock speeds tell a different story. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a base clock of 1395 MHz and a boost clock of 1695 MHz. The RTX A5000 Mobile has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 1575 MHz. The RTX 4070 Mobile runs 55% higher at base and 7.6% higher at boost.

Memory clocks also differ: the RTX 4070 Mobile runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective, while the RTX A5000 Mobile runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective. The RTX 4070 Mobile's faster memory clock partially compensates for its narrower bus, but the RTX A5000 Mobile's wider bus still delivers far more total bandwidth.

Rasterization throughput favors the RTX A5000 Mobile. It achieves 151.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 302.4 GTexel/s texture rate, compared to 81.36 GPixel/s and 244.1 GTexel/s for the RTX 4070 Mobile. The FP32 and FP16 compute figures likewise favor the RTX A5000 Mobile at 19.35 TFLOPS versus 15.62 TFLOPS.

Power and interface specifications also differ. The RTX 4070 Mobile has a 115 W TDP, while the RTX A5000 Mobile has a 150 W TDP. The RTX 4070 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RTX A5000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Both are portable devices with dependent display outputs and no power connectors.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4070 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD106 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. These represent two distinct GPU generations, with Ada Lovelace being the newer design.

The manufacturing process differences are stark. The RTX 4070 Mobile's 5 nm node packs 22,900 million transistors into a 188 mm² die, achieving a density of 121.8M transistors per mm². The RTX A5000 Mobile's 8 nm node places 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, with a density of only 44.4M per mm². The RTX 4070 Mobile fits 2.7 times more transistors per area despite having 5,500 million fewer transistors overall.

The transistor density advantage helps explain the RTX 4070 Mobile's benchmark success. Despite having fewer shading units, TMUs, ROPs, RT cores, and tensor cores than the RTX A5000 Mobile, the RTX 4070 Mobile wins 8 of 9 benchmarks. The newer architecture and higher density appear to deliver better instructions-per-clock and more efficient execution.

The RTX A5000 Mobile belongs to the Ampere-MW generation, with the Ax000 naming convention, and was released in April 2021. The RTX 4070 Mobile is part of the GeForce 40 Mobile generation, released in January 2023, and is currently active in production. The RTX A5000 Mobile is marked as end-of-life.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4070 Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 30 Mobile series, with a successor in GeForce 50 Mobile. The RTX A5000 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M series, with a successor in Ada-MW.

The combination of newer architecture, higher clock speeds, and greater transistor density gives the RTX 4070 Mobile a decisive real-world performance edge, even though the RTX A5000 Mobile holds advantages in raw compute resources, memory capacity, and bandwidth. The data indicates that architectural efficiency matters more than sheer resource counts in these benchmark results.