NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded database contains two direct head-to-head comparisons between the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, and both are decisive victories for the desktop card. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 4090 scores 255,416 against the A4500 Mobile's 105,307, a delta of 58.8% in favor of the larger GPU. That is not a marginal gap; it suggests the RTX 4090 delivers well over double the raw compute throughput in this particular OpenCL workload.

The Vulkan result is even more lopsided. The RTX 4090 posts 271,631 points, while the A4500 Mobile manages 76,960, putting the mobile part 71.7% behind. This is a massive difference, and it indicates that the RTX 4090's advantage grows in API-level workloads that stress geometry, rasterization, and driver overhead. The A4500 Mobile's Vulkan score is less than a third of the RTX 4090's, which is a stark illustration of how far apart these two products are in absolute performance.

Looking at the broader database averages, the picture changes somewhat. The RTX A4500 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 91,134 across all recorded tests, while the RTX 4090 sits at 60,347. That inversion is curious: the RTX 4090 wins every head-to-head test, yet its overall average is lower. The explanation lies in the benchmark suite composition. The A4500 Mobile's recorded results are limited to two Geekbench entries, both strong, while the RTX 4090 has ten recorded tests, including several Passmark legacy DX9, DX10, and DX11 runs that score in the hundreds. Those older API tests drag down the average despite the card's dominance in modern workloads.

The percentile rankings reinforce this divergence. The A4500 Mobile sits at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 4090 ranks at the 88th percentile. Again, the RTX 4090's inclusion of low-scoring legacy tests hurts its aggregate standing, even though its peak performance is far higher. The data warns against reading too much into a single average score when the test lists are so different in scope and composition.

Nearest rival data adds context for each card individually. For the A4500 Mobile, the closest competitor is the desktop NVIDIA RTX A4500, which averages 91,671, a mere 0.6% higher. That near tie suggests the mobile implementation loses almost nothing to the desktop variant in the recorded metrics, an impressive feat for a laptop part. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 is 1.4% ahead, the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 is 4.2% behind, and the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 trails by 4.6%. The A4500 Mobile is clearly clustered with a tight group of professional workstation GPUs.

The RTX 4090's nearest rivals tell a different story. The Intel Arc Pro A60 matches it almost exactly at 60,326, a 0% delta. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% ahead, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% ahead, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 trails by 2.9%. These are all modest differences, but the rival list is composed of midrange professional cards, not flagship GeForce parts. The RTX 4090's average is dragged down to their level by its legacy benchmark scores, even though its modern API results are in a completely different league.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4090 wins every recorded head-to-head test, so the use-case split is mostly about workload type and form factor rather than direct competition. In OpenCL and Vulkan compute and graphics loads, the RTX 4090 is the clear victor, with deltas of 58.8% and 71.7% respectively. Any task that relies on modern APIs, such as GPU-accelerated rendering, machine learning inference, or high-end gaming, will favor the desktop card heavily.

The A4500 Mobile's strengths lie elsewhere. Its average benchmark score of 91,134 is higher than the RTX 4090's 60,347, and it holds a 93rd percentile ranking versus 88th. That means in the specific set of tests recorded for the A4500 Mobile, it performs at a level near the top of the database, while the RTX 4090's average is diluted by older DirectX tests. For professional workloads that use OpenCL or Vulkan and fit within a mobile chassis, the A4500 Mobile is a very capable part. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth are substantial for a laptop GPU, and its 140 W TDP makes it far more feasible to cool and power in a portable system.

The RTX 4090 also wins decisively in memory capacity and bandwidth. It offers 24 GB of GDDR6X across a 384-bit bus, yielding 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, roughly double the A4500 Mobile's 512.0 GB/s. For large datasets, high-resolution textures, or multi-GPU rendering pipelines, that bandwidth advantage is critical. The A4500 Mobile's 16 GB is still generous for mobile workstations, but the RTX 4090 simply has more headroom for the largest workloads.

Power consumption is another differentiator. The A4500 Mobile draws 140 W, while the RTX 4090 is rated at 450 W. That 310 W gap is enormous, and it means the desktop card requires a robust power supply, listed as 850 W suggested, and a triple-slot cooler. The mobile part uses no external power connectors, relying entirely on the laptop's power delivery system. For sustained compute workloads in a data center or studio, the RTX 4090's extra power budget buys proportionally large performance gains. For field work or on-site analysis where portability matters, the A4500 Mobile is the only realistic option.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architecture generations. The RTX A4500 Mobile is built on Ampere, specifically the GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. The RTX 4090 uses the AD102 chip under the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured by TSMC on a 5 nm node. This process shrink is a major factor in the RTX 4090's performance: it packs 76,300 million transistors into a 609 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 125.3 million per square millimeter. The A4500 Mobile, by contrast, contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, for a density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The RTX 4090 has more than four times the transistor count and nearly three times the density.

The compute resources scale accordingly. The RTX 4090 has 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. The A4500 Mobile has 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Ray tracing cores and tensor cores also differ dramatically: 128 and 512 on the RTX 4090 versus 46 and 184 on the A4500 Mobile. These are not incremental differences; the RTX 4090 has roughly 2.8 times the shading units and TMUs, and about 1.8 times the ROPs.

Clock speeds amplify the core count advantage. The RTX 4090 has a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz. The A4500 Mobile runs at 930 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost. Even before accounting for the core count gap, the RTX 4090 runs significantly faster. The combination of more cores and higher clocks results in the FP32 throughput disparity: 82.58 TFLOPS for the RTX 4090 versus 17.66 TFLOPS for the A4500 Mobile. FP16 is also 1:1 on both, so the same ratio holds for half-precision work.

Memory architecture differs as well. The A4500 Mobile uses GDDR6 at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) with a 256-bit bus. The RTX 4090 uses GDDR6X at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) with a 384-bit bus. The effective bandwidth is 512.0 GB/s versus 1.01 TB/s, a 97% difference. The GDDR6X technology and wider bus together deliver that doubling of bandwidth.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API feature parity is complete in the recorded specifications. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for both, which means system-level connectivity does not bottleneck either card. The display outputs differ due to form factor: the A4500 Mobile is listed as "Portable Device Dependent," while the RTX 4090 has one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Specification Differences

The RTX A4500 Mobile and RTX 4090 differ in nearly every major specification. The A4500 Mobile uses the GA104 chip with Ampere architecture, while the RTX 4090 uses AD102 with Ada Lovelace. Process nodes are 8 nm Samsung versus 5 nm TSMC. Transistor counts are 17,400 million versus 76,300 million, and die sizes are 392 mm² versus 609 mm². Transistor density is 44.4M per mm² versus 125.3M per mm².

Clock speeds show a large gap: base 930 MHz versus 2235 MHz, boost 1500 MHz versus 2520 MHz. Memory speed is 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) versus 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). Memory capacity is 16 GB GDDR6 versus 24 GB GDDR6X. Bus width is 256-bit versus 384-bit. Bandwidth is 512.0 GB/s versus 1.01 TB/s.

Compute resources differ substantially: 5,888 versus 16,384 shading units, 184 versus 512 TMUs, 96 versus 176 ROPs, 46 versus 128 RT cores, and 184 versus 512 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 144.0 GPixel/s versus 443.5 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 276.0 GTexel/s versus 1,290.2 GTexel/s. FP32 and FP16 are both 17.66 TFLOPS versus 82.58 TFLOPS.

TDP is 140 W versus 450 W. The A4500 Mobile has no power connectors, while the RTX 4090 uses one 16-pin connector with an 850 W suggested PSU. The RTX 4090 is triple-slot, measures 304 mm by 137 mm by 61 mm, and has specific display outputs. The A4500 Mobile's dimensions and slot width are not recorded. Release dates are March 2022 for the A4500 Mobile and September 2022 for the RTX 4090. The A4500 Mobile's predecessor and successor are Quadro Turing-M and Ada-MW, while the RTX 4090's are GeForce 30 and GeForce 50. The RTX 4090 has a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD; the A4500 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in OpenCL performance?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 255,416 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the A4500 Mobile scores 105,307, a 58.8% difference in favor of the RTX 4090.

Q: How large is the Vulkan gap between the two?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 4090 records 271,631 points and the A4500 Mobile records 76,960 points. The RTX 4090 leads by 71.7%.

Q: Why does the A4500 Mobile have a higher average benchmark score despite losing every head-to-head tests?

A: The A4500 Mobile's average score is 91,134 across two recorded tests, while the RTX 4090's average is 60,347 across ten tests, including several legacy directX 9, 10, and 11 tests with scores in the hundreds. The RTX 4090's low legacy scores lower its overall average.

Q: What are the memory capacity and bandwidth of each card?

A: The A4500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth on a 256-bit bus. The RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth on a 384-bit bus.

Q: How do their transistor counts compare?

A: The A4500 Mobile has 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, while the RTX 4090 has 76,300 million on a 609 mm² die.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The A4500 Mobile is rated at 140 W with no external power connectors. The RTX 4090 is rated at 450 W and requires one 16-pin connector with an 850 W suggested PSU.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: the RTX 4090 is the overwhelming performance winner in every direct comparison. It leads by 58.8% in OpenCL and 71.7% in Vulkan, and its architectural advantages are massive across every compute resource. Anyone needing maximum throughput in modern API workloads should pick the RTX 4090 without hesitation. Its 24 GB memory capacity, 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, and 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance make it the choice for heavy rendering, simulation, or machine learning tasks where power and cooling are available.

The A4500 Mobile is not without its own case. It holds a 93rd percentile ranking versus the RTX 4090's 88th, and its average benchmark score of 91,134 is higher than the RTX 4090's 60,347, though this is largely due to the RTX 4090's legacy test results. For mobile workstations, the A4500 Mobile offers 16 GB of GDDR6, 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, and 17.66 TFLOPS FP32 within a 140 W envelope. It requires no external power connectors and is designed for portable systems. The RTX 4090, with its 450 W draw, triple-slot cooler, and 304 mm length, is simply not viable in a laptop chassis.

The choice between the two depends entirely on the deployment context rather than raw performance rankings. A fixed studio or server environment favors the RTX 4090 overwhelmingly. A mobile workstation that needs professional-grade compute in the field favors the A4500 Mobile, whose recorded Geekbench scores place it in the top percentile of the database. The RTX 4090's lower percentile and average score are artifacts of its broader test list, not a reflection of its true capability. The head-to-head results are unambiguous: in the tests both cards share, the RTX 4090 is in a different performance class entirely.