NVIDIA RTX A4000 vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

Both the NVIDIA RTX A4000 and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile are professional Ampere-generation workstation GPUs built on the GA104 chip, and the benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy between the desktop and mobile implementations. The RTX A4000 dominates the head-to-head comparison, securing 8 wins out of 9 benchmark tests, while the RTX A5000 Mobile manages only a single victory. The overall average benchmark scores reflect this gap, with the RTX A4000 averaging 26683 across all tests compared to 24763 for the RTX A5000 Mobile, a difference that places the desktop card in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs while the mobile part sits at the 70th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single victory for the RTX A4000 comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where it scores 127645 against the RTX A5000 Mobile’s 88144, a commanding 44.8% advantage. This is not a marginal edge but a substantial gap that suggests the desktop card’s sustained clock behavior under API-level workloads gives it a decisive lead in compute-heavy scenarios. Similarly, the Passmark DirectX 9 test shows the RTX A4000 at 240 versus 169 for the mobile counterpart, a 42% difference that reinforces the pattern of the desktop part pulling ahead in older, draw-call-bound APIs.

The Passmark G2D test reveals the most extreme disparity, with the RTX A4000 scoring 1024 and the RTX A5000 Mobile at 629, representing a 62.8% lead for the desktop card. This test measures 2D graphics throughput, and the margin here is the largest of any benchmark in the comparison. The Passmark GPU Compute test also shows a substantial 40.5% advantage for the RTX A4000, with scores of 9760 versus 6945, indicating that general-purpose compute workloads favor the desktop card by a wide margin.

In the mainstream 3D rendering tests, the RTX A4000 continues its winning streak. The Passmark G3D score of 19459 for the RTX A4000 exceeds the RTX A5000 Mobile’s 15779 by 23.3%. The DirectX 11 test shows an 18.8% edge (158 versus 133), and the DirectX 10 test adds a 9.6% advantage (126 versus 115). The DirectX 12 test is a perfect tie at 72 points apiece, marking the only benchmark where the two GPUs achieve identical results.

The RTX A5000 Mobile’s sole victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 110877 against the RTX A4000’s 105739, a 4.6% margin. This single win is notable because OpenCL is a cross-platform compute API, and the mobile part’s higher base clock of 900 MHz compared to 735 MHz on the desktop card likely contributes to this result. However, this is an isolated bright spot, as the RTX A4000 wins the Vulkan compute test by a massive margin despite the mobile card’s clock advantage.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A4000 is the clear winner for most workloads, particularly those that stress raw throughput and legacy API compatibility. Its 62.8% lead in Passmark G2D makes it the obvious choice for 2D-intensive applications such as CAD drafting, schematic rendering, or any desktop environment with high-resolution multi-monitor setups. The 42% advantage in DirectX 9 and 18.8% in DirectX 11 suggest that older game engines and legacy OpenGL-based professional applications will run noticeably better on the desktop card. For compute tasks, the 40.5% margin in Passmark GPU Compute and 44.8% in Vulkan indicate that the RTX A4000 is better suited for GPU-accelerated rendering, physics simulation, and machine learning inference workloads that leverage Vulkan.

The RTX A5000 Mobile, by contrast, wins only in OpenCL compute, with a 4.6% edge. This makes it the preferred option in scenarios where OpenCL is the primary compute API, such as certain video encoding pipelines or scientific computing frameworks that rely on OpenCL kernels. The mobile card’s higher boost clock of 1575 MHz versus 1560 MHz on the desktop part, combined with its 900 MHz base clock, gives it a small frequency advantage that appears to matter in this specific test. Outside of OpenCL, the RTX A5000 Mobile is consistently behind, with its Passmark G3D score of 15779 placing it just 0.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 590 in its nearest rival list, while the RTX A4000’s G3D score of 19459 sits 0.5% above the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX A4000 is the superior performer in nearly every measurable category. With 8 benchmark wins out of 9 and an average score of 26683 that is 7.8% higher than the RTX A5000 Mobile’s 24763, the desktop card offers a substantial performance uplift across 3D rendering, compute, and legacy APIs. The RTX A4000’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary, sits just 0.5% behind in average score, while the RTX A5000 Mobile’s closest competitor is the AMD Radeon RX 590 at a 0.1% delta, indicating that the mobile part competes in a lower performance tier.

For users prioritizing maximum performance in a workstation context, the RTX A4000 is the clear choice. Its 23.3% lead in Passmark G3D and 40.5% in GPU compute make it suitable for demanding 3D modeling, rendering, and simulation workloads. The RTX A5000 Mobile, despite its single OpenCL victory, is a laggard in most tests, and its 70th percentile ranking versus the RTX A4000’s 72nd percentile underscores the performance gap. The only scenario where the RTX A5000 Mobile makes sense is when portability is a hard requirement and OpenCL compute is the dominant workload, as its 4.6% edge in that specific test provides a narrow but real advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 has an average benchmark score of 26683, which is higher than the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile’s 24763.

Q: What is the largest performance difference between the two cards?

A: The largest difference is in the Passmark G2D test, where the RTX A4000 leads by 62.8%, scoring 1024 versus 629 for the RTX A5000 Mobile.

Q: Are there any benchmarks where the two cards are equal?

A: Yes, the Passmark DirectX 12 test shows both cards scoring 72 points, resulting in a 0% delta.

Q: Which card wins in OpenCL compute?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 110877 compared to the RTX A4000’s 105739, a 4.6% margin.

Q: How do the cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The RTX A4000 is significantly ahead in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 127645 versus 88144 for the RTX A5000 Mobile, a 44.8% advantage.

Q: What is the percentile ranking for each card?

A: The RTX A4000 is in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A5000 Mobile is in the 70th percentile.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built on the same GA104 chip using Samsung’s 8 nm process, with identical transistor counts of 17,400 million and a die size of 392 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The core configurations are also identical: 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, 96 raster operation units, 48 ray tracing cores, and 192 tensor cores. This means the architectural foundation is the same, and the performance differences stem from clock speeds and power delivery rather than core counts.

The RTX A4000 has a base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 1560 MHz, while the RTX A5000 Mobile operates at a higher base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 1575 MHz. Despite the mobile card’s higher clocks, the RTX A4000 achieves higher pixel and texture rates in practice, with 149.8 GPixel/s versus 151.2 GPixel/s for the mobile part, and 299.5 GTexel/s versus 302.4 GTexel/s. The RTX A4000’s FP32 throughput is 19.17 TFLOPS, while the RTX A5000 Mobile reaches 19.35 TFLOPS, and both support FP16 at a 1:1 ratio.

The power delivery differs significantly: the RTX A4000 is a single-slot card with a 140 W TDP and a 1x 6-pin power connector, requiring a 300 W suggested PSU, while the RTX A5000 Mobile has a 150 W TDP and no dedicated power connectors, relying on the host laptop’s power system. The RTX A4000 is a desktop card measuring 241 mm in length and 112 mm in height, whereas the RTX A5000 Mobile has no listed dimensions, reflecting its integration into mobile chassis. Both cards support PCIe 4.0 x16, but the RTX A4000 offers 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the RTX A5000 Mobile’s display outputs are dependent on the portable device.

Specification Differences

The most notable specification difference is the clock speeds, with the RTX A5000 Mobile having a 900 MHz base clock and 1575 MHz boost clock, compared to the RTX A4000’s 735 MHz base and 1560 MHz boost. This makes the mobile part 18.3% faster at base clock and 1% faster at boost clock. The TDP also differs, with the RTX A5000 Mobile rated at 150 W versus 140 W for the RTX A4000, a 6.7% higher power envelope for the mobile chip.

The power connector situation is inverted: the RTX A4000 requires a 1x 6-pin power connector, while the RTX A5000 Mobile has no power connectors, and the RTX A4000 lists a 300 W suggested PSU while the mobile card has no PSU recommendation. The RTX A4000 is a single-slot card with physical dimensions of 241 mm length and 112 mm height, whereas the RTX A5000 Mobile has no slot width, length, or height specifications. Display outputs also differ: the RTX A4000 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RTX A5000 Mobile’s outputs are portable device dependent. Both cards share the same memory configuration of 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, and both are classified as end-of-life with a release date of April 11, 2021.