NVIDIA RTX A5000 vs NVIDIA T550 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 and NVIDIA T550 Mobile occupy opposite ends of the professional GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data reflects a decisive split in capabilities. The RTX A5000, a desktop workstation card built on the Ampere architecture, delivers massive compute throughput and memory bandwidth, while the T550 Mobile, a Turing-based mobile chip, prioritizes efficiency and portability. The two head-to-head results available—Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan—show the A5000 winning both by margins exceeding 344%, yet the T550 Mobile still holds its own in the broader performance percentile rankings, sitting just one percentile point behind its larger sibling. This analysis walks through the data to clarify where each card fits, how they compare in raw numbers, and what the specifications reveal about their intended roles.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5000 is the clear winner in every benchmark category where both cards have been tested. In Geekbench OpenCL, the A5000 scores 157,905 against the T550 Mobile’s 35,521, a 344.5% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin is even larger: 137,828 versus 30,801, a 347.5% lead. These are not marginal differences; they represent a fundamental gap in processing power, memory throughput, and shader capability.

The T550 Mobile, however, does not lose on every axis that matters. Its average benchmark score of 33,161 places it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A5000’s average of 33,622 places it in the 78th percentile. The delta between their average scores is less than 1.4%, meaning that in the broader context of all GPUs, the T550 Mobile is far closer to the A5000 than the head-to-head results suggest. This is because the T550 Mobile’s benchmark set is limited to two Geekbench tests, whereas the A5000’s average includes ten different tests, including DirectX and Passmark workloads that drag its aggregate score down relative to its peak performance.

Where the T550 Mobile wins is in efficiency and form factor. Its 23 W TDP and IGP slot width make it suitable for compact, power-constrained mobile systems, while the A5000 demands a 230 W power budget and a dual-slot chassis with a dedicated 8-pin connector. The data does not include battery life or thermal tests, but the specification sheet alone shows that the T550 Mobile is designed for deployment scenarios where the A5000 physically cannot fit.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX A5000 has an average benchmark score of 33,622, which is 461 points higher than the T550 Mobile’s 33,161. In percentage terms, the A5000 leads by roughly 1.4%, based on the deltaPct values from their nearest rivals.

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

A: The A5000 wins Geekbench OpenCL by 344.5% and Geekbench Vulkan by 347.5%. In absolute terms, the A5000 scores 157,905 and 137,828, respectively, versus 35,521 and 30,801 for the T550 Mobile.

Q: Does the T550 Mobile have any ray tracing or Tensor cores?

A: No. The specification table lists rtCores and tensorCores as null for the T550 Mobile. The RTX A5000, by contrast, has 64 ray tracing cores and 256 Tensor cores.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 768.0 GB/s bandwidth. The T550 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, delivering 96.00 GB/s. The A5000 has six times the memory capacity and eight times the bandwidth.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are listed as end-of-life. The A5000’s predecessor is Quadro Turing and its successor is Workstation Ada. The T550 Mobile’s predecessor is Quadro Pascal-M and its successor is Ampere-MW.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX A5000 sits in the 78th percentile, while the T550 Mobile sits in the 77th. Despite the massive head-to-head deltas, their overall percentile rankings are separated by only one point.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparisons available are two Geekbench tests, and both are decisive wins for the RTX A5000. In Geekbench OpenCL, the A5000 posts 157,905 points, which is 122,384 points higher than the T550 Mobile’s 35,521. The deltaPct of 344.5% means the A5000 is roughly four and a half times faster in this compute-oriented workload. OpenCL is often used for general-purpose GPU computing, and the A5000’s 8,192 shading units versus the T550 Mobile’s 1,024 shading units explain the magnitude of this gap.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the A5000 scores 137,828 against the T550 Mobile’s 30,801, a deltaPct of 347.5%. Vulkan is a low-level graphics API that stresses raw geometry throughput and driver efficiency. The A5000’s 256 texture mapping units and 96 render output units give it a substantial advantage in these workloads, while the T550 Mobile’s 64 TMUs and 32 ROPs are a fraction of that capability. The A5000 also has a higher boost clock at 1695 MHz versus 1665 MHz, but the clock difference is negligible compared to the architectural and resource disparities.

Beyond the head-to-head tests, the A5000’s broader benchmark suite provides context for its performance. Its Passmark G3D score is 22,541, and its Passmark GPU Compute score is 12,455. The T550 Mobile has no Passmark results in the data, so cross-referencing is limited. However, the A5000’s Geekbench Vulkan score of 137,828 is more than four times the T550 Mobile’s, and its OpenCL score is even higher in relative terms. These results indicate that for any workload using OpenCL or Vulkan, the A5000 is the only viable choice between the two.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark contrasts in nearly every hardware category. The RTX A5000 uses the GA102 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the T550 Mobile uses the TU117 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process. Transistor counts differ by a factor of six: 28,300 million for the A5000 versus 4,700 million for the T550 Mobile. Die size also diverges significantly, with the A5000 at 628 mm² and the T550 Mobile at 200 mm².

Memory is another major differentiator. The A5000 offers 24 GB of GDDR6 across a 384-bit bus, achieving 768.0 GB/s bandwidth. The T550 Mobile offers 4 GB of GDDR6 across a 64-bit bus, achieving 96.00 GB/s. Memory clocks also differ: the A5000 runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), while the T550 Mobile runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). The A5000’s shading unit count is 8,192 versus 1,024, and its TMU count is 256 versus 64. ROPs are 96 versus 32. The A5000 includes 64 RT cores and 256 Tensor cores, while the T550 Mobile has none.

Power and physical requirements are polar opposites. The A5000 has a 230 W TDP, requires a 1x 8-pin power connector, and is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 112 mm in height. The T550 Mobile has a 23 W TDP, uses no power connectors, and is listed as IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no dimensions provided. The A5000 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the T550 Mobile uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs also differ: the A5000 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the T550 Mobile is listed as "Portable Device Dependent."

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations. The RTX A5000 is built on Ampere, which is NVIDIA’s workstation-oriented architecture from the Ax000 generation. The T550 Mobile is built on Turing, specifically the Quadro Turing-M (Tx000) generation for mobile. This architectural split explains several key differences in feature support.

Ampere introduces dedicated ray tracing and Tensor cores, which the A5000 implements with 64 RT cores and 256 Tensor cores. Turing also supports ray tracing, but the T550 Mobile’s TU117 chip omits these blocks entirely, listing rtCores and tensorCores as null. The A5000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the T550 Mobile only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, so those APIs are not differentiating factors.

The FP32 and FP16 throughput figures illustrate the compute philosophy of each chip. The A5000 delivers 27.77 TFLOPS of FP32 and the same 27.77 TFLOPS of FP16 (1:1 ratio), indicating a balanced design for traditional single-precision workloads. The T550 Mobile delivers 3.410 TFLOPS of FP32 but 6.820 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio), showing a design that accelerates half-precision tasks but falls far short in full-precision compute. The A5000’s pixel rate is 162.7 GPixel/s versus 53.28 GPixel/s for the T550 Mobile, and its texture rate is 433.9 GTexel/s versus 106.6 GTexel/s.

Transistor density also differs: the A5000 packs 45.1 million transistors per square millimeter, while the T550 Mobile manages 23.5 million per square millimeter. This is a direct consequence of the 8 nm versus 12 nm process nodes, with the newer node allowing higher density. The foundries differ as well—Samsung for the A5000, TSMC for the T550 Mobile.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: the RTX A5000 is the superior performer in every measured benchmark, with head-to-head advantages exceeding 344% in both OpenCL and Vulkan. Its 24 GB memory, 768 GB/s bandwidth, and 8,192 shading units make it a heavyweight for compute-intensive workstation tasks. The T550 Mobile, by contrast, is a lightweight mobile chip with 4 GB memory, 96 GB/s bandwidth, and 1,024 shading units, yet its average benchmark score of 33,161 is only 1.4% lower than the A5000’s average of 33,622. That proximity is misleading, however, because the T550 Mobile’s average is based on just two tests, both of which it loses by wide margins.

For users who need maximum compute performance in a desktop workstation, the RTX A5000 is the only sensible choice from this comparison. Its 78th percentile ranking, 27.77 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate make it suitable for rendering, simulation, and AI-adjacent workloads that demand the hardware resources it provides. The T550 Mobile, sitting in the 77th percentile, is not far behind in overall GPU rankings, but that ranking is buoyed by its efficiency rather than its raw speed.

For users who need a low-power mobile GPU for professional tasks, the T550 Mobile’s 23 W TDP and IGP form factor are unmatched by the A5000, which requires 230 W and a dual-slot chassis. The T550 Mobile’s 6.820 TFLOPS FP16 throughput is double its FP32 rate, suggesting it can handle certain half-precision workloads competently, but its lack of RT and Tensor cores limits its appeal for modern AI and ray-traced applications. The verdict is simple: the A5000 wins on performance, the T550 Mobile wins on efficiency, and the choice depends entirely on whether the workload prioritizes raw compute or portability.