AMD Radeon RX 6650M vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and the AMD Radeon RX 6650M occupy different tiers of the mobile graphics landscape. The database records show a clear performance hierarchy, but the choice between them depends heavily on the specific workload. The RTX A5500 Mobile is a professional-grade part with a 94th percentile ranking, while the RX 6650M is a mainstream gaming solution at the 91st percentile. The benchmark data indicates that the NVIDIA part dominates in raw compute and API-specific tests, but the AMD card has its own strengths in efficiency and pixel throughput that matter in certain scenarios.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins in every recorded benchmark comparison between the two. Its average benchmark score of 113944 places it far above the RX 6650M’s 71768, a gap of roughly 59%. In the OpenCL test, which often reflects compute-heavy workloads like rendering and machine learning inference, the A5500 Mobile scores 124287 against the RX 6650M’s 65800. That is not a marginal victory; it is a decisive one. The Vulkan test, which is more relevant to gaming and real-time graphics, also goes to NVIDIA, with 103601 versus 77735. The data shows that if the task involves heavy parallel computation, the A5500 Mobile is the clear choice.

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M does not win any head-to-head benchmarks, but it does have a few characteristics that make it competitive in specific contexts. Its boost clock of 2416 MHz is substantially higher than the A5500 Mobile’s 1500 MHz, which suggests it can handle lightly threaded or latency-sensitive tasks with responsiveness. Its pixel rate of 154.6 GPixel/s is higher than the NVIDIA card’s 144.0 GPixel/s, which can translate to better fill-rate performance in certain 2D or low-geometry scenarios. For a gamer who prioritizes high refresh rates at lower resolutions, the RX 6650M’s higher clocks and pixel throughput could make it the more practical daily driver, even though it loses in aggregate scores.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher raw compute performance in OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile. It scores 124287 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 88.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M’s 65800.

Q: Is the AMD card better for Vulkan-based games?

A: No. The data shows the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with 103601 versus 77735, a 33.3% advantage. The RX 6650M does not win any recorded benchmark.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The RTX A5500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6650M has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card has double the memory capacity and more than double the bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has the higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650M, with a boost clock of 2416 MHz. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile has a boost clock of 1500 MHz.

Q: How do their transistor densities compare?

A: The AMD card, built on a 7 nm process, has a density of 46.7M transistors per square millimeter. The NVIDIA card, on an 8 nm process, has 44.4M per square millimeter. Despite the smaller process node, the AMD chip’s density advantage is modest.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The RX 6650M has a TDP of 120 W, while the RTX A5500 Mobile has a TDP of 165 W. The AMD part is more power-efficient in terms of rated board power.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two recorded head-to-head tests tell a consistent story. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5500 Mobile scores 124287, while the RX 6650M scores 65800. The delta is 88.9%, meaning the NVIDIA card nearly doubles the AMD card’s output in this compute-heavy test. This result aligns with the specification differences: the A5500 Mobile has 7424 shading units versus 1792, 232 TMUs versus 112, and 96 ROPs versus 64. It also has 58 RT cores and 232 tensor cores, features that the RX 6650M lacks in tensor core form (it has 28 RT cores). The A5500 Mobile’s FP32 throughput of 22.27 TFLOPS is more than 2.5 times the RX 6650M’s 8.659 TFLOPS.

The Vulkan test narrows the gap but still favors NVIDIA. The A5500 Mobile posts 103601, and the RX 6650M posts 77735, a 33.3% difference. This is a smaller margin than OpenCL, which suggests that the AMD architecture is relatively more competitive in graphics-oriented APIs. The RX 6650M’s higher pixel rate (154.6 GPixel/s versus 144.0 GPixel/s) and its higher clocks help it in this test, but it cannot overcome the NVIDIA card’s raw shader count and memory bandwidth. The texture rate also favors NVIDIA: 348.0 GTexel/s versus 270.6 GTexel/s.

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database provides context. The A5500 Mobile’s average score of 113944 is only 0.4% behind the Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB (114395) and 2.7% behind the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (117088). It is 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (110725). The RX 6650M, by contrast, sits at 71768, which is 0.5% behind the TITAN X Pascal (72098) and 0.8% behind the Radeon Pro Vega 64 (72379). It is 1.3% ahead of the RX 6600 LE (70829). This places the two cards in entirely different performance classes, with the NVIDIA part competing against workstation-class accelerators and the AMD part competing against older desktop flagships.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in almost every measurable specification. The RTX A5500 Mobile uses the GA103 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the RX 6650M uses the Navi 23 chip on a 7 nm TSMC process. The NVIDIA part has a die size of 496 mm² and 22,000 million transistors; the AMD part has a die size of 237 mm² and 11,060 million transistors. This means the A5500 Mobile has double the die area and double the transistor count, though the RX 6650M has a slightly higher transistor density (46.7M versus 44.4M per mm²).

Clocks are a major differentiator. The RX 6650M has a base clock of 2068 MHz and a boost clock of 2416 MHz, with a game clock of 2222 MHz. The RTX A5500 Mobile runs much lower: a base of 975 MHz and a boost of 1500 MHz. Memory clocks also differ: the NVIDIA card runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), while the AMD card runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Memory capacity, bus width, and bandwidth all favor NVIDIA: 16 GB versus 8 GB, 256-bit versus 128-bit, and 512.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s.

The compute configurations are heavily skewed toward NVIDIA. The A5500 Mobile has 7424 shading units, 232 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 58 RT cores, and 232 tensor cores. The RX 6650M has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 28 RT cores, with no tensor core count listed. The FP32 performance is 22.27 TFLOPS versus 8.659 TFLOPS. The FP16 performance is identical on NVIDIA (22.27 TFLOPS, 1:1 ratio) but higher on AMD (17.32 TFLOPS, 2:1 ratio). The TDP is 120 W for AMD and 165 W for NVIDIA. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 for NVIDIA and PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD.

Architecture Differences

The architecture gap is substantial. The RTX A5500 Mobile is built on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, which includes dedicated RT cores for ray tracing and tensor cores for AI acceleration. The RX 6650M is based on AMD’s RDNA 2.0 architecture, which has its own ray accelerators but no tensor core equivalent. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level feature sets are similar.

The process node differs: NVIDIA uses an 8 nm Samsung process, while AMD uses a 7 nm TSMC process. This gives AMD a smaller die and lower power draw, but NVIDIA compensates with a much larger chip. The transistor density figures are close (44.4M versus 46.7M per mm²), but the absolute transistor count is nearly double on the NVIDIA part. The RX 6650M’s higher clock speeds (2416 MHz boost versus 1500 MHz) suggest that RDNA 2.0 is more clock-efficient, but it cannot match the sheer parallel throughput of Ampere’s larger configuration.

The FP16 performance is notable. The RX 6650M achieves 17.32 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, meaning it can double its FP32 rate for half-precision work. The RTX A5500 Mobile achieves 22.27 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, meaning it does not accelerate FP16 beyond its FP32 rate. For workloads that rely on FP16, the NVIDIA card still wins on absolute throughput, but the AMD card’s ratio is more efficient per watt. The RX 6650M also has a higher pixel rate (154.6 GPixel/s versus 144.0 GPixel/s), which is a small but real advantage for fill-rate-bound scenarios.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is the faster GPU. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, with an 88.9% OpenCL advantage and a 33.3% Vulkan advantage. Its average benchmark score of 113944 is 59% higher than the RX 6650M’s 71768. For anyone running compute-heavy applications, 3D rendering, or AI workloads, the A5500 Mobile is the only sensible choice. Its 16 GB memory and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth provide headroom that the RX 6650M cannot match.

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M is not without merit. Its 120 W TDP is lower than the NVIDIA card’s 165 W, making it easier to cool in thin laptops. Its higher clocks and pixel rate suggest it can drive high refresh rates in lighter games. It also sits in a different performance class, competing with the TITAN X Pascal and Radeon Pro Vega 64, rather than with the workstation-class accelerators that surround the A5500 Mobile. For a gamer who wants solid 1080p performance without the power or thermal demands of a professional GPU, the RX 6650M is a reasonable pick.

But the verdict from the database is clear: the RTX A5500 Mobile is in a higher tier. Its percentile ranking of 94 versus 91 confirms that it sits above the RX 6650M in the overall GPU hierarchy. The only reason to choose the AMD card is if the workload is strictly gaming at modest settings and the power budget is tight. For everything else, the NVIDIA card’s raw compute, memory subsystem, and feature set make it the superior part. The RX 6650M’s wins are not in benchmarks; they are in efficiency and clock speed, which matter only in specific, narrow use cases.