NVIDIA RTX A5500 vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile Comparison

NVIDIA’s workstation Ampere generation produced two very different GPUs under the same RTX A5500 nameplate. The desktop RTX A5500 is a full-width, dual-slot board built around the GA102 chip, while the RTX A5500 Mobile is a 165 W laptop part based on the smaller GA103 die. Benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy, but the more interesting story is how each part serves a distinct use case despite sharing an architecture and release date.

Where Each One Wins

The desktop NVIDIA RTX A5500 wins every benchmark in the head-to-head comparison, and it wins by a substantial margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the desktop part scores 174,637 against the Mobile’s 124,287, a 40.5% advantage. The gap widens in Geekbench Vulkan, where the desktop scores 155,797 versus 103,601 for the Mobile, a 50.4% lead. These are not minor differences; the desktop part is delivering roughly half again as much performance in compute workloads.

The Mobile part’s only "win" is portability, but that is not reflected in any benchmark score. In raw compute, the Mobile GPU sits closer to a different class of hardware entirely. Its average benchmark score of 113,944 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable, but the desktop A5500’s average of 165,217 puts it in the 97th percentile. The delta between the two is the gap between a high-end mobile workstation and a true desktop workstation card.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each part clarifies the positioning further. The desktop A5500 trades blows with the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 (0.2% ahead), the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation (0.5% behind), and the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB (1.7% ahead). The Mobile part, by contrast, is nearly tied with the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB (0.4% behind) and the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (2.9% ahead). The desktop card competes with current-generation workstation flagships; the Mobile card competes with previous-generation data-center accelerators and lower-tier Ada parts.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process node, and both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The similarities end there. The desktop A5500 uses the GA102 chip, a 28,300-million-transistor die measuring 628 mm². The Mobile version uses GA103, which packs 22,000 million transistors into a 496 mm² die. The transistor density is nearly identical — 45.1M per mm² versus 44.4M per mm² — but the desktop chip has 22% more silicon area to work with.

The compute resources scale accordingly. The desktop A5500 has 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, 80 ray tracing cores, and 320 tensor cores. The Mobile A5500 has 7,424 shading units, 232 TMUs, 58 RT cores, and 232 tensor cores. Both have 96 ROPs, which means rasterization output capacity is identical, but the desktop part has nearly 38% more shader throughput. FP32 compute is 34.10 TFLOPS on the desktop versus 22.27 TFLOPS on the Mobile; FP16 is identical to FP32 on both parts (1:1 ratio).

Memory configuration is another major divider. The desktop card carries 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, yielding 768.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Mobile part has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 512.0 GB/s. Both run memory at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective transfer rates, so the bandwidth difference is purely a function of bus width. The desktop card also clocks higher: 1080 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost, versus 975 MHz base and 1500 MHz boost on the Mobile.

Power and physical design reflect the intended environments. The desktop A5500 is a dual-slot card, 267 mm long and 112 mm tall, with a 230 W TDP and a single 8-pin power connector. It requires a 550 W suggested PSU. The Mobile part has a 165 W TDP, no power connectors (soldered or module-based), and its display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent." Both use PCIe 4.0 x16, but the desktop offers 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs while the Mobile relies on the host laptop’s panel and ports.

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward conclusion: the desktop NVIDIA RTX A5500 is the faster GPU by every measurable metric, and the Mobile version is a compromise for laptops. If the workload is compute-heavy and the system is stationary, the desktop card is the pick. It delivers 40.5% higher OpenCL scores and 50.4% higher Vulkan scores, has 50% more memory capacity, and offers 50% more memory bandwidth. In a fixed workstation, there is no benchmark-based reason to choose the Mobile part.

The Mobile A5500 makes sense only when the requirement is a laptop. Its 165 W TDP and lack of discrete power connectors mean it can be integrated into portable systems, and its 94th percentile standing shows it is still a capable GPU for mobile workstations. But the performance penalty is steep: the average benchmark score drops by 31% compared to the desktop part (113,944 versus 165,217). The Mobile card’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, which beats it by 2.7%, and the NVIDIA GB10, which beats it by 2.9%. In a laptop, the A5500 Mobile holds its own; in a desktop, it would be leaving 40-50% performance on the table.

Neither part is current — both are end-of-life, released on 2022-03-21, with predecessors in the Quadro Turing line and successors in the Workstation Ada and Ada-MW families. For a buyer choosing between these two specific parts today, the decision is entirely about form factor. The desktop A5500 wins on every benchmark, every spec, and every performance metric. The Mobile A5500 wins only on portability, which is a requirement, not a benchmark.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher compute performance?

A: The desktop NVIDIA RTX A5500 is significantly faster. It scores 174,637 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 124,287 for the Mobile, and 155,797 in Vulkan versus 103,601. FP32 compute is 34.10 TFLOPS versus 22.27 TFLOPS.

Q: How much memory does each GPU have?

A: The desktop RTX A5500 has 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 768.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are the two GPUs based on the same chip?

A: No. The desktop uses the GA102 chip (28,300 million transistors, 628 mm²), while the Mobile uses the GA103 chip (22,000 million transistors, 496 mm²). Both are Ampere architecture on an 8 nm Samsung process.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The desktop RTX A5500 has a 230 W TDP and requires a 550 W suggested PSU. The RTX A5500 Mobile has a 165 W TDP and uses no discrete power connectors.

Q: How does the desktop A5500 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7800, 0.5% behind the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation, 1.7% ahead of the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB, and 2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X.

Q: How does the Mobile A5500 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB, 2.7% behind the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7900, and 2.9% behind the NVIDIA GB10.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same APIs?

A: Yes. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. They also share the same release date of 2022-03-21 and are both end-of-life products.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark data is unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the desktop RTX A5500 scores 174,637 against the Mobile’s 124,287, a 40.5% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the desktop scores 155,797 against 103,601, a 50.4% advantage. The desktop wins both tests, and the deltaPct values show the Mobile is not within striking distance in either workload.

Breaking down the OpenCL result, the 50,350-point gap is larger than the entire average benchmark score of many mid-range GPUs. The desktop’s OpenCL score alone exceeds the Mobile’s average benchmark score (165,217 is higher than 113,944), meaning the desktop outperforms the Mobile’s typical performance across all tests by a wide margin. The Vulkan gap of 52,196 points is even larger, suggesting the desktop’s advantage grows in lower-level, GPU-direct workloads.

The reasons for this gap are structural. The desktop has 2,816 more shading units, 88 more TMUs, 22 more RT cores, and 88 more tensor cores. Its FP32 throughput is 11.83 TFLOPS higher. Memory bandwidth is 256 GB/s higher. Clock speeds are 105 MHz higher at base and 165 MHz higher at boost. Every single hardware advantage stacks in the desktop’s favor.

The pixel rate tells a similar story: 159.8 GPixel/s for the desktop versus 144.0 GPixel/s for the Mobile. Texture rate is 532.8 GTexel/s versus 348.0 GTexel/s. These are not marginal differences — they represent a full hardware tier of separation. The Mobile part is closer in average score to the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (117,088) than it is to the desktop A5500 (165,217). In fact, the Mobile’s average score is 31% below the desktop’s, and the gap grows to over 50% in Vulkan.

For any workload that is GPU-bound — rendering, simulation, machine learning inference, or compute — the desktop RTX A5500 is the clear choice. The Mobile A5500 is a compromise part that sacrifices 40-50% of performance for portability. The benchmark data shows no scenario where the Mobile outperforms the desktop, and the only reason to select it is a requirement for a laptop form factor.