NVIDIA T1000 vs NVIDIA T550 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA T1000 and NVIDIA T550 Mobile are both professional Turing-based GPUs, but they are engineered for fundamentally different deployment scenarios. The T1000 is a single-slot desktop workstation card, while the T550 Mobile is an integrated mobile part designed for laptops. Benchmark data shows the T1000 holds a clear performance edge in both tested workloads, leading 2-0 in head-to-head wins, but the T550 Mobile counters with dramatically lower power consumption and a different feature trade-off. This analysis breaks down where each GPU excels, their architectural differences, and what the raw numbers mean for real-world use.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA T1000 is the outright performance winner in every benchmark recorded. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 37704 against the T550 Mobile’s 35521, a 6.1% advantage. The gap widens considerably in Geekbench Vulkan, where the T1000 posts 34874 versus 30801, a 13.2% lead. For any workload that relies on compute throughput or graphics API performance, the T1000 is the stronger choice.

The T550 Mobile’s victory is not in raw speed but in power efficiency and physical integration. Its TDP is 23 W, less than half of the T1000’s 50 W. This makes it a viable option for thin-and-light portable workstations where thermal headroom and battery life are paramount. It is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no slot width, meaning it is soldered onto the motherboard and requires no power connectors. The T1000, by contrast, is a single-slot expansion card measuring 156 mm in length and 69 mm in height, requiring a 250 W system power supply recommendation.

In percentile terms, the T1000 ranks in the 80th percentile of all GPUs, while the T550 Mobile sits at the 77th. The T1000’s average benchmark score is 36289, compared to 33161 for the T550 Mobile. The nearest rival data reinforces this split: the T1000 trades blows with desktop parts like the AMD Radeon RX 5300M (deltaPct -0.7%) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X (deltaPct -0.7%), while the T550 Mobile is competitive with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (deltaPct 0%) and AMD Radeon Pro 570 (deltaPct -0.1%). The T1000 is a desktop-class performer; the T550 Mobile is a mobile-class part that happens to use the same underlying chip.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs share the same TU117 chip, built on TSMC’s 12 nm process with 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The transistor density is identical at 23.5M / mm². Both are Turing architecture parts, support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and have no ray tracing or tensor cores. The fundamental building blocks are the same, but the configuration and operating parameters diverge significantly.

The T550 Mobile has more compute resources: 1024 shading units and 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), compared to 896 shading units and 56 TMUs on the T1000. Both have 32 raster operation pipelines (ROPs). Despite having fewer cores, the T1000’s desktop cooling and power budget allow it to sustain higher clocks in some metrics. The T1000’s base clock is 1065 MHz, identical to the T550 Mobile’s base clock, but the boost behavior differs. The T1000 boosts to 1395 MHz, while the T550 Mobile boosts to 1665 MHz. The mobile part’s higher boost clock partially compensates for its narrower memory bus.

Memory is a major divergence point. The T1000 uses a 128-bit bus with 4 GB of GDDR6 at 10 Gbps effective, yielding 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The T550 Mobile is limited to a 64-bit bus with the same 4 GB of GDDR6 but at 12 Gbps effective, producing only 96.00 GB/s. That 40% bandwidth deficit is a primary reason the T550 Mobile falls behind despite having more shading units. The memory clock is also different: 1250 MHz on the T1000 versus 1500 MHz on the T550 Mobile, but the narrower bus negates the higher clock speed.

Power and physical design are the starkest contrasts. The T1000 is a 50 W single-slot card with no power connectors, while the T550 Mobile is a 23 W IGP with no slot width. The T1000 has a suggested PSU of 250 W; the T550 Mobile has no such recommendation because it draws power from the laptop’s existing infrastructure. The T1000 offers 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the T550 Mobile’s display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary by laptop design. The T1000 was released on 2021-05-05 and is end-of-life, while the T550 Mobile has no listed release date but is also end-of-life.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA T1000 wins both recorded benchmarks. It leads by 6.1% in Geekbench OpenCL (37704 vs 35521) and by 13.2% in Geekbench Vulkan (34874 vs 30801).

Q: Why does the T550 Mobile have more shading units but lower performance?

A: The T550 Mobile has 1024 shading units versus 896 on the T1000, but its memory bandwidth is only 96.00 GB/s compared to 160.0 GB/s. The 64-bit memory bus on the T550 Mobile is a bottleneck that limits its higher core count from translating into better benchmark scores.

Q: Are these GPUs suitable for the same types of systems?

A: No. The T1000 is a single-slot desktop card (156 mm long, 69 mm high) that requires a 250 W system power supply and offers 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The T550 Mobile is an IGP with no slot width, no power connectors, and portable-device-dependent display outputs, designed for laptops.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The T1000 has a TDP of 50 W, while the T550 Mobile is rated at 23 W. The T550 Mobile uses less than half the power of the T1000.

Q: Do either of these GPUs support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. Both are based on the TU117 Turing chip and have null values for rtCores and tensorCores in the specifications. They rely on traditional rasterization and compute.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The T1000’s average benchmark score of 36289 places it within 1% of the AMD Radeon RX 5300M (36529, deltaPct -0.7%) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X (36530, deltaPct -0.7%). The T550 Mobile’s average of 33161 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (33170, deltaPct 0%) and slightly behind the AMD Radeon Pro 570 (33207, deltaPct -0.1%).

Specification Differences

The two GPUs share the same chip, process node, foundry, transistor count, die size, and API support. The differences are in the execution configuration and memory subsystem.

• Shading Units: T1000 has 896; T550 Mobile has 1024.
• TMUs: T1000 has 56; T550 Mobile has 64.
• ROPs: Both have 32.
• Base Clock: Both are 1065 MHz.
• Boost Clock: T1000 is 1395 MHz; T550 Mobile is 1665 MHz.
• Memory Clock: T1000 is 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective); T550 Mobile is 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective).
• Memory Bus Width: T1000 is 128 bit; T550 Mobile is 64 bit.
• Memory Bandwidth: T1000 is 160.0 GB/s; T550 Mobile is 96.00 GB/s.
• Pixel Rate: T1000 is 44.64 GPixel/s; T550 Mobile is 53.28 GPixel/s.
• Texture Rate: T1000 is 78.12 GTexel/s; T550 Mobile is 106.6 GTexel/s.
• FP32 Performance: T1000 is 2.500 TFLOPS; T550 Mobile is 3.410 TFLOPS.
• FP16 Performance: T1000 is 5.000 TFLOPS (2:1); T550 Mobile is 6.820 TFLOPS (2:1).
• TDP: T1000 is 50 W; T550 Mobile is 23 W.
• Slot Width: T1000 is single-slot; T550 Mobile is IGP.
• Suggested PSU: T1000 is 250 W; T550 Mobile has none.
• Display Outputs: T1000 has 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a; T550 Mobile is portable-device-dependent.
• Dimensions: T1000 is 156 mm x 69 mm; T550 Mobile has no listed dimensions.
• Release Date: T1000 is 2021-05-05; T550 Mobile has none listed.
• Predecessor: T1000 follows Quadro Volta; T550 Mobile follows Quadro Pascal-M.
• Successor: T1000 leads to Workstation Ampere; T550 Mobile leads to Ampere-MW.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the T1000 winning with 37704 points against the T550 Mobile’s 35521, a delta of 6.1%. This is a modest but consistent lead. The T1000’s advantage here is likely driven by its 160.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is 66.7% higher than the T550 Mobile’s 96.00 GB/s. OpenCL workloads often stress memory throughput, and the T1000’s 128-bit bus provides a clear edge. However, the T550 Mobile’s higher FP32 throughput (3.410 TFLOPS vs 2.500 TFLOPS) and texture rate (106.6 GTexel/s vs 78.12 GTexel/s) keep the gap from being larger than it is.

The Geekbench Vulkan test produces a more decisive result. The T1000 scores 34874, while the T550 Mobile manages 30801, a 13.2% delta. Vulkan’s lower-level API tends to expose memory latency and bandwidth bottlenecks more directly. The T550 Mobile’s 64-bit bus is a severe limitation here, and despite its higher boost clock (1665 MHz vs 1395 MHz) and more shading units (1024 vs 896), it cannot overcome the memory deficit. The T1000’s pixel rate is lower (44.64 GPixel/s vs 53.28 GPixel/s), but that does not translate into a win for the mobile part in this test.

Across both benchmarks, the T1000 wins 2-0. The average benchmark scores reinforce the pattern: 36289 for the T1000 versus 33161 for the T550 Mobile, a 9.4% overall gap. The T1000’s percentile ranking of 80 versus 77 for the T550 Mobile places them in different performance tiers despite sharing the same TU117 chip.

The deltaPct values against nearest rivals provide additional context. The T1000’s average score is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 5300M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X, and it is 2.2% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro GV100. The T550 Mobile is exactly tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (deltaPct 0%), 0.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 570, and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA T600 Mobile. These figures show that the T1000 competes at a desktop enthusiast level, while the T550 Mobile sits in the mobile mid-range.

In summary, the T1000 is the superior performer in every measured metric, winning both head-to-head tests with margins of 6.1% and 13.2%. The T550 Mobile’s only advantages are its 23 W TDP (versus 50 W) and its IGP form factor, which suits portable systems. Buyers or system integrators choosing between these two parts are making a trade-off between compute performance and power efficiency, not a choice between two similar desktop cards.