AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is a workstation-oriented GPU built on the 7 nm RDNA 1.0 architecture, featuring the Navi 14 chip with 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die. It carries an average benchmark score of 45,642 across Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan tests, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. This data positions it as a solidly mid-to-upper-tier performer, though its end-of-life production status and integrated (IGP) slot design indicate a specialized role rather than a mainstream gaming card.

Benchmark Performance

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT delivers a Geekbench Metal score of 55,552, which is its strongest result, while OpenCL and Vulkan scores trail at 41,772 and 39,601 respectively. The average score of 45,642 shows a notable gap between its best-case Metal performance and its cross-API consistency — Metal workloads clearly favor this architecture, while Vulkan lags nearly 29% behind the Metal figure.

Against its nearest rivals, the performance picture is extremely tight. The Intel Arc A730M scores 45,592, a mere 0.1% behind the Radeon Pro 5500 XT — effectively a statistical tie. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile scores 45,152, which is 1.1% lower, and the RTX 4070 Ti at 44,900 is 1.7% behind. On the flip side, the AMD Radeon RX 6550M scores 46,531, outperforming the Pro 5500 XT by 1.9%.

These deltas are small enough that real-world application choice matters more than raw averages. The 5.398 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 168.7 GTexel/s texture rate provide the underlying compute muscle, but the benchmark spread suggests driver and API optimization play a larger role than hardware limits. The FP16 rate of 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) shows strong half-precision capability, which can benefit compute-heavy workloads that use mixed precision.

Memory Subsystem

The memory configuration consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective. This bandwidth figure is modest by modern standards — it directly limits performance at high resolutions where texture streaming and frame buffer access become bottlenecks.

For 1080p and 1440p gaming, 8 GB is generally sufficient, but the 128-bit bus means the card cannot feed data as quickly as wider-memory rivals. At 4K, the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth will struggle with heavy textures and high-detail scenes, likely causing frame pacing issues or requiring reduced settings. The pixel rate of 56.22 GPixel/s and ROP count of 32 further constrain high-resolution fill-rate demands.

The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface helps mitigate some bandwidth concerns by offering double the per-lane throughput of PCIe 3.0, but this only matters if the host platform supports it. For compute tasks that exceed the 8 GB capacity, the narrow bus and moderate bandwidth will cause spills into system memory, degrading performance noticeably.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as these are absent from the FACT PACK specifications. This means any ray tracing workload relies on the general-purpose shader units (1,536 shading units) to handle BVH traversal and intersection calculations, which is significantly less efficient than dedicated hardware.

API support includes DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12_1 feature level covers conservative rasterization and rasterizer-ordered views but does not include the DirectX Raytracing (DXR) tier that requires dedicated RT hardware. Vulkan 1.4 support is current, but again, ray tracing extensions would fall back to compute shaders.

The 96 texture mapping units and 32 ROPs provide adequate rasterization throughput for traditional rendering, but the lack of RT/tensor hardware places this card firmly in the rasterization-first category. For users needing hardware-accelerated ray tracing or AI-accelerated features like DLSS (which requires tensor cores), this GPU is not suitable — those tasks will either be unsupported or run slowly via shader-based fallbacks.

How It Compares

vs. Intel Arc A730M: The delta is 0.1% in favor of the Radeon Pro 5500 XT, making this a dead heat. Both cards average around 45,600-45,600 in benchmark scores. The choice here comes down to driver maturity and platform compatibility rather than raw performance, as the data shows no meaningful gap.

vs. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile: The Radeon Pro 5500 XT leads by 1.1%, with the NVIDIA card scoring 45,152 against 45,642. This is surprising given the RTX 5090 Mobile's newer architecture, but the benchmark scores reflect synthetic workloads that may not align with gaming performance. The Pro card's 5.398 TFLOPS FP32 output appears competitive in these specific tests.

vs. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti: A 1.7% advantage for the AMD card, with the RTX 4070 Ti scoring 44,900. This delta is within run-to-run variance margins, so the two are effectively equivalent in average benchmark terms. However, the RTX 4070 Ti's feature set — including dedicated RT and tensor cores — would likely tip real-world gaming and creator workloads in its favor despite the synthetic score deficit.

vs. AMD Radeon RX 6550M: The RX 6550M leads by 1.9%, scoring 46,531. This is the largest gap among the listed rivals. Both cards share AMD architecture DNA, but the RX 6550M’s newer design gives it a slight edge in these benchmarks. The Pro 5500 XT still holds its own, but this delta shows the generational improvement within AMD's own lineup.

Who Should Consider It

The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is best suited for users running Metal-optimized applications on macOS, given its "Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series)" generation label and the strong 55,552 Metal score. The 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth handle 1080p and 1440p workloads comfortably, and the 86th percentile ranking means it outperforms the majority of GPUs in the database.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests caution — the bandwidth and ROP count will likely force compromises on texture quality or resolution scaling. Compute users working with FP16 data will benefit from the 10.80 TFLOPS rate, but those needing ray tracing or AI features should look elsewhere, as this card lacks the dedicated hardware for those tasks.

The 125 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU make it power-efficient for a workstation card, though the IGP slot format and lack of display outputs mean it is not a drop-in replacement for a desktop GPU. It suits users with a compatible Mac platform who need solid rasterization performance without the power draw of a full-size discrete card.

FAQ

Q: What is the average benchmark score of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT?

A: The average benchmark score is 45,642, derived from Geekbench Metal (55,552), OpenCL (41,772), and Vulkan (39,601) tests.

Q: How does it compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti?

A: The Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 1.7% higher than the RTX 4070 Ti, which averages 44,900. This is a narrow margin that falls within typical benchmark variance.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro 5500 XT support hardware ray tracing?

A: No, the specifications list no dedicated ray tracing cores. Ray tracing workloads would fall back to general-purpose shader units, which is inefficient for complex scenes.

Q: What memory configuration does it use?

A: It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Q: What is the transistor count and die size?

A: The Navi 14 chip contains 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC.

Q: Which API versions are supported?

A: It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Note that DirectX 12_1 does not include the DXR ray tracing tier.

Q: How does it rank against all GPUs in the database?

A: It sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 86% of the tested hardware in average benchmark scores.

Q: What is the suggested power supply requirement?

A: The suggested PSU is 300 W, with a TDP of 125 W and no power connectors required, indicating a low-power integrated design.