Radeon RX 5500vsGeForce RTX 4090
The GeForce RTX 4090 is a top-tier card for 4K gaming and heavy creative work, while the Radeon RX 5500 is a budget-friendly option for 1080p play.
Radeon RX 5500
RDNA 1.0 · TSMC 7 nm · 2019
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GeForce RTX 4090
Ada Lovelace · TSMC 5 nm · 2022
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Overall Performance Score
A unified score from combined synthetic and real-world benchmarks. 100 represents the fastest consumer GPU available.
Side-by-Side Specs
Every detail compared. Highlighted cells indicate the leading value for that metric.
Which should you buy?
The GeForce RTX 4090 wins outright as a top-tier performer with vastly more graphics power and memory than the Radeon RX 5500.
For budget-minded buyers, the Radeon RX 5500 is the smarter pick because it costs far less and handles lighter tasks well.
The Radeon RX 5500 is the right choice if you only play older or less demanding games and want to keep your build cheap and power-sipping.
Frequently asked questions
Is the RX 5500 better than the RTX 4090?
Overall the RTX 4090 is the stronger graphics card: it ranks higher in our aggregate performance score (92 vs 21 out of 100), so it leads the RX 5500 in most workloads.
How much faster is the RTX 4090 than the RX 5500?
Based on our aggregated benchmark scores the RTX 4090 is roughly 338% faster than the RX 5500 overall. The real-world gap varies by game, resolution and settings.
Which should you buy, the RX 5500 or the RTX 4090?
If you want the most performance, pick the RTX 4090. If the RX 5500 is meaningfully cheaper where you shop, it can be the better value for similar real-world results — check current prices and the full spec comparison above before deciding.