AMD Instinct MI100 vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded head-to-head benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, shows a decisive victory for the AMD Instinct MI100. The MI100 scored 139,035 points, while the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile managed 79,091 points. This represents a 75.8% advantage for the AMD accelerator, a massive gap that reflects the fundamental difference in their design targets.

The MI100's OpenCL score places it in the 96th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla V100 PCIe 16 GB at 138,063 points (0.7% behind) and the Tesla V100 SXM2 32 GB at 137,731 points (0.9% behind). The AMD Radeon PRO V620 sits 1.9% lower at 136,472 points, while the Radeon Pro W6800X Duo trails by 2.4% with 135,774 points. These margins are narrow, indicating the MI100 is clustered tightly with other high-end compute accelerators.

The RTX A3000 Mobile, by contrast, achieves a 91st percentile ranking with an average benchmark score of 70,140 across its OpenCL and Vulkan results. Its nearest rivals are much closer in performance. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 69,986 points, a mere 0.2% difference. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 is 0.4% behind at 69,870 points. Interestingly, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE actually leads the A3000 Mobile by 1% with 70,829 points, while the NVIDIA CMP 90HX trails by 1.7% at 69,000 points. The A3000 Mobile's position among these rivals shows it is competitive with older desktop workstation cards, but it is clearly in a different performance tier than the MI100.

The delta between the two products in the head-to-head test is substantial. A 75.8% gap in raw compute throughput is not a marginal difference; it is a generational and architectural chasm. The MI100 is built for data center compute density, while the A3000 Mobile is designed for professional mobile workstations where power constraints dominate.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The AMD Instinct MI100 scores 139,035 points, which is 75.8% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile's 79,091 points.

Q: How does the RTX A3000 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The A3000 Mobile's average score of 70,140 puts it within 0.2% of the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (69,986) and 0.4% of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (69,870). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE by 1%, while leading the NVIDIA CMP 90HX by 1.7%.

Q: What is the MI100's closest competitor according to the database?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla V100 PCIe 16 GB is the nearest rival, with an average score of 138,063, just 0.7% behind the MI100's 139,035. The Tesla V100 SXM2 32 GB follows at 137,731, a 0.9% gap.

Q: Does the RTX A3000 Mobile have any benchmark advantage over the MI100?

A: No. The only recorded head-to-head benchmark is Geekbench OpenCL, and the MI100 wins that test outright. The A3000 Mobile does have a separate Vulkan score of 61,189, but no comparable Vulkan result exists for the MI100 in the database.

Q: What percentile ranking does each GPU hold?

A: The MI100 sits in the 96th percentile of all GPUs, while the A3000 Mobile ranks in the 91st percentile.

Q: How many benchmarks contribute to each GPU's average score?

A: The MI100 has a single benchmark result (Geekbench OpenCL), which also serves as its average score of 139,035. The A3000 Mobile has two results: 79,091 in Geekbench OpenCL and 61,189 in Geekbench Vulkan, producing an average of 70,140.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different architectural lineages. The AMD Instinct MI100 uses the CDNA 1.0 architecture on the Arcturus chip, a dedicated compute-focused design. The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on the GA104 chip, a more general-purpose design that also powers consumer gaming products.

Manufacturing processes differ significantly. The MI100 is built on a 7 nm process at TSMC, while the A3000 Mobile uses an 8 nm process at Samsung. The MI100 packs 25,600 million transistors onto a 750 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 34.1 million per square millimeter. The A3000 Mobile integrates 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, achieving a higher density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. Despite the smaller process node advantage, the MI100's enormous die size gives it far more raw silicon area.

Compute resources diverge sharply. The MI100 features 7,680 shading units, 480 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The MI100 has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores, reflecting its pure compute orientation. The A3000 Mobile includes 32 RT cores and 128 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads.

Memory architectures are completely different. The MI100 uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.23 TB/s of bandwidth. The A3000 Mobile uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 264.0 GB/s. The MI100's memory bandwidth is roughly 4.7 times higher, which is critical for large-scale compute workloads.

Clock speeds also differ substantially. The MI100 runs at a base clock of 1000 MHz with a boost of 1502 MHz. The A3000 Mobile operates at a much lower 600 MHz base and 1230 MHz boost, constrained by its mobile power envelope. The MI100's memory runs at 1200 MHz (2.4 Gbps effective), while the A3000 Mobile's memory runs at 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective), though the narrower bus limits overall bandwidth.

API support shows the MI100's compute-only focus. The database records no DirectX, OpenGL, or Vulkan support for the MI100. The A3000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Specification Differences

The MI100 and A3000 Mobile differ across nearly every specification category. The MI100 is a dual-slot, 300 W accelerator requiring two 8-pin power connectors and a 700 W suggested power supply. The A3000 Mobile is a 70 W mobile part with no dedicated power connectors and no suggested PSU, since it draws power from the host laptop.

Physical dimensions reflect their different form factors. The MI100 measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The A3000 Mobile has no recorded dimensions, as it is a mobile BGA component soldered to a motherboard. Display outputs also differ: the MI100 has no display outputs whatsoever, while the A3000 Mobile's outputs are described as "portable device dependent," meaning they rely on the host laptop's connections.

The MI100 offers 32 GB of HBM2 memory versus 6 GB of GDDR6 on the A3000 Mobile. Bus widths are 4096-bit versus 192-bit, and bandwidths are 1.23 TB/s versus 264.0 GB/s. Pixel rates are 96.13 GPixel/s for the MI100 and 78.72 GPixel/s for the A3000 Mobile. Texture rates are 721.0 GTexel/s versus 157.4 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 23.07 TFLOPS versus 10.08 TFLOPS. FP16 performance is 46.14 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) versus 10.08 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), meaning the A3000 Mobile does not gain a throughput advantage in half-precision workloads.

Release dates differ by roughly five months. The MI100 launched on November 15, 2020, while the A3000 Mobile launched on April 11, 2021. Both are now end-of-life products. The MI100's predecessor is the Radeon Instinct, while the A3000 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Instinct MI100 wins decisively in raw compute throughput. Its 23.07 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more than double the A3000 Mobile's 10.08 TFLOPS. Its FP16 output of 46.14 TFLOPS is over four times higher. The 1.23 TB/s memory bandwidth dwarfs the 264.0 GB/s of the mobile part, making the MI100 far better suited for memory-bound workloads like large language model inference, scientific simulation, and HPC data processing.

The MI100 also wins on memory capacity. With 32 GB of HBM2, it can hold substantially larger datasets in memory compared to the A3000 Mobile's 6 GB. For compute workloads where the entire model or dataset must reside in VRAM, this is a decisive advantage.

The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile wins in the portability and feature-set arena. As a 70 W mobile GPU, it is designed to operate within a laptop's thermal and power constraints. The MI100 requires a 300 W power budget, a 700 W power supply, and dual-slot cooling. The A3000 Mobile also brings hardware features the MI100 lacks: 32 RT cores for ray tracing and 128 tensor cores for AI acceleration. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, making it a viable option for graphics and rendering workloads, whereas the MI100 has no graphics API support at all.

The A3000 Mobile's Vulkan score of 61,189 demonstrates its graphics capability, though no comparable Vulkan result exists for the MI100 in the database. The MI100's single OpenCL score of 139,035 shows its compute specialization.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture: these are two different tools for two different jobs. The AMD Instinct MI100 is a data center compute accelerator with overwhelming advantages in every compute metric. Its 75.8% lead in Geekbench OpenCL, 2.3 times higher FP32 throughput, 4.6 times higher FP16 throughput, and 4.7 times higher memory bandwidth make it the obvious choice for compute-intensive workloads where power and space are not limiting factors.

The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile is a mobile workstation GPU. Its 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs is respectable, but its average score of 70,140 is less than half the MI100's 139,035. It wins on efficiency, portability, and feature completeness. The 70 W power draw, lack of external power connectors, and support for modern graphics APIs make it suitable for laptop workstations that need moderate compute with full graphics capability.

For a researcher or data center operator running large-scale compute jobs, the MI100's performance density is unmatched. Its position in the 96th percentile, clustered with Tesla V100 cards, confirms its standing among serious accelerators. For a mobile professional who needs a laptop GPU that can handle rendering, ray tracing, and AI workloads without melting a desk, the A3000 Mobile is the appropriate choice.

The verdict is straightforward: choose the MI100 for maximum compute throughput in a server environment. Choose the A3000 Mobile for mobile workstations that require graphics, ray tracing, and tensor acceleration within a 70 W envelope. The 75.8% benchmark gap is not a close contest; it is a reflection of two entirely different product categories sharing the same database.