AMD Radeon 540 vs Intel Arc A310 Comparison

The AMD Radeon 540 and Intel Arc A310 are both end-of-life, single-slot graphics cards, but they represent vastly different eras and architectural philosophies. The data shows a clear generational shift: the 2017-era Radeon 540, built on AMD’s GCN 4.0 architecture, is outclassed in raw compute by the 2022-era Intel Arc A310, which leverages the Xe-HPG architecture. While the Radeon 540 holds a marginal edge in average benchmark scores, the Arc A310 delivers overwhelming victories in modern API tests, making the comparison less about close competition and more about technological progression.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark results are decisively one-sided. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Intel Arc A310 scores 30,607 points, while the AMD Radeon 540 manages only 6,184 points. This represents a 79.8% deficit for the Radeon 540, meaning the Arc A310 is nearly five times faster in this compute-oriented workload. The gap is equally stark in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the Arc A310 again wins with 28,964 points against the Radeon 540’s 9,162 points, a 68.4% difference. In both tests, the Arc A310 demonstrates a massive advantage in modern graphics API performance, reflecting its newer architecture and more robust driver support for contemporary workloads.

Looking at the aggregate data, the average benchmark scores tell a more nuanced story. The Radeon 540 posts an average score of 7,673, while the Arc A310 averages 7,550. This gives the Radeon 540 a 1.6% lead over the Arc A310 in the overall comparison. However, this narrow margin is misleading because the Arc A310’s average includes additional test results—specifically Passmark scores—that the Radeon 540 does not have in its benchmark suite. The Arc A310’s Passmark G3D score of 5,433 and its Passmark GPU Compute score of 2,157 are far lower than its Geekbench results, dragging down its average. In contrast, the Radeon 540’s average is derived solely from its two Geekbench scores, which are relatively consistent.

The percentile rankings reinforce the closeness of the aggregate picture. The Radeon 540 sits at the 41st percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A310 is at the 40th percentile. This means that, despite the Arc A310’s dominance in individual head-to-head tests, both cards are positioned nearly identically within the broader GPU landscape. The nearest rivals for the Radeon 540 include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (0.6% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (1.2% behind), and the AMD Radeon R7 250 (1.5% behind). For the Arc A310, its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R7 250 (0.1% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (0.4% ahead), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (1% behind). These rival comparisons show both cards trading places with similar low-end GPUs, confirming that neither is a performance outlier.

The Geekbench Vulkan results highlight the Arc A310’s superior modern API implementation. With a score of 28,964, it outperforms the Radeon 540’s 9,162 by a factor of more than three. This is particularly notable because Vulkan is a low-overhead API that benefits from efficient hardware design and driver optimization. The Arc A310’s Xe-HPG architecture, with its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, is clearly better suited to these workloads than the Radeon 540’s GCN 4.0, which maxes out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. In practical terms, the Arc A310 would provide a significantly smoother experience in modern games and compute applications that leverage Vulkan, while the Radeon 540 would struggle to keep pace.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The Intel Arc A310 is substantially faster, scoring 30,607 compared to the AMD Radeon 540’s 6,184, a 79.8% advantage for the Arc A310.

Q: How do the two cards compare in overall average benchmark score?

A: The Radeon 540 has a slightly higher average score of 7,673, while the Arc A310 averages 7,550. This gives the Radeon 540 a 1.6% lead in aggregate performance.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each card?

A: The Radeon 540 ranks in the 41st percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A310 ranks in the 40th percentile, placing them nearly identically among all graphics cards.

Q: Does the Arc A310 support newer graphics APIs than the Radeon 540?

A: Yes. The Arc A310 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Radeon 540 supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for the Radeon 540?

A: The Radeon 540’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (0.6% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (1.2% behind), and the AMD Radeon R7 250 (1.5% behind).

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The Arc A310 has 768 shading units, while the Radeon 540 has 384 shading units, giving the Arc A310 twice as many.

The Verdict

The data clearly indicates that the Intel Arc A310 is the superior choice for anyone prioritizing modern compute performance. In both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests, the Arc A310 crushes the Radeon 540 with margins of 79.8% and 68.4%, respectively. This makes the Arc A310 the obvious pick for tasks that leverage these APIs, such as contemporary gaming, content creation, or GPU-accelerated compute. The Arc A310’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 further solidifies its position as the more future-proof option, as it can handle the latest software standards without compromise.

However, the Radeon 540 is not without its merits. Its average benchmark score of 7,673 edges out the Arc A310’s 7,550, and it holds a 1.6% lead in the overall comparison. This suggests that in certain legacy workloads or applications that do not take advantage of modern APIs, the Radeon 540 can perform on par with or slightly better than the Arc A310. For users with older software that relies on DirectX 11 or earlier, the Radeon 540’s simpler architecture might be more reliable, though the Arc A310’s Passmark DirectX 11 score of 33 indicates it handles those workloads adequately.

Ultimately, the choice depends on the use case. For modern workloads, the Arc A310 is the clear winner, offering vastly superior performance and newer feature support. For legacy compatibility or a slight edge in aggregate benchmarks, the Radeon 540 remains a viable, albeit outdated, option. The Arc A310’s 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, compared to the Radeon 540’s 1 GB of GDDR5, also makes it better suited for larger datasets and higher-resolution textures, reinforcing its status as the more capable card for current applications.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ significantly in nearly every specification. The Radeon 540 features 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 render output units (ROPs), while the Arc A310 doubles the shading units to 768 and increases TMUs to 32, keeping ROPs at 16. The memory configuration is a major differentiator: the Radeon 540 has 1 GB of GDDR5 on a 32-bit bus, delivering 24 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the Arc A310 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, achieving 124 GB/s. The clock speeds also differ, with the Arc A310 running at a base and boost clock of 1750 MHz, while the Radeon 540’s memory runs at 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective). The Radeon 540’s pixel rate is 18.93 GPixel/s and texture rate is 28.39 GTexel/s, while the Arc A310 offers 28.00 GPixel/s and 56.00 GTexel/s, respectively.

Power requirements are another point of divergence. The Radeon 540 has a TDP of 50 W and a suggested PSU of 250 W, while the Arc A310 has a lower TDP of 30 W and a suggested PSU of 200 W. Both are single-slot cards with no power connectors. The bus interface differs as well: the Radeon 540 uses PCIe 3.0 x8, while the Arc A310 uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs also vary, with the Radeon 540 offering 2x DisplayPort 1.4a and the Arc A310 providing 4x mini-DisplayPort 2.0.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between the two cards is profound, reflecting their different release generations and design philosophies. The Radeon 540 is built on AMD’s GCN 4.0 architecture, part of the Polaris generation (RX 500), and fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 21.4 million per mm². The chip is codenamed Lexa. In contrast, the Arc A310 uses Intel’s Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation (Arc 3), and is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It packs 7,200 million transistors onto a 157 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 45.9 million per mm². The chip is codenamed DG2-128.

The Radeon 540 has no dedicated ray tracing cores, while the Arc A310 includes 6 ray tracing cores. The FP32 performance also differs dramatically: the Radeon 540 delivers 908.5 GFLOPS, while the Arc A310 delivers 2.688 TFLOPS, more than double. For FP16, the Radeon 540 offers 908.5 GFLOPS (1:1 ratio), whereas the Arc A310 provides 5.376 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The Radeon 540’s predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega, while the Arc A310’s predecessor is Xe Graphics and its successor is Battlemage. The Arc A310 also supports a broader range of APIs, including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, compared to the Radeon 540’s DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. These architectural differences explain the Arc A310’s superior modern performance, as its newer node, higher transistor count, and dedicated ray tracing hardware give it a clear advantage in contemporary workloads.