AMD Radeon 540 vs Intel Arc A380 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between the Intel Arc A380 and the AMD Radeon 540. In the two shared benchmark tests, the Intel Arc A380 wins both, and the margin is substantial in each case.

Starting with Geekbench OpenCL, the Intel Arc A380 scores 38,224 points. The AMD Radeon 540 manages only 6,184 points. That translates to a delta of 518.1% in favor of the Intel part. This is not a close contest; the Intel card delivers over six times the raw compute throughput in this workload. For context, the Radeon 540's result places it near its nearest rivals in the database, while the Arc A380's score is in a completely different performance tier.

The situation repeats in Geekbench Vulkan. The Arc A380 scores 36,736, while the Radeon 540 scores 9,162. The delta here is 301% in favor of Intel. While the percentage gap is smaller than in OpenCL, it remains a dominant victory. The Vulkan result is particularly telling because it exercises modern graphics API efficiency, where the Intel architecture shows a clear advantage over the older AMD design.

Looking at the overall average benchmark score, the Intel Arc A380 sits at 8,558, while the AMD Radeon 540 trails at 7,673. The Arc A380's percentile ranking among all GPUs is 44, compared to 41 for the Radeon 540. The nearest rivals for the Arc A380 include the AMD FirePro W5170M (average score 8,595, delta -0.4%) and the AMD Radeon HD 8870M (8,462, delta 1.1%), placing it in a tight cluster. The Radeon 540's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (7,723, delta -0.6%), which is a curious pairing given the massive gap between the two cards in direct tests, but the data is the data.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different eras and design philosophies. The Intel Arc A380 uses the DG2-128 chip built on the Xe-HPG architecture, fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It packs 7,200 million transistors into a 157 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 45.9 million per mm². The AMD Radeon 540 uses the Lexa chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die, with a density of 21.4 million per mm².

The Intel part belongs to the Alchemist generation (Arc 3), while the AMD card is from the Polaris generation (RX 500). This generational gap is reflected in the feature sets. The Arc A380 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The Radeon 540 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The Intel card also includes 8 dedicated ray tracing cores, while the AMD card has none.

Memory configurations differ dramatically. The Arc A380 comes with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, delivering 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon 540 has just 1024 MB (1 GB) of GDDR5 memory on a 32-bit bus, yielding only 24.00 GB/s. That is a 7.75x difference in memory bandwidth, which directly impacts performance in texture-heavy and high-resolution workloads.

The compute resources also favor Intel heavily. The Arc A380 has 1,024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The Radeon 540 has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Pixel rate for the Intel card is 65.60 GPixel/s versus 18.93 GPixel/s for AMD. Texture rate is 131.2 GTexel/s versus 28.39 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 4.198 TFLOPS versus 908.5 GFLOPS. The Intel card even offers FP16 at 8.397 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the AMD card does FP16 at the same rate as FP32 (908.5 GFLOPS, 1:1).

Clock speeds show the Intel card running at a 2000 MHz base and 2050 MHz boost. The AMD card has no recorded base or boost clocks in the database, only a memory clock of 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective). The Intel memory clock is 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective), which is significantly faster.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the recorded benchmark data, the Intel Arc A380 wins in every single head-to-head comparison. There are no tests where the AMD Radeon 540 comes out ahead. The wins tally is 2 for Intel, 0 for AMD.

For OpenCL workloads, which often represent general-purpose GPU compute, the Arc A380's 518.1% lead makes it the clear choice. This advantage stems from the massive difference in shading units, memory bandwidth, and raw FP32 throughput. Any application that offloads parallel math to the GPU will favor the Intel part overwhelmingly.

For Vulkan workloads, the Arc A380's 301% lead is equally decisive. The newer architecture with DirectX 12 Ultimate support and ray tracing capabilities gives it a modern feature set that the GCN 4.0 architecture lacks. Game titles that leverage Vulkan's low-level API will see substantially higher frame rates on the Intel card.

The Radeon 540 does have some practical advantages, though these are not reflected in benchmark wins. It draws only 50 W versus 75 W for the Intel card, and it requires no power connectors, while the Arc A380 needs a single 8-pin connector. The AMD card is also single-slot versus dual-slot for Intel, and it offers two DisplayPort 1.4a outputs versus the Intel's one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 2.0 outputs. But in pure performance terms, the data shows no scenario where the Radeon 540 wins.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the AMD Radeon 540 has only 24.00 GB/s. That is a 7.75x difference in favor of Intel.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon 540 support ray tracing?

A: No. The AMD Radeon 540 has no ray tracing cores. The Intel Arc A380 includes 8 RT cores.

Q: Which card is more power efficient?

A: The AMD Radeon 540 has a TDP of 50 W, while the Intel Arc A380 has a TDP of 75 W. The AMD card also requires no power connectors, whereas the Intel card needs one 8-pin connector.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has an average benchmark score of 8,558, while the AMD Radeon 540 scores 7,673. The Intel card is ahead by 885 points, or roughly 11.5%.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The AMD Radeon 540 has 1024 MB (1 GB) of GDDR5 memory.

Q: How do the Vulkan scores compare?

A: The Intel Arc A380 scores 36,736 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 301% higher than the Radeon 540's score of 9,162.

The Verdict

The data presents an unambiguous picture. The Intel Arc A380 is the superior GPU in every measured benchmark. It wins both head-to-head tests with deltas of 518.1% and 301%. Its average benchmark score is higher, its percentile ranking among all GPUs is higher, and its nearest rivals in the database are all within a narrow band that the Radeon 540 does not approach in direct comparison.

The Radeon 540's only advantages are physical and power-related. It draws less power (50 W versus 75 W), requires no external power connector, and occupies a single slot. These factors might matter in a very constrained system, but they do not translate into any performance benefit. The recorded data shows zero wins for the AMD card.

For anyone choosing between these two specific GPUs, the Intel Arc A380 is the only rational pick from a performance standpoint. The 6 GB memory capacity, the modern DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 support, the ray tracing cores, and the massive compute advantage make it the clear winner. The AMD Radeon 540 might be acceptable for systems where power draw and slot space are paramount, but the benchmark results offer no reason to select it for performance.

The launch MSRP of the Intel Arc A380 is 149 USD. The AMD Radeon 540 has no recorded launch MSRP. Given the benchmark gap, the Intel card's feature set, and the fact that it is the only one of the two with meaningful modern API support, the choice is straightforward based on the data.

Specification Differences

| Feature | Intel Arc A380 | AMD Radeon 540 |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | DG2-128 | Lexa |

| Architecture | Xe-HPG | GCN 4.0 |

| Generation | Alchemist (Arc 3) | Polaris (RX 500) |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 7,200 million | 2,200 million |

| Die Size | 157 mm² | 103 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 45.9M / mm² | 21.4M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 2000 MHz | Not recorded |

| Boost Clock | 2050 MHz | Not recorded |

| Memory Clock | 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective) | 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 6 GB | 1024 MB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 96 bit | 32 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 186.0 GB/s | 24.00 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1024 | 384 |

| TMUs | 64 | 24 |

| ROPs | 32 | 16 |

| RT Cores | 8 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 65.60 GPixel/s | 18.93 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 131.2 GTexel/s | 28.39 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 4.198 TFLOPS | 908.5 GFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 8.397 TFLOPS (2:1) | 908.5 GFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 75 W | 50 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 250 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x8 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 2.0 | 2x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| OpenGL Support | 4.6 | 4.6 |

| Release Date | 2022-06-13 | 2017-04-19 |

| Production Status | End-of-life | End-of-life |

| Predecessor | Xe Graphics | Arctic Islands |

| Successor | Battlemage | Vega |

| Launch MSRP | 149 USD | Not recorded |