AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 Comparison
AMD Radeon Instinct MI60
Radeon Pro Vega 48
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48
The Verdict
The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 is the dominant part in this comparison. The recorded data shows a decisive victory in both available head-to-head benchmarks. It wins 2 out of 2 tests against the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, with no benchmark wins for the older Pro Vega part. The MI60 sits at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Pro Vega 48 sits at the 88th percentile. For anyone choosing between these two, the MI60 is the clear performance pick. The Pro Vega 48 is an end-of-life integrated Graphics Processor Unit (IGP) with limited bandwidth and compute throughput. The MI60 is also end-of-life, but its data center oriented design delivers far higher raw performance. The verdict is simple: the MI60 for compute workloads, the Pro Vega 48 only if the integrated form factor is a hard requirement.
Where Each One Wins
The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 wins in every measured category that the database records. In Geekbench OpenCL, the MI60 scores 92488 against 53757 for the Pro Vega 48, a 72% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the MI60 scores 92444 against 57653, a 60.3% advantage. The Pro Vega 48 has one additional benchmark result, Geekbench Metal, scoring 69010, but no comparable Metal score exists for the MI60 in the database, so it cannot be used for a direct comparison. The Pro Vega 48 does not win any head-to-head test. The MI60 also holds advantages in memory capacity, memory bandwidth, shading units, texture mapping units, pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 throughput. The Pro Vega 48 is a portable device dependent part, meaning its display outputs are determined by the host system, while the MI60 offers a dedicated mini-DisplayPort 1.4a output. For use cases requiring an integrated GPU in a portable system, the Pro Vega 48 has a niche, but for raw compute, the MI60 is the only logical choice.
Architecture Differences
The two GPUs come from different nodes and foundries. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 uses the Vega 20 chip built on a 7 nm TSMC process, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 uses the Vega 10 chip built on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process. The MI60 belongs to the Radeon Instinct (MIx) generation, while the Pro Vega 48 belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (Vega Series) generation. The MI60 uses GCN 5.1 architecture, whereas the Pro Vega 48 uses GCN 5.0. The MI60 packs 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The Pro Vega 48 has 12,500 million transistors on a larger 495 mm² die, yielding 25.3M per mm². The MI60's smaller, denser 7 nm process gives it a significant architectural advantage. The MI60 has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Pro Vega 48 has 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. Neither part has dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The MI60 uses a 4096-bit memory bus with 32 GB of HBM2 memory, while the Pro Vega 48 uses a 2048-bit bus with 8 GB of HBM2. The MI60 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Pro Vega 48 only supports PCIe 3.0 x16. The MI60 is a dual-slot card requiring one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector, while the Pro Vega 48 is an IGP with no power connectors. These architectural differences explain the large performance gap.
FAQ
Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?
A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 delivers 14.75 TFLOPS FP32, exactly double the 7.373 TFLOPS of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48.
Q: What is the memory capacity difference?
A: The MI60 has 32 GB of HBM2 memory, four times the 8 GB of HBM2 found on the Pro Vega 48.
Q: How do the two compare in memory bandwidth?
A: The MI60 reaches 1.02 TB/s over a 4096-bit bus, while the Pro Vega 48 reaches 402.4 GB/s over a 2048-bit bus.
Q: Are both GPUs based on the same architecture?
A: No. The MI60 uses GCN 5.1 on Vega 20, while the Pro Vega 48 uses GCN 5.0 on Vega 10.
Q: Which GPU has a higher benchmark percentile?
A: The MI60 sits at the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Pro Vega 48 sits at the 88th percentile.
Q: Do either of these GPUs support ray tracing or tensor cores?
A: No. Both parts have null values for RT cores and tensor cores in the database.
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The Geekbench OpenCL result is the largest win for the MI60. The MI60 scores 92488, while the Pro Vega 48 scores 53757. This is a 72% delta in favor of the MI60. The MI60 also wins Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 92444 against 57653 for the Pro Vega 48, a 60.3% delta. These are the only two direct head-to-head benchmark comparisons available. The Pro Vega 48 does have a Geekbench Metal score of 69010, but since the MI60 has no Metal result in the database, this cannot be compared. The average benchmark score tells the same story: the MI60 averages 92466, while the Pro Vega 48 averages 60140. The MI60's nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA RTX A4500 at 91671 (0.9% behind), the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile at 91134 (1.5% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro VII at 97131 (4.8% ahead of the MI60), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900M at 97487 (5.2% ahead). The Pro Vega 48's nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (0.3% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 at 60347 (0.3% ahead), the AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58657 (2.5% behind), and the NVIDIA P102-100 at 58528 (2.8% behind). These rival comparisons show that the MI60 competes in a much higher performance tier.
Specification Differences
The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 differ in nearly every specification field. The MI60 uses a Vega 20 chip on 7 nm TSMC, while the Pro Vega 48 uses Vega 10 on 14 nm GlobalFoundries. Transistor count is 13,230 million for the MI60 versus 12,500 million for the Pro Vega 48. Die size is 331 mm² for the MI60 versus 495 mm² for the Pro Vega 48. Transistor density is 40.0M per mm² versus 25.3M per mm². Base clock for the MI60 is 1200 MHz, boost clock is 1800 MHz, and memory clock is 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The Pro Vega 48 has no base or boost clock listed, and its memory clock is 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective). Memory size is 32 GB versus 8 GB, bus width is 4096 bit versus 2048 bit, and bandwidth is 1.02 TB/s versus 402.4 GB/s. Shading units are 4096 versus 3072. TMUs are 256 versus 192. ROPs are 64 for both. Pixel rate is 115.2 GPixel/s versus 76.80 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 460.8 GTexel/s versus 230.4 GTexel/s. FP32 is 14.75 TFLOPS versus 7.373 TFLOPS. FP16 is 29.49 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 14.75 TFLOPS (2:1). The MI60 has a TDP of 300 W, while the Pro Vega 48 has no TDP listed. Slot width is dual-slot versus IGP. Power connectors are 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin versus none. Suggested PSU is 700 W for the MI60, not listed for the Pro Vega 48. Bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a versus portable device dependent. The MI60 is 267 mm long and 111 mm high, while the Pro Vega 48 has no listed dimensions. Release dates differ: the MI60 launched on 2018-11-17, the Pro Vega 48 on 2019-03-18. Both are end-of-life. Neither has a launch MSRP in the database.