AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs AMD Radeon Pro VII Comparison

Both AMD cards share the same Vega 20 silicon, but they are tuned for different corners of the professional market. The Radeon Pro VII is a workstation card with display outputs and a higher base clock, while the Radeon Instinct MI60 is a compute accelerator with double the memory and more shaders. Benchmark results show a near-tie in average performance, with the Pro VII scoring 97,131 and the MI60 scoring 92,466, a difference of about 5%. The real differentiators are memory capacity, power draw, physical design, and which API each card favors.

Where Each One Wins

The data splits almost perfectly along API lines. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Radeon Instinct MI60 wins with a score of 92,488 against the Pro VII’s 90,148, a 2.5% advantage. This is the compute-oriented workload, and the MI60’s higher shader count and boost clock help it pull ahead. OpenCL is the traditional compute language for accelerators, so this result aligns with the MI60’s intended role.

The Radeon Pro VII takes the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 92,862 versus the MI60’s 92,444, a slim 0.5% margin. Vulkan is a modern graphics and compute API, and the Pro VII’s higher base clock of 1400 MHz (versus 1200 MHz on the MI60) likely contributes to this win. The Pro VII also has six mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the MI60 has only one, making the Pro VII the obvious choice for any workload that needs to drive multiple displays.

In aggregate, the Pro VII has a higher average benchmark score of 97,131 compared to the MI60’s 92,466. However, that average includes a Geekbench Metal score of 108,383 for the Pro VII, which the MI60 does not have a comparable result for. The MI60’s average is based only on OpenCL and Vulkan. When comparing only the shared tests, the MI60 wins one and the Pro VII wins the other, resulting in a 1-1 split.

Architecture Differences

Both cards are built on the same GCN 5.1 architecture using the Vega 20 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. They share identical transistor counts of 13,230 million and the same die size of 331 mm², yielding a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The memory subsystem is also fundamentally the same: 4096-bit HBM2 with a bandwidth of 1.02 TB/s and an effective memory clock of 2 Gbps.

The key architectural differences are in compute resources and clock speeds. The MI60 has 4096 shading units and 256 texture mapping units, while the Pro VII has 3840 shading units and 240 TMUs. Both have 64 ROPs. The MI60’s extra 256 shaders translate to higher theoretical throughput: 14.75 TFLOPS FP32 and 29.49 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), versus 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.11 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1) on the Pro VII. The MI60’s boost clock is higher at 1800 MHz, but its base clock is lower at 1200 MHz. The Pro VII’s base clock is 1400 MHz with a 1700 MHz boost.

Memory capacity is the biggest spec split. The MI60 carries 32 GB of HBM2, double the Pro VII’s 16 GB. This does not change bandwidth, but it doubles the working set that can reside on the card. The MI60 also has a higher TDP of 300 W versus 250 W, and it requires a 700 W suggested PSU compared to 600 W for the Pro VII. Both use the same power connector configuration: one 6-pin and one 8-pin. The physical dimensions differ too, with the Pro VII measuring 305 mm in length and the MI60 at 267 mm. Both are dual-slot cards with a height of 111 mm.

Neither card has ray tracing cores or tensor cores. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, and both use a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.

The Verdict

Choose the Radeon Instinct MI60 if your priority is raw compute throughput or memory capacity. Its 32 GB of HBM2 is the clear advantage, allowing larger datasets to stay on-card. Its higher shader count and boost clock give it the edge in OpenCL, where it leads the Pro VII by 2.5%. The MI60 also has a higher FP32 rating at 14.75 TFLOPS, which is meaningful for compute workloads that are not memory-bound.

Choose the Radeon Pro VII if you need display outputs or prefer Vulkan. It has six mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs versus the MI60’s single port, making it the only sensible choice for multi-monitor setups. It wins the Vulkan test by 0.5%, and its higher base clock suggests better sustained performance in scenarios that do not boost to maximum. Its lower TDP of 250 W also means less heat and a smaller PSU requirement.

The average benchmark scores favor the Pro VII (97,131 vs 92,466), but that margin of 5% is largely due to the Metal test that the MI60 does not have a comparable result for. In the two shared benchmarks, the score difference is small: 2.5% in favor of the MI60 for OpenCL and 0.5% in favor of the Pro VII for Vulkan. The Pro VII’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 7900M, which scores 97,487 and is 0.4% higher. The MI60’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A4500, which scores 91,671 and is 0.9% lower.

For a workstation that also needs to output video, the Pro VII is the practical pick. For a headless compute node, the MI60’s extra memory makes it the stronger choice.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 has 32 GB of HBM2, while the AMD Radeon Pro VII has 16 GB of HBM2. Both use a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do the two cards compare in OpenCL performance?

A: The MI60 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 92,488 versus 90,148 for the Pro VII, a 2.5% advantage for the MI60.

Q: Which card is better for Vulkan workloads?

A: The Pro VII wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with 92,862 against the MI60’s 92,444, a 0.5% margin in favor of the Pro VII.

Q: Do these cards support ray tracing?

A: No. Neither the Radeon Pro VII nor the Radeon Instinct MI60 has ray tracing cores or tensor cores.

Q: What is the difference in power consumption?

A: The MI60 has a TDP of 300 W and a suggested PSU of 700 W. The Pro VII has a TDP of 250 W and a suggested PSU of 600 W. Both use one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector.

Q: Can either card drive multiple displays?

A: The Pro VII has six mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The MI60 has only one mini-DisplayPort 1.4a output, so it is not intended for multi-display use.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two shared benchmark results are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The OpenCL test is the larger gap. The MI60 scores 92,488, which is 2,340 points higher than the Pro VII’s 90,148. That is a 2.5% delta. This aligns with the MI60’s compute-focused design: more shading units (4096 vs 3840), more TMUs (256 vs 240), and higher FP32 throughput (14.75 vs 13.06 TFLOPS). The MI60 also has a higher boost clock at 1800 MHz.

The Vulkan test is much closer. The Pro VII scores 92,862, just 418 points above the MI60’s 92,444, a 0.5% delta. The Pro VII’s higher base clock of 1400 MHz may explain this, as Vulkan workloads often run at lower clocks than peak boost. The Pro VII’s architecture is otherwise identical to the MI60, so the clock advantage is the main differentiator in this test.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the Pro VII has an additional Geekbench Metal score of 108,383, which the MI60 lacks. This pushes the Pro VII’s average to 97,131. The MI60’s average is 92,466. In the nearest rival comparisons, the Pro VII is 4.7% behind the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (101,872) and 6% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A4500 (91,671). The MI60 is 0.9% ahead of the RTX A4500 and 5.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900M (97,487). Both cards sit in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs.

The takeaway from the head-to-head data is that the cards are close in raw compute, but the MI60’s edge in OpenCL is more pronounced than the Pro VII’s edge in Vulkan. The Pro VII’s average score advantage is inflated by the Metal result, which is not a workload the MI60 is tested against. For actual work, the choice depends on whether you need the MI60’s memory or the Pro VII’s display outputs.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the two cards:

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro VII | AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 |

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

| Generation | Radeon Pro Vega (Vega II Series) | Radeon Instinct (MIx) |

| Base Clock | 1400 MHz | 1200 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1700 MHz | 1800 MHz |

| Memory Size | 16 GB | 32 GB |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 240 | 256 |

| Pixel Rate | 108.8 GPixel/s | 115.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 408.0 GTexel/s | 460.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 13.06 TFLOPS | 14.75 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 26.11 TFLOPS (2:1) | 29.49 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 300 W |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 700 W |

| Display Outputs | 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a | 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a |

| Length | 305 mm (12 inches) | 267 mm (10.5 inches) |

| Release Date | 2020-05-12 | 2018-11-17 |

| Predecessor | Radeon Pro Polaris | FirePro Data Center |

| Successor | Radeon Pro Navi | None |

| Launch MSRP | 1,899 USD | None |

The core architecture, memory type, bus width, bandwidth, transistor count, die size, process node, foundry, ROP count, power connectors, bus interface, APIs, and slot width are identical. Both are end-of-life products. The MI60 has no launch MSRP listed, while the Pro VII’s launch MSRP is 1,899 USD.