AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 vs NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation compare to the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation has an average benchmark score of 166,094, while the MI60 scores 92,466. This places the NVIDIA card 79.6% higher on average, and the head-to-head data shows a 73.8% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and an 85.4% lead in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: Which card has the higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation sits in the 97th percentile, while the MI60 is in the 93rd percentile. The NVIDIA card outperforms 4% more of the GPU population based on recorded data.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card according to the database?

A: For the RTX 4500 Ada Generation, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A5500 with an average score of 165,217 (0.5% difference). For the MI60, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A4500 with an average score of 91,671 (0.9% difference).

Q: How much memory does each card have, and what type?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The MI60 has 32 GB of HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: What are the production statuses of these two cards?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is listed as Active production, released on 2023-08-08. The MI60 is listed as End-of-life, released on 2018-11-17.

Q: Which card supports hardware ray tracing and tensor cores?

A: Only the RTX 4500 Ada Generation has dedicated RT cores (60) and tensor cores (240). The MI60 has no RT cores and no tensor cores listed in the database.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation is the superior performer in every recorded benchmark. It wins both head-to-head tests, with a 73.8% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and an 85.4% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 166,094 versus 92,466 for the MI60 represents a 79.6% overall advantage. For any workload that relies on raw compute throughput, the RTX 4500 Ada Generation is the clear choice.

The MI60 does retain advantages in specific areas. It offers 32 GB of memory versus 24 GB, and its HBM2 memory provides 1.02 TB/s bandwidth versus 432.0 GB/s. For memory-capacity-bound tasks or workloads that saturate memory bandwidth, the MI60 could be relevant. However, its FP32 throughput is only 14.75 TFLOPS versus 39.63 TFLOPS for the RTX 4500 Ada Generation, and its pixel rate is 115.2 GPixel/s versus 206.4 GPixel/s.

Who should pick which? Workloads that need maximum compute performance, modern API support, and active driver development should choose the RTX 4500 Ada Generation. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus DirectX 12 (12_1) for the MI60, and Vulkan 1.4 versus 1.3. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation also offers four DisplayPort outputs versus one mini-DisplayPort on the MI60, making it more suitable for multi-display workstation setups.

The MI60 may still serve specific roles. Its 32 GB HBM2 memory with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth is a memory-heavy configuration that could benefit certain data-center or inference workloads. Its production status is End-of-life, however, which suggests limited long-term viability. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is Active production, indicating ongoing availability and support. For most users, the performance gap is simply too large to justify the MI60 unless memory bandwidth is the sole priority.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows a dominant win for the RTX 4500 Ada Generation. It scores 160,786 against 92,488 for the MI60, a delta of 73.8%. This is a substantial margin that reflects the NVIDIA card's higher shading unit count (7,680 versus 4,096), higher boost clock (2,580 MHz versus 1,800 MHz), and more advanced architecture.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows an even larger gap. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation scores 171,401 against 92,444 for the MI60, a delta of 85.4%. Vulkan performance tends to favor architectures with efficient command processing and modern feature sets. The Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process, has a clear advantage over the older GCN 5.1 architecture on 7 nm.

In terms of rival comparisons, the RTX 4500 Ada Generation's average score of 166,094 places it 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5500 (165,217), 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 (164,894), and 2.2% ahead of the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB (162,504). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X (168,574) by 1.5%. These are close margins, indicating the RTX 4500 Ada Generation sits in a competitive performance tier.

The MI60's average score of 92,466 places it 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A4500 (91,671) and 1.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile (91,134). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro VII (97,131) by 4.8% and the AMD Radeon RX 7900M (97,487) by 5.2%. The MI60's nearest competitors are all within a narrow band, but the gap between the MI60 and the RTX 4500 Ada Generation is enormous.

The texture rate also favors the NVIDIA card: 619.2 GTexel/s versus 460.8 GTexel/s for the MI60. The pixel rate is 206.4 GPixel/s versus 115.2 GPixel/s. These figures align with the benchmark results, confirming that the RTX 4500 Ada Generation has superior fill rates across the board.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ fundamentally in almost every measured specification. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation uses an AD103 chip on a 5 nm process, while the MI60 uses a Vega 20 chip on a 7 nm process. Both are fabricated by TSMC, but the transistor counts diverge sharply: 45,900 million for the NVIDIA card versus 13,230 million for the AMD card. The die sizes are 379 mm² and 331 mm² respectively, giving transistor densities of 121.1M / mm² versus 40.0M / mm².

Clock speeds favor the RTX 4500 Ada Generation. Its base clock is 2,070 MHz with a boost of 2,580 MHz, compared to 1,200 MHz base and 1,800 MHz boost for the MI60. Memory clocks also differ: the NVIDIA card runs at 2,250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective, while the AMD card runs at 1,000 MHz with 2 Gbps effective. The memory types are GDDR6 versus HBM2, with bus widths of 192-bit versus 4096-bit.

Compute resources show a mixed picture. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation has 7,680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The MI60 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has more shading units and ROPs, while the AMD card has slightly more TMUs. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation also has 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores; the MI60 has neither.

Power and physical specifications differ significantly. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation has a TDP of 210 W with no power connectors, while the MI60 has a TDP of 300 W with 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors. The suggested PSU is 550 W for the NVIDIA card versus 700 W for the AMD card. Both are dual-slot, but the RTX 4500 Ada Generation is 245 mm long versus 267 mm for the MI60. Heights are nearly identical at 112 mm versus 111 mm.

The RTX 4500 Ada Generation supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The MI60 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. Display outputs are 4x DisplayPort 1.4a for the NVIDIA card versus 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a for the AMD card.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is generational. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation uses the Ada Lovelace architecture from the GeForce 40-series, built on a 5 nm TSMC process. The MI60 uses the GCN 5.1 architecture from the Radeon Instinct series, built on a 7 nm TSMC process. This represents a significant process node advantage for the NVIDIA card, enabling higher transistor density and clock speeds.

The transistor density difference is stark: 121.1M per mm² for Ada Lovelace versus 40.0M per mm² for GCN 5.1. This explains how the RTX 4500 Ada Generation packs 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, while the MI60 uses 13,230 million transistors across 331 mm². The newer process allows more compute units in a similar physical footprint.

Feature support differs by architecture generation. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation includes dedicated RT cores for ray tracing and tensor cores for AI acceleration. These are absent on the MI60, which has neither. The FP16 compute rates reflect this: the NVIDIA card achieves 39.63 TFLOPS in FP16 (1:1 ratio with FP32), while the AMD card achieves 29.49 TFLOPS in FP16 (2:1 ratio with FP32). The 1:1 ratio on the RTX 4500 Ada Generation means full-rate FP16, whereas the MI60's 2:1 ratio indicates a reduced FP16 throughput relative to FP32.

API support also differs. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading. The MI60 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), an earlier feature level. Vulkan support is 1.4 versus 1.3, with the newer version offering additional extensions and improvements.

The memory architecture is fundamentally different. The MI60 uses HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, a configuration designed for data-center workloads that demand massive memory throughput. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation uses GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. While the MI60 has more than double the bandwidth, the RTX 4500 Ada Generation compensates with far higher compute throughput and lower power draw.

The production status also reflects the architectural gap. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is Active and released in 2023-08-08, succeeding the Workstation Ampere generation. The MI60 is End-of-life, released in 2018-11-17, succeeding FirePro Data Center. The NVIDIA card has a successor listed (Blackwell PRO W), while the AMD card has no successor listed. This suggests the MI60 is a legacy product, while the RTX 4500 Ada Generation is a current-generation offering with ongoing support.