AMD Radeon Pro 570 vs NVIDIA A2 Comparison

The NVIDIA A2 and AMD Radeon Pro 570 represent two distinct approaches to workstation graphics, separated by four years of architectural evolution. The data shows the A2 as a modern, efficient compute accelerator, while the Radeon Pro 570 is an older, higher-power mobile solution. Benchmark results indicate a clear overall performance advantage for the NVIDIA card, but the AMD card holds its own in specific metrics. This analysis breaks down the head-to-head numbers, architectural differences, and specification gaps to help determine which card is appropriate for which workload.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

In the two benchmark tests where both cards were evaluated under identical conditions, the NVIDIA A2 wins decisively. The largest margin comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the A2 scores 35,357 against the Radeon Pro 570's 27,702. That is a delta of 27.6%, meaning the A2 is over a quarter faster in this compute-oriented test. This is a substantial lead, indicating that the A2's modern Ampere architecture and dedicated tensor cores provide a significant advantage in general-purpose GPU computing tasks that OpenCL typically represents.

The second head-to-head test, Geekbench Vulkan, shows a narrower but still clear victory for the A2. The NVIDIA card scores 34,023, while the AMD card manages 31,974. The delta here is 6.4%, which is a more modest advantage. Vulkan is a lower-level graphics API, and the Radeon Pro 570's older GCN architecture seems to handle this workload relatively better than it does OpenCL, narrowing the gap. However, the A2 still comes out ahead, reinforcing its status as the stronger overall performer in this pairing.

It is worth remembering the Radeon Pro 570 has a third benchmark result, Geekbench Metal, where it scores 39,945. The NVIDIA A2 has no corresponding Metal result in the data. This is a significant caveat, as Metal is the primary GPU compute API on Apple platforms. In that specific ecosystem, the Radeon Pro 570's score of 39,945 is actually higher than the A2's best OpenCL score of 35,357, suggesting that on macOS, the AMD card may be the faster option. However, since no direct comparison exists, this remains an indirect observation.

Looking at the average benchmark scores, the A2's average of 34,690 edges out the Radeon Pro 570's average of 33,207. This places the A2 at the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro 570 sits just one point lower at the 78th percentile. The A2's nearest rivals in the data are the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (average score 34,561, only 0.4% behind) and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (average score 34,541, also 0.4% behind). The Radeon Pro 570's closest competitors are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (average score 33,170, 0.1% ahead) and the NVIDIA T550 Mobile (average score 33,161, 0.1% ahead). This data shows that both cards are competitive within their respective performance tiers, but the A2 sits at the higher end of that range.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher peak compute throughput in FP32 operations?

A: The NVIDIA A2 leads with 4.531 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to the Radeon Pro 570's 3.960 TFLOPS. This represents a roughly 14% advantage for the A2 in raw single-precision floating-point math, which is a core metric for many scientific and engineering workloads.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 570 has a higher memory bandwidth of 217.0 GB/s, while the NVIDIA A2 provides 200.1 GB/s. This is notable because the Radeon Pro 570 uses a wider 256-bit memory bus, whereas the A2 uses a 128-bit bus, but the A2's GDDR6 memory runs at a higher effective speed of 12.5 Gbps compared to the Radeon's 6.8 Gbps GDDR5.

Q: Does the NVIDIA A2 support hardware ray tracing?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA A2 is equipped with 10 dedicated ray tracing cores. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 has no ray tracing cores listed in its specifications, meaning it lacks this hardware feature. This makes the A2 the only one of the two capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: What is the difference in power consumption?

A: The NVIDIA A2 has a TDP of 60 W, making it a very low-power card. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 has a TDP of 150 W, which is 2.5 times higher. The A2's lower power draw is a significant advantage for dense server deployments or systems with limited cooling.

Q: Which card is better suited for a Mac environment?

A: The data suggests the Radeon Pro 570 has a strong advantage in Apple ecosystems. It is part of the Radeon Pro Mac generation, and it has a Geekbench Metal score of 39,945, which is its best benchmark result. The NVIDIA A2 has no Metal benchmark data, and its architecture is not specifically tailored for macOS.

Q: Are there any benchmark tests where the AMD card wins?

A: In the head-to-head tests available (OpenCL and Vulkan), the AMD Radeon Pro 570 does not win either. The NVIDIA A2 wins both. However, the Radeon Pro 570's Metal score is its highest, suggesting it would likely outperform the A2 in that specific test if it were available.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA A2 is built on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It uses the GA107 chip, which contains 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The Radeon Pro 570 is based on the older GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, using the Ellesmere chip with 5,700 million transistors on a larger 232 mm² die. This means the A2 achieves a transistor density of 43.5 million transistors per mm², versus 24.6 million for the Radeon Pro 570, reflecting the significant process node advantage of the newer NVIDIA card.

The A2's Ampere architecture introduces dedicated ray tracing cores (10 of them) and tensor cores (40 of them), which are entirely absent from the Radeon Pro 570. This is a fundamental architectural difference. The tensor cores are designed for AI and machine learning workloads, providing acceleration for matrix operations that the GCN architecture lacks. The inclusion of these specialized units makes the A2 a more versatile compute card, capable of handling tasks like neural network inference and DLSS upscaling that the Radeon Pro 570 cannot accelerate in hardware.

Shader organization also differs. The NVIDIA A2 has 1,280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 raster output units (ROPs). The AMD Radeon Pro 570 has more shading units (1,792) and significantly more TMUs (112), but the same number of ROPs (32). The higher TMU count on the AMD card explains its much higher texture rate of 123.8 GTexel/s, while the A2's lower count yields a texture rate of 70.80 GTexel/s. However, the A2's higher clock speeds (boost clock of 1770 MHz vs 1105 MHz) and newer architecture allow it to achieve a higher pixel rate of 56.64 GPixel/s versus 35.36 GPixel/s for the AMD card.

Specification Differences

The most glaring difference is memory capacity. The NVIDIA A2 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the AMD Radeon Pro 570 has only 4 GB of GDDR5. This is a 4x difference in capacity, which is critical for large datasets and high-resolution textures. The A2's memory also runs at a higher effective speed of 12.5 Gbps, though the Radeon Pro 570's wider 256-bit bus partially compensates, giving it 217.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus the A2's 200.1 GB/s.

Power and form factor are also major differentiators. The A2 has a TDP of just 60 W and is a single-slot card with no power connectors, requiring only a 250 W power supply. The Radeon Pro 570 is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with a 150 W TDP, designed for portable devices. The A2 uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the Radeon Pro 570 uses the older PCIe 3.0 x16 standard. The A2 has no display outputs, indicating it is intended as a compute-only accelerator, whereas the Radeon Pro 570's display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent."

API support also differs. The A2 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon Pro 570 supports only DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The A2's newer API support makes it more future-proof for upcoming game and application features. The A2's release date is November 2021, making it significantly newer than the Radeon Pro 570, which was released in June 2017. Both cards are now marked as end-of-life.

The Verdict

The data clearly positions the NVIDIA A2 as the superior performer in raw compute benchmarks. It wins both head-to-head tests, has a higher average benchmark score (34,690 vs 33,207), and offers a 27.6% lead in OpenCL performance. For users running Linux or Windows workloads that rely on OpenCL or Vulkan, the A2 is the unequivocal choice based on performance alone. Its 16 GB of memory is also a massive advantage for memory-intensive tasks like machine learning model training or rendering large scenes, where the Radeon Pro 570's 4 GB would be a severe bottleneck.

The AMD Radeon Pro 570's strengths lie elsewhere. Its higher texture rate (123.8 GTexel/s) and memory bandwidth (217.0 GB/s) suggest it may be better suited for certain graphics-heavy tasks that favor these metrics. More importantly, its Geekbench Metal score of 39,945 is its strongest result, and its generation is specifically tied to "Radeon Pro Mac." For users working exclusively within the Apple ecosystem, the Radeon Pro 570 is likely the better fit, especially since the A2 lacks any Metal benchmark data and has no display outputs, making it unsuitable for use as a primary graphics card in a Mac.

For a server or workstation compute node, the A2's 60 W TDP, single-slot design, and lack of power connectors make it an incredibly efficient accelerator that can be deployed in dense configurations. The Radeon Pro 570, with its 150 W TDP and IGP form factor, is not designed for such use. In summary, the NVIDIA A2 is the choice for high-performance, power-efficient compute acceleration in non-Apple environments. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 is the choice for Apple-centric workflows where Metal performance and portability are priorities, despite its older architecture and lower raw compute scores.