AMD Radeon Pro Duo vs NVIDIA A2 Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro Duo and NVIDIA A2 represent two very different approaches to workstation acceleration, separated by over five years of GPU architecture evolution. The data shows a single head-to-head benchmark result, but the surrounding specifications and performance context reveal a complex comparison. In the only direct benchmark contest, the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo scores 35,860 against the NVIDIA A2’s 35,357, a 1.4% difference that puts the older card narrowly ahead. This is a razor-thin margin, well within run-to-run variance for most workloads, yet it sets the stage for a comparison defined by architectural philosophy rather than decisive performance supremacy.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only common benchmark between the two cards is Geekbench OpenCL, where the AMD Radeon Pro Duo edges out the NVIDIA A2 by 1.4%. The AMD card’s score of 35,860 places it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA A2’s 35,357 lands in the 79th percentile. This near-tie in raw compute throughput is remarkable given the architectural chasm between them. The Radeon Pro Duo achieves this with 4,096 shading units and 8.192 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the A2 uses just 1,280 shading units and 4.531 TFLOPS. The A2’s efficiency advantage is stark—it delivers roughly half the FP32 throughput but nearly matches the OpenCL score, suggesting its newer architecture extracts significantly more real-world performance per FLOP.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card, the context sharpens. The Radeon Pro Duo sits slightly below the NVIDIA T1000, which scores 36,289, and just above the Quadro GV100 at 35,520. The NVIDIA A2, meanwhile, outperforms the TITAN V by 1% (34,355) and the RTX A1000 by 1.4% (34,207). Both cards cluster in a tight performance band around the 35,000-point mark, meaning the head-to-head result is less about outright capability and more about workload-specific behavior. The A2 also has a Vulkan score of 34,023, which is not available for the Radeon Pro Duo, hinting that the newer card may handle modern graphics APIs with greater proficiency. For OpenCL compute, the data shows a statistical dead heat, with the AMD card holding a slim edge that may not translate to consistent wins across all applications.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw FP32 performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Duo delivers 8.192 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the NVIDIA A2 provides 4.531 TFLOPS. The AMD card offers 81% more theoretical FP32 throughput.

Q: How do their memory configurations differ?

A: The Radeon Pro Duo uses 4 GB of HBM with a 4096-bit bus and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA A2 features 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 200.1 GB/s bandwidth. The A2 has four times the capacity but less than half the bandwidth.

Q: What is the transistor density comparison?

A: The A2’s GA107 chip packs 8,700 million transistors into 200 mm², yielding 43.5M transistors per mm². The Radeon Pro Duo’s Capsaicin die contains 8,900 million transistors across 596 mm², for a density of 14.9M per mm². The NVIDIA chip is nearly three times denser.

Q: Which card supports more advanced graphics APIs?

A: The NVIDIA A2 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and includes dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores. The AMD Radeon Pro Duo supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.2.170, and has no RT or tensor core hardware.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Radeon Pro Duo has a 350 W TDP, requires three 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 750 W PSU. The NVIDIA A2 has a 60 W TDP, needs no external power connectors, and suggests a 250 W PSU. The A2 draws 83% less power.

Q: How do the physical dimensions compare?

A: The Radeon Pro Duo is a dual-slot card measuring 277 mm long and 111 mm tall, with three 8-pin connectors. The NVIDIA A2 is a single-slot card with no display outputs and no listed dimensions, making it far more compact.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is the defining feature of this comparison. The AMD Radeon Pro Duo uses the Capsaicin chip built on GCN 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This is a mature design from 2016, with 8,900 million transistors spread across a massive 596 mm² die. The GCN architecture was designed for compute-heavy workloads, prioritizing raw throughput over efficiency. Its 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units reflect a design philosophy focused on parallel FP32 computation.

The NVIDIA A2, by contrast, uses the GA107 chip based on Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process. It packs 8,700 million transistors into just 200 mm², proof of the density improvements of five years of process evolution. Ampere introduces dedicated hardware that GCN lacks: 10 ray tracing cores and 40 tensor cores. These enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI inference, features absent from the Radeon Pro Duo entirely. The A2 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the older card is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Memory architecture further separates them. The Radeon Pro Duo uses 4 GB of HBM with a 4096-bit bus, achieving 512.0 GB/s bandwidth—a configuration optimized for high-throughput streaming. The A2 uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 200.1 GB/s. The A2’s advantage is capacity, not speed: it holds four times more data but moves it at 39% the rate. The transistor density numbers tell the story: the A2 achieves 43.5M transistors per mm² versus 14.9M for the Radeon Pro Duo, showing how much more efficiently modern processes pack logic into smaller spaces.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every measurable specification. The process node shifts from 28 nm (AMD) to 8 nm (NVIDIA), with foundries changing from TSMC to Samsung. Die size drops from 596 mm² to 200 mm², while transistor density climbs from 14.9M to 43.5M per mm². Clock behavior diverges sharply: the Radeon Pro Duo lists no base or boost clock, while the A2 runs at 1440 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost. Memory speed differs as well—the AMD card’s HBM runs at 500 MHz (1000 Mbps effective), while the A2’s GDDR6 operates at 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective).

The compute resources are wildly different: 4,096 shading units versus 1,280, 256 TMUs versus 40, and 64 ROPs versus 32. The A2 adds 10 ray tracing cores and 40 tensor cores, which the Radeon Pro Duo lacks entirely. Pixel rate is close (64.00 GPixel/s vs 56.64 GPixel/s), but texture rate is not (256.0 GTexel/s vs 70.80 GTexel/s). FP32 performance favors the AMD card at 8.192 TFLOPS versus 4.531 TFLOPS, and FP16 matches FP32 on both cards at a 1:1 ratio. Power draw is the starkest difference: 350 W for the Radeon Pro Duo versus 60 W for the A2. The AMD card is dual-slot with three 8-pin connectors and a 750 W PSU recommendation; the A2 is single-slot with no power connectors and a 250 W PSU suggestion. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 3.0 x16 on AMD versus PCIe 4.0 x8 on NVIDIA. Display outputs are present on the Radeon Pro Duo (1x HDMI 1.4a, 3x DisplayPort 1.2) but absent on the A2, which has no outputs. The AMD card measures 277 mm long and 111 mm tall, while the A2 lists no dimensions.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro Duo wins on raw compute throughput. Its 8.192 TFLOPS of FP32 is 81% higher than the A2’s 4.531 TFLOPS, and its texture rate of 256.0 GTexel/s is over 3.6 times the A2’s 70.80 GTexel/s. The 512.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is 2.5 times greater than the A2’s 200.1 GB/s, favoring workloads that stream large datasets. The Radeon Pro Duo also has display outputs, making it usable for direct visualization, and carries a higher benchmark percentile at 80 versus 79. Its OpenCL score of 35,860 edges the A2’s 35,357, giving it the only head-to-head win.

The NVIDIA A2 wins on efficiency, capacity, and modern features. Its 60 W TDP is 83% lower than the Radeon Pro Duo’s 350 W, requiring no external power connectors and only a 250 W PSU. The 16 GB memory capacity is four times larger, enabling larger datasets to reside on-card. The A2’s 10 ray tracing cores and 40 tensor cores bring hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI inference, capabilities the AMD card lacks. Its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with modern graphics APIs, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface doubles the per-lane bandwidth over PCIe 3.0. The A2’s single-slot, no-output design makes it suitable for dense server deployments where physical space and power are constrained.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear choice based on workload priorities. For users needing maximum raw FP32 throughput, high memory bandwidth, or direct display output, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo is the pick. It delivers 81% more TFLOPS, 2.5 times the bandwidth, and a 1.4% benchmark win, all under a familiar GCN architecture. Its 80th percentile ranking and launch MSRP of 1,499 USD position it as a high-end compute card from its era.

For users prioritizing power efficiency, memory capacity, or modern acceleration features, the NVIDIA A2 is the obvious choice. Its 60 W TDP enables deployment in environments where the Radeon Pro Duo’s 350 W draw would be prohibitive. The 16 GB memory capacity quadruples the AMD card’s 4 GB, and the ray tracing and tensor cores open workloads the older card simply cannot handle. The A2’s 79th percentile ranking is nearly identical to the Radeon Pro Duo’s 80th, showing that its lower FLOP count does not translate to proportionally lower real-world performance. The single-slot, no-power-connector design makes it a drop-in solution for existing servers, while the Radeon Pro Duo demands three 8-pin connectors and a 750 W PSU. In essence, the Radeon Pro Duo is a brute-force compute tool, while the A2 is a precision instrument for modern, efficiency-conscious data center workloads. Choose based on whether your bottleneck is throughput or power—the benchmarks suggest the practical performance gap is marginal, but the operational requirements are worlds apart.