AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 vs AMD Radeon Pro W5700 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data presents a clear split between these two AMD professional graphics solutions. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700 wins all three recorded head-to-head comparisons, making it the dominant performer in every tested workload category. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 does not record a single victory in the shared benchmark suite, but that does not mean it lacks a purpose in the broader product landscape.

The Radeon Pro W5700 is built for sustained compute throughput and modern API performance. Its Geekbench scores across Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan all exceed 70,000 points, positioning it as a capable workstation card for GPU-accelerated rendering, simulation, and machine learning inference tasks. The database places it in the 71st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,726 points. That places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, so it competes effectively against recent mobile and desktop-class parts despite its professional branding.

The Radeon Pro Vega 16, by contrast, is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) designed for portability. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 18,268 and Vulkan score of 21,832 show it can handle light GPU workloads, but its 68th percentile ranking and 23,250 average score reflect a more modest capability. It sits essentially even with the NVIDIA P106-100 (0% delta) and within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700. The Vega 16 wins in the context of power-constrained environments where a discrete card cannot fit, as it operates at only 75 W TDP with no external power connectors.

The use-case split is straightforward: the W5700 wins for desktop workstations requiring maximum throughput, while the Vega 16 wins for compact, low-power systems that still need hardware acceleration.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher Geekbench Metal score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700 scores 89,557 in Geekbench Metal, which is 202% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16's 29,650.

Q: What is the largest benchmark margin between the two cards?

A: The largest delta is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the W5700 scores 74,613 versus the Vega 16's 18,268, a difference of 308.4%.

Q: How do the two cards compare in average benchmark score?

A: The W5700 has an average benchmark score of 25,726, while the Vega 16 averages 23,250. The W5700 also ranks in the 71st percentile of all GPUs versus the Vega 16's 68th percentile.

Q: Does the Vega 16 win any shared benchmark?

A: No. The database records three shared tests (Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan), and the W5700 wins all three. The Vega 16 records zero wins in this comparison.

Q: What memory types do the two cards use?

A: The W5700 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Vega 16 uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus with 307.2 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has the higher boost clock?

A: The W5700 boosts to 1880 MHz, while the Vega 16 boosts to 1190 MHz. The W5700 also has a higher base clock at 1400 MHz versus 815 MHz.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The three recorded head-to-head tests all favor the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 by substantial margins. The smallest gap is in Geekbench Metal, where the W5700 scores 89,557 against the Vega 16's 29,650, a 202% advantage. This indicates that Apple's Metal API scales strongly with the W5700's larger shading unit count and higher clock speeds.

The Geekbench OpenCL result shows the largest disparity. The W5700 produces 74,613 points, while the Vega 16 manages only 18,268 points. That 308.4% delta reflects more than just clock differences: the W5700's 2304 shading units versus 1024, its 144 texture mapping units versus 64, and its 64 render output units versus 32 all contribute to the compute throughput gap. OpenCL workloads that exercise raw parallel arithmetic will see the W5700 finish in roughly a quarter of the time.

The Vulkan test follows a similar pattern. The W5700 scores 70,706, and the Vega 16 scores 21,832, a 223.9% difference. Vulkan's lower-level API benefits from the W5700's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, which provides double the bandwidth of the Vega 16's PCIe 3.0 x16 connection for data transfers. The W5700 also supports Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega 16 is limited to Vulkan 1.3.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card provides additional context. The W5700's average score of 25,726 sits just 0.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX 6700M. The Vega 16's 23,250 average is essentially tied with the NVIDIA P106-100 (0% delta) and 0.1% below the AMD Radeon RX 6600M. In absolute terms, the W5700 is roughly 10.6% faster than the Vega 16 on average, but the gap grows much wider in compute-heavy APIs like OpenCL.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge sharply across nearly every hardware specification. The W5700 uses the Navi 10 chip on a 7 nm TSMC process, while the Vega 16 uses the Vega 12 chip on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process. That process advantage translates directly into transistor density: the W5700 packs 10,300 million transistors into a 251 mm² die, yielding 41.0 million transistors per square millimeter. The Vega 16's transistor count and die size are not recorded in the database.

Clock speeds differ by a wide margin. The W5700 runs at a 1400 MHz base and 1880 MHz boost, while the Vega 16 runs at 815 MHz base and 1190 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: the W5700's GDDR6 runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), while the Vega 16's HBM2 runs at 1200 MHz (2.4 Gbps effective). Despite the Vega 16's much wider 1024-bit bus, the W5700 achieves higher total bandwidth at 448.0 GB/s versus 307.2 GB/s.

The compute resources are heavily lopsided. The W5700 has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Vega 16 has 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This produces a pixel rate of 120.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 270.7 GTexel/s for the W5700, versus 38.08 GPixel/s and 76.16 GTexel/s for the Vega 16. FP32 throughput is 8.663 TFLOPS for the W5700 and 2.437 TFLOPS for the Vega 16, with FP16 at 17.33 TFLOPS and 4.874 TFLOPS respectively (both at 2:1 ratio).

Power and physical specifications also differ. The W5700 draws 205 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, uses 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors, and needs a 550 W power supply. The Vega 16 is an IGP at 75 W TDP with no power connectors and no suggested PSU. The W5700 measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height and outputs through 5x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a plus 1x USB Type-C. The Vega 16's display outputs are listed as portable device dependent, with no recorded dimensions.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these cards represents two distinct generations of AMD graphics design. The W5700 is built on RDNA 1.0, the first generation of AMD's Radeon DNA architecture, while the Vega 16 uses GCN 5.0, the final iteration of the Graphics Core Next architecture. RDNA was designed from the ground up for higher instruction-level parallelism and lower latency, whereas GCN 5.0 optimized the older unified shader design.

The memory subsystems reflect different design philosophies. The W5700 uses GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, a conventional high-bandwidth approach that benefits from mature manufacturing and lower cost per gigabyte. The Vega 16 uses HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus, which provides excellent bandwidth per watt and a very compact footprint, ideal for integrated implementations. The Vega 16's 307.2 GB/s bandwidth is still substantial for a 75 W part, but the W5700's 448.0 GB/s outpaces it.

The interface generation differs as well. The W5700 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, which doubles the transfer rate of the Vega 16's PCIe 3.0 x16. This matters for workloads that stream geometry or textures from system memory, and it partially explains the W5700's strong Vulkan showing. Both cards support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6, but the W5700 supports Vulkan 1.4 while the Vega 16 supports Vulkan 1.3.

The production status for both is end-of-life, and the W5700 has a recorded launch MSRP of 799 USD. The Vega 16 has no recorded launch MSRP. Release dates place the Vega 16 first at 2018-11-13, followed by the W5700 at 2019-11-18. The W5700's predecessor is listed as Radeon Pro Vega, which covers the family that includes the Vega 16. Neither card has a recorded successor in the database.

The transistor and die size numbers tell a story of manufacturing progress. The W5700 achieves 41.0 million transistors per square millimeter on TSMC's 7 nm process, while the Vega 16's 14 nm GlobalFoundries process does not have recorded density data. The W5700's 10,300 million transistors in 251 mm² represent a dense, modern implementation, whereas the Vega 16's architecture relies on older design rules that require more power per unit of performance. This is why the W5700 delivers over three times the FP32 throughput at less than three times the TDP.