AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 vs AMD Radeon Pro W5700 Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 and AMD Radeon Pro W5700 are both end-of-life professional workstation GPUs from AMD, but they target very different segments of the market. The Vega 20 is an integrated part of a Mac laptop, while the W5700 is a full-size desktop card. Benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy, with the W5700 dominating in every available head-to-head test, but the Vega 20 offers a unique form factor and a specific feature set that matters for its intended use case.

Where Each One Wins

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 wins every single benchmark matchup where both cards have scores. Across the three Geekbench tests, the W5700 is consistently over 60% faster than the Vega 20. In Geekbench Metal, the W5700 scores 89557 versus the Vega 20's 30427; in OpenCL it's 74613 versus 26679; and in Vulkan it's 70706 versus 26410. There are no benchmark categories where the Vega 20 comes out ahead.

The Vega 20's wins are not about raw performance but about its physical implementation. It is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 100 W TDP, meaning it fits into a portable device without any power connectors. The W5700, by contrast, is a dual-slot card requiring a 550 W suggested power supply and both a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector. For a user who needs a discrete GPU in a desktop workstation, the W5700 is clearly the stronger performer. For a user who needs GPU acceleration inside a Mac laptop, the Vega 20 is the only option that fits. The Vega 20's 73rd percentile ranking versus all GPUs is also slightly higher than the W5700's 71st percentile, though this is likely a reflection of the Vega 20's efficiency in its constrained environment rather than an indicator of overall superiority.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 has a higher average benchmark score at 27839, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 averages 25726. This is counterintuitive given the W5700's wins in every head-to-head test, but the W5700's average is dragged down by its Passmark scores, which include tests like Passmark DirectX 9 (225) and Passmark G2D (899) that are not part of the Vega 20's benchmark suite.

Q: How does the Vega 20 compare to the RTX 3090?

A: The Vega 20's average score of 27839 puts it 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which has an average score of 27565. This is a notable result, as the RTX 3090 is a much larger and more power-hungry card, suggesting the Vega 20's efficiency is exceptional.

Q: What is the W5700's closest rival in terms of average score?

A: The W5700's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, which scores 25740, a delta of -0.1% from the W5700's 25726. The AMD Radeon RX 6700M is also close at 25633, a 0.4% difference.

Q: Does the Vega 20 support the latest graphics APIs?

A: The Vega 20 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The W5700 supports the same DirectX and OpenGL versions but has a newer Vulkan 1.4 implementation.

Q: What are the memory configurations for each card?

A: The Vega 20 has 4 GB of HBM2 memory on a 1024-bit bus, delivering 189.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The W5700 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The W5700 has both twice the capacity and over twice the bandwidth.

Q: Which card is physically larger?

A: The W5700 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The Vega 20 is an IGP, meaning it is integrated into the motherboard and has no separate dimensions, length, or height listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest performance gap appears in Geekbench Metal, where the W5700 wins by a delta of -66% relative to the Vega 20's score. The W5700's 89557 points more than triples the Vega 20's 30427. This is a massive margin, indicating that in Metal-based workloads (common in macOS), the W5700 is in a completely different performance class.

Geekbench OpenCL shows a similar story, with the W5700 winning by -64.2%. The W5700's 74613 score is nearly three times the Vega 20's 26679. OpenCL is a more general-purpose compute API, and the W5700's lead here suggests its compute advantage extends beyond graphics-specific workloads.

The smallest delta is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the W5700 wins by -62.6%. The W5700 scores 70706 versus the Vega 20's 26410. Even in Vulkan, which is often considered a lower-overhead API that can benefit efficient architectures, the W5700 maintains a commanding lead. Across all three tests, the W5700's advantage is remarkably consistent, hovering around the 62-66% mark. This consistency suggests a fundamental architectural and specification advantage rather than a workload-specific quirk. The W5700 has 2304 shading units versus 1280, 144 texture mapping units versus 80, and 64 ROPs versus 32. Those doubling or near-doubling of core resources, combined with a much higher boost clock, explain the performance gap.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark differences across nearly every category. The Vega 20 has a base clock of 815 MHz and a boost clock of 1283 MHz, while the W5700 operates at a base of 1400 MHz and boosts to 1880 MHz. The W5700's clocks are dramatically higher, contributing significantly to its performance advantage.

Memory specifications are also divergent. The Vega 20 uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus, achieving 189.4 GB/s bandwidth. The W5700 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, achieving 448.0 GB/s. While HBM2 is a more exotic technology, the W5700's GDDR6 implementation is simply faster in practice, offering more than double the bandwidth. The Vega 20's memory runs at 740 MHz (1480 Mbps effective), while the W5700's runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Compute throughput is another area of separation. The Vega 20 delivers 3.284 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 6.569 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio). The W5700 delivers 8.663 TFLOPS FP32 and 17.33 TFLOPS FP16. The W5700 is roughly 2.6 times faster in both metrics. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: the Vega 20 has a pixel rate of 41.06 GPixel/s and texture rate of 102.6 GTexel/s, while the W5700 achieves 120.3 GPixel/s and 270.7 GTexel/s respectively.

Power consumption is a major differentiator. The Vega 20 has a TDP of 100 W and uses no power connectors, being an IGP. The W5700 has a TDP of 205 W, requires a 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connector setup, and a suggested 550 W PSU. The bus interface also differs: the Vega 20 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the W5700 uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The W5700 has 5x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C outputs, while the Vega 20's display outputs are described as "Portable Device Dependent."

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The Vega 20 uses the Vega 12 chip based on GCN 5.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The W5700 uses the Navi 10 chip based on RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The process node difference is significant: 14 nm versus 7 nm, which explains how the W5700 can achieve higher clocks and more cores while only doubling the TDP from 100 W to 205 W.

The W5700 has 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 41.0M per mm². The Vega 20's transistor count and die size are not listed, but its architecture is older and less dense. The W5700 has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, versus the Vega 20's 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Neither card has dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores.

The W5700's generation is listed as "Radeon Pro Navi (Navi Series)" while the Vega 20 is from "Radeon Pro Mac (Vega Series)." The W5700's predecessor is listed as "Radeon Pro Vega," making it a direct successor to the Vega architecture line. Notably, the W5700 supports Vulkan 1.4 while the Vega 20 only supports Vulkan 1.3, indicating a more modern software stack. Both cards support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6. The Vega 20 has a release date of 2018-11-13, while the W5700 was released a year later on 2019-11-18.

The Verdict

From the data alone, the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 is the superior performer in every measurable benchmark category. Its Geekbench scores are consistently 62-66% higher than the Vega 20's, and it offers more than double the FP32 compute throughput, more than double the memory bandwidth, and more than double the memory capacity. The W5700's 8 GB of GDDR6 versus the Vega 20's 4 GB of HBM2 is a practical advantage for modern workloads that need capacity. The W5700's launch MSRP was 799 USD.

However, the choice is not simply about performance. The Vega 20 is an integrated GPU with a 100 W TDP, designed for a Mac laptop. It requires no power connectors, no expansion slot, and no separate cooler. The W5700 is a dual-slot desktop card that needs a 550 W power supply and a full-size PCIe slot. For a mobile workstation user, the Vega 20 is the only viable option. For a desktop workstation user, the W5700 is overwhelmingly faster and the clear choice.

The average benchmark scores tell a slightly different story, with the Vega 20 averaging 27839 versus the W5700's 25726. This is because the Vega 20's average is based solely on its three Geekbench scores, while the W5700's average includes several Passmark scores that are lower. The W5700's Passmark G3D score of 14520, for instance, is diluted by its Passmark DirectX 9 score of 225. This discrepancy highlights the importance of looking at the head-to-head benchmarks rather than aggregate scores. In every direct comparison available, the W5700 wins. The data is clear: if you can fit a desktop card, the W5700 is the better choice. If you need an integrated GPU, the Vega 20 is what you get.