AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 vs AMD Radeon RX 7800M Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 7800M and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 represent two vastly different eras of mobile graphics, and the benchmark data confirms a generational chasm. The RX 7800M is an active, RDNA 3.0 part built for modern gaming, while the Pro Vega 20 is an end-of-life GCN 5.0 workstation chip. Their average benchmark scores are nearly identical—27883 for the RX 7800M against 27839 for the Pro Vega 20, a mere 0.2% difference—but this aggregate figure masks a complete reversal in specific workloads. The RX 7800M dominates compute and modern API tests by margins exceeding 350%, while the Pro Vega 20’s only available win is in Apple’s Metal API, a test the RX 7800M does not have a recorded score for. This is not a close contest; it is a preview of how far mobile graphics have come in six years.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split: the AMD Radeon RX 7800M is the only sensible choice for any user running cross-platform workloads or modern gaming APIs. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 120778 crushes the Pro Vega 20’s 26679 by 352.7%, and its Geekbench Vulkan result of 126668 beats 26410 by 379.6%. If your software leverages Vulkan or OpenCL—which includes most Windows games, Linux applications, and professional renderers—the RX 7800M is categorically superior.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20, however, has one narrow lifeline: its Geekbench Metal score of 30427. Since the RX 7800M has no recorded Metal benchmark, the Pro Vega 20 remains the only option in that specific Apple ecosystem test. For users locked into macOS-only Metal applications, the Pro Vega 20 is the only part with data to support it. For everyone else, the RX 7800M’s 12 GB of GDDR6 versus 4 GB of HBM2, its 3840 shading units against 1280, and its 35.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput versus 3.284 TFLOPS make it the definitive pick. The Pro Vega 20 is end-of-life; the RX 7800M is active. Choose accordingly.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 7800M wins every head-to-head benchmark where both parts have recorded scores. In OpenCL, it delivers 120778 points, a 352.7% advantage over the Pro Vega 20’s 26679. In Vulkan, the margin grows to 379.6%, with 126668 versus 26410. These are not incremental leads—they are multiples of performance. The RX 7800M also holds additional benchmark records the Pro Vega 20 never attempted, including 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (2994), Passmark G3D (17613), and Passmark GPU Compute (9342).

The Pro Vega 20’s sole victory is the Geekbench Metal test, where it scores 30427. This is a meaningful result for macOS users, but it is an isolated data point. The Pro Vega 20 also posts lower scores in OpenCL and Vulkan than the RX 7800M by factors of 4.5 and 4.8, respectively. In terms of architectural capabilities, the Pro Vega 20 has no ray tracing cores, while the RX 7800M has 60. The RX 7800M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Pro Vega 20 tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Every measurable cross-platform metric favors the RX 7800M.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by five years and a complete design philosophy shift. The RX 7800M uses the Navi 32 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, packing 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die. The Pro Vega 20 uses the Vega 12 chip on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, with no transistor count or die size listed in the data. The process node difference alone—5 nm versus 14 nm—explains much of the efficiency and clock speed disparity.

The RX 7800M runs at a base clock of 1295 MHz and boosts to 2335 MHz, with a game clock of 2145 MHz. The Pro Vega 20 sits far lower, at 815 MHz base and 1283 MHz boost. Memory configurations diverge sharply: the RX 7800M uses 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Pro Vega 20 uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus, but only achieves 189.4 GB/s due to its low 740 MHz memory clock. The RX 7800M’s wider effective bandwidth is a 128% improvement.

Compute resources are equally lopsided. The RX 7800M has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and 60 ray tracing cores. The Pro Vega 20 has 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no ray tracing cores. Pixel rate is 224.2 GPixel/s for the RX 7800M versus 41.06 GPixel/s for the Pro Vega 20. Texture rate is 560.4 GTexel/s versus 102.6 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 35.87 TFLOPS versus 3.284 TFLOPS—a 10.9x gap. Interestingly, the Pro Vega 20’s FP16 rate of 6.569 TFLOPS is double its FP32, while the RX 7800M maintains a 1:1 ratio at 35.87 TFLOPS for both.

Power and interface also differ. The RX 7800M has a 180 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Pro Vega 20 draws 100 W and uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Both are IGP parts with portable-device-dependent display outputs and no power connectors. The RX 7800M was released on 2024-09-10, while the Pro Vega 20 dates to 2018-11-13. The RX 7800M’s predecessor is Polaris Mobile; the Pro Vega 20 has no listed predecessor or successor.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800M averages 27883, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20’s 27839. Both GPUs sit at the 73rd percentile against all GPUs, making them statistically tied in aggregate.

Q: How much faster is the RX 7800M in OpenCL?

A: The RX 7800M scores 120778 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 352.7% higher than the Pro Vega 20’s 26679. This indicates the RX 7800M is over 4.5 times faster in this compute workload.

Q: Does the Pro Vega 20 win any benchmark?

A: Yes. The Pro Vega 20 scores 30427 in Geekbench Metal, a test where the RX 7800M has no recorded score. This is the only benchmark where the Pro Vega 20 has a data point without a direct RX 7800M response.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each GPU?

A: The RX 7800M has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Pro Vega 20 has 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus with 189.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7800M has more capacity and over double the bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the RX 7800M has ray tracing cores, with 60 RT cores total. The Pro Vega 20 has no ray tracing cores listed. The RX 7800M also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Pro Vega 20 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: When was each GPU released?

A: The RX 7800M was released on 2024-09-10 and is still in active production. The Pro Vega 20 was released on 2018-11-13 and is marked as end-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is starkly one-sided. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7800M records 120778 points against the Pro Vega 20’s 26679, a delta of 352.7%. This is the single largest margin in the dataset. The RX 7800M’s score is 4.5 times higher, reflecting its 3840 shading units and 35.87 TFLOPS FP32 throughput versus 1280 units and 3.284 TFLOPS. The Pro Vega 20’s higher FP16 rate of 6.569 TFLOPS does not help here, as OpenCL is an FP32-focused test.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 7800M scores 126668, beating the Pro Vega 20’s 26410 by 379.6%. This is an even larger margin than OpenCL, likely due to the RX 7800M’s Vulkan 1.4 support against the Pro Vega 20’s Vulkan 1.3. The RX 7800M’s 60 ray tracing cores and higher texture rate of 560.4 GTexel/s also contribute to its Vulkan advantage.

The Pro Vega 20’s only competitive data appears in Geekbench Metal, where it scores 30427. However, this result is not directly comparable to the RX 7800M because no Metal score exists for the newer GPU. The nearest rival data confirms the overall picture: the RX 7800M’s closest competitor is the Pro Vega 20 at a -0.2% delta, followed by the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at -0.3% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at -0.5%. The Pro Vega 20’s nearest rivals include the RX 7800M at 0.2% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 at 1%, indicating that both GPUs sit in a similar aggregate performance tier despite their architectural differences. The individual benchmark deltas, however, tell a completely different story—one where the RX 7800M is decisively ahead in every cross-platform test.