AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs AMD Radeon RX 6650M Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 are both end-of-life mobile GPUs, but the data shows they are not in the same performance class. The RX 6650M holds a decisive lead in every shared benchmark, delivering a 22.4% advantage in Geekbench OpenCL and a commanding 34.8% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. While the Pro Vega 48 offers a unique feature set with its HBM2 memory and higher shading unit count, the RX 6650M's architectural efficiency and superior benchmark results make it the clear winner for raw compute performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head comparison between these two GPUs is one-sided. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M scores 65800 points, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 manages only 53757 points. That is a 22.4% difference, a substantial margin that places the RX 6650M firmly ahead in general-purpose compute workloads. The Pro Vega 48's higher shading unit count—3072 versus 1792 for the RX 6650M—does not translate into a performance advantage here, highlighting the architectural efficiency of the newer RDNA 2.0 design.

The gap widens even further in the Geekbench Vulkan test. The RX 6650M posts a score of 77735, compared to the Pro Vega 48's 57653. This 34.8% delta is the largest single benchmark advantage in the comparison. The RX 6650M's support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, alongside its dedicated ray tracing cores, gives it a modern API feature set that the Pro Vega 48, limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, simply cannot match. The RX 6650M's average benchmark score of 71768 also dwarfs the Pro Vega 48's 60140, reinforcing its overall superiority.

When placed in the broader context of all GPUs, the RX 6650M sits at the 91st percentile, while the Pro Vega 48 sits at the 88th. The RX 6650M's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (average score 72098, delta -0.5%) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (average score 72379, delta -0.8%), showing it trades blows with much larger desktop cards. Conversely, the Pro Vega 48's nearest rivals include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (average score 60326, delta -0.3%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (average score 60347, delta -0.3%), a comparison that underscores how far behind the RX 6650M it is. The data is unambiguous: the RX 6650M wins both head-to-head benchmarks, with a total of 2 wins to 0 for the Pro Vega 48.

The Verdict

The verdict is straightforward: the AMD Radeon RX 6650M is the superior GPU for anyone prioritizing raw performance. Its 22.4% lead in OpenCL and 34.8% lead in Vulkan are decisive, and its 91st percentile ranking versus the Pro Vega 48's 88th percentile confirms its higher standing in the overall GPU landscape. Users who run Vulkan-based applications, games, or modern compute workloads should choose the RX 6650M without hesitation.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is not without merit, but its strengths lie elsewhere. It is the only option here with HBM2 memory and a 2048-bit memory bus, which delivers a significantly higher memory bandwidth of 402.4 GB/s compared to the RX 6650M's 224.0 GB/s. This could be a factor in memory-bandwidth-sensitive tasks, but the benchmark data shows that this advantage does not overcome the RX 6650M's overall compute power in the tests performed. The Pro Vega 48's Geekbench Metal score of 69010, a test the RX 6650M does not have, suggests it may have a niche in macOS environments, but for cross-platform performance, the RX 6650M is the clear winner. The data supports a simple choice: pick the RX 6650M for performance, or the Pro Vega 48 only if its specific memory characteristics are a hard requirement.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M uses the Navi 23 chip based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 uses the Vega 10 chip based on the older GCN 5.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process by GlobalFoundries. This process node difference is critical, as the 7 nm node allows the RX 6650M to achieve a much higher transistor density of 46.7M / mm², compared to the Pro Vega 48's 25.3M / mm². The RX 6650M packs 11,060 million transistors into a 237 mm² die, while the Pro Vega 48 uses 12,500 million transistors spread across a much larger 495 mm² die.

The RX 6650M features 28 dedicated ray tracing cores, a capability entirely absent from the Pro Vega 48, which has no RT cores listed. This gives the RX 6650M hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, a significant feature for modern gaming and rendering workloads. The Pro Vega 48 compensates with a higher raw shading unit count of 3072 versus 1792, and more texture mapping units (192 versus 112), but this does not result in higher performance. The RX 6650M's base clock of 2068 MHz, boost clock of 2416 MHz, and game clock of 2222 MHz are all substantially higher than the Pro Vega 48's clocks, which are not listed. The RX 6650M also supports newer API versions, including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the Pro Vega 48 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark contrasts in almost every category. The most obvious difference is memory: the RX 6650M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s, while the Pro Vega 48 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a massive 2048-bit bus with a bandwidth of 402.4 GB/s. The Pro Vega 48's memory bandwidth is nearly double, a result of its wide bus and high-performance HBM2 memory, which operates at 786 MHz with 1572 Mbps effective speed. The RX 6650M's GDDR6 memory runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, but its narrower bus limits overall bandwidth.

The RX 6650M has a significantly higher pixel rate of 154.6 GPixel/s versus the Pro Vega 48's 76.80 GPixel/s, and a higher texture rate of 270.6 GTexel/s versus 230.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance also favors the RX 6650M, which delivers 8.659 TFLOPS compared to the Pro Vega 48's 7.373 TFLOPS. The RX 6650M also has a lower TDP at 120 W, while the Pro Vega 48's TDP is not listed. The bus interface differs as well, with the RX 6650M using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the Pro Vega 48 using PCIe 3.0 x16. Both are integrated into the motherboard (IGP) with no power connectors, and both have portable-device-dependent display outputs. The RX 6650M was released on January 3, 2022, while the Pro Vega 48 predates it, releasing on March 18, 2019.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650M is significantly faster. It scores 65800 in Geekbench OpenCL and 77735 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to the Pro Vega 48's 53757 and 57653 respectively.

Q: Does the Pro Vega 48 have any advantages over the RX 6650M?

A: Yes, the Pro Vega 48 has a much higher memory bandwidth of 402.4 GB/s due to its 2048-bit HBM2 memory interface, compared to the RX 6650M's 224.0 GB/s. It also has more shading units (3072 vs 1792) and more texture mapping units (192 vs 112).

Q: Which GPU is better for modern API support?

A: The RX 6650M is better. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Pro Vega 48 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The RX 6650M also has 28 ray tracing cores.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6650M's average score of 71768 places it near the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64, with deltas of -0.5% and -0.8% respectively. The Pro Vega 48's average score of 60140 is near the Intel Arc Pro A60 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, with deltas of -0.3% each.

Q: Which GPU has a better percentile ranking?

A: The RX 6650M ranks at the 91st percentile of all GPUs, while the Pro Vega 48 ranks at the 88th percentile. This indicates the RX 6650M is the higher-performing GPU overall.

Q: Are both GPUs still in production?

A: No, both are end-of-life. The RX 6650M was released on January 3, 2022, and the Pro Vega 48 was released on March 18, 2019. Neither has a listed successor.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins in every measured benchmark category. It is the clear choice for Vulkan-based gaming and compute, with a 34.8% lead in that specific API. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and ray tracing cores make it suitable for modern gaming workloads that leverage these features. The RX 6650M's higher pixel rate (154.6 GPixel/s vs 76.80 GPixel/s) and texture rate (270.6 GTexel/s vs 230.4 GTexel/s) also suggest it is better suited for fill-rate-intensive tasks like high-resolution rendering. Its lower TDP of 120 W makes it a more power-efficient option for mobile devices.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48's only clear advantage is in memory bandwidth, where its 402.4 GB/s throughput is nearly double that of the RX 6650M. This could theoretically benefit workloads that are heavily memory-bound, such as large dataset processing or certain scientific computations. The Pro Vega 48 also has a Geekbench Metal score of 69010, a test the RX 6650M does not have, indicating it may be a viable option in Apple's Metal API environment, particularly in Mac systems where it was designed for the Radeon Pro Mac generation. However, in all direct comparisons using the same benchmarks, the RX 6650M emerges as the superior performer.