AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive sweep in favor of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT across all three shared benchmark tests. The Radeon Pro Vega 48 does not secure a single win in the head-to-head comparison, with the RX 6800 XT taking all three victories.

In Geekbench Metal, the RX 6800 XT scores 181,337, while the Radeon Pro Vega 48 manages 69,010. This represents a 61.9% lead for the RX 6800 XT, which is the smallest margin of victory among the three tests. The Metal API, favored by Apple platforms, still shows a substantial gap, but it is the closest the Pro Vega 48 comes to closing the distance.

Geekbench OpenCL presents an even wider split. The RX 6800 XT posts 171,304, whereas the Pro Vega 48 trails at 53,757. The delta here reaches 68.6%, making this the most lopsided result in the comparison. OpenCL workloads, which often scale with raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth, heavily favor the newer architecture.

Geekbench Vulkan shows the RX 6800 XT at 136,875 against the Pro Vega 48's 57,653, a margin of 57.9%. While this is the smallest percentage gap of the three, it still represents a commanding lead for the RX 6800 XT. Vulkan performance in this test reflects the architectural efficiency gains of RDNA 2.0 over GCN 5.0.

Looking at the average benchmark score across all recorded tests, the Pro Vega 48 actually holds a higher aggregate figure at 60,140 compared to the RX 6800 XT's 48,477. This is explained by the fact that the two cards are measured on different benchmark suites; the Pro Vega 48's three Geekbench scores are all above its average, whereas the RX 6800 XT is tested across eleven different workloads, including several Passmark tests that drag its average down. When comparing only the overlapping tests, the RX 6800 XT is consistently and decisively ahead.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 6800 XT wins on every metric where a direct comparison is possible. This includes all three Geekbench API tests: Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan. The largest delta of 68.6% in OpenCL indicates a significant advantage in general-purpose compute tasks. The Metal test, with a 61.9% lead, shows that even in Apple's ecosystem where the Pro Vega 48 is positioned, the newer card dominates.

The Radeon Pro Vega 48's wins are not in benchmark scores but in specific metrics from the specification sheet. It uses HBM2 memory with a 2048-bit bus, compared to the GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus in the RX 6800 XT. The Pro Vega 48 also has a higher transistor density of 25.3M per square millimeter on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, while the RX 6800 XT uses a 7 nm process from TSMC with a density of 51.5M per square millimeter.

In terms of raw specifications, the RX 6800 XT wins outright on memory capacity (16 GB vs 8 GB), bandwidth (512.0 GB/s vs 402.4 GB/s), shading units (4608 vs 3072), texture mapping units (288 vs 192), and render output units (128 vs 64). It also offers significantly higher pixel rate (288.0 GPixel/s vs 76.80 GPixel/s), texture rate (648.0 GTexel/s vs 230.4 GTexel/s), and FP32 compute (20.74 TFLOPS vs 7.373 TFLOPS).

The Pro Vega 48 has one unique advantage: it is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no power connectors and no slot width, meaning it is designed for portable devices. The RX 6800 XT, by contrast, is a dual-slot card requiring two 8-pin power connectors and a 700 W power supply. For applications where the Pro Vega 48 is built into the system, it offers a complete graphics solution without external power requirements.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the superior performer in every measurable benchmark comparison. For users who prioritize compute performance in Metal, OpenCL, or Vulkan, the RX 6800 XT delivers between 131% and 219% more performance than the Radeon Pro Vega 48 in the overlapping tests. The Pro Vega 48 trails by 61.9% in Metal, 68.6% in OpenCL, and 57.9% in Vulkan, all in favor of the RX 6800 XT.

However, the Radeon Pro Vega 48 is an integrated solution for portable devices, meaning it is not a direct purchase decision for most desktop builders. The RX 6800 XT is a discrete, dual-slot card with a 300 W TDP, requiring a 700 W power supply and two 8-pin connectors. The Pro Vega 48 has no power connectors and is an IGP, which makes it the only choice for the specific portable form factor it targets. The RX 6800 XT is end-of-life, as is the Pro Vega 48, so availability is limited for both.

For anyone choosing between these two as a discrete card, the RX 6800 XT is the clear winner. Its 16 GB of memory doubles the Pro Vega 48's 8 GB, and its memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s is nearly 27% higher. The architecture difference, RDNA 2.0 vs GCN 5.0, also means better feature support, including DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing with 72 RT cores, and Vulkan 1.4. The Pro Vega 48 lacks RT cores entirely and only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). The RX 6800 XT also has a higher average benchmark percentile at 95th, compared to 88th for the Pro Vega 48, indicating it sits better relative to all other GPUs in the database.

In practical terms, the RX 6800 XT is the only one of the two that can handle modern high-end gaming and compute workloads with high frame rates and heavy load. The Pro Vega 48 was built for a specific integration, and its benchmark performance, while respectable for its class, falls far short of the RX 6800 XT.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench Metal?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT scores 181,337, versus the Radeon Pro Vega 48's 69,690, which is a 61.9% lead for the RX card.

Q: How does memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth, while the Radeon RX 6800 XT achieves 512.0 GB/s, giving the RX card a 27.3% higher bandwidth.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro Vega 48 support ray tracing?

A: No, the Radeon Pro Vega 48 has no RT cores, while the Radeon RX 6800 XT has 72 RT cores.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 8 GB of HBM2 memory, and the Radeon RX 6800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, exactly twice as much.

Q: Which GPU has a higher shader count?

A: The Radeon RX 6800 XT has 4608 shading units, while the Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 3072, a 50% more for the RX card.

Q: What is the release date gap?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 48 was released on 2019-03-18, and the Radeon RX 6800 XT on 2020-10-27, so about 19 months apart.

Q: Does the Pro Vega 48 need external power?

A: No, it has no power connectors and is an integrated graphics processor. The RX 6800 XT requires two 8-pin connectors and a 700 W PSU.

Architecture Differences

The Radeon Pro Vega 48 uses the Vega 10 chip with the GCN 5.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries with 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die. The Radeon RX 6800 XT uses the Navi 21 chip with the RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC with 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die. The RX 6800 XT has a slightly larger die but more than double the transistor count, resulting in a transistor density of 51.5M per mm² versus 25.3M per mm² for the Pro Vega 48.

The RX 6800 XT features 72 RT cores, which enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, while the Pro Vega 48 has none. The RX card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Pro Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The RX 6800 XT memory type is GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the Pro Vega 48 uses HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus. The HBM2 offers a wider bus but lower clock speed, resulting in lower total bandwidth.

The RX 6800 XT has a base clock of 1825 MHz, game clock of 2015 MHz, and boost clock of 2250 MHz, while the Pro Vega 48 has no recorded base, game, or boost clocks. The RX 6800 XT's memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), while the Pro Vega 48's memory runs at 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective). The RX 6800 XT supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Pro Vega 48 uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

Specification Differences

The Radeon RX 6800 XT has a 16 GB memory capacity, 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, 128 ROPs, 72 RT cores, 288.0 GPixel/s pixel rate, 648.0 GTexel/s texture rate, and 20.74 TFLOPS FP32. The Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 8 GB memory, 402.4 GB/s bandwidth, 3072 shading units, 192 TMUs, 64 ROPs, no RT cores, 76.80 GPixel/s, 230.4 GTexel/s, and 7.373 TFLOPS FP32. The RX 6800 XT has a 300 W TDP, a dual-slot design, two 8-pin power connectors, and requires a 700 W power supply, while the Pro Vega 48 is an IGP with no power connectors and no slot width.

The RX 6800 XT measures 267 mm in length, 120 mm in height, and 50 mm in width, while the Pro Vega 48 has no dimensions listed. The RX 6800 XT has display outputs including 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C, while the Pro Vega 48 has "Portable Device Dependent" outputs. The RX 6800 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Pro Vega 48 has DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The RX 6800 XT has a launch MSRP of 649 USD, and the Pro Vega 48 has no launch MSRP listed. Both GPUs are end-of-life, with the Pro Vega 48 released on 2019-03-18 and the RX 6800 XT on 2020-10-27.