AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs Intel Arc A530M Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in overall benchmark scores?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 posts an average benchmark score of 60140, which places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The Intel Arc A530M records an average score of 46614, placing it in the 85th percentile.

Q: Which GPU wins in OpenCL performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 53757 in the Geekbench OpenCL test, beating the Intel Arc A530M's 49735 by a margin of 8.1%.

Q: What about Vulkan performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is decisively ahead in Vulkan, scoring 57653 versus 43492 for the Intel Arc A530M, a 32.6% advantage.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A530M have ray tracing hardware?

A: Yes. The Intel Arc A530M includes 12 ray tracing cores, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 has no dedicated ray tracing cores listed in the database.

Q: Which GPU is newer and what are the production statuses?

A: The Intel Arc A530M was released on 2023-07-31 and is listed as Active in production. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 was released on 2019-03-18 and is marked as End-of-life.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 compare to nearby rivals?

A: The database shows the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710 and 2.8% ahead of the NVIDIA P102-100, while trailing the Intel Arc Pro A60 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 by 0.3% each.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 and Intel Arc A530M represent two fundamentally different design philosophies. AMD's chip, the Vega 10, uses the GCN 5.0 architecture and is built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. Intel's DG2-256 chip uses the Xe-HPG architecture and is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. The node difference is significant: Intel packs 11,500 million transistors into a 269 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 42.8M per mm², while AMD uses 12,500 million transistors across a much larger 495 mm² die, yielding only 25.3M per mm².

Memory subsystems diverge sharply. The AMD card uses 8 GB of HBM2 with a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Intel part uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s. This 178.4 GB/s bandwidth gap is a core differentiator and shows up across compute-heavy workloads.

Compute resources tell a similar story. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 3072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The Intel Arc A530M has 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. In raw throughput, AMD leads with 7.373 TFLOPS FP32 and 14.75 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio), versus Intel's 3.994 TFLOPS FP32 and 7.987 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The pixel rate for AMD is 76.80 GPixel/s, while Intel manages 62.40 GPixel/s; texture rates are 230.4 GTexel/s versus 124.8 GTexel/s.

Clock behavior differs as well. The Intel Arc A530M has explicit base and boost clocks of 900 MHz and 1300 MHz, while the AMD part has no base or boost clock listed in the database. Memory clocks also differ: AMD's HBM2 runs at 786 MHz with 1572 Mbps effective, while Intel's GDDR6 runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective.

Feature sets diverge on modern capabilities. The Intel Arc A530M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, and includes 12 ray tracing cores. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, with no ray tracing cores. Both support OpenGL 4.6. Bus interfaces also differ: AMD uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while Intel uses PCIe 4.0 x8.

Power characteristics are notable. The Intel Arc A530M has a listed TDP of 65 W, while the AMD card has no TDP figure in the database. Both are IGP slot-width devices with portable device dependent display outputs, and the AMD card lists no power connectors.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data covers two API tests, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 wins both. The victories are not uniform in magnitude, which tells a story about where each architecture excels.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 53757 against the Intel Arc A530M's 49735. That is a 8.1% lead. OpenCL workloads often scale with raw compute throughput and memory bandwidth, and the AMD card has roughly 1.8x the FP32 throughput and 1.8x the memory bandwidth of the Intel part. The score gap is smaller than the hardware gap suggests, indicating that Intel's architecture extracts more efficiency per unit of compute or bandwidth in this workload.

The Vulkan test shows a much larger separation. AMD scores 57653, Intel scores 43492, and the delta is 32.6%. This is a substantial margin. Vulkan is a low-level API that rewards driver efficiency and hardware scheduling, and the data indicates the AMD implementation has a strong advantage here. Interestingly, AMD's Vulkan score (57653) is higher than its OpenCL score (53757), while Intel's Vulkan score (43492) is significantly lower than its OpenCL score (49735). The Intel part loses 12.4% going from OpenCL to Vulkan, while AMD gains 7.3% in the same transition. This directional divergence suggests the AMD driver stack and hardware handle Vulkan's explicit model more effectively.

Looking at the broader rival context, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 sits in a tight cluster with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, 0.3% ahead) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (60347, 0.3% ahead). It also leads the AMD Radeon PRO V710 by 2.5% and the NVIDIA P102-100 by 2.8%. The Intel Arc A530M, by contrast, is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (46601, 0% delta), trails the AMD Radeon RX 6550M by 0.2%, and leads the NVIDIA RTX A2000 by 1.2% and the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation by 1.4%. The two GPUs operate in different performance strata, with the AMD part sitting roughly 29% higher in average score.

The Verdict

The benchmark data paints a clear picture: the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is the faster GPU in every recorded head-to-head test. It leads by 8.1% in OpenCL and by 32.6% in Vulkan. For workloads that rely on OpenCL compute, the AMD card provides a solid but not overwhelming advantage. For Vulkan-based rendering or compute, the AMD card is decisively ahead, and the margin is large enough to be felt in real-world applications.

The Intel Arc A530M is not without merits. It is a newer design with active production status, built on a more advanced 6 nm process, and includes ray tracing hardware plus DirectX 12 Ultimate support. It also has a dramatically smaller die (269 mm² versus 495 mm²) and a lower transistor count (11,500 million versus 12,500 million), which suggests better manufacturing efficiency. The 65 W TDP listing, while not directly comparable to the AMD card's unlisted power draw, indicates Intel is targeting a mobile-friendly power envelope.

Who should pick which? The data supports the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 for users prioritizing raw compute performance, especially in Vulkan workloads where the 32.6% lead is decisive. The Intel Arc A530M makes sense for users who need modern API features like DirectX 12 Ultimate and ray tracing, or who value a newer, actively produced part with a smaller physical footprint. The AMD card's end-of-life status and lack of ray tracing cores are real limitations, but in pure benchmark performance, AMD wins both recorded tests.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 | Intel Arc A530M |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | GCN 5.0 | Xe-HPG |

| Process Node | 14 nm | 6 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 12,500 million | 11,500 million |

| Die Size | 495 mm² | 269 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.3M / mm² | 42.8M / mm² |

| Base Clock | Not listed | 900 MHz |

| Boost Clock | Not listed | 1300 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 786 MHz, 1572 Mbps effective | 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective |

| Memory Type | HBM2 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 2048 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 402.4 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3072 | 1536 |

| TMUs | 192 | 96 |

| ROPs | 64 | 48 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | None | 12 |

| Pixel Rate | 76.80 GPixel/s | 62.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 230.4 GTexel/s | 124.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 7.373 TFLOPS | 3.994 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 14.75 TFLOPS (2:1) | 7.987 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | Not listed | 65 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2019-03-18 | 2023-07-31 |