AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 represent two distinct approaches to mobile professional graphics, and benchmark data shows a clear overall winner. In direct head-to-head testing, the RTX A3000 Mobile wins both available comparisons, but the margin varies dramatically by workload. The RTX A3000 Mobile leads by 47.1% in Geekbench OpenCL and by a narrower 6.1% in Geekbench Vulkan. This split suggests that the NVIDIA part has a substantial compute advantage in general-purpose GPU workloads, while the AMD card remains more competitive in graphics-oriented APIs. The average benchmark score reinforces this hierarchy: the RTX A3000 Mobile averages 70,140 points versus 60,140 for the Radeon Pro Vega 48, a gap of roughly 16.6%. The RTX A3000 Mobile also sits at the 91st percentile among all GPUs, while the Vega 48 sits at the 88th percentile, confirming that both are high-end parts but the NVIDIA solution is positioned one tier higher.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the most decisive data point in this comparison. The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile scores 79,091 points against 53,757 for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, yielding a 47.1% advantage. This is not a marginal win; it is a dominant performance gap that places the RTX A3000 Mobile in a different performance class for compute-heavy tasks. OpenCL workloads typically stress raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth, and the numbers show the NVIDIA architecture handles these demands far more efficiently. The RTX A3000 Mobile's nearest rival in this metric is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE with an average score of 70,829, and the NVIDIA part beats that by 1%. Meanwhile, the Radeon Pro Vega 48's OpenCL score of 53,757 is significantly below its own average of 60,140, suggesting that this particular workload does not favor the AMD architecture.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a different story. Here, the RTX A3000 Mobile scores 61,189 against 57,653 for the Vega 48, a 6.1% advantage. This is a much tighter race, indicating that Vulkan's lower-level API access helps close the gap between the two architectures. The RTX A3000 Mobile still wins, but the margin is small enough that real-world Vulkan applications could show near-parity. This result also highlights that the Vega 48's Vulkan performance is its stronger benchmark, relative to its OpenCL showing. Notably, the RTX A3000 Mobile's Vulkan score of 61,189 is lower than its OpenCL score of 79,091, whereas the Vega 48's Vulkan score of 57,653 is higher than its OpenCL score of 53,757. This suggests the NVIDIA part is more optimized for OpenCL-style compute, while the AMD part has more balanced performance across APIs.

Looking at the broader rival landscape, the RTX A3000 Mobile's average score of 70,140 places it just 0.2% above the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (69,986) and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (69,870). It also leads the NVIDIA CMP 90HX (69,000) by 1.7%. This clustering indicates that the RTX A3000 Mobile is performing at the level of previous-generation flagship desktop workstation cards, which is impressive for a mobile part. The Radeon Pro Vega 48, by contrast, sits at 60,140, which is 0.3% below the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326) and 0.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (60,347) in this particular benchmark database. The Vega 48 does beat the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657) by 2.5% and the NVIDIA P102-100 (58,528) by 2.8%, but its peer group is clearly a step below the RTX A3000 Mobile's.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A3000 Mobile wins decisively in compute-heavy OpenCL workloads. Its 47.1% lead in this benchmark indicates strong FP32 throughput and efficient memory utilization for general-purpose GPU computing. The card's FP32 rating of 10.08 TFLOPS supports this, as it is 36.7% higher than the Vega 48's 7.373 TFLOPS. For professionals running simulation, rendering, or data-processing tasks that leverage OpenCL, the RTX A3000 Mobile is the clear choice. Its average benchmark score of 70,140 versus 60,140 also means it outperforms the Vega 48 across the board, not just in one specific test. The RTX A3000 Mobile's 91st percentile ranking versus the Vega 48's 88th percentile confirms that it is the higher-performing part overall.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 has no benchmark wins in this comparison, but it does show relative strengths that are worth noting. Its Vulkan score of 57,653 is much closer to the RTX A3000 Mobile's 61,189 than its OpenCL score is, indicating that the Vega 48 is more competitive in graphics-oriented APIs. The Vega 48 also has a 6.1% advantage over its own OpenCL score in Vulkan, whereas the RTX A3000 Mobile's Vulkan score is 22.6% lower than its OpenCL score. This suggests that for Vulkan-based applications, the Vega 48 may offer a more balanced experience relative to its overall capabilities. Additionally, the Vega 48 has a higher texture rate of 230.4 GTexel/s versus 157.4 GTexel/s for the RTX A3000 Mobile, which could benefit certain texture-heavy workloads, though this does not translate into a benchmark win.

For users who prioritize compute performance, the RTX A3000 Mobile is the clear winner. Its OpenCL dominance and higher average score make it the better choice for professional workloads that rely on general-purpose GPU compute. For users who primarily work with Vulkan-based applications, the Vega 48 is closer to parity, but it still loses by 6.1%. Neither card wins every test, but the RTX A3000 Mobile wins the ones that matter most in terms of overall performance. The Vega 48's best case is a narrow loss in Vulkan, while the RTX A3000 Mobile's worst case is a 6.1% win in that same test. This asymmetry strongly favors the NVIDIA part.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial and explains much of the performance difference. The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 uses the Vega 10 chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. This process node advantage is significant: the 8 nm node allows for a transistor density of 44.4 million transistors per square millimeter, compared to 25.3 million for the 14 nm node. The RTX A3000 Mobile packs 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die, while the Vega 48 fits 12,500 million transistors into a larger 495 mm² die. This means the NVIDIA chip achieves higher transistor density in a smaller package, which is a key factor in its performance and efficiency.

The architecture generations are also very different. The RTX A3000 Mobile uses NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, while the Vega 48 uses AMD's GCN 5.0. Ampere is a newer design that introduces dedicated hardware features that GCN 5.0 lacks. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 32 ray tracing cores and 128 tensor cores, while the Vega 48 has neither. This is a fundamental architectural difference: ray tracing cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and tensor cores accelerate AI and machine learning workloads. The Vega 48 cannot perform these tasks with dedicated hardware, which limits its capabilities in modern professional applications that increasingly rely on ray tracing and AI acceleration.

The shader configurations also differ substantially. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units. The Vega 48 has 3,072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA part has 33.3% more shading units, which directly contributes to its higher FP32 throughput. The AMD part has 50% more TMUs, which explains its higher texture rate of 230.4 GTexel/s versus 157.4 GTexel/s. Both cards have 64 ROPs, resulting in similar pixel rates of 78.72 GPixel/s for the RTX A3000 Mobile and 76.80 GPixel/s for the Vega 48. The FP16 performance also differs: the RTX A3000 Mobile delivers 10.08 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while the Vega 48 delivers 14.75 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, meaning the AMD part has a higher peak FP16 throughput but at the cost of reduced FP32 performance.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems are a major point of differentiation. The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 264.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 has 8 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has 33.3% more memory capacity and 52.4% more bandwidth, which is a significant advantage for memory-intensive workloads. However, the RTX A3000 Mobile's memory runs at 1375 MHz with 11 Gbps effective speed, while the Vega 48's memory runs at 786 MHz with 1572 Mbps effective speed. The HBM2 technology uses a much wider bus to compensate for lower clock speeds, which is why it achieves higher bandwidth despite slower clocks.

The bus interface also differs, with the RTX A3000 Mobile using PCIe 4.0 x16 and the Vega 48 using PCIe 3.0 x16. PCIe 4.0 offers double the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, which can benefit data transfer between the GPU and system memory. The power characteristics also differ, though the Vega 48 does not have a listed TDP. The RTX A3000 Mobile has a TDP of 70 W and uses no external power connectors, while the Vega 48 is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors. This suggests the Vega 48 is designed for a specific integrated form factor, while the RTX A3000 Mobile is a discrete mobile GPU. The API support also differs: the RTX A3000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA card also has a newer release date of April 2021 versus March 2019 for the AMD card, and both are end-of-life products.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher average benchmark scores?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 70,140, compared to 60,140 for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48. This represents a 16.6% advantage for the NVIDIA part.

Q: How much faster is the RTX A3000 Mobile in OpenCL?

A: The RTX A3000 Mobile scores 79,091 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 47.1% higher than the Vega 48's score of 53,757. This is the largest performance gap between the two cards in any benchmark.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro Vega 48 win any benchmark?

A: No. In the two head-to-head benchmarks available (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the RTX A3000 Mobile wins both. The Vega 48 has zero wins out of two comparisons.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The Vega 48 has 402.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is 52.4% higher than the RTX A3000 Mobile's 264.0 GB/s. The Vega 48 also has more memory capacity (8 GB versus 6 GB).

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, which is 33.3% more than the Vega 48's 3,072 shading units. This contributes to the NVIDIA card's higher FP32 performance of 10.08 TFLOPS versus 7.373 TFLOPS.

Q: Do either of these GPUs have ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: Only the RTX A3000 Mobile has these features. It includes 32 ray tracing cores and 128 tensor cores. The Vega 48 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as its GCN 5.0 architecture predates these dedicated hardware units.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for most professional use cases. The NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 in both available benchmarks, with an average score advantage of 16.6%. Its 47.1% lead in OpenCL is particularly significant for compute-heavy workloads, and its higher FP32 throughput of 10.08 TFLOPS versus 7.373 TFLOPS provides a solid foundation for general-purpose GPU computing. The RTX A3000 Mobile also brings modern architectural features that the Vega 48 completely lacks: 32 ray tracing cores and 128 tensor cores. For professionals working with ray-traced rendering or AI-accelerated applications, this is a decisive factor. The NVIDIA card's smaller 8 nm process node also allows for higher transistor density in a smaller die, which contributes to its performance efficiency.

Users should choose the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 only if memory bandwidth and capacity are the primary concerns. The Vega 48 offers 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth and 8 GB of HBM2 memory, both of which exceed the RTX A3000 Mobile's specifications. This could benefit workloads that are heavily memory-bound and do not leverage the RTX A3000 Mobile's compute or ray tracing capabilities. However, the benchmark data shows that even with its memory advantages, the Vega 48 still loses both head-to-head tests. Its Vulkan score of 57,653 is within 6.1% of the RTX A3000 Mobile, so for Vulkan-specific applications, the Vega 48 is a viable alternative. But for the vast majority of professional workloads, the RTX A3000 Mobile is the superior choice based on benchmark performance alone. The RTX A3000 Mobile also has a higher percentile ranking (91st versus 88th), confirming its position in a higher performance tier. The verdict is straightforward: the RTX A3000 Mobile is the better GPU for compute and modern professional workloads, while the Vega 48's memory subsystem is its only notable advantage.