AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs NVIDIA RTX A6000 Comparison
AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48
RTX A6000
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs NVIDIA RTX A6000
# Where Each One Wins
The benchmark data splits this pairing cleanly by API generation. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 wins no head-to-head tests in the recorded suite. Out of two direct comparison benchmarks, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 takes both. That is the headline result: the A6000 is faster in every recorded test. The Vega 48 does not beat the A6000 in any single workload. This is a one-sided comparison, but the margins vary a lot by test type. The largest gap comes in the OpenCL benchmark, where the A6000 posts 193,937 against 53,757 for the Vega 48, a 72.3% deficit. The Vulkan test shows a 64.9% gap. The A6000's advantage is consistent, and it is largest in compute-heavy synthetic workloads.
The Verdict
Strictly from the recorded data, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is the clear pick. It wins both head-to-head tests, and its average benchmark score of 44,075 across all recorded tests is 26.7% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48's 60,140 average. The Vega 48's percentile rank of 88 versus the A6000's 84 shows the A6000 sits in a higher percentile of all GPUs in the database. The data does not show a single workload where the Vega 48 is the better choice. The verdict is not close. The A6000's architectural advantages (more shading units, more ROPs, tensor cores, RT cores) translate directly into higher recorded throughput.
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The biggest single win for the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is in Geekbench OpenCL. The A6000 scores 193,937, while the Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 53,757. That is a 72.3% advantage. The database records this test as the largest percentage gap. The A6000's compute oriented architecture, 10,752 shading units versus 3,072, and 336 tensor cores versus none, are the reason for this dominance.
The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a similar shape. The A6000 scores 164,462, the Vega 48 scores 57,653. That is a 64.9% gap. This is the second of the two wins. The Vega 48's best result comes from the DirectX 11 Passmark test, a score of 191. However, this score is lower than the A6000's result in the same test. The data does not show a scenario in which the Vega 48 pulls ahead. The A6000 wins in raw compute, in geometry throughput, and in every recorded driver-level test.
Where Each One Wins
The recorded database shows 0 wins for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 and 2 wins for the NVIDIA RTX A6000. There is no benchmark category where the Vega 48 leads. The closest margin is in the Passmark G3D test, where the Vega 48 scores 22,577 and the A6000 scores 22,577, a tie. In fact, the database shows the delta as 0.0% in that test. If you only run DirectX 9 or G2D workloads, the two cards appear nearly equivalent. The Vega 48's 76.80 GPixel/s pixel rate and 230.4 GTexel/s texture rate are within line of the A6000's 201.6 GPixel/s and 604.8 GTexel/s. For older API workloads, the gap narrows. But for OpenCL, Vulkan, and newer DirectX versions, the A6000 is decisively ahead. The FP32 performance tells the story: 7.373 TFLOPS for the Vega 48 versus 38.71 TFLOPS for the A6000. That is a massive ratio.
AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 vs NVIDIA RTX A6000
The data points to a decisive NVIDIA victory. The Vega 48's 8 GB HBM2 and 402.4 GB/s bandwidth are not enough to overcome the A6000's 48 GB GDDR6 and 768 GB/s. The A6000 has 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores, while the Vega has none of either. The Vega's 3,072 shading units are far fewer than the A6000's 10,752. The Vega's 192 TMUs and 64 ROPs are also far fewer than the A6000's 336 TMUs and 112 ROPs. In every major compute block, the NVIDIA card has a 2 to 1 advantage. The 8nm Samsung process and 28.3 billion transistors of the A6000 also outpace the 14nm GlobalFoundries process and 12.5 billion transistors of the Vega.
The Vega 48 is not without its strengths. It has a lower 100% power consumption, which can be useful in a constrained system. Its HBM2 memory may have lower latency in some memory-bound workloads. It also has a slightly higher score in the PassMark G2D 913 and DirectX 9 245 tests. But those are legacy tests. The trend in the data is clear: for modern and compute-heavy workloads, the A6000 is the superior part.
FAQ
Q: Which GPU wins in raw compute performance?
A: The data shows the NVIDIA RTX A6000 wins. Its FP32 score is 38.71 TFLOPS, which is more than 5 times the Vega 48's 7.373 TFLOPS.
Q: Does the AMD card have any advantage?
A: Yes, in memory. The Vega 48 has 8 GB of HBM2 with a 2048-bit bus, versus the A6000's 48 GB of GDDR6 with a 384-bit bus. The Vega's memory bandwidth is 402.4 GB/s, while the A6000's is 768.0 GB/s.
Q: How different are the architectures?
A: The Vega 48 uses GCN 5.0, while the A6000 uses Ampere. The A6000 has tensor cores (336) and RT cores (84), which the Vega does not have.
Q: What about API support?
A: The A6000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Vega 48 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.
Q: Is the Vega 48 a smaller card?
A: Yes, the Vega 48 has a smaller die size of 495 mm², and the A6000 is 628 mm². The Vega has a lower transistor density of 25.3 million per mm² versus the A6000's 45.1 million per mm².
Architecture Differences
The chip and memory architecture explain the performance gap. The AMD Vega 10 is built on a 14nm GlobalFoundries process with 12.5 billion transistors on a 495 mm² die. The NVIDIA GA102 is built on Samsung's 8nm process with 28.3 billion transistors on a 628 mm² die. The density numbers are 25.3 million per mm² versus 45.1 million per mm². The A6000's die has more than double the transistor density.
The Vega 48 has 3,072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, 64 ROPs. The A6000 has 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs. The A6000 also has 336 tensor cores and 84 RT cores. The Vega has no tensor or RT cores. The memory systems are also different: 8 GB HBM2 on 2048-bit bus versus 48 GB GDDR6 on 384-bit bus. The Vega memory clock is 786 MHz, yielding 402.4 GB/s as measured. The A6000's memory clock is 2000 MHz, for 768.0 GB/s.
Specification Differences
A few fields differ between the two parts. The Vega 48 uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the A6000 uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The display outputs: the Vega has "Portable Device Dependent", the A6000 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. Power connectors: the Vega has no power connector, the A6000 has an 8-pin EPS. The slot width is also different: the Vega is a single slot, the A6000 is a dual slot. The recommended power supply is 700 W for the A6000, and the TDP is 300 W. The Vega's TDP is not published. The Vega was released on 2019-03-18, the A6000 on 2020-10-04. The Vega is end-of-life, the A6000 is end-of-life.