AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data shows a decisive sweep for the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT across all three recorded head-to-head tests. The RX 6800 XT wins every comparison, with the gap ranging from roughly half to two-thirds depending on the API workload.

In Geekbench Metal, the RX 6800 XT scores 181,337 against the Radeon Pro Vega 56’s 63,145. That is a delta of 65.2% in favor of the newer card, meaning the RX 6800 XT delivers nearly three times the raw Metal performance. This is the largest margin in the entire comparison, highlighting how far the architecture has come in raw compute throughput under Apple’s Metal framework.

Geekbench OpenCL shows a similar story. The RX 6800 XT posts 171,304, while the Pro Vega 56 manages 61,930. The delta here is 63.8%, again a massive lead for the RX 6800 XT. OpenCL workloads, which often stress memory bandwidth and shader throughput, clearly favor the newer card’s GDDR6 configuration and higher shader count.

The closest contest comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RX 6800 XT scores 136,875 versus the Pro Vega 56’s 66,004. That is a 51.8% delta, still a commanding win but notably tighter than the other two tests. Vulkan’s lower-level API overhead appears to narrow the gap somewhat, though the RX 6800 XT remains firmly ahead.

Looking at the broader database averages, the Pro Vega 56 actually holds a higher average benchmark score of 63,693 across all recorded tests, compared to the RX 6800 XT’s 48,477. This seeming contradiction stems from the different test suites: the Pro Vega 56’s three Geekbench scores are all clustered around 62,000 to 66,000, while the RX 6800 XT’s average is pulled down by its Passmark results, which include sub-300 scores in several DirectX tests. The head-to-head data, however, uses only the three shared Geekbench tests, where the RX 6800 XT dominates.

In percentile terms, the Pro Vega 56 sits at the 89th percentile among all GPUs, while the RX 6800 XT is at the 85th. This ranking reflects the Pro Vega 56’s consistent performance across its limited test set, rather than its actual competitive position against the RX 6800 XT in these specific workloads.

The nearest rivals for each card further contextualize the results. The Pro Vega 56’s closest competitor is the AMD Radeon RX 7600M with an average score of 63,775, just 0.1% ahead. The RX 6800 XT’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile at 47,743, which the RX 6800 XT beats by 1.5%. Notably, the RX 6800 XT also trails the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 by 3%, a card from the same Vega generation as the Pro Vega 56, suggesting the RX 6800 XT’s raw score average does not reflect its peak performance in modern APIs.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the superior performer in every shared benchmark. If the workload is Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, or Vulkan, the RX 6800 XT delivers between 51.8% and 65.2% higher scores. There is no scenario in the recorded data where the Radeon Pro Vega 56 wins.

That said, the Pro Vega 56 is not without its merits. Its 89th percentile ranking and consistent scores across Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan indicate a well-balanced card for its era. It also carries a lower TDP of 210 W versus the RX 6800 XT’s 300 W, and it requires no external power connectors, making it a plausible choice for systems with strict power or physical constraints. The Pro Vega 56 is also an integrated graphics processor (IGP) in slot width, meaning it fits into spaces where the RX 6800 XT’s dual-slot design would not.

The RX 6800 XT, however, is the clear pick for anyone prioritizing raw performance. It doubles the memory capacity to 16 GB, nearly doubles the FP32 throughput at 20.74 TFLOPS versus 8.960 TFLOPS, and offers ray tracing cores, which the Pro Vega 56 lacks entirely. Its launch MSRP was 649 USD, and it supports PCIe 4.0, doubling the bus bandwidth of the Pro Vega 56’s PCIe 3.0 interface.

In short, the RX 6800 XT is the benchmark winner without qualification. The Pro Vega 56 remains relevant only in niche, power-constrained or physically limited scenarios where its IGP form factor and lack of power connectors are decisive advantages.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies from AMD. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip built on GCN 5.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The RX 6800 XT uses the Navi 21 chip on RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. This process shrink is a major factor in the performance gap, allowing the RX 6800 XT to pack 26,800 million transistors into a 520 mm² die, versus the Pro Vega 56’s 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die. Transistor density nearly doubles, from 25.3 million per mm² to 51.5 million per mm².

The shader configurations differ substantially. The Pro Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units. The RX 6800 XT increases all of these: 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. This translates to a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s for the RX 6800 XT versus 80.00 GPixel/s for the Pro Vega 56, and a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s versus 280.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is 20.74 TFLOPS against 8.960 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 41.47 TFLOPS versus 17.92 TFLOPS, both at a 2:1 ratio.

The RX 6800 XT introduces 72 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Pro Vega 56. This is a generational leap in capability, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing that the older GCN architecture cannot perform. The RX 6800 XT also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Pro Vega 56 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Vulkan support advances from 1.3 to 1.4, and OpenGL remains at 4.6 for both.

The memory subsystems are entirely different. The Pro Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 6800 XT uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the GDDR6 memory runs at 16 Gbps effective versus the HBM2’s 1572 Mbps effective, resulting in higher total bandwidth.

Specification Differences

The specifications where the two cards differ are extensive. The RX 6800 XT has a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. The Pro Vega 56 runs at 1138 MHz base and 1250 MHz boost, with no game clock listed. Memory clocks also diverge: 2000 MHz for the RX 6800 XT versus 786 MHz for the Pro Vega 56.

Memory capacity doubles from 8 GB to 16 GB, and the type changes from HBM2 to GDDR6. Bus width drops from 2048 bits to 256 bits, but bandwidth increases from 402.4 GB/s to 512.0 GB/s. The RX 6800 XT has a TDP of 300 W, requiring a 700 W suggested PSU and two 8-pin power connectors. The Pro Vega 56 has a 210 W TDP, needs no power connectors, and is an IGP in slot width, meaning it occupies no expansion slot. The RX 6800 XT is dual-slot and measures 267 mm in length, 120 mm in height, and 50 mm in width.

The bus interface moves from PCIe 3.0 x16 to PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the Pro Vega 56 offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RX 6800 XT provides 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C. Release dates are separated by over three years: August 2017 for the Pro Vega 56, October 2020 for the RX 6800 XT. Both are end-of-life, but the RX 6800 XT lists a predecessor (Navi) and successor (Navi III), while the Pro Vega 56 has neither.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in Geekbench Metal?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins decisively, scoring 181,337 against the Radeon Pro Vega 56’s 63,145, a delta of 65.2%.

Q: How much faster is the RX 6800 XT in Vulkan?

A: The RX 6800 XT scores 136,875 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 66,004 for the Pro Vega 56, a 51.8% advantage.

Q: Does the Pro Vega 56 have ray tracing cores?

A: No. The Pro Vega 56 has no ray tracing cores, while the RX 6800 XT includes 72.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The Pro Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 402.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 6800 XT uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The Pro Vega 56 has a higher average of 63,693 across its recorded tests, versus 48,477 for the RX 6800 XT, though the RX 6800 XT wins all three shared head-to-head tests.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The Pro Vega 56 has a 210 W TDP and requires no power connectors. The RX 6800 XT has a 300 W TDP, needs two 8-pin connectors, and suggests a 700 W PSU.