AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs Intel Arc A570M Comparison

# AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs Intel Arc A570M

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 and Intel Arc A570M occupy adjacent tiers in the aggregate benchmark standings, with the AMD part posting an average benchmark score of 63693 against Intel's 58239. That places the Radeon Pro Vega 56 at the 89th percentile of all GPUs and the Arc A570M at the 88th percentile, a narrow percentile gap that belies a more complex story beneath the averages. The single head-to-head benchmark available—Geekbench OpenCL—shows the AMD card winning by 6.3%, but the two cards are built on fundamentally different design philosophies, process technologies, and feature sets that make them suitable for different workloads despite their statistical proximity.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro Vega 56 wins the only direct benchmark comparison recorded between these two cards. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 61930 against Intel's 58239, a 6.3% margin. This is a meaningful lead in a compute-oriented API that stresses raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth, both of which favor the AMD card's larger silicon.

The Intel Arc A570M, however, is not without its own competitive positioning. Its average benchmark score of 58239 places it within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM and just 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT—a much higher-tier card in the broader market. That proximity suggests the Arc A570M punches above its modest 75 W envelope in compute tasks, even if it cannot match the Radeon Pro Vega 56's absolute numbers.

Looking at the percentile ranks, the Radeon Pro Vega 56's 89th percentile versus the Arc A570M's 88th percentile indicates that the AMD card sits marginally higher in the global performance distribution. Yet the delta between their average scores—roughly 9.3%—is smaller than the 6.3% head-to-head win might imply, because the Radeon's average is pulled up by additional benchmark results (Geekbench Metal at 63145 and Geekbench Vulkan at 66004) that the Intel card does not have recorded. If the Arc A570M had comparable Vulkan or Metal scores, its aggregate could shift significantly.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural lineages with distinct priorities. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip built on GCN 5.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. This is a large die at 495 mm², housing 12,500 million transistors at a density of 25.3M per mm². The Intel Arc A570M uses the DG2-256 chip based on Xe-HPG architecture, built on a 6 nm process at TSMC. Its die is substantially smaller at 269 mm², with 11,500 million transistors packed at a much higher density of 42.8M per mm².

The compute resources differ dramatically. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 fields 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The Arc A570M counters with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and the same 64 ROPs. This gives the AMD card 75% more shaders and 75% more TMUs, which explains its higher theoretical throughput: 8.960 TFLOPS FP32 versus 5.325 TFLOPS for Intel, and 17.92 TFLOPS FP16 versus 10.65 TFLOPS.

Memory configurations also diverge sharply. The AMD card uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Intel card uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s. That is a 79% bandwidth advantage for the Radeon Pro Vega 56, which is critical for memory-bound compute workloads.

The Intel part, however, brings features the AMD card lacks entirely. It includes 16 ray tracing cores, supporting hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no RT cores. The Arc A570M also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1). Vulkan support is also newer on Intel: version 1.4 versus 1.3 on AMD.

Clock behavior favors Intel on boost frequency. The Arc A570M boosts to 1300 MHz versus 1250 MHz on the Radeon, though the AMD card has a much higher base clock at 1138 MHz versus 900 MHz. The Intel card compensates for its lower shader count and narrower memory bus with a leaner 75 W TDP, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 draws 210 W—nearly three times the power.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split: the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is the stronger compute performer, winning the only head-to-head benchmark by 6.3% and offering more than double the memory bandwidth. Its 3584 shading units and 8.960 TFLOPS FP32 throughput give it a decisive edge in raw number-crunching workloads, and its 89th percentile rank reflects that strength. For users whose primary concern is OpenCL compute—rendering, scientific simulation, or similar parallel workloads—the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is the better choice.

The Intel Arc A570M, despite losing the head-to-head, is not a clear loser. Its 88th percentile rank is nearly identical, and its 75 W TDP makes it far more suitable for thin-and-light mobile systems where power and thermals are constrained. The inclusion of 16 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support means it is more future-proof for gaming and ray-traced content, even if its raw FP32 throughput is lower. For a portable device where battery life and cooling are paramount, the Arc A570M is the more practical option.

Neither card has a recorded launch MSRP in the data, so price cannot be a deciding factor. The production status differs: the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is end-of-life, having launched in August 2017, while the Arc A570M is active, launched in July 2023. That means the AMD card is older and may be harder to source new, but it still holds a compute advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 wins with a score of 61930 versus 58239 for the Intel Arc A570M, a 6.3% advantage.

Q: Do both cards have the same amount of memory?

A: Yes, both have 8 GB, but the Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 402.4 GB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A570M uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the Intel Arc A570M has ray tracing cores—16 of them. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no RT cores.

Q: How do their power requirements differ?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has a 210 W TDP, while the Arc A570M has a 75 W TDP, making the Intel card significantly more power-efficient.

Q: Which card is newer?

A: The Intel Arc A570M was released on July 31, 2023, and is still active in production. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 was released on August 13, 2017, and is end-of-life.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each GPU?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 56 sits at the 89th percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A570M sits at the 88th percentile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it favors the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 decisively. The AMD card scores 61930, beating the Intel Arc A570M's 58239 by 6.3%. This result aligns with the architectural advantages of the Radeon: its 3584 shading units versus 2048, its 402.4 GB/s memory bandwidth versus 224.0 GB/s, and its 8.960 TFLOPS FP32 compute versus 5.325 TFLOPS.

The 6.3% margin is notable but not overwhelming. It suggests that the Arc A570M's 6 nm process and higher boost clock of 1300 MHz help it close some of the gap created by the Radeon's larger silicon and wider memory bus. The Intel card's pixel rate of 83.20 GPixel/s actually exceeds the Radeon's 80.00 GPixel/s, and its 64 ROPs match the AMD card, so in pixel-bound scenarios the difference could narrow further.

However, the Radeon's texture rate of 280.0 GTexel/s versus 166.4 GTexel/s gives it a 68% advantage in texture-heavy workloads, and its FP16 throughput of 17.92 TFLOPS versus 10.65 TFLOPS reinforces the compute lead. The Arc A570M's nearest rival data shows it within 0.3% of the Radeon RX 6950 XT, a far more powerful card in most contexts, which indicates that Intel's part performs efficiently relative to its specifications—but the head-to-head result stands as the only direct evidence, and it favors AMD.

Specification Differences

The Radeon Pro Vega 56 and Intel Arc A570M differ across nearly every major specification category. The AMD card uses a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries with a 495 mm² die and 12,500 million transistors, while the Intel card uses a 6 nm process at TSMC with a 269 mm² die and 11,500 million transistors. Transistor density is 25.3M per mm² for AMD versus 42.8M per mm² for Intel.

Clock speeds show a split: the Radeon has a base clock of 1138 MHz and boost of 1250 MHz, while the Arc has a base of 900 MHz and boost of 1300 MHz. Memory clocks are 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective) for AMD versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for Intel, though the AMD card's 2048-bit bus vastly outweighs Intel's 128-bit bus in total bandwidth.

Shading units number 3584 on AMD versus 2048 on Intel, with TMUs at 224 versus 128. Both have 64 ROPs. The Radeon produces 80.00 GPixel/s and 280.0 GTexel/s, while the Arc produces 83.20 GPixel/s and 166.4 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 8.960 TFLOPS versus 5.325 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 17.92 TFLOPS versus 10.65 TFLOPS (both at 2:1 ratio).

The Arc A570M adds 16 RT cores, which the Radeon lacks entirely. TDP differs massively: 210 W for AMD versus 75 W for Intel. Both are IGP slot width with no power connectors required, but the Radeon uses PCIe 3.0 x16 while the Arc uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a for AMD, while Intel's are listed as portable device dependent. DirectX support is 12 (12_1) for AMD versus 12 Ultimate (12_2) for Intel, and Vulkan is 1.3 versus 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6.