AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs NVIDIA Quadro P6000 Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 are both end-of-life professional workstation cards, yet they remain closely matched in aggregate performance. The data shows the Quadro P6000 holds a slim 0.3% lead in average benchmark score, posting 67,320 versus the Radeon’s 67,097. This places both cards in the 91st and 92nd percentiles of all GPUs, respectively, indicating they sit at the very top tier of professional compute hardware despite their age. The following analysis breaks down where each card excels, the architectural philosophies behind them, and which workloads favor which solution.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards were directly compared in two cross-platform compute tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both instances, the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 emerges victorious, but the margin of victory is not uniform across the two APIs.

In the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, the Quadro P6000 scores 63,852 against the Radeon Pro Vega 56’s 61,930. This translates to a 3.1% advantage for the NVIDIA card. While this is a definitive win, it is a relatively modest gap for two cards with such different specifications. The OpenCL result suggests that in a raw, vendor-agnostic compute workload, the NVIDIA architecture’s higher clock speeds and larger memory bus help it edge out the AMD competitor, but the Radeon’s architecture is clearly competitive enough to stay within striking distance.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story with a larger spread. Here, the Quadro P6000 scores 70,788, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 manages 66,004. This gives NVIDIA a more substantial 7.2% victory. Vulkan is a low-overhead API that often rewards raw throughput and driver efficiency. The data indicates that the Pascal architecture’s implementation of Vulkan 1.4 is significantly more effective than the GCN 5.0 implementation of Vulkan 1.3. For developers or professionals running Vulkan-based compute or rendering tasks, this delta is substantial enough to be a deciding factor.

It is notably the Radeon Pro Vega 56 also has a Geekbench Metal score of 73,356, which is actually higher than any score the Quadro P6000 achieved in the shared tests. However, since the Quadro P6000 has no corresponding Metal benchmark result in the data, this cannot be considered a direct head-to-head win. The official head-to-head tally stands at 2 wins for the Quadro P6000 and 0 for the Radeon Pro Vega 56.

Looking at the broader competitive landscape, the deltaPct values show how close these two cards are to other professional and consumer flagships. The Quadro P6000 is 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla T4, 1.3% ahead of the GeForce RTX 4090, and 1.8% ahead of the Tesla P40 in average score. Conversely, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is 0.5% ahead of the Tesla T4, 0.9% ahead of the RTX 4090, and 1.5% ahead of the Tesla P40. This demonstrates that while the NVIDIA card wins the direct comparison, both are functionally in the same performance echelon, trading blows with much newer hardware like the RTX 4090.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the benchmark results, the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 is the clear winner in cross-platform compute tasks. Its victories in both OpenCL and Vulkan indicate that it is the more versatile choice for developers who need consistent performance across different graphics APIs. The 7.2% lead in Vulkan is particularly notable, as that API is increasingly used in professional visualization and game-engine workflows. The Quadro’s higher pixel rate of 157.9 GPixel/s versus the Radeon’s 80.00 GPixel/s also suggests it has an advantage in rasterization-heavy tasks, even though that specific metric is not directly benchmarked here.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, despite losing the head-to-head, has its own distinct strengths based on the architectural data. Most significantly, it offers a native fp16 performance of 17.92 TFLOPS thanks to a 2:1 ratio, compared to the Quadro P6000’s paltry 197.4 GFLOPS (1:64). This makes the Radeon dramatically superior for workloads that utilize half-precision math, such as certain machine learning inference tasks or specific scientific simulations. Furthermore, the Radeon’s only benchmark victory comes in the form of its Metal score of 73,356. For users working exclusively within the Apple ecosystem or applications that rely heavily on Metal, this card is the stronger performer. The data suggests that if a user’s software stack is Metal-centric, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is the superior pick despite losing the OpenCL and Vulkan tests.

Additionally, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no power connectors and a 210 W TDP, whereas the Quadro P6000 is a dual-slot card requiring a single 8-pin connector and a 600 W suggested power supply. This makes the Radeon far easier to integrate into compact or existing systems, even if the performance data does not favor it in standard compute APIs.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies from their respective manufacturers. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 is built on the Pascal architecture, utilizing the GP102 chip manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC. This chip contains 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.1M per mm². In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses the GCN 5.0 architecture with the Vega 10 chip, produced on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The Vega 10 die is larger at 495 mm² and houses 12,500 million transistors, resulting in a slightly higher density of 25.3M per mm².

The memory subsystems are radically different. The Quadro P6000 boasts 24 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 432.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 counters with only 8 GB of HBM2 memory, but on a massive 2048-bit bus, providing 402.4 GB/s. While the bandwidth figures are close, the 16 GB difference in capacity is enormous. The Quadro’s memory operates at 1127 MHz (9 Gbps effective), while the Radeon’s HBM2 runs at 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective). This capacity difference heavily favors NVIDIA for large dataset loading, such as massive 3D scenes or high-resolution textures.

Compute resource allocation also differs significantly. The Quadro P6000 has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and only 64 ROPs. The higher ROP count on the NVIDIA card directly contributes to its much higher pixel rate (157.9 GPixel/s vs 80.00 GPixel/s). The clock speeds also favor NVIDIA, with the Quadro boosting to 1645 MHz versus the Radeon’s 1250 MHz. This clock advantage helps the Quadro achieve 12.63 TFLOPS of fp32 performance against the Radeon’s 8.960 TFLOPS. However, the Radeon flips the script entirely in fp16, where its 17.92 TFLOPS dwarfs the Quadro’s 197.4 GFLOPS.

Feature support is largely similar, with both cards supporting DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6. The key difference lies in Vulkan support, where the Quadro P6000 supports version 1.4 while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is limited to version 1.3. Display outputs differ as well: the Quadro offers 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Radeon provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Quadro P6000 launched on 2016-09-30 with a launch MSRP of 5,999 USD, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no listed launch MSRP and was released later on 2017-08-13.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture for most professional use cases: the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 is the superior card in standard cross-platform compute. Its wins in both OpenCL and Vulkan, combined with a 0.3% higher average benchmark score, make it the safer choice for general workstation duties. The 16 GB additional memory capacity is a massive advantage for professionals handling large datasets, and the 1.8x higher pixel rate indicates better performance in graphics-intensive rasterization tasks. The Quadro also offers a newer Vulkan implementation and higher clock speeds across the board.

However, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is not without its specific niches. For users whose software stack is built around Apple’s Metal API, the Radeon’s score of 73,356 is the single highest benchmark result among the two cards and makes it the clear choice in that ecosystem. Furthermore, for compute workloads that rely heavily on half-precision math, the Radeon’s 17.92 TFLOPS fp16 capability is unmatched by the Quadro. The Radeon also offers a lower power draw at 210 W versus 250 W and requires no additional power connectors, making it a more flexible physical option for system builders.

Ultimately, the recommendation hinges on the workload. Choose the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 for general OpenCL/Vulkan compute, large memory footprints, and rasterization-heavy tasks. Choose the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 for Metal-specific applications and half-precision compute workloads, and for users needing a power-efficient, connector-free solution. The 0.3% aggregate difference is negligible, but the individual benchmark deltas and architectural features make the decision clear based on specific use cases.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has a higher average benchmark score of 67,320, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56’s 67,097.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 in Vulkan?

A: The Quadro P6000 scores 70,788 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 7.2% higher than the Radeon Pro Vega 56’s score of 66,004.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro Vega 56 win any benchmarks against the Quadro P6000?

A: In the direct head-to-head tests, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 wins 0 tests. However, it does have a Geekbench Metal score of 73,356, which is higher than any score the Quadro P6000 achieved in the shared OpenCL and Vulkan tests.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has 24 GB of GDDR5X memory, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 memory. The Quadro provides 16 GB more memory capacity.

Q: Which card is better for half-precision (fp16) compute workloads?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is significantly better for fp16 workloads, offering 17.92 TFLOPS, compared to the NVIDIA Quadro P6000’s 197.4 GFLOPS.

Q: What are the power requirements for these cards?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has a 250 W TDP and requires a single 8-pin power connector with a suggested 600 W power supply. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 has a 210 W TDP, requires no power connectors, and is classified as an integrated graphics processor (IGP).