AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs NVIDIA RTX A2000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains two direct head-to-head comparisons between the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 and the NVIDIA RTX A2000, and in both instances, the NVIDIA card takes the win. The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the RTX A2000 scoring 67695 against the Radeon Pro Vega 56's 61930, a margin of 8.5%. The Geekbench Vulkan test is closer, with the RTX A2000 at 69089 and the Radeon Pro Vega 56 at 66004, a 4.5% advantage. These are consistent wins, but the size of the gap differs meaningfully between the two APIs.

The OpenCL result is the larger defeat for the AMD card. An 8.5% deficit in a compute-oriented benchmark is not trivial, and it suggests that the architecture-level differences between the two cards show up more clearly in that workload. The Vulkan result tightens the race considerably, with the Radeon Pro Vega 56 trailing by only 4.5%. This narrower margin hints that the AMD card's compute resources remain competitive when the workload maps well to its design, even though it still loses the comparison.

Looking at the broader benchmark averages, the picture becomes more complicated. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has an average benchmark score of 63693 across all recorded tests, while the RTX A2000 sits at 46043. That is a substantial gap in favor of the AMD card, driven by the fact that the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has three recorded benchmark results (Geekbench Metal at 63145, Geekbench OpenCL at 61930, and Geekbench Vulkan at 66004) while the RTX A2000's average includes a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1345 alongside its two Geekbench results. The inclusion of that 3DMark score drags the NVIDIA card's average down considerably. The percentile rankings reflect this divergence: the Radeon Pro Vega 56 sits at the 89th percentile against all GPUs, while the RTX A2000 is at the 85th.

The nearest-rival data adds context to each card's position. The Radeon Pro Vega 56's closest competitors are the AMD Radeon RX 7600M at 63775 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP at 63830 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA CMP 30HX at 63842 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 at 64212 (0.8% higher). The RTX A2000, by contrast, sits near the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation at 45972 (0.2% higher), the Intel Arc A730M at 45592 (1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 5600M at 46601 (1.2% higher), and the Intel Arc A530M at 46614 (1.2% higher). Neither card is an outlier in its respective cluster; both sit within a narrow band of comparable performers.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is built on the Vega 10 chip using GCN 5.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 uses the GA106 chip with Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The process node difference is significant: 14 nm versus 8 nm means the NVIDIA chip packs its transistors much more densely. The RTX A2000 achieves 43.5M transistors per square millimeter across a 276 mm² die, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has just 25.3M per square millimeter across a much larger 495 mm² die. Total transistor counts are close, 12,500 million for AMD versus 12,000 million for NVIDIA, but the NVIDIA chip does it in roughly half the silicon area.

Memory architecture is another clear point of divergence. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A2000 uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, with 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has a decisive advantage in raw memory bandwidth, 402.4 GB/s versus 288.0 GB/s, which is a 39.7% lead. The NVIDIA card compensates with a higher effective memory clock of 12 Gbps versus the AMD card's 1572 Mbps effective, but the narrower bus limits the overall throughput.

Compute resources tell a mixed story. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The RTX A2000 has 3328 shading units, 104 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The AMD card leads in raw counts across all three categories. This translates to higher theoretical pixel and texture rates: 80.00 GPixel/s and 280.0 GTexel/s for AMD versus 57.60 GPixel/s and 124.8 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. In FP32 compute, the Radeon Pro Vega 56 delivers 8.960 TFLOPS against the RTX A2000's 7.987 TFLOPS, a 12.2% advantage. The FP16 picture is more interesting: the AMD card delivers 17.92 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card manages 7.987 TFLOPS at 1:1. That means the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has a massive 124.4% lead in FP16 throughput, but only if software can exploit the 2:1 rate.

The RTX A2000 brings features the AMD card simply does not have. It includes 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores, hardware that is absent from the Radeon Pro Vega 56's specification. The NVIDIA card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The API differences reflect the generational gap between the two designs.

Power and physical characteristics also differ sharply. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 is rated at 210 W TDP, while the RTX A2000 draws only 70 W. That is a threefold difference in power consumption. The AMD card is listed as an IGP slot width with no power connectors, while the RTX A2000 is a dual-slot card with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The NVIDIA card is compact at 167 mm in length and 69 mm in height. The AMD card lists no physical dimensions in the database.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear but nuanced conclusion. In the two direct head-to-head benchmarks, the NVIDIA RTX A2000 wins both, with margins of 8.5% in OpenCL and 4.5% in Vulkan. If the question is simply which card performs better in those specific compute workloads, the answer is the RTX A2000. But the broader benchmark picture favors the AMD card. The Radeon Pro Vega 56's average score of 63693 places it at the 89th percentile, well above the RTX A2000's 46043 average and 85th percentile. That average, however, is heavily influenced by the tests each card was subjected to, and the RTX A2000's inclusion of a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1345 pulls its average down dramatically.

The power efficiency story is one-sided. The RTX A2000 delivers competitive performance at 70 W TDP, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 requires 210 W. For any deployment where power draw matters, the NVIDIA card has a decisive advantage. The AMD card counters with superior memory bandwidth, more compute units, and higher theoretical throughput in both FP32 and FP16. The RTX A2000 counters with hardware ray tracing, tensor cores, and newer API support.

The launch MSRP of the RTX A2000 is 449 USD. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no launch MSRP recorded in the database. Both cards are end-of-life, with the AMD card released in 2017 and the NVIDIA card in 2021.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A2000 wins with a score of 67695 against the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56's 61930, a margin of 8.5%.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX A2000 also wins this test, scoring 69089 versus 66004 for the Radeon Pro Vega 56, a 4.5% advantage.

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

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth from 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, while the RTX A2000 has 288.0 GB/s from 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus.

Q: Does the RTX A2000 support ray tracing hardware?

A: Yes, the RTX A2000 includes 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no such hardware listed.

Q: What are the TDP ratings for each card?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 56 is rated at 210 W, while the RTX A2000 is rated at 70 W.

Q: What is the FP16 compute performance of each card?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 56 delivers 17.92 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A2000 delivers 7.987 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A2000 wins in the two recorded head-to-head benchmarks, both OpenCL and Vulkan. It also wins decisively on power efficiency, drawing 70 W versus 210 W, and it offers features the AMD card lacks entirely: 26 ray tracing cores, 104 tensor cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and Vulkan 1.4. Its compact dimensions, 167 mm by 69 mm, and dual-slot design make it suitable for space-constrained workstation builds. The suggested PSU of 250 W indicates it can slot into systems with modest power budgets.

The Radeon Pro Vega 56 wins on raw compute specifications. It has more shading units (3584 versus 3328), more TMUs (224 versus 104), more ROPs (64 versus 48), higher pixel rate (80.00 GPixel/s versus 57.60), higher texture rate (280.0 GTexel/s versus 124.8), and higher FP32 throughput (8.960 TFLOPS versus 7.987). Its FP16 capability is dramatically higher at 17.92 TFLOPS. Memory bandwidth is another clear win: 402.4 GB/s versus 288.0 GB/s. The average benchmark score of 63693 versus 46043 also favors the AMD card, as does the 89th percentile ranking versus the 85th.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 | NVIDIA RTX A2000 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | GCN 5.0 | Ampere |

| Process node | 14 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | Samsung |

| Transistors | 12,500 million | 12,000 million |

| Die size | 495 mm² | 276 mm² |

| Transistor density | 25.3M / mm² | 43.5M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1138 MHz | 562 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1250 MHz | 1200 MHz |

| Memory size | 8 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory type | HBM2 | GDDR6 |

| Memory bus | 2048 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 402.4 GB/s | 288.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 3584 | 3328 |

| TMUs | 224 | 104 |

| ROPs | 64 | 48 |

| Ray tracing cores | None | 26 |

| Tensor cores | None | 104 |

| Pixel rate | 80.00 GPixel/s | 57.60 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 280.0 GTexel/s | 124.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 8.960 TFLOPS | 7.987 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 17.92 TFLOPS (2:1) | 7.987 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 210 W | 70 W |

| Slot width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Suggested PSU | None | 250 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Release date | 2017-08-13 | 2021-08-09 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 449 USD |