AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance gap between these two workstation cards. In the two shared benchmark tests, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 wins every round, and the margins are substantial. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A4500 scores 141,837 against 61,930 for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56. That is a 129% advantage, more than doubling the AMD card's output. The gap narrows slightly in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX A4500 posts 129,980 versus 66,004, a 96.9% lead. Both results place the NVIDIA card in a different performance class entirely.

The overall average benchmark score reinforces the pattern. The RTX A4500 holds an average of 91,671 across all recorded tests, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 averages 63,693. That translates to a roughly 44% higher average for the NVIDIA part. The percentile rankings tell a similar story: the RTX A4500 sits in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 lands in the 89th percentile. On the surface, both are strong performers, but the head-to-head data reveals the NVIDIA card simply delivers more raw compute throughput in every measurable discipline.

The RTX A4500 also benefits from a stronger competitive position among its nearest rivals. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile, averages 91,134, a mere 0.6% delta. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 sits only 0.9% above the A4500 in average score. The NVIDIA Quadro GP100 trails by 4.8%, and the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 trails by 5.2%. The Radeon Pro Vega 56, by contrast, sits in a tighter pack: the AMD Radeon RX 7600M is 0.1% below, the RX 9060 XT LP is 0.2% below, and the NVIDIA CMP 30HX is 0.2% below. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 sits 0.8% above. The Vega card is essentially at parity with its immediate rivals, whereas the RTX A4500 is near the top of its own peer group.

In terms of raw benchmark wins, the RTX A4500 takes 2 wins out of 2 shared tests, and the Radeon Pro Vega 56 takes 0. This is not a close contest by any metric. The OpenCL result is especially telling, since that API is widely used in professional compute workloads. The 129% delta means the NVIDIA card is not merely faster, it is more than twice as fast in that specific test. Vulkan performance is similarly lopsided, with the NVIDIA card nearly doubling the AMD result.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 is built on the GA102 chip using the Ampere architecture, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip with the older GCN 5.0 architecture, produced on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The process node difference alone explains much of the efficiency and density gap. The NVIDIA chip packs 28,300 million transistors onto a 628 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The AMD chip contains 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, for a density of 25.3 million per square millimeter. The Ampere design is nearly twice as dense, which allows it to fit far more compute hardware into similar physical space.

Core counts differ dramatically. The RTX A4500 has 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. It also includes 56 dedicated ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores at all. The shading unit count is exactly double in favor of NVIDIA, which directly explains the massive FP32 throughput gap. The RTX A4500 delivers 23.65 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 delivers 8.960 TFLOPS. That is a 2.64x difference in raw single-precision floating point work.

The memory subsystems are also fundamentally different. The RTX A4500 uses 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320 bit bus, producing 640.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus, which sounds impressive but yields only 402.4 GB/s due to slower clock speeds. The NVIDIA card has two and a half times more memory capacity and over 50% more bandwidth. The memory clock rates highlight the difference: the RTX A4500 runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective, while the Vega 56 runs at 786 MHz with 1572 Mbps effective. The NVIDIA solution is much higher clocked at the memory level, while relying on a narrower bus width.

FP16 compute tells a more nuanced story. The RTX A4500 achieves 23.65 TFLOPS of FP16 with a 1:1 ratio to FP32, meaning it does not lose throughput when switching to half precision. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 achieves 17.92 TFLOPS of FP16 with a 2:1 ratio, meaning it actually halves its throughput relative to FP32. Even in AMD's traditionally strong FP16 discipline, the NVIDIA card still wins by about 32%, though the margin is smaller than in FP32.

Other architectural features diverge as well. The RTX A4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate with feature level 12_2, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.4. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 supports DirectX 12 with feature level 12_1, Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The NVIDIA card also has a higher API ceiling with ray tracing support. The AMD card is a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the NVIDIA card uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The NVIDIA card is dual-slot design with a single 8-pin power connector and a 200 W TDP. The AMD card is an IGP design with no power connectors and a 210 W TDP, with a suggested PSU of 550 W for the NVIDIA card.

The production timeline also differs. The RTX A4500 was released in 2021, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 was released in 2017. The NVIDIA card is end-of-life with a Quadro Turing predecessor and Workstation Ada successor. The AMD card has no recorded predecessor or successor in the database.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A4500 wins in scenarios that demand high compute density, large memory capacity, and modern API support. Any workload that relies heavily on FP32 throughput will favor the NVIDIA card by a wide margin. 3D rendering, simulation, scientific computing, and complex shader workloads all benefit from the 23.65 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 20 GB memory capacity also gives the NVIDIA card a massive advantage in large datasets that exceed 8 GB VRAM. AI-related tasks, if any exist in the workload, would also favor NVIDIA due to the tensor cores and 224 tensor cores. Ray tracing in supported applications would favor NVIDIA due to the 56 dedicated ray tracing cores.

The Radeon Pro Vega Vega 56 wins in scenarios where power draw matters more than raw throughput. Its 210 W TDP is only slightly higher than the RTX A4500's 200 W TDP, so it is not meaningfully more efficient. In terms of software ecosystem, the AMD card does support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 4.6, which could be relevant in certain legacy or specialized OpenGL applications. However, its 8 GB memory capacity will be a hard limit in many modern workloads. For compute-heavy tasks that fit within 8 GB, the AMD card is competitive with its nearest rivals, but that is a narrow window. The Vega 56 actually supports OpenGL 4.6 which is ahead of NVIDIA's 4.6, though OpenGL performance is not a primary strength for either card in the data.

Specification Differences

The specification table below summarizes the fields where the two cards differ. Note that the RTX A4500 uses a 8 nm process node, Samsung foundry, 28,300 million transistors, 628 mm² die size, 45.1M / mm² transistor density. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses a 14 nm process node, GlobalFoundries foundry, 12,500 million transistors, 495 mm² die size, 25.3M / mm² transistor density. The RTX A4500 has 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 56 RT cores, 224 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, 64 ROPs, no RT cores, no tensor cores. The RTX A4500 has base clock of 1050 MHz and boost clock of 1650 MHz. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has base clock of 1138 MHz and boost clock of 1250 MHz. The RTX A4500 memory clock is 2000 MHz at 16 Gbps effective, memory size 20 GB GDDR6, bus width 320 bit, bandwidth 640.0 GB/s, pixel rate 158.4 GPixel/s, texture rate 369.6 GTexel/s, FP32 23.65 TFLOPS, FP16 23.65 TFLOPS (1:1). The Radeon Pro Vega 56 memory clock is 786 MHz at 1572 Mbps effective, memory size 8 GB HBM2, bus width 2048 bit, bandwidth 402.4 GB/s, pixel rate 80.00 GPixel/s, texture rate 280.0 GTexel/s, FP32 8.960 TFLOPS, FP16 17.92 TFLOPS (2:1). The RTX A4500 TDP is 200 W, slot width Dual-slot, power connector 1x 8-pin, suggested PSU 550 W, bus interface PCIe 4.0 x16, display outputs 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 TDP is 210 W, slot width IGP, power connector None, suggested PSU null, bus interface PCIe 3.0 x16, display outputs 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX A4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.3. The RTX A4500 is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long, 112 mm (4.4 inches) high. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no recorded dimensions. The RTX A4500 was released in 2021, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 was released in 2017.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher average benchmark scores, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 or the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 has an average benchmark score of 91,671, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 averages 63,693. The A4500 also ranks in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, versus the 89th percentile for the Vega 56.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RTX A4500 scores 141,837 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 61,930. This results in a 129% advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Q: What is the difference in memory capacity and bandwidth?

A: The RTX A4500 has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320 bit bus with 640.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus with 402.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 have ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX A4500 includes 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores.

Q: What are the transistor counts and process nodes for each?

A: The RTX A4500 uses an 8 nm Samsung process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process with 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die.

Q: Which API versions does each card support?

A: The RTX A4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.