AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a clear overall advantage for the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile, winning both head-to-head benchmark comparisons. The most decisive gap appears in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the NVIDIA part scores 105307 against the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56's 61930. That is a 70% advantage, a massive margin that reflects the NVIDIA GPU's substantially higher raw compute throughput in general-purpose workloads. In FP32 precision, the RTX A4500 Mobile delivers 17.66 TFLOPS versus 8.960 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro Vega 56, nearly double the shader throughput. The NVIDIA GPU also benefits from a much newer architecture and a dramatically higher transistor density, 44.4M per mm² on an 8 nm Samsung process versus 25.3M per mm² on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm node.

The second head-to-head test, Geekbench Vulkan, narrows the gap considerably but still favors the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile. The NVIDIA card scores 76960 while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 66004, a 16.6% difference. Vulkan is a lower-level API that can expose architectural efficiencies, and the AMD GCN 5.0 design holds up better here than in OpenCL. Still, the NVIDIA GPU retains the lead in both recorded API tests. Notably, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 also has a Geekbench Metal score of 63145, a test the NVIDIA part does not have recorded for comparison. That Metal result sits below the AMD part's own Vulkan score, indicating that even within the AMD GPU's strongest available API, the performance ceiling remains below the NVIDIA part's Vulkan output.

The average benchmark scores give a broader view. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile averages 91134 across its recorded tests, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 averages 63693. That is a 43% overall advantage, though the comparison is complicated by the fact that the two GPUs have different test sets. The NVIDIA part has two recorded benchmarks, while the AMD part has three. The NVIDIA GPU's percentile rank among all GPUs in the database is 93, placing it in the top tier of recorded hardware. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 sits at the 89th percentile, still strong but clearly a step below in this comparison. The nearest rival data reinforces the NVIDIA part's standing: the RTX A4500 Mobile is only 0.6% behind the desktop NVIDIA RTX A4500, 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60, and 4.2% and 4.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 and AMD Radeon PRO W7600 respectively. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, by contrast, sits within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 and is effectively tied with the AMD Radeon RX 7600M, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP, and the NVIDIA CMP 30HX, each within a 0.2% delta.

The FP16 comparison is one of the few areas where the older AMD architecture shows a theoretical advantage. The Radeon Pro Vega 56 delivers 17.92 TFLOPS in FP16 at a 2:1 ratio relative to FP32, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile delivers 17.66 TFLOPS in FP16 at a 1:1 ratio. The AMD part's FP16 throughput is actually slightly higher than its FP32 rate, but this comes with the caveat that the 2:1 ratio often implies reduced precision or specialized execution paths. The NVIDIA part's 1:1 ratio means it can sustain FP16 at the same rate as FP32, which can be more predictable for compute workloads that mix precisions. In practice, the NVIDIA GPU's higher FP32 baseline and its 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores give it capabilities that the AMD part simply does not have, as the Radeon Pro Vega 56 has no recorded RT cores or tensor cores at all.

The Verdict

The data makes the decision straightforward for most workloads. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is the stronger GPU in every head-to-head test recorded in the database. It wins OpenCL by 70% and Vulkan by 16.6%. It has a 93rd percentile rank versus the AMD part's 89th, and its average benchmark score of 91134 is roughly 43% higher than the AMD part's 63693. For any user prioritizing raw compute performance, OpenCL throughput, or Vulkan rendering, the NVIDIA GPU is the clear choice. The NVIDIA part also offers 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, double the capacity of the AMD part's 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus with 402.4 GB/s.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 does have a few specific appeals. Its FP16 throughput of 17.92 TFLOPS slightly exceeds the NVIDIA part's 17.66 TFLOPS, and its texture rate of 280.0 GTexel/s is marginally higher than the NVIDIA's 276.0 GTexel/s. The AMD part also has a higher base clock, 1138 MHz versus 930 MHz, though its boost clock of 1250 MHz is lower than the NVIDIA's 1500 MHz. The AMD GPU supports Metal, which matters for macOS environments, and it has a dedicated display output configuration with 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the NVIDIA part's display outputs are portable device dependent.

Who should pick the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56? Strictly from the data, only users who specifically need Metal support or who are constrained to a platform that requires the AMD part's IGP form factor and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. The AMD part draws 210 W versus the NVIDIA's 140 W, so it is also the less power-efficient option. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is the superior choice for OpenCL, Vulkan, FP32 compute, memory capacity, and overall benchmark performance. The 70% OpenCL gap is decisive, and the 16.6% Vulkan gap confirms that the NVIDIA architecture holds the edge even in lower-level APIs.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile scores 105307 versus 61930 for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, a 70% advantage.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile scores 76960 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 66004, a 16.6% difference in favor of NVIDIA.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 have any performance advantage?

A: The AMD part has a higher FP16 throughput at 17.92 TFLOPS versus 17.66 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA GPU, and a slightly higher texture rate at 280.0 GTexel/s versus 276.0 GTexel/s.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile averages 91134 across its recorded tests, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 averages 63693.

Q: How do their memory configurations differ?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus with 402.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has the higher percentile rank in the database?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile ranks in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 ranks in the 89th percentile.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile uses a GA104 chip with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 uses a Vega 10 chip with 12,500 million transistors on a larger 495 mm² die. The NVIDIA part is built on Samsung's 8 nm process with a transistor density of 44.4M per mm²; the AMD part uses GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process with a density of 25.3M per mm².

Clock speeds also differ. The NVIDIA GPU has a base clock of 930 MHz and a boost clock of 1500 MHz, while the AMD GPU has a higher base clock of 1138 MHz but a lower boost clock of 1250 MHz. Memory clocks are substantially different: the NVIDIA part runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective, while the AMD part runs at 786 MHz with 1572 Mbps effective. The NVIDIA card has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus with 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048 bit bus with 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

Compute resources differ significantly. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile has 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA part also has 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores, while the AMD part has none recorded. Pixel rate favors NVIDIA at 144.0 GPixel/s versus 80.00 GPixel/s, while texture rate slightly favors AMD at 280.0 GTexel/s versus 276.0 GTexel/s. FP32 output heavily favors NVIDIA at 17.66 TFLOPS versus 8.960 TFLOPS, while FP16 output slightly favors AMD at 17.92 TFLOPS versus 17.66 TFLOPS.

Power and interface specifications also differ. The NVIDIA GPU has a TDP of 140 W, while the AMD GPU has a TDP of 210 W. Both use no power connectors. The NVIDIA part uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the AMD part uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs differ as well: the NVIDIA GPU's outputs are portable device dependent, while the AMD GPU has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The AMD part is listed as an IGP form factor with no slot width, while the NVIDIA part has no slot width recorded.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile is based on the Ampere architecture, specifically the GA104 chip, and belongs to the Ampere-MW generation. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is based on GCN 5.0 with the Vega 10 chip, belonging to the Radeon Pro Mac generation. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 support are both newer than the AMD part's DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

The NVIDIA architecture includes dedicated ray tracing cores, 46 of them, and tensor cores, 184 of them. These features are absent from the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, which has no RT cores or tensor cores recorded. This makes the NVIDIA GPU capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, while the AMD part relies purely on its shader array. The NVIDIA GPU's FP32 and FP16 throughput are both 17.66 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, meaning the GPU can process both precisions at the same rate. The AMD part has an FP32 rate of 8.960 TFLOPS and an FP16 rate of 17.92 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, which indicates that FP16 throughput is achieved through a specialized path rather than a native 1:1 execution rate.

The manufacturing technology also represents a significant architectural difference. The NVIDIA part is fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process, while the AMD part uses GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. This process advantage allows the NVIDIA GPU to pack 17,400 million transistors into a smaller 392 mm² die, achieving a density of 44.4M per mm². The AMD GPU has fewer transistors, 12,500 million, on a larger 495 mm² die, resulting in a density of only 25.3M per mm². The NVIDIA GPU is also the newer product, with a release date of 2022-03-21, while the AMD part dates to 2017-08-13. The NVIDIA GPU is listed as end-of-life with a predecessor of Quadro Turing-M and a successor of Ada-MW, while the AMD part is also end-of-life but has no predecessor or successor recorded in the database.