AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 vs NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation Comparison

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada scores 160,786 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64 scores 71,094. That is a 126.2% lead for the NVIDIA card.

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation has an average benchmark score of 166,094, placing it in the 97th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 averages 72,379, which is the 91st percentile.

Q: What memory configurations do these two cards use?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 has 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus with 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation includes 60 RT cores, so it supports hardware ray tracing. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 has no RT cores listed, meaning it lacks dedicated ray tracing hardware.

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

A: The RTX 4500 Ada scores 171,401 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 74,174 for the Radeon Pro Vega 64, a difference of 131.1% in favor of the NVIDIA card.

Q: What are the production statuses of these two cards?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation is listed as Active production, released on 2023-08-08. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 is End-of-life, released on 2017-06-26.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD103 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.1 million per mm². The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 uses the GCN 5.0 architecture with the Vega 10 chip, manufactured on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. It contains 12,500 million transistors across a much larger 495 mm² die, giving a density of only 25.3 million per mm². The process and density gap is enormous: the NVIDIA chip crams nearly four times as many transistors into a smaller physical area.

Clock behavior also separates the two. The RTX 4500 Ada runs at a base clock of 2070 MHz and boosts to 2580 MHz. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 is far slower in raw frequency, with a 1250 MHz base and 1350 MHz boost. Memory clocks differ by a similar magnitude: the NVIDIA card uses 2250 MHz memory (18 Gbps effective), while the AMD card runs at 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective). The AMD card compensates with a 2048-bit memory bus versus 192-bit on the NVIDIA card, but the resulting bandwidth is still lower: 402.4 GB/s versus 432.0 GB/s.

Shader resources are heavily skewed toward NVIDIA. The RTX 4500 Ada has 7,680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. NVIDIA also adds 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, neither of which exists on the Vega 10 die. The AMD card's only compute advantage is in FP16, where it delivers 22.12 TFLOPS via a 2:1 ratio, versus 39.63 TFLOPS at 1:1 for the NVIDIA card. But in FP32, the RTX 4500 Ada produces 39.63 TFLOPS compared to just 11.06 TFLOPS for the Radeon Pro Vega 64.

Feature support differs as well. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The AMD card is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 4500 Ada, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The Vega 64 is also an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with portable-device-dependent display outputs, whereas the RTX 4500 Ada is a dual-slot card with four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for anyone needing raw compute throughput. The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation wins both recorded head-to-head benchmarks decisively: 126.2% in OpenCL and 131.1% in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 166,094 sits in the 97th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64's 72,379 average lands in the 91st percentile. The delta between them is roughly 2.3 times the AMD card's entire output.

For creators and workstation users who rely on modern APIs, the RTX 4500 Ada is the only option with hardware ray tracing (60 RT cores) and tensor cores (240). It also doubles the VRAM capacity at 24 GB versus 16 GB, with higher bandwidth (432.0 GB/s versus 402.4 GB/s) despite a narrower bus. The NVIDIA card is newer, still in active production, and built on a far more advanced 5 nm process.

The Radeon Pro Vega 64 retains some relevance only in legacy Mac-oriented environments, given its "Radeon Pro Mac (Vega Series)" generation label and IGP form factor. Its FP16 rate of 22.12 TFLOPS is higher than its own FP32 rate, which may help in mixed-precision workloads, but the NVIDIA card's FP16 of 39.63 TFLOPS is still nearly 80% higher. The Vega 64 is end-of-life, so no new development or driver investment should be expected. Any user choosing between these two should pick the RTX 4500 Ada Generation unless the system physically requires the AMD IGP form factor.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation | AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 |

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

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | GCN 5.0 |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 45,900 million | 12,500 million |

| Die Size | 379 mm² | 495 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 121.1M / mm² | 25.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 2070 MHz | 1250 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2580 MHz | 1350 MHz |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 192 bit | 2048 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 432.0 GB/s | 402.4 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 7680 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 240 | 256 |

| ROPs | 80 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 60 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 240 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 206.4 GPixel/s | 86.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 619.2 GTexel/s | 345.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 39.63 TFLOPS | 11.06 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 39.63 TFLOPS (1:1) | 22.12 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 210 W | 250 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 1.4a | Portable Device Dependent |

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

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Production Status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release Date | 2023-08-08 | 2017-06-26 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the RTX 4500 Ada Generation scoring 160,786 against the Radeon Pro Vega 64's 71,094, a 126.2% advantage. This aligns with the raw FP32 throughput gap: 39.63 TFLOPS versus 11.06 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card also benefits from substantially higher pixel and texture rates, 206.4 GPixel/s and 619.2 GTexel/s versus 86.40 GPixel/s and 345.6 GTexel/s respectively. The Vega 64's wider 2048-bit HBM2 bus cannot overcome the clock and shader-count deficit.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens further. The RTX 4500 Ada scores 171,401 versus 74,174 for the Vega 64, a 131.1% difference. Vulkan performance benefits from the RTX 4500 Ada's newer architecture, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and Vulkan 1.4 compliance versus the older GCN 5.0 design's Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA card's 240 tensor cores and 60 RT cores also contribute to its modern API efficiency, while the Vega 64 has no equivalent hardware.

The average benchmark score tells the same story. The RTX 4500 Ada averages 166,094, which is 2.2% above the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB (162,504) and 1.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X (168,574) among its nearest rivals. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 averages 72,379, landing just 0.4% above the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (72,098) and 0.9% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M (71,768). The Vega 64's nearest competitor, the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (73,370), is only 1.4% faster, indicating the old architecture is firmly stuck in the mid-range tier.

The RTX 4500 Ada's nearest rivals are all substantially faster than the Vega 64's entire peer group. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA RTX A5500, scores 165,217 (0.5% behind the RTX 4500 Ada). The AMD Radeon PRO W7800 is 0.7% behind at 164,894. Even the slowest rival in the RTX 4500 Ada's list, the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB, still scores 162,504, which is more than double the Vega 64's average. The percentile rankings reinforce this: 97th for the RTX 4500 Ada versus 91st for the Vega 64, a gap that understates how lopsided the actual scores are, since the percentile scale compresses the top end.

Across all recorded benchmarks, the RTX 4500 Ada wins 2 and the Radeon Pro Vega 64 wins 0. There is no metric in the database where the Vega 64 leads. The closest the AMD card comes is in memory bus width, where its 2048-bit interface exceeds the NVIDIA card's 192-bit bus, but the resulting bandwidth still favors NVIDIA (432.0 GB/s versus 402.4 GB/s). Even the Vega 64's larger die area of 495 mm² is a disadvantage, as it packs far fewer transistors at lower density on an older process.