AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 vs NVIDIA RTX A5500 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a decisive two-test sweep for the NVIDIA RTX A5500. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A5500 scores 174,637 against the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64's 71,094, which translates to a 145.6% advantage. That is not a marginal lead; it is a near-total dominance in raw compute throughput as measured by this workload.

The Vulkan results tell a similar story, though with a slightly narrower gap. The RTX A5500 posts 155,797, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64 manages 74,174. The delta here is 110%, meaning the NVIDIA part more than doubles the AMD card's score. Both tests point to the same conclusion: the RTX A5500 is in a different performance class entirely.

Looking at the aggregate data, the RTX A5500 holds an average benchmark score of 165,217 across all recorded tests, placing it in the 97th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 averages 72,379, which still lands in the 91st percentile, but the absolute gap is enormous. The RTX A5500's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 at 164,894 (a mere 0.2% difference), the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation at 166,094 (0.5% ahead), and the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB at 162,504 (1.7% behind). Notably, the RTX A5500 sits within 2% of these much newer workstation cards, which contextualizes its performance tier.

The Radeon Pro Vega 64's nearest rivals are far less imposing. The NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal scores 72,098 (0.4% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 6650M scores 71,768 (0.9% behind), and the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition scores 73,370 (1.4% ahead). This places the Vega 64 in the same performance neighborhood as a 2016-era flagship GPU and a mid-range mobile part, underscoring how much the landscape has shifted since its release.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two cards is stark and explains nearly every performance gap. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 uses the GA102 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 28,300 million transistors into a 628 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 uses the Vega 10 chip on GCN 5.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 12,500 million transistors across a 495 mm² die, for a density of 25.3 million per square millimeter. The RTX A5500 crams more than twice the transistors into a die that is only about 27% larger.

The compute resources reflect this disparity. The RTX A5500 features 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It also includes 80 dedicated ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, which are entirely absent from the Radeon Pro Vega 64 (both fields are null in the database). The Vega 64 musters 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. That is a 2.5x advantage in shading units for the NVIDIA card, a 1.25x advantage in TMUs, and a 1.5x advantage in ROPs.

Clock speeds tell a nuanced story. The Vega 64 actually runs higher base and boost clocks: 1250 MHz base and 1350 MHz boost, versus 1080 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost for the RTX A5500. The NVIDIA card's boost clock is substantially higher, but its base clock is lower. However, the massive core count advantage makes the raw throughput numbers lopsided. The RTX A5500 delivers 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 34.10 TFLOPS of FP16 (at a 1:1 ratio). The Vega 64 delivers 11.06 TFLOPS FP32 and 22.12 TFLOPS FP16 (at a 2:1 ratio). The FP32 gap is roughly 3.1x in favor of NVIDIA.

Memory configurations also diverge completely. The RTX A5500 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, achieving 768.0 GB/s of bandwidth with a memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). The Vega 64 uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a massive 2048-bit bus, but the memory clock is only 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective), yielding 402.4 GB/s. Despite having a bus width more than five times wider, the Vega 64's slower HBM2 clock cuts its bandwidth to barely half of the RTX A5500's.

Pixel and texture rates follow the same pattern. The RTX A5500 hits 159.8 GPixel/s and 532.8 GTexel/s. The Vega 64 manages 86.40 GPixel/s and 345.6 GTexel/s. The RTX A5500 is roughly 1.85x faster in pixel throughput and 1.54x faster in texture throughput.

The Verdict

The data leaves little room for ambiguity. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 wins both head-to-head benchmarks by margins of 145.6% and 110%, respectively. It holds a 97th percentile ranking among all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64 sits at the 91st percentile. For any workload that leverages OpenCL or Vulkan compute, the RTX A5500 is the clear choice.

The Radeon Pro Vega 64's lone advantages are its higher base clock (1250 MHz versus 1080 MHz) and its lower TDP in a specific sense: it draws 250 W versus the RTX A5500's 230 W, which is actually a higher figure, so that is not an advantage either. The Vega 64 wins on no measurable performance metric in the database. Its 16 GB of HBM2 memory is smaller than the RTX A5500's 24 GB, and its bandwidth is lower.

Who should pick the Radeon Pro Vega 64? Strictly from the data, only a user constrained by its integrated form factor (IGP slot width, no power connectors, portable device dependent display outputs) would consider it. It is designed for Mac systems where discrete power connectors are unavailable. The RTX A5500, with its dual-slot design, 1x 8-pin connector, and 550 W suggested PSU, is a conventional workstation card that demands a proper power supply.

For anyone building or upgrading a workstation with standard PCIe slots and power delivery, the RTX A5500 is the only rational choice. It outperforms the Vega 64 by more than double in both recorded benchmarks, offers ray tracing and tensor cores the AMD card lacks, supports PCIe 4.0 versus PCIe 3.0, and provides 50% more memory. The Vega 64's era has passed, and the data confirms it.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX A5500 | AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 |

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

| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 5.0 |

| Process Node | 8 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | Samsung | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 28,300 million | 12,500 million |

| Die Size | 628 mm² | 495 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 45.1M / mm² | 25.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1080 MHz | 1250 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1665 MHz | 1350 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) | 786 MHz (1572 Mbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 2048 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 768.0 GB/s | 402.4 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 10240 | 4096 |

| TMUs | 320 | 256 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 80 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 320 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 159.8 GPixel/s | 86.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 532.8 GTexel/s | 345.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 34.10 TFLOPS | 11.06 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 34.10 TFLOPS (1:1) | 22.12 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 230 W | 250 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | None |

| 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 |

| Release Date | 2022-03-21 | 2017-06-26 |

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 delivers 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 and 34.10 TFLOPS FP16, versus the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64's 11.06 TFLOPS FP32 and 22.12 TFLOPS FP16.

Q: How much faster is the RTX A5500 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX A5500 scores 174,637 versus the Vega 64's 71,094, a 145.6% advantage.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro Vega 64 support ray tracing?

A: No. The database shows no ray tracing cores for the Vega 64, while the RTX A5500 includes 80 RT cores.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX A5500 has 768.0 GB/s, nearly double the Vega 64's 402.4 GB/s, despite the Vega 64 having a 2048-bit bus versus 384-bit.

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

A: The RTX A5500 averages 165,217, placing it in the 97th percentile. The Vega 64 averages 72,379, placing it in the 91st percentile.

Q: Which card is newer?

A: The RTX A5500 was released on 2022-03-21. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 was released on 2017-06-26.