AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X vs NVIDIA P102-100 Comparison

The Verdict

The data presents a clear performance hierarchy between these two end-of-life products. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is the superior compute part in every measured benchmark, holding a 58.2% lead over the NVIDIA P102-100 in the Geekbench OpenCL test. The AMD card sits at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the NVIDIA card sits at the 88th percentile. For any workload that relies on OpenCL compute, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is the definitive choice.

The NVIDIA P102-100, however, is not without its niche. Its architecture and feature set point toward a different use case entirely. With no display outputs and a PCIe 1.0 x4 bus interface, this card was engineered for a specific, non-graphics role. The benchmark data shows it is a capable OpenCL performer, but it lags significantly behind the AMD part. For users who need raw compute throughput and can accommodate a dual-slot card with external power, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is the only rational pick based on the recorded scores. The NVIDIA card should only be considered if its unique physical or interface characteristics are mandatory for a specific system.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies from their respective manufacturers. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is built on the Vega 10 chip using the GCN 5.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The NVIDIA P102-100 uses the GP102 chip with the Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process at TSMC. These process nodes are close, but the transistor counts are nearly identical: AMD integrates 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, while NVIDIA integrates 11,800 million on a 471 mm² die. The resulting transistor densities are 25.3M per mm² for AMD and 25.1M per mm² for NVIDIA, essentially a tie.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The AMD card ships with 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 5 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 440.3 GB/s. The AMD card's memory clock is listed at 1000 MHz with 2 Gbps effective speed, while the NVIDIA card runs at 1376 MHz with 11 Gbps effective. The AMD card's advantage in memory capacity and bandwidth is substantial.

Compute resources also differ. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X features 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The NVIDIA P102-100 has 3200 shading units, 200 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The AMD card's pixel rate is 93.95 GPixel/s, while the NVIDIA card achieves 134.6 GPixel/s. Texture rates are 375.8 GTexel/s versus 336.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 12.03 TFLOPS for AMD and 10.77 TFLOPS for NVIDIA. In FP16, the gap is enormous: the AMD card delivers 24.05 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card manages only 168.3 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio.

Clock speeds favor NVIDIA. The base clock is 1582 MHz and boost is 1683 MHz for the NVIDIA card, compared to 1250 MHz base and 1468 MHz boost for the AMD card. Physical design differs as well: the AMD card is an IGP with no power connectors and no listed dimensions, while the NVIDIA card is a dual-slot unit, 267 mm long (10.5 inches), requiring 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 600 W suggested power supply. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD but only PCIe 1.0 x4 for NVIDIA. Display outputs are portable device dependent for AMD and entirely absent for NVIDIA. Both cards support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6, but the NVIDIA card supports Vulkan 1.4 while the AMD card supports Vulkan 1.3.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data records a single head-to-head comparison, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X wins it decisively. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD card scores 78467 against 49602 for the NVIDIA P102-100, a 58.2% advantage. This result is consistent with the broader compute profile: the AMD card's higher FP32 throughput (12.03 TFLOPS versus 10.77 TFLOPS) and vastly higher FP16 throughput (24.05 TFLOPS versus 168.3 GFLOPS) suggest a strong advantage in compute-heavy workloads.

The NVIDIA card has no recorded benchmark wins in this comparison. Its architectural strengths, such as a higher pixel rate (134.6 GPixel/s versus 93.95 GPixel/s) and more ROPs (80 versus 64), point toward rasterization-focused tasks, but no benchmark data exists in the database to quantify that advantage. The NVIDIA card's higher boost clock (1683 MHz versus 1468 MHz) also favors it in latency-sensitive scenarios, but again, no measured scores support this.

For OpenCL compute, the AMD card is the clear winner. For any task that could leverage the NVIDIA card's higher pixel throughput, the lack of display outputs and the narrow PCIe 1.0 x4 interface present significant practical hurdles. The recorded data shows the AMD card winning the only measured workload, and the architecture data suggests it would also win most compute-oriented tasks. The NVIDIA card's strengths are theoretical, not measured.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X has an average benchmark score of 80959, while the NVIDIA P102-100 has an average score of 58528.

Q: How much faster is the AMD card in OpenCL?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X scores 78467 versus 49602 for the NVIDIA P102-100, a 58.2% lead.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X has 16 GB of HBM2 memory, while the NVIDIA P102-100 has 5 GB of GDDR5X memory.

Q: Which card has higher FP16 performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X delivers 24.05 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA P102-100 delivers 168.3 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card have display outputs?

A: No, the NVIDIA P102-100 has no display outputs, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X has display outputs that are portable device dependent.

Q: What is the bus interface for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the NVIDIA P102-100 uses PCIe 1.0 x4.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one head-to-head benchmark between these two cards, and it is a decisive victory for the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD card scores 78467 points. The NVIDIA P102-100 scores 49602 points. The delta is 58.2% in favor of the AMD card. This is not a marginal win; it is a dominant performance gap that places the two cards in different performance tiers.

Contextualizing this result within each card's nearest rivals clarifies the competitive landscape. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X, with an average score of 80959, sits just 1.3% below the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (81995 average score). It is 1.4% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (79842) and 1.7% above the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605). The AMD card's performance cluster is remarkably tight, with all rivals within a 2% band. This indicates that the Vega 64X is a well-balanced performer that competes directly with modern high-end parts.

The NVIDIA P102-100, with an average score of 58528, is in a completely different performance neighborhood. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58657, a 0.2% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, which is a close rival to the AMD Vega 64X, is far above the P102-100's average score. The P102-100 also sits near the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (58392, 0.2% ahead), the Intel Arc A570M (58239, 0.5% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM (58085, 0.8% ahead). The P102-100 is firmly in the mid-range performance tier, roughly 38% below the AMD Vega 64X's average score.

The single OpenCL result reinforces this tier separation. The AMD card's 78467 OpenCL score is close to its 80959 average, indicating consistent performance across workloads. The NVIDIA card's 49602 OpenCL score is below its 58528 average, suggesting that OpenCL is not its strongest API. The NVIDIA card's better result comes from its Geekbench Vulkan score of 67454, which is not part of the head-to-head comparison but does show that the card performs differently across APIs.

The measured data leaves no ambiguity. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X wins the only direct comparison by a wide margin, holds a significantly higher average benchmark score, and ranks in a higher percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA P102-100, despite its higher clock speeds and pixel rate, cannot overcome the AMD card's advantages in compute throughput, memory bandwidth, and memory capacity in the recorded benchmarks.