AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data paints a very one-sided picture. Across the two head-to-head tests available, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins both. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo does not secure a single victory in the direct comparisons.

However, the AMD card still holds a notable position in the database's broader ranking. It sits at the 94th percentile of all GPUs, which is higher than the RTX 4090's 88th percentile. Its average benchmark score of 106,750 also exceeds the RTX 4090's 60,347. This suggests that while the RTX 4090 dominates in the specific compute-oriented tests recorded here, the Vega II Duo remains a formidable part in other workloads present in the database.

The RTX 4090's wins are decisive. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 255,416 against 98,432, a gap of 61.5%. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 271,631 against 99,296, a gap of 63.4%. These are not marginal victories; they are substantial margins that point to a generational leap in raw compute performance.

The AMD card's advantage lies in its percentile ranking and average score, which are likely inflated by its specialized Mac ecosystem benchmarks like Geekbench Metal, where it scores 122,522. The RTX 4090 has no Metal score in the pack, as it is a Windows-centric part. So, the AMD card wins in the context of Apple's API ecosystem, while the NVIDIA card dominates in cross-platform APIs.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo has an average score of 106,750, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's 60,347.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The RTX 4090 leads by 63.4% in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 271,631 against the AMD's 99,296.

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference between the two?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4090 ranks in the 88th percentile.

Q: Which GPU has more VRAM?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo offers 32 GB of HBM2 memory, whereas the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X.

Q: Are the memory bandwidths similar?

A: Yes, they are almost identical. The AMD card delivers 1.02 TB/s, and the RTX 4090 delivers 1.01 TB/s.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 4090 has a significantly higher boost clock of 2520 MHz compared to the Vega II Duo's 1720 MHz.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparisons in the database are limited to two tests, but they reveal a decisive trend. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo by a wide margin in both.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 achieves a score of 255,416. The AMD card manages only 98,432. This represents a 61.5% deficit for the AMD. The RTX 4090's advantage here is likely driven by its massive 16,384 shading units and high clock speeds.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows an even larger gap. The RTX 4090 scores 271,631, while the AMD scores 99,296. The delta of 63.4% is the biggest win in the data. The RTX 4090's support for Vulkan 1.4 and its newer architecture clearly matter in this API.

There are no head-to-head results for the AMD's strongest test, Geekbench Metal, so the database does not record a win for the AMD card in direct comparisons. The RTX 4090 also holds wins in its own benchmark suite, including a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223. These numbers, when placed next to the AMD's lack of DirectX 12 Ultimate support, reinforce the NVIDIA's advantage in modern gaming and compute workloads.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ substantially in almost every core specification. The RTX 4090 uses a 5 nm process, while the AMD uses a 7 nm node. The RTX 4090 has 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, yielding a density of 125.3 million transistors per mm². The AMD has 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, with a density of 40.0 million per mm².

The memory systems are different. The AMD uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, while the RTX 4090 uses 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus. Despite this, bandwidth is nearly equal: 1.02 TB/s versus 1.01 TB/s.

The compute units show a massive difference. The RTX 4090 has 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The AMD card has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4090 also has dedicated hardware: 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The AMD has none listed.

The RTX 4090 is faster in pixel and texture rates. It outputs 443.5 GPixel/s and 1,290.2 GTexel/s, versus the AMD's 110.1 GPixel/s and 440.3 GTexel/s. The RTX 4090's FP32 throughput is 82.58 TFLOPS, and its FP16 is also 82.58 TFLOPS. The AMD is far lower at 14.09 TFLOPS FP32 and 28.18 TFLOPS FP16.

The power and interface specifications differ as well. The AMD is a quad-slot card with an Apple MPX interface, while the RTX 4090 is a triple-slot card with a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and a 16-pin power connector. Both have a suggested PSU of 850 W, but the TDP differs: 475 W for the AMD, 450 W for the NVIDIA. Their display outputs differ: the AMD has one HDMI 2.0b and four Thunderbolt ports, while the RTX 4090 has one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Architecture Differences

The architecture represents two distinct design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo uses the GCN 5.1 architecture on the Vega 20 chip. This is an older design optimized for professional workloads, particularly in a Mac ecosystem. It leverages HBM2 memory and a massive 4096-bit bus to achieve high bandwidth, but its compute units are relatively modest in number.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture on the AD102 chip. This is a modern design with a focus on ray tracing and AI acceleration. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are dedicated to these tasks. The Ada architecture also supports full-rate FP16 (1:1), allowing the card to maintain consistent throughput across precision levels.

The process node difference is significant: 7 nm for the AMD versus 5 nm for the NVIDIA. This allows the RTX 4090 to pack nearly 6 times more transistors into a die that is only about twice as large. The RTX 4090's transistor density is 125.3M per mm² versus the AMD's 40.0M per mm².

The API support also differs. The AMD supports DirectX 12 (12_1), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The RTX 4090 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The higher DirectX version and Vulkan version reflect the NVIDIA's newer feature set.

The Verdict

The data points to two very different GPUs serving different purposes. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the clear performance champion in the recorded head-to-head tests. Its OpenCL and Vulkan scores are over 60% higher than the AMD's. It also has a massive compute advantage: 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 versus 14.09 TFLOPS, and 4 times the shading units. The RTX 4090 also has dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, which the AMD lacks.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, however, should not be dismissed. It has a higher overall percentile (94th vs 88th), and its average score is higher because it is judged in a broader set of benchmarks. Its 32 GB of VRAM and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth make it a capable card for large data sets and professional visualization tasks. It also has a higher pixel rate and texture rate than the RTX 4090, though these are less relevant in pure compute.

The RTX 4090 is the choice for anyone prioritizing raw performance in modern APIs like Vulkan and DirectX 12. It is also the only card with ray tracing cores and tensor cores, making it the better choice for AI workloads and ray-traced rendering tasks that can use those features.

The AMD is the choice for those in the Apple ecosystem, as it has a Metal score of 122,522, which the RTX 4090 cannot match. It is also a more memory-heavy card with double the VRAM of the RTX 4090, which may be valuable for huge datasets in professional applications. Its lower compute throughput makes it less suited for heavy parallel compute tasks, but its high bandwidth and capacity are its strengths.

This is not a fair fight in general compute, but it is a fair comparison in the context of professional Mac workstations. The RTX 4090 wins on raw power, but the AMD wins on ecosystem fit and memory capacity. The data shows the RTX 4090 is the better card for most users, but the AMD has a place for those who need its specific features.