AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo has an average benchmark score of 106,750, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D has an average score of 77,712. The AMD card sits at the 94th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the NVIDIA card's 92nd percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench OpenCL performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D scores 310,674 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 68.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo's score of 98,432. This is one of two head-to-head benchmarks where NVIDIA wins decisively.

Q: What are the memory configurations of each card?

A: Both cards feature 32 GB of memory, but they use different types. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo uses HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D uses GDDR7 with a 512-bit bus and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D has 21,760 shading units, which is substantially more than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo's 4,096 shading units. NVIDIA also has 680 texture mapping units and 176 ROPs, compared to AMD's 256 TMUs and 64 ROPs.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two chips?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D uses a 5 nm process with 122.9 million transistors per mm², while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo uses a 7 nm process with 40.0 million transistors per mm². NVIDIA's chip packs 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, versus AMD's 13,230 million on 331 mm².

Q: Which API versions are supported by each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, representing a newer feature set.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D dominates raw compute benchmarks. In the two head-to-head comparisons available, it wins both: Geekbench OpenCL (310,674 vs 98,432) and Geekbench Vulkan (376,915 vs 99,296). The delta is staggering — NVIDIA leads by 68.3% in OpenCL and 73.7% in Vulkan. This is a card built for maximum throughput, with 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 1:1 ratio.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo wins in a different sense: consistency across its benchmark suite. Its three benchmarks — Geekbench Metal at 122,522, Geekbench OpenCL at 98,432, and Geekbench Vulkan at 99,296 — are relatively close to one another, showing balanced performance across different APIs. Its average benchmark score of 106,750 is higher than the NVIDIA card's 77,712, driven by the fact that AMD's scores cluster tightly while NVIDIA's include lower Passmark results.

For users working in Metal-optimized environments, the AMD card shows strength with its 122,522 Geekbench Metal score, a benchmark the NVIDIA card does not have a direct entry for. The AMD card also holds a higher percentile ranking (94th vs 92nd), though this reflects its position among all GPUs rather than a direct comparison.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo is built on the Vega 20 chip using GCN 5.1 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm TSMC process. It packs 13,230 million transistors onto a 331 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm². This is an older design, released in 2019, and is now end-of-life.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D uses the GB202 chip with Blackwell 2.0 architecture, also fabricated by TSMC but on a 5 nm process. It contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, with a transistor density of 122.9 million per mm². This represents a 3x improvement in transistor density and nearly 7x the total transistor count.

The NVIDIA card includes dedicated hardware that AMD's card lacks entirely: 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The AMD card has no RT cores and no tensor cores listed. This is a structural advantage for NVIDIA in any workload that leverages these specialized units.

Memory architecture also differs fundamentally. The AMD card uses HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus, while the NVIDIA card uses GDDR7 with a 512-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, NVIDIA achieves 1.79 TB/s bandwidth versus AMD's 1.02 TB/s, thanks to faster memory clocks (28 Gbps effective vs 2 Gbps effective).

Specification Differences

The clock speeds tell a clear story. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo runs at 1400 MHz base and 1720 MHz boost. NVIDIA's advantage here is substantial.

Compute throughput metrics reinforce NVIDIA's dominance. The RTX 5090 D delivers 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 and 104.8 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio). The Vega II Duo delivers 14.09 TFLOPS FP32 and 28.18 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). NVIDIA is roughly 7.4x faster in FP32.

Pixel and texture rates follow the same pattern. NVIDIA achieves 423.6 GPixel/s and 1,636.8 GTexel/s, while AMD manages 110.1 GPixel/s and 440.3 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA card has 176 ROPs versus AMD's 64, and 680 TMUs versus AMD's 256.

Physical specifications also differ significantly. The AMD card is a quad-slot design with an Apple MPX bus interface and draws 475 W TDP with a suggested 850 W PSU. The NVIDIA card is a dual-slot design with a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, draws 575 W TDP, and suggests a 950 W PSU. NVIDIA's card measures 304 mm x 137 mm x 48 mm.

Display outputs differ: AMD offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 4x Thunderbolt, while NVIDIA has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas AMD supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the first decisive data point. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D scores 310,674, which is 68.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo's 98,432. This is not a marginal win; it is a complete rout. The gap reflects the fundamental architectural differences: NVIDIA's 21,760 shading units operating at higher clocks produce far more raw compute throughput.

The Geekbench Vulkan result is even more lopsided. NVIDIA scores 376,915 versus AMD's 99,296, a 73.7% advantage. This suggests NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture handles Vulkan workloads particularly well, possibly benefiting from its newer API support (Vulkan 1.4 vs 1.3) and the presence of dedicated hardware units.

Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the AMD card's average score of 106,750 exceeds NVIDIA's 77,712. However, this is driven by benchmark selection. AMD's three scores are all in the 98,000–122,000 range, while NVIDIA's scores include Passmark tests (DirectX 9 through 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute) that range from 219 to 44,065. The NVIDIA card's Passmark results are not directly comparable to its Geekbench results, which skews the aggregate.

NVIDIA's nearest rivals in the database are AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% lower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (2.1–2.4% lower). AMD's nearest rivals are AMD Radeon Pro W6600X (0.6% lower), AMD Radeon Pro Vega II (2.6% lower), AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (3.6% lower), and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (4.8% higher). These comparisons show both cards are competitive within their respective peer groups.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split based on use case. For raw compute performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the unequivocal choice. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks by margins of 68.3% and 73.7%, delivers 7.4x the FP32 throughput, and offers dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores that the AMD card lacks entirely. Its 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth, 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate, and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate make it a superior engine for any compute-heavy workload.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo is a different proposition. It holds a higher percentile ranking (94th vs 92nd) and a higher average benchmark score (106,750 vs 77,712). Its Geekbench Metal score of 122,522 demonstrates strong performance in Apple's ecosystem, and its 4x Thunderbolt outputs suggest it was designed for Mac Pro integration. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus provides ample capacity for large datasets, even if bandwidth is lower than NVIDIA's.

For users working within Apple's ecosystem, particularly those using Metal-optimized applications, the AMD card offers a coherent solution. Its quad-slot design and Apple MPX interface are purpose-built for that environment. For users prioritizing maximum compute performance, modern API support, and ray tracing capabilities, the NVIDIA card is the data-driven choice.

The production status tells part of the story: AMD's card is end-of-life, while NVIDIA's is active. The NVIDIA card also has a clear successor path (GeForce 60 series), whereas the AMD card has no listed successor. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the forward-looking choice, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo remains a viable option for legacy Apple environments.