AMD Radeon Pro Vega II vs AMD Radeon Pro W6600X Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro Vega II and AMD Radeon Pro W6600X are both Apple MPX graphics cards aimed at the professional Mac market, but they represent two very different approaches to GPU design. The Vega II is a massive, power-hungry compute monster from 2019, while the W6600X is a compact, efficient RDNA 2 part from 2021. The benchmark data shows a clear winner in raw performance, but the story is more nuanced when you consider the entire package.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only shared benchmark result in the data is Geekbench Metal, and it produces a decisive victory for the older card. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II scores 130,183 in Geekbench Metal, while the AMD Radeon Pro W6600X scores 107,342. That is a delta of 21.3% in favor of the Vega II. This is not a marginal win; it is a substantial gap that will translate into real-world differences in Metal-accelerated workloads, which are the primary API for professional applications on macOS.

Looking at the average benchmark score across all tests, the Vega II maintains its lead, though the margin narrows slightly. The Vega II has an average benchmark score of 109,967, while the W6600X sits at 107,342. This puts the Vega II just 2.4% ahead of the W6600X on average. The discrepancy between the 21.3% Metal lead and the 2.4% average lead is important. It suggests that while the Vega II dominates in Metal, the W6600X may be more competitive in other compute APIs, likely OpenCL and Vulkan, where its newer architecture can flex its muscles. The data shows the Vega II also posts scores of 99,405 in Geekbench OpenCL and 100,312 in Geekbench Vulkan, but without a direct W6600X comparison in those tests, we can only infer from the average score that the W6600X closes the gap significantly outside of Metal.

Context from the nearest rivals reinforces the Vega II’s position. The Vega II is 3.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile and 4.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo in average score, placing it in a strong competitive tier. The W6600X, on the other hand, is 6.2% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 but 5.8% behind the RTX A5500 Mobile. Both cards sit at the 96th percentile of all GPUs, so neither is a slouch, but the Vega II is clearly the higher-performing part in this direct comparison.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II wins decisively in absolute performance, particularly in Metal-based applications. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory with a 4096-bit bus and 825.3 GB/s of bandwidth is a massive advantage for large data sets, high-resolution textures, and complex 3D scenes that exceed the memory capacity of the W6600X. The Vega II’s 14.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 28.18 TFLOPS of FP16 performance dwarf the W6600X’s 10.15 TFLOPS and 20.31 TFLOPS, respectively. This makes the Vega II the clear choice for GPU-bound compute tasks, rendering, and any workload where memory capacity and bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The AMD Radeon Pro W6600X wins in efficiency and feature set. It has a TDP of 120 W compared to the Vega II’s 475 W, and it only requires a 300 W suggested PSU versus the Vega II’s 850 W. This makes the W6600X dramatically easier to cool and power, and it fits in a dual-slot form factor versus the Vega II’s quad-slot design. The W6600X also has 32 ray tracing cores, a feature the Vega II lacks entirely. For newer applications that leverage DirectX 12 Ultimate and hardware ray tracing, the W6600X has a distinct architectural advantage. It also supports Vulkan 1.4 compared to the Vega II’s Vulkan 1.3, and its DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support is more modern than the Vega II’s DirectX 12 (12_1).

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench Metal?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is significantly faster, scoring 130,183 compared to the W6600X’s 107,342, a 21.3% advantage.

Q: How much memory does each card have, and does it matter?

A: The Vega II has 32 GB of HBM2 memory, while the W6600X has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The Vega II’s 825.3 GB/s bandwidth and 4096-bit bus far exceed the W6600X’s 256.0 GB/s and 128-bit bus, making the Vega II vastly superior for memory-intensive workloads.

Q: Does the W6600X support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the W6600X features 32 ray tracing cores. The Vega II has no ray tracing cores.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Vega II has a TDP of 475 W and requires an 850 W suggested PSU. The W6600X has a TDP of 120 W and requires a 300 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The Vega II has a higher average score of 109,967, which is 2.4% higher than the W6600X’s 107,342.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II had a launch MSRP of 2,199 USD, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600X had a launch MSRP of 699 USD.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet tells the story of two completely different design philosophies. The Vega II is built around raw throughput, while the W6600X is built around efficiency and modern features.

• Memory Size: 32 GB (Vega II) vs 8 GB (W6600X)
• Memory Type: HBM2 (Vega II) vs GDDR6 (W6600X)
• Memory Bus Width: 4096 bit (Vega II) vs 128 bit (W6600X)
• Memory Bandwidth: 825.3 GB/s (Vega II) vs 256.0 GB/s (W6600X)
• Shading Units: 4096 (Vega II) vs 2048 (W6600X)
• TMUs: 256 (Vega II) vs 128 (W6600X)
• ROPs: 64 (Vega II) vs 64 (W6600X)
• Base Clock: 1574 MHz (Vega II) vs 2068 MHz (W6600X)
• Boost Clock: 1720 MHz (Vega II) vs 2479 MHz (W6600X)
• FP32 Performance: 14.09 TFLOPS (Vega II) vs 10.15 TFLOPS (W6600X)
• FP16 Performance: 28.18 TFLOPS (Vega II) vs 20.31 TFLOPS (W6600X)
• Pixel Rate: 110.1 GPixel/s (Vega II) vs 158.7 GPixel/s (W6600X)
• Texture Rate: 440.3 GTexel/s (Vega II) vs 317.3 GTexel/s (W6600X)
• TDP: 475 W (Vega II) vs 120 W (W6600X)
• Slot Width: Quad-slot (Vega II) vs Dual-slot (W6600X)
• Suggested PSU: 850 W (Vega II) vs 300 W (W6600X)
• DirectX Support: 12 (12_1) (Vega II) vs 12 Ultimate (12_2) (W6600X)
• Vulkan Support: 1.3 (Vega II) vs 1.4 (W6600X)
• Release Date: 2019-06-02 (Vega II) vs 2021-08-02 (W6600X)

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on different architectures from different eras, which explains their divergent characteristics. The Vega II uses the Vega 20 chip based on the GCN 5.1 architecture. GCN is an older design that favors raw compute throughput over feature set. It is fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC, with 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die. This results in a transistor density of 40.0M / mm². The GCN architecture lacks dedicated ray tracing hardware, which is a significant omission for modern workloads.

The W6600X uses the Navi 23 chip based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture. RDNA 2 is a modern design that brings significant improvements in performance-per-watt and adds hardware ray tracing support. It is also fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC, but with 11,060 million transistors on a smaller 237 mm² die. This yields a higher transistor density of 46.7M / mm², indicating a more efficient design. The presence of 32 ray tracing cores is the most significant architectural difference. The W6600X also has higher clock speeds (2479 MHz boost vs 1720 MHz boost), which helps it compensate for having fewer shading units (2048 vs 4096) and TMUs (128 vs 256). While the Vega II has double the shading units, the W6600X’s higher clocks and newer architecture allow it to achieve a higher pixel rate (158.7 GPixel/s vs 110.1 GPixel/s), though it falls behind in texture rate (317.3 GTexel/s vs 440.3 GTexel/s) and raw FP32 throughput.

The Verdict

The choice between these two cards depends entirely on your workload priorities. The data clearly shows that the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is the superior performer for raw compute and memory-intensive tasks. Its 21.3% lead in Geekbench Metal, combined with 4x the memory capacity and over 3x the memory bandwidth, makes it the obvious choice for professional 3D rendering, large-scale simulations, and video editing with high-resolution footage. If your work is bottlenecked by GPU memory or raw compute throughput, the Vega II is the card to get, provided you can accommodate its 475 W TDP and quad-slot form factor.

The AMD Radeon Pro W6600X is the more practical and modern choice for a different set of users. Its support for hardware ray tracing and DirectX 12 Ultimate makes it a better fit for applications that leverage these features. Its dramatically lower power draw (120 W vs 475 W) and dual-slot design make it far easier to integrate into a system, and its 300 W suggested PSU requirement means it can be installed in machines with less robust power delivery. While it trails the Vega II in raw performance, it still sits at the 96th percentile of all GPUs and offers a more future-proof feature set. If your workloads are lighter on memory and benefit from ray tracing, or if power and space constraints are paramount, the W6600X is the more sensible pick. The data indicates the Vega II is the performance king, but the W6600X is the more balanced and efficient package.