AMD Radeon Pro Vega II vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Comparison

# AMD Radeon Pro Vega II vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The database pits these two graphics cards against each other as extreme representatives of their respective design lineages. AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is a pro workstation part built for Apple's MPX ecosystem, while NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a consumer flagship built for maximum raw performance. The recorded benchmarks show a clear split: the RTX 4090 wins in every test, with the AMD card trailing by a significant margin in compute workloads. The data shows no scenario where the AMD card takes the lead.

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head benchmark data contains two tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4090 scores 255,416 against the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II's 99,048, a difference of 61.2%. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA card scores 271,631, the AMD card scores 99,621, a gap of 63.3%. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II does not win either test; the wins column for the AMD card is 0, for the NVIDIA card it is 2.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural schools. AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is built on the Vega 20 chip with the GCN 5.1 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It uses 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, for a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 uses the AD102 chip with the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The chip contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, a density of 125.3 million per mm².

The AMD card is built around a 32 GB HBM2 memory array with a 4096 bit bus and 825.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA card uses 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384 bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s. AMD's shading unit count is 4096, with 256 texture mapping units and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA part has 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. AMD has no RT cores or tensor cores; NVIDIA has 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores.

Clock speeds differ as well. The AMD card base clock is 1574 MHz, boost clock 1720 MHz, and memory clock 806 MHz (effective data rate 1612 Mbps). The NVIDIA card base clock is 2235 MHz, boost clock 2520 MHz, memory 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). Pixel throughput: AMD is 110.1 GPixel/s, texture 440.3 GTexel/s; NVIDIA is 443.5 GPixel/s and 1,290.2 GTexel/s. The compute output is clear: AMD's FP32 is 14.09 TFLOPS, FP16 is 28.18 TFLOPS (2:1). NVIDIA's FP32 is 82.58 TFLOPS, FP16 is 82.58 TFLOPS (1:1).

Other differences: the AMD card is a quad-slot design, powered by the Apple MPX bus interface, with display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.0b and 4x Thunderbolt. The NVIDIA card is triple-slot, with a 16-pin power connector, and outputs 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The AMD card uses a suggested 850 W power supply, the NVIDIA uses 850 W. The AMD card draws 475 W total board power, the NVIDIA 450 W. The AMD card is listed as end-of-life, release date June 2, 2019, launch MSRP 2,199 USD. The NVIDIA card is also end-of-life, released September 19, 2022, with a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

In the OpenCL test, the numbers are clear. AMD Radeon Pro Vega II scores 99,048. The GeForce RTX 4090 reaches 255,416. This is a 61.2% difference. The result is 2.58x higher for the NVIDIA part. The situation is similar in the Vulkan test: AMD records 99,621, NVIDIA 271,631. The delta is 63.3%, and the result is 2.73x higher. In both tests the time-to-score relationship is the same: the NVIDIA card is roughly 2.6 to 2.7 times faster. The 4090's advantage is not marginal, it is a full generational step. The Vega II is a capable workstation card, but in these tests it is at 36-37% of the performance of the Ada card.

The two benchmark results also show consistency. The OpenCL test on the 4090 was 255,416, on the Vulkan test 271,631. The AMD card scores 99,048 OpenCL and 99,521 Vulkan. The NVIDIA score is more consistent across APIs. The AMD card also keeps its place.

The Verdict

The data is not close. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins both head-to-head tests by a large margin, with scores around 2.6 to 2.7 times higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II. Anyone who needs maximum compute throughput and has no need for the Mac-specific AMD features should choose the GeForce. The AMD card has a niche: it is a Mac-native card with Thunderbolt/MPX integration and a quadruple-slot cooler. But in terms of raw performance, the 4090 is the clear choice. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is a specialized product, and the benchmark data shows it is not a competitor to the RTX 4090 in these workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 wins both recorded tests. It beats the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II by 61.2% in Geekbench OpenCL and by 63.3% in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: How does the memory configuration differ?

A: AMD has 32 GB of HBM2 with 4096-bit bus and 825.3 GB/s bandwidth. NVIDIA has 24 GB GDDR6X with 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the transistor density comparison?

A: AMD has 13,230 million transistors on 331 mm² (40.0M/mm²). NVIDIA has 76,300 million transistors on 609 mm² (125.3M/mm²).

Q: Are these cards the same size?

A: No. AMD is a quad-slot. NVIDIA is a triple-slot.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: AMD is rated at 475 W TDP, NVIDIA at 450 W TDP. Both have 850 W suggested PSU.

Q: Do both support the same APIs?

A: The AMD supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.3. NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.4.