AMD Radeon Pro Vega II vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II and NVIDIA RTX A4500 represent two distinct approaches to professional graphics, separated by roughly two and a half years of architectural evolution. Benchmark data from the FACT PACK shows the RTX A4500 winning both head-to-head tests, yet the Radeon Pro Vega II holds a higher aggregate benchmark score. This analysis will dissect the performance, architecture, and specification differences between these two workstation cards, using only the provided data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison between these two cards is limited to two compute-oriented tests, and in both cases, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 emerges victorious. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A4500 scores 141,837 against the Radeon Pro Vega II’s 99,048, a decisive 30.2% advantage. This is a substantial margin that indicates a significant raw compute throughput difference in general-purpose workloads. The gap narrows somewhat in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX A4500 posts 129,980 versus 99,621 for the AMD card, still a commanding 23.4% lead. These results are consistent with the RTX A4500’s higher FP32 rating of 23.65 TFLOPS, compared to the Radeon Pro Vega II’s 14.09 TFLOPS.

However, the aggregate picture is more nuanced. The Radeon Pro Vega II’s average benchmark score across all tests is 109,617, while the RTX A4500 averages 91,671. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the Radeon Pro Vega II also has a Geekbench Metal score of 130,183, a test the NVIDIA card does not have listed. This suggests the AMD card has a particular strength in Apple’s Metal API, likely due to its integration into the Apple MPX ecosystem. In the head-to-head tests, the RTX A4500’s wins are clear and consistent, but the overall benchmark average tells a different story, with the AMD card holding a 19.6% higher average score. The RTX A4500’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile, scores 91,134, a mere 0.6% difference, showing the desktop card’s performance is closely mirrored by its mobile counterpart. Meanwhile, the Radeon Pro Vega II sits 1% below the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 (110,725) and 2.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W6600X (107,342), placing it in a strong position within AMD’s professional lineup.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the Geekbench OpenCL test, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 wins with a score of 141,837, which is 30.2% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II’s score of 99,048.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II have any benchmark where it outperforms the RTX A4500?

A: Yes, in the available benchmark data, the AMD card has a Geekbench Metal score of 130,183, which the NVIDIA card does not have a corresponding result for. This contributes to the AMD card’s higher average benchmark score of 109,617.

Q: How do the two cards compare in terms of aggregate benchmark performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II has a higher average benchmark score of 109,617, compared to the NVIDIA RTX A4500’s 91,671. This places the AMD card in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA card is in the 93rd percentile.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II features 32 GB of HBM2 memory with a 4096-bit bus and 825.3 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX A4500 has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus with 640.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 includes 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, indicating hardware support for ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II lists no RT cores or tensor cores.

Q: What is the difference in power consumption between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II has a TDP of 475 W and suggests a 850 W power supply, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 has a TDP of 200 W and suggests a 550 W power supply.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II is based on the Vega 20 chip using the GCN 5.1 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It contains 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 uses the GA102 chip with the Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This chip is significantly larger, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, yielding a density of 45.1 million per mm².

These architectural differences manifest in core configurations. The Radeon Pro Vega II has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX A4500 offers 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. While the NVIDIA card has more shading units and ROPs, the AMD card has more TMUs. Critically, the RTX A4500 includes 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, which the Vega II lacks entirely. This means the NVIDIA card is equipped for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor-based operations, features absent from the older AMD architecture. The FP16 performance also differs: the Vega II achieves 28.18 TFLOPS using a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A4500 achieves 23.65 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio.

The memory subsystem is also architecturally distinct. AMD uses HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus, while NVIDIA uses GDDR6 with a 320-bit bus. The AMD solution provides higher bandwidth at 825.3 GB/s, but the NVIDIA card’s 640.0 GB/s is still substantial. The bus interface also differs, with the AMD card using the proprietary Apple MPX connector, whereas the NVIDIA card uses the standard PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, making it more universally compatible.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge across nearly every specification category, reflecting their different target platforms and design philosophies. The most obvious difference is memory capacity: the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II offers 32 GB, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 provides 20 GB. Memory type and bus width also differ, with HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus for AMD versus GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus for NVIDIA, leading to the bandwidth difference mentioned earlier.

Clock speeds show a notable contrast. The AMD card has a higher base clock of 1574 MHz, but the NVIDIA card has a higher boost clock of 1650 MHz versus 1720 MHz? No, the AMD boost is 1720 MHz, and the NVIDIA base is 1050 MHz with a boost of 1650 MHz. The memory clocks are 1612 Mbps effective for AMD and 16 Gbps effective for NVIDIA.

Compute throughput strongly favors the NVIDIA card. The RTX A4500 delivers 23.65 TFLOPS FP32, compared to the Vega II’s 14.09 TFLOPS. Pixel rate is also higher on NVIDIA at 158.4 GPixel/s versus 110.1 GPixel/s, but texture rate is higher on AMD at 440.3 GTexel/s versus 369.6 GTexel/s. Power consumption is a major differentiator: the AMD card draws 475 W and requires an 850 W PSU, while the NVIDIA card draws only 200 W and needs a 550 W PSU. The slot width also differs, with AMD being a quad-slot design and NVIDIA a dual-slot.

Physical and connectivity specs are distinct as well. The AMD card uses the Apple MPX bus and outputs 1x HDMI 2.0b and 4x Thunderbolt. The NVIDIA card uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, with dimensions of 267 mm in length and 112 mm in height. API support shows the NVIDIA card supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD card supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The release dates are June 2019 for AMD and November 2021 for NVIDIA, and the AMD card had a launch MSRP of 2,199 USD.

Where Each One Wins

The data indicates that the NVIDIA RTX A4500 is the clear winner in raw compute performance, as evidenced by its 30.2% lead in OpenCL and 23.4% lead in Vulkan. Its higher FP32 throughput, support for ray tracing via 56 RT cores, and tensor cores make it the better choice for workloads that leverage these features. The lower TDP of 200 W and dual-slot design also make it more practical for standard workstation builds, and its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures broad compatibility with PC motherboards.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II, despite losing both head-to-head tests, has its own strengths. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory with 825.3 GB/s bandwidth is a massive advantage for memory-intensive applications like large dataset visualization or high-resolution texture work. The higher average benchmark score of 109,617, driven by its strong Metal performance, suggests it excels in Apple-centric environments, particularly given its MPX bus interface and Thunderbolt outputs. The higher texture rate of 440.3 GTexel/s also indicates potential superiority in texture-heavy workloads. For users in the Mac ecosystem or those needing maximum memory capacity, the Vega II remains competitive. However, for general professional compute, ray tracing, or AI tasks, the RTX A4500’s performance and efficiency make it the more versatile and capable option.