AMD Radeon Pro VII vs NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation and AMD Radeon Pro VII represent two very different approaches to professional workstation graphics, separated by three years of architectural evolution. Benchmark data shows the RTX 4000 Ada Generation leading in every recorded compute test, but the Radeon Pro VII retains specific strengths in memory bandwidth and API coverage that matter for certain workflows. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation posts an average benchmark score of 135,218 against the Radeon Pro VII’s 97,131, placing them at the 95th and 93rd percentiles respectively among all GPUs. This analysis walks through the raw scores, the architectural reasons behind them, and what each card does better in practical terms.

Where Each One Wins

The data is unambiguous on raw compute: the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation wins both head-to-head benchmarks that were run on both cards. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 146,593 against the Radeon Pro VII’s 90,148, a 62.6% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 123,842 against 92,862, a 33.4% lead. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation also has a dedicated Geekbench Vulkan score and a higher average across all benchmarks, making it the clear choice for compute-heavy workloads like rendering, simulation, or any task that leverages OpenCL or Vulkan acceleration.

The AMD Radeon Pro VII wins in a different domain: memory bandwidth. Its HBM2 memory runs on a 4096-bit bus and delivers 1.02 TB/s, versus the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 360.0 GB/s over a 160-bit bus. That is a 2.8x bandwidth advantage, which matters for memory-bound tasks such as large dataset manipulation, certain scientific computing kernels, or workloads that repeatedly stream data through VRAM. The Radeon Pro VII also supports Metal, a graphics API that the RTX 4000 Ada Generation does not list; its Geekbench Metal score of 108,383 is a data point for macOS or Metal-specific environments. However, in the two benchmarks where both cards were tested, the Radeon Pro VII does not win a single test.

For users prioritizing FP16 throughput, the Radeon Pro VII offers 26.11 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), nearly matching the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 26.73 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The NVIDIA card achieves this at full rate, meaning no performance penalty for FP16 workloads, while the AMD card’s 2:1 ratio implies half-rate FP16 performance relative to FP32. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s FP32 output is 26.73 TFLOPS, exactly double the Radeon Pro VII’s 13.06 TFLOPS. For modern AI or compute tasks that rely on FP16, the NVIDIA card’s 1:1 ratio is a structural advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation scores 135,218 on average, while the AMD Radeon Pro VII scores 97,131. The NVIDIA card sits at the 95th percentile of all GPUs, the AMD card at the 93rd.

Q: How large is the performance gap in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation scores 146,593 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 62.6% higher than the Radeon Pro VII’s 90,148. This is the largest single-benchmark delta between the two cards.

Q: Does the Radeon Pro VII have any advantage in memory technology?

A: Yes. The Radeon Pro VII uses HBM2 memory with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus with 360.0 GB/s. The AMD card’s bandwidth is nearly three times higher.

Q: Which card supports more display outputs?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII provides 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. Both support PCIe 4.0 x16.

Q: What is the difference in API support?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon Pro VII supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, plus Metal (with a Geekbench Metal score of 108,383).

Q: Which card is more power-efficient on paper?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation has a TDP of 130 W and a suggested PSU of 300 W. The Radeon Pro VII has a TDP of 250 W and a suggested PSU of 600 W. The NVIDIA card delivers higher compute scores at roughly half the power draw.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two shared benchmarks tell a clear story of compute superiority for the RTX 4000 Ada Generation. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA card posts 146,593 points, which is 62.6% ahead of the Radeon Pro VII’s 90,148. That delta is the largest of any comparison in this dataset and reflects the NVIDIA card’s higher shading unit count (6144 versus 3840), higher FP32 throughput (26.73 TFLOPS versus 13.06 TFLOPS), and faster boost clock (2175 MHz versus 1700 MHz). The OpenCL benchmark often scales with raw shader throughput, and the RTX 4000 Ada Generation has roughly 60% more shading units and double the FP32 rate.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap narrows but remains decisive. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation scores 123,842 against the Radeon Pro VII’s 92,862, a 33.4% lead. Vulkan workloads can be more sensitive to driver efficiency and memory latency, which may explain why the advantage is smaller than in OpenCL, but the NVIDIA card still wins by a substantial margin. The Radeon Pro VII’s higher memory bandwidth (1.02 TB/s) does not translate into a Vulkan victory, suggesting that the benchmark’s workload favors compute throughput over raw bandwidth.

The Radeon Pro VII’s best performance comes in the Geekbench Metal test, where it scores 108,383. This is a benchmark the RTX 4000 Ada Generation does not have a recorded score for, so no direct comparison exists. However, this score is higher than the Radeon Pro VII’s Vulkan score (92,862) and lower than its OpenCL score (90,148 is lower than 108,383, so Metal is its best result). For Metal-only environments, this is the Radeon Pro VII’s single most competitive data point.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge across almost every core specification. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, while the Radeon Pro VII uses 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has more shading units but fewer TMUs; the AMD card has 25% more TMUs (240 versus 192), which could benefit texture-heavy workloads, though the NVIDIA card’s texture rate of 417.6 GTexel/s slightly exceeds the AMD card’s 408.0 GTexel/s.

Memory configurations differ fundamentally. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus with 360.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon Pro VII has 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card offers 25% more capacity, while the AMD card offers 2.8x more bandwidth. Clock speeds also differ: the RTX 4000 Ada Generation runs at 1500 MHz base and 2175 MHz boost, versus 1400 MHz base and 1700 MHz boost for the Radeon Pro VII.

Power and physical specs are starkly different. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation has a 130 W TDP, single-slot design, one 16-pin power connector, and a 300 W suggested PSU. The Radeon Pro VII has a 250 W TDP, dual-slot design, one 6-pin plus one 8-pin connector, and a 600 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card is also shorter at 245 mm (9.6 inches) versus 305 mm (12 inches) for the AMD card, though heights are similar at 112 mm and 111 mm respectively.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8M per mm². The Radeon Pro VII uses TSMC’s 7 nm process with 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, for a density of 40.0M per mm². The NVIDIA chip, AD104, packs nearly 2.7x more transistors into a smaller die, which explains its higher compute output at lower power.

The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and includes 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro VII, based on GCN 5.1 with the Vega 20 chip, has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores listed. This means the NVIDIA card has hardware acceleration for ray-traced workloads and tensor-based operations (common in AI inference), while the AMD card relies entirely on its shading units for those tasks.

The release timeline also reflects architectural maturity. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation launched on August 8, 2023, and is still active in production, with its predecessor listed as Workstation Ampere and successor as Blackwell PRO W. The Radeon Pro VII launched on May 12, 2020, is marked end-of-life, and its successor is listed as Radeon Pro Navi. The NVIDIA card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD card only supports DirectX 12 (12_1), a generational gap in feature support.

The Verdict

The benchmark data points decisively toward the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation for any user whose primary metric is compute performance. It wins both shared benchmarks, with a 62.6% lead in OpenCL and a 33.4% lead in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 135,218 is 39.2% higher than the Radeon Pro VII’s 97,131. It achieves this with a 130 W TDP versus 250 W, a single-slot design versus dual-slot, and a smaller physical footprint. For rendering, simulation, or any OpenCL/Vulkan workload, the NVIDIA card is the faster option on paper.

The AMD Radeon Pro VII still holds a niche for specific use cases. Its 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth is unmatched in this comparison and could be decisive for memory-bound applications that saturate bandwidth before compute. Its Metal support (score 108,383) is relevant for Apple ecosystems or Metal-only pipelines. Its 16 GB of HBM2 memory, while less than the NVIDIA card’s 20 GB, is faster per byte and may be preferable for certain scientific or data-heavy tasks. The Radeon Pro VII also offers 6 display outputs versus 4, which matters for multi-monitor configurations.

The choice comes down to workload type. For general compute, ray tracing, tensor operations, and lower power consumption, the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is the clear data-driven winner. For memory-bandwidth-bound tasks, Metal-specific environments, or users needing more display outputs, the Radeon Pro VII has documented advantages. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation is also the only one of the two still in active production, while the Radeon Pro VII is end-of-life. The data shows no scenario where the Radeon Pro VII wins a shared benchmark, but its unique memory architecture and Metal support mean it is not obsolete for every professional workflow.