AMD Radeon Pro W5500X vs Intel Arc A580 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The aggregate benchmark data places the Intel Arc A580 and AMD Radeon Pro W5500X in remarkably close contention. The Arc A580 posts an average benchmark score of 57,756, while the Radeon Pro W5500X sits just 0.2% behind at 57,661. This is a statistical tie in practical terms, but the composition of those scores tells a more nuanced story.

The Arc A580's average is derived from three distinct benchmarks: 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12) at 2,229, Geekbench OpenCL at 91,657, and Geekbench Vulkan at 79,381. The Radeon Pro W5500X's average rests entirely on a single Geekbench Metal score of 57,661. The data shows that the Arc A580 demonstrates exceptional strength in compute-heavy workloads, with its OpenCL score nearly 59% higher than the Radeon's entire average. Its Vulkan result of 79,381 further reinforces this pattern, indicating strong cross-API compute performance.

However, the head-to-head comparison is complicated by the lack of overlapping benchmark tests. The Arc A580's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2,229 represents its gaming-oriented DX12 performance, while the Radeon Pro W5500X has no equivalent DirectX benchmark in the data. Conversely, the Radeon's Metal score of 57,661 has no counterpart on the Intel side, as the Arc A580 lacks a Metal benchmark entry. This makes direct apples-to-apples comparison impossible from the provided figures.

What the data does show is that both cards occupy the 89th percentile among all GPUs, placing them in the same performance tier. The nearest rival lists confirm this proximity: the Arc A580 is 0.2% ahead of the Radeon, while the Radeon is 0.2% behind the Arc. Both are sandwiched between the NVIDIA P102-100 (57,601) and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM (57,599), with the Intel Arc A570M (58,239) slightly ahead of both.

The biggest single-score gap in the dataset favors the Arc A580: its Geekbench OpenCL result of 91,657 is 58.9% higher than the Radeon Pro W5500X's entire average benchmark score. Even the Arc's lower Vulkan score of 79,381 exceeds the Radeon's Metal score by 37.7%. These are substantial margins in raw compute throughput, but they come from different API ecosystems, which tempers direct comparability.

Where Each One Wins

The Arc A580 demonstrates clear superiority in general-purpose compute and cross-vendor API performance. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 91,657 is the highest single benchmark result between the two cards, and its Vulkan score of 79,381 shows strong performance in a widely supported industry-standard API. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,229, while not directly comparable to any Radeon result, indicates the card handles modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads, consistent with its 12_2 API support.

The Radeon Pro W5500X wins in the Apple ecosystem. Its Geekbench Metal score of 57,661 is the only benchmark data available for the card, and it achieves this on Apple's proprietary graphics API. The card's Apple MPX bus interface and 2x HDMI 2.0b display outputs, combined with its Radeon Pro Mac generation label, position it specifically for Mac Pro and Macintosh systems. Its 125 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU are both lower than the Arc A580's 175 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU, indicating lower system power requirements.

The data suggests the Radeon's advantage is ecosystem-specific rather than raw performance. Where the Arc A580 leverages OpenCL and Vulkan for broad compatibility, the Radeon Pro W5500X focuses on Metal-optimized workflows in Apple environments. The Radeon's 7 nm process node from TSMC, with 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, yields a transistor density of 40.5M/mm², whereas the Arc A580's 6 nm node packs 21,700 million transistors into 406 mm² for a density of 53.4M/mm².

The Verdict

The data indicates that the Intel Arc A580 is the stronger card for general-purpose compute and cross-platform workloads. Its OpenCL score of 91,657 and Vulkan score of 79,381 dwarf the Radeon Pro W5500X's Metal result of 57,661 by significant margins. The Arc also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon only reaches DirectX 12 (12_1), a meaningful gap for modern gaming and graphics applications. The Arc's 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, more than double the Radeon's 224.0 GB/s on a 128-bit bus.

However, the Radeon Pro W5500X is the appropriate choice for Mac-based systems. Its Apple MPX bus interface and Metal benchmark presence make it the only option that fits Apple hardware. Its 125 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU are more modest than the Arc's 175 W and 450 W, which matters in space-constrained or power-sensitive Mac chassis. The Radeon's 2x HDMI 2.0b outputs also serve dual-display Mac setups, though the Arc counters with 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0.

The average benchmark scores (57,756 for Intel, 57,661 for AMD) and identical 89th percentile rankings suggest that in a scenario where both cards could run the same workloads, the difference would be imperceptible. The Arc A580's 0.2% lead in average score is negligible. The selection should therefore be driven by platform and API requirements: macOS users must choose the Radeon Pro W5500X, while Windows or Linux users seeking maximum compute performance should select the Arc A580.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A580 than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X in average benchmark score?

A: The Arc A580 averages 57,756, which is 0.2% higher than the Radeon Pro W5500X's 57,661. This is effectively a tie in aggregate performance.

Q: Which card has a higher OpenCL score?

A: The Intel Arc A580 scores 91,657 in Geekbench OpenCL. The Radeon Pro W5500X has no OpenCL benchmark entry in the data; its only result is a Geekbench Metal score of 57,661.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The Arc A580 has 512.0 GB/s bandwidth from 8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The Radeon Pro W5500X has 224.0 GB/s from 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The Intel card offers 288 GB/s more bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The Arc A580 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Radeon Pro W5500X supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: Which card has a lower power requirement?

A: The Radeon Pro W5500X has a 125 W TDP and a 300 W suggested PSU. The Arc A580 has a 175 W TDP and a 450 W suggested PSU. The Radeon is the lower-power option.

Q: Which card is still in production?

A: The Intel Arc A580 is listed as Active production status, released on 2023-10-09. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X is End-of-life, released on 2019-12-10.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different architectural generations. The Intel Arc A580 uses the DG2-512 chip based on Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation within the Arc 5 series. It is fabricated on TSMC's 6 nm process, packing 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die for a density of 53.4 million transistors per square millimeter.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X uses the Navi 14 chip based on RDNA 1.0 architecture, belonging to the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series) generation. It employs TSMC's 7 nm process, with 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, yielding a density of 40.5 million transistors per square millimeter. The Intel chip has over three times the transistor count and more than 2.5 times the die area.

The Arc A580's compute configuration is substantially larger: 3,072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. It also includes 24 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Radeon Pro W5500X, which has no ray tracing cores listed. The Radeon counters with 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

Clock speeds favor the Intel card in absolute terms: 1700 MHz base and 2000 MHz boost versus the Radeon's 1187 MHz base and 1757 MHz boost. However, the Radeon's smaller architecture achieves its performance with lower power, rated at 125 W TDP versus the Arc's 175 W. The Intel card requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, while the Radeon lists no power connectors, reflecting its Apple MPX bus interface which supplies power through the slot.

Memory architecture differs markedly. The Arc A580 uses a 256-bit memory bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, running at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). The Radeon Pro W5500X uses a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Both have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, but the Intel implementation provides significantly more bandwidth.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. The Intel Arc A580 has a base clock of 1700 MHz and boost clock of 2000 MHz, compared to the Radeon's 1187 MHz base and 1757 MHz boost. The Arc's memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) on the Radeon.

Memory bandwidth heavily favors Intel: 512.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s. The bus width is 256-bit on the Arc versus 128-bit on the Radeon. Both cards have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Compute throughput shows a large gap. The Arc A580 delivers 12.29 TFLOPS FP32 and 24.58 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The Radeon Pro W5500X delivers 5.398 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.80 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The Intel card offers more than double the FP32 performance.

Pixel and texture rates follow suit: the Arc produces 192.0 GPixel/s and 384.0 GTexel/s, while the Radeon manages 56.22 GPixel/s and 168.7 GTexel/s. The power envelope differs as well: 175 W TDP with 450 W suggested PSU for Intel, versus 125 W TDP with 300 W suggested PSU for AMD.

The bus interface distinguishes the cards: the Arc uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon uses Apple MPX. Display outputs also differ: the Arc has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0, whereas the Radeon has 2x HDMI 2.0b.

The Radeon Pro W5500X has a launch MSRP of 599 USD. The Arc A580 has no launch MSRP listed. The Radeon's production status is End-of-life, released 2019-12-10. The Arc remains Active, released 2023-10-09, with its predecessor listed as Xe Graphics and successor as Battlemage.