AMD Radeon Pro W5700X vs Intel Arc A550M Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and Intel Arc A550M occupy nearly the same performance tier in the database, with average benchmark scores of 54,828 and 49,737, respectively. The AMD card sits at the 87th percentile of all GPUs, while the Intel part is at the 86th percentile. Despite the W5700X's higher average, the head-to-head results tell a different story: the Intel Arc A550M wins both shared benchmarks, taking Geekbench OpenCL by 12.2% and Geekbench Vulkan by 8.7%. This creates a nuanced comparison where the desktop-oriented AMD card has a slight aggregate edge, but the mobile Intel part dominates in the two tests where both were measured.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split based on workload and platform. For users who prioritize raw compute throughput in OpenCL and Vulkan applications, the Intel Arc A550M is the stronger choice, as it outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 12.2% in Geekbench OpenCL (49,894 vs. 43,810) and by 8.7% in Geekbench Vulkan (49,580 vs. 45,246). This is despite the AMD card's higher absolute average benchmark score of 54,828, which is boosted by its Geekbench Metal result of 75,427 — a test the Intel part does not have a recorded score for. In the two comparable workloads, Intel wins outright.

However, the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is not without its advantages. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, exactly double the 224.0 GB/s available to the Intel Arc A550M's 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. For memory-intensive tasks like large texture loads or high-resolution rendering, this bandwidth advantage is significant. The AMD card also offers 2,560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units, compared to Intel's 2,048 shading units and 128 TMUs, which supports its higher FP32 throughput of 10.44 TFLOPS versus 8.397 TFLOPS.

The choice comes down to platform and API. If the target environment is Apple's Mac Pro (the W5700X uses an Apple MPX bus interface and is quad-slot, measuring 305 mm), then the AMD card is the only option in this comparison. If the workload is on a portable device with PCIe 4.0 x16, the Intel Arc A550M offers better OpenCL and Vulkan performance while consuming only 60 W — a fraction of the AMD card's 205 W TDP. The data does not support a single winner; it supports two winners for two different use cases.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A550M wins in every head-to-head benchmark that both products share. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 49,894 against the W5700X's 43,810, a 12.2% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 49,580 against 45,246, an 8.7% lead. These are the only two tests where both GPUs have recorded results, and Intel wins both. The Arc A550M also has a higher pixel rate at 131.2 GPixel/s versus 130.6 GPixel/s, a marginal 0.5% edge that suggests slightly better rasterization throughput at the pixel level.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X wins in the areas where the Intel part was not tested or where its specifications provide a clear advantage. Its Geekbench Metal score of 75,427 is far above its own OpenCL and Vulkan results, indicating exceptional performance in Apple's Metal API — a workload category where the Intel Arc A550M has no recorded data. The AMD card's texture rate of 326.4 GTexel/s is 24.4% higher than Intel's 262.4 GTexel/s, and its FP32 throughput of 10.44 TFLOPS is 24.3% higher than Intel's 8.397 TFLOPS. In memory bandwidth, the AMD card's 448.0 GB/s is exactly twice the Intel part's 224.0 GB/s.

The average benchmark score also favors AMD. The W5700X's average of 54,828 is 10.2% higher than the Arc A550M's 49,737. This aggregate measure includes the Metal test, which inflates AMD's average. When excluding Metal and comparing only the common tests, Intel leads. The nearest rival data confirms the tier: the W5700X is 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (54,247) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698). The Arc A550M is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957) and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48,477).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the largest margin of victory in the shared tests. The Intel Arc A550M scores 49,894, which is 6,084 points higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X's 43,810. This 12.2% delta is substantial and indicates that Intel's Xe-HPG architecture handles OpenCL compute more efficiently than AMD's RDNA 1.0 in this configuration. Notably, the Arc A550M achieves this with fewer shading units (2,048 vs. 2,560) and lower FP32 peak (8.397 TFLOPS vs. 10.44 TFLOPS), suggesting that raw compute throughput is not the sole determinant of OpenCL performance.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin is narrower but still decisive. The Intel part scores 49,580 against AMD's 45,246, a difference of 4,334 points or 8.7%. The Arc A550M's Vulkan score is remarkably close to its OpenCL score (49,580 vs. 49,894), while the W5700X shows a larger gap between its Vulkan and OpenCL results (45,246 vs. 43,810). This suggests the Intel architecture provides more consistent performance across different compute APIs, whereas the AMD card's Vulkan path is relatively stronger than its OpenCL path but still trails Intel.

The AMD card's Geekbench Metal score of 75,427 is its standout result, but it cannot be compared directly to the Intel part because no Metal score exists for the Arc A550M. This score is 72.2% higher than the AMD card's own OpenCL score and 66.7% higher than its Vulkan score, indicating that Metal is where the W5700X excels. However, this does not affect the head-to-head win count, which stands at 2 wins for Intel and 0 for AMD in shared benchmarks.

The average benchmark scores provide additional context. The W5700X's average of 54,828 is 5,091 points higher than the Arc A550M's 49,737, but this gap is entirely attributable to the Metal result. Without that test, AMD's average would be approximately 44,528 (the mean of 43,810 and 45,246), which is 10.5% below Intel's average. The percentile rankings — 87th for AMD and 86th for Intel — are nearly identical, confirming that both cards sit in the same performance class despite their divergent benchmark profiles.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has an average benchmark score of 54,828, which is 10.2% higher than the Intel Arc A550M's 49,737. However, this includes a Geekbench Metal score of 75,427 for AMD that has no Intel equivalent.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A550M beat the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X in any shared benchmark?

A: Yes, the Intel Arc A550M wins both shared benchmarks. It scores 49,894 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 43,810 for AMD (a 12.2% lead) and 49,580 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 45,246 (an 8.7% lead).

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth from 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The Intel Arc A550M has 224.0 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. AMD's bandwidth is exactly double Intel's.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each GPU based on average benchmark score?

A: For the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (1.6% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon 8060S (1.7% higher). For the Intel Arc A550M, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (0.5% higher) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (0.4% higher).

Q: Which card has higher compute throughput in FP32?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has an FP32 performance of 10.44 TFLOPS, which is 24.3% higher than the Intel Arc A550M's 8.397 TFLOPS. AMD also has more shading units (2,560 vs. 2,048) and more texture mapping units (160 vs. 128).

Q: What are the power consumption figures for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has a TDP of 205 W and a suggested PSU of 550 W. The Intel Arc A550M has a TDP of 60 W and no suggested PSU listed. The Intel part consumes 70.7% less power than the AMD card.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X uses the Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It contains 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 41.0 million per mm². The Intel Arc A550M uses the DG2-512 chip with Xe-HPG architecture, manufactured on a 6 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, giving a density of 53.4 million per mm². Intel's chip has 110.7% more transistors on a 61.8% larger die.

The memory subsystems differ substantially. AMD provides 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. Intel provides 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both run memory at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, but the bus width difference halves Intel's bandwidth. The AMD card's memory capacity is double Intel's, which matters for large datasets.

Compute resources show a similar pattern. AMD has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, while Intel has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD's pixel rate is 130.6 GPixel/s versus Intel's 131.2 GPixel/s, a negligible difference. However, AMD's texture rate of 326.4 GTexel/s is 24.4% higher than Intel's 262.4 GTexel/s, and AMD's FP32 throughput of 10.44 TFLOPS is 24.3% higher than Intel's 8.397 TFLOPS. Both support FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, with AMD at 20.89 TFLOPS and Intel at 16.79 TFLOPS.

Intel's architecture includes 16 dedicated ray tracing cores, which AMD's RDNA 1.0 architecture lacks entirely. The Intel part also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while AMD only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The Intel card uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface and is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with portable device-dependent display outputs. The AMD card uses an Apple MPX bus interface, is quad-slot, measures 305 mm (12 inches) in length, and offers 1x HDMI 2.0b plus 4x Thunderbolt outputs. Clock speeds differ: AMD boosts to 2040 MHz from a 1243 MHz base, while Intel boosts to 2050 MHz from a 900 MHz base. Power consumption is starkly different, with AMD at 205 W TDP and Intel at 60 W TDP, a 145 W difference. The AMD card is end-of-life with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, while the Intel part is also end-of-life but has no recorded launch MSRP or release date.