AMD Radeon PRO W6600 vs Intel Arc A580 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data splits cleanly between these two GPUs, with the Intel Arc A580 taking both head-to-head victories. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 does not claim a single win in the direct comparisons available in the database. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Intel card posts 91,657 against the AMD card's 73,514, a margin of 19.8 percent. This is a substantial gap in a compute-oriented workload that stresses raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth.

The Vulkan test is much closer. The Arc A580 scores 79,381, while the Radeon PRO W6600 trails with 78,428, a difference of only 1.2 percent. This narrow margin suggests that in API-level gaming or graphics workloads using Vulkan, the two cards are effectively peers. The AMD card has a higher percentile ranking, sitting at 92 percent of all GPUs, while Intel sits at 87 percent. That percentile gap reflects the AMD card's better standing in the broader database despite losing the direct head-to-head tests.

The use-case split is nuanced. For users prioritizing compute-heavy OpenCL tasks, the Intel Arc A580 is the clear choice. For Vulkan-based workloads, the difference is negligible. The AMD card, however, comes from the professional Radeon PRO line with a 100 W power draw, making it a more efficient option in constrained chassis. The Intel Arc A580, with its 175 W TDP and dual-slot design, is a more power-hungry alternative. The data suggest that the Intel part wins on raw compute metrics, but the AMD part holds its own in API-specific benchmarks where the architecture's optimizations compensate for lower raw throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU scores higher in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The Intel Arc A580 scores 91,657, which is 19.8 percent higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600's 73,514.

Q: Is the Vulkan performance difference between the two cards significant?

A: No, the difference is minimal. The Intel Arc A580 scores 79,381 versus the AMD's 78,428, a margin of only 1.2 percent.

Q: Which card has the higher overall percentile ranking?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, while the Intel Arc A580 ranks in the 87th percentile.

Q: How does the AMD card's thermal design power compare to the Intel card's?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a 100 W TDP, while the Intel Arc A580 has a 175 W TDP, making the AMD card significantly more power-efficient on paper.

Q: Are both cards using the same memory type and size?

A: Yes, both use 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. However, the Intel Arc A580 has a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD uses a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The Intel Arc A580 has 3,072 shading units, compared to the AMD's 1,792. The Intel card also has more texture mapping units (192 vs. 112) and more ROPs (96 vs. 64).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains two direct benchmark comparisons between these GPUs. The first is Geekbench OpenCL, where the Intel Arc A580 decisively outperforms the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. Intel scores 91,657, AMD scores 73,514, for a delta of 19.8 percent in Intel's favor. This is the largest margin in any test. The OpenCL workload stresses parallel compute across the entire GPU, and the Intel's larger core count, 3,072 shading units versus 1,792, along with double the memory bandwidth, gives it a substantial advantage.

The second head-to-head test is Geekbench Vulkan, which measures graphics and compute performance through the Vulkan API. The Intel Arc A580 scores 79,381, the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 78,428, a delta of 1.2 percent. This is statistically a tie. The AMD card's higher boost clock of 2,580 MHz versus Intel's 2,000 MHz helps close the gap. The AMD also has more ray tracing cores, 28 versus 24 for Intel, which may contribute to its competitive showing in this API.

The win count in the head-to-head section is 0 for AMD and 2 for Intel. However, the average benchmark score across all tests tells a more nuanced story. The AMD's overall average of 81,995 is much higher than the Intel's 57,756. This discrepancy stems from the Intel's inclusion of a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,229, which is far lower than any Geekbench result, dragging down its average. The AMD card has no 3DMark score in the database, so its average reflects only the Geekbench tests. This means the average score is not directly comparable as a measure of overall capability, but the database's percentile ranking, which places AMD at 92 and Intel at 87, aligns with AMD's higher average.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measured specification. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 uses a 7 nm process, while the Intel Arc A580 uses a 6 nm process. The AMD chip is Navi 23, and the Intel chip is DG2-512. Transistor counts are vastly different: the AMD has 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, while the Intel has 21,700 million on a 406 mm² die. The AMD's transistor density is 46.7 million per square millimeter, Intel's is 53.4 million.

Clock speeds favor AMD. The AMD base clock is 2,331 MHz, boosting to 2,580 MHz. The Intel base clock is 1,700 MHz, boosting to 2,000 MHz. The memory clock also differs: the AMD runs at 1,750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective, the Intel at 2,000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective. The AMD has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Intel also has 8 GB of GDDR6, but on a 256-bit bus, yielding 512.0 GB/s, more than double the bandwidth.

Core counts are dramatically different. The AMD has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 28 ray cores. The Intel has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and 24 ray cores. The pixel rate is 165.1 GPixel/s for AMD vs. 192.0 GPixel/s for Intel. The texture rate is 289.0 GTexel/s for AMD vs. 384.0 GTexel/s for Intel. FP32 throughput is 9.247 TFLOPS for AMD and 12.29 TFLOPS for Intel. FP16 is 18.49 TFLOPS vs. 24.58 TFLOPS, both at 2:1 ratio.

Power and physical dimensions differ. The AMD has a 100 W TDP, single-slot design, and a 1x 6-pin power connector. The Intel has a 175 W TDP, dual-slot design, and 2x 8-pin connectors. The suggested PSU is 300 W for AMD and 450 W for Intel. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD and x16 for Intel. Display outputs differ: the AMD has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Intel has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0. The AMD is 241 mm long, the Intel has no recorded length.

Architecture Differences

The architectural split comes down to each vendor's proprietary design. AMD uses RDNA 2.0, with the chip codenamed Navi 23. Intel uses Xe-HPG, with the DG2-512 chip. The AMD generation is "Radeon Pro Navi (Navi II Series)", while Intel's is "Alchemist (Arc 5)". Both are built on TSMC fabrication, but with different process nodes, 7 nm for AMD and 6 nm for Intel.

The core layout differs markedly. The AMD has fewer shading units at 1,792, but a higher base clock of 2,331 MHz, which helps it compete in per-core efficiency. The Intel has a massive 3,072 shading units but a lower clock. The Intel also has more TMUs and ROPs, giving it higher theoretical fill rates in both pixel and texture throughput.

Ray tracing hardware is present on both, but with different counts: AMD has 28 ray cores, Intel has 24. Neither has tensor cores, so there is no dedicated AI acceleration hardware. The API support is identical: both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Both are PCIe 4.0 compatible.

Memory bandwidth is the most significant architectural difference. The Intel memory bus width is 256-bit, giving it 512.0 GB/s, while the AMD's 128-bit bus gives it 224.0 GB/s. This is a 2.3x difference in bandwidth, which explains the Intel's strong performance in memory-intensive workloads like OpenCL. The AMD compensates with a much lower TDP and a single-slot form factor, making it a professional workstation card, while the Intel is a dual-slot consumer card with a higher power draw.

The production status differs: the AMD is end-of-life, while the Intel is active. The AMD's predecessor is the Radeon Pro Vega, the Intel's is Xe Graphics. The Intel has a successor, Battlemage, while the AMD does not. The release dates confirm the generational gap: AMD launched in June 2021, Intel in October 2023. The AMD card has a launch MSRP of 649 USD, the Intel has no recorded launch MSRP.