AMD Radeon Pro W6600M vs Intel Arc A730M Comparison
AMD Radeon Pro W6600M
Arc A730M
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon Pro W6600M vs Intel Arc A730M
AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and Intel Arc A730M are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions aimed at professional and high-performance notebooks, but the benchmark data reveals two very different personalities. The AMD part leans on raw compute efficiency and API-level strength, while the Intel part throws larger silicon and memory resources at the problem. The recorded measurements show a split decision: each card wins one of the two head-to-head tests, and their average scores land in different performance tiers. The W6600M sits in the 89th percentile of all GPUs, while the A730M ranks in the 84th percentile. That gap in overall standing is modest, but the underlying architecture and workload characteristics tell a more nuanced story.
Where Each One Wins
The Intel Arc A730M is the clear winner in OpenCL compute workloads. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 70,352 beats the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M’s 56,140 by a decisive 20.2%. That is a substantial margin, and it reflects the A730M’s larger shader array and higher FP32 throughput. The Arc part carries 3,072 shading units and delivers 12.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to the W6600M’s 1,792 shaders and 7.290 TFLOPS. For tasks that scale with raw parallel compute, such as rendering, simulation, or data processing, the A730M holds a clear edge. Its average benchmark score of 45,592, however, is dragged down by the inclusion of a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result (1,732), which is not present for the AMD card. That test is far more demanding on the graphics pipeline, and the Intel part’s lower standing in that metric pulls its overall average below the AMD part’s 61,896.
The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M wins the Vulkan head-to-head. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 67,652 outpaces the Intel Arc A730M’s 64,693 by 4.6%. Vulkan is a low-level API that rewards efficient driver overhead and memory access patterns, and the W6600M’s RDNA 2.0 architecture appears better suited to that workload. The AMD card also posts a higher average benchmark score across all recorded tests, 61,896 versus 45,592, which reflects its consistency in the two Geekbench tests it ran. The AMD part’s 89th percentile ranking versus the Intel part’s 84th percentile reinforces that point: the W6600M is the more balanced performer across the broader database of results, even if the A730M dominates in raw OpenCL compute.
Architecture Differences
The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M uses the Navi 23 chip built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process. The die measures 237 mm² and packs 11,060 million transistors, yielding a transistor density of 46.7 million per square millimeter. The Intel Arc A730M, by contrast, uses the DG2-512 chip with Xe-HPG architecture, also built by TSMC but on a newer 6 nm process. It is a much larger die at 406 mm², with 21,700 million transistors and a density of 53.4 million per square millimeter. That size difference is significant: the Intel chip has nearly twice the transistor count and almost double the die area, which explains its higher theoretical throughput but also hints at higher complexity and power management challenges.
Memory configurations also diverge sharply. The W6600M comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The A730M offers 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, pushing bandwidth to 336.0 GB/s. That 50% advantage in memory capacity and bandwidth is a major factor in the A730M’s OpenCL lead, as compute workloads often saturate memory. Clock speeds are similar: the AMD part boosts to 2034 MHz from a 1224 MHz base, while the Intel part boosts to 2050 MHz from a 1100 MHz base. Both use 14 Gbps effective memory clocks, but the Intel part’s wider bus wins on sheer throughput.
Core counts favor Intel across the board. The A730M has 192 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 96 render output units (ROPs), versus 112 TMUs and 64 ROPs on the W6600M. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: the Intel part hits 196.8 GPixel/s and 393.6 GTexel/s, while the AMD part manages 130.2 GPixel/s and 227.8 GTexel/s. Ray tracing cores are close, with the AMD card carrying 28 RT cores and the Intel card 24. Power draw is also close: the W6600M is rated at 90 W, the A730M at 80 W. The AMD part thus delivers its performance within a slightly higher power envelope, while the Intel part squeezes more compute out of fewer watts, at least on paper. Both use PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces and support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The two recorded head-to-head tests paint a clear picture of complementary strengths. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Intel Arc A730M scores 70,352 against the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M’s 56,140. That is a 20.2% deficit for the AMD card, and it is the single largest performance gap in this comparison. The A730M’s advantage here likely stems from its 12.6 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 336 GB/s of memory bandwidth, both of which dwarf the W6600M’s 7.290 TFLOPS and 224 GB/s. OpenCL workloads that are compute-bound or memory-bound will see outsized gains on the Intel part.
In Geekbench Vulkan, the tables turn. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 67,652, beating the Intel Arc A730M’s 64,693 by 4.6%. Vulkan’s explicit control over queues and memory often rewards lower-latency architectures and mature driver stacks, and the RDNA 2.0 design demonstrates an edge here. The delta is smaller than the OpenCL gap, but it is consistent: the W6600M is the better Vulkan performer despite having fewer shaders and less bandwidth. The AMD part’s 89th percentile ranking, against the Intel part’s 84th, also suggests that its two Geekbench results are more representative of strong all-around performance than the A730M’s mixed bag.
The average benchmark scores tell a broader story. The W6600M averages 61,896 across its two tests, which places it 2.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (60,347) and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140) in the nearest rivals list. It is also 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon 8050S (62,108) and 2.6% ahead of the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326). The A730M averages 45,592, putting it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,384), 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152), but 0.8% behind the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45,972) and 1% behind the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (46,043). Those rival deltas show that the A730M’s average is competitive with midrange professional cards, but its inclusion of a low 3DMark result prevents it from challenging the W6600M’s overall standing.
The Verdict
The data points to a simple split: pick the Intel Arc A730M for OpenCL-heavy compute workloads, and pick the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M for Vulkan-centric tasks or balanced professional use. The A730M’s 20.2% OpenCL advantage is too large to ignore for anyone running compute shaders, physics simulations, or machine learning inference that leverages OpenCL. Its 12 GB memory and 336 GB/s bandwidth also make it the better choice for large datasets or high-resolution textures. The W6600M, meanwhile, offers a 4.6% Vulkan lead and a higher overall average score, which indicates fewer weak spots across different APIs and applications. Its 89th percentile ranking versus the A730M’s 84th reinforces that it is the safer all-rounder.
For mobile workstations that prioritize OpenGL or Vulkan-based CAD and DCC tools, the AMD part’s Vulkan edge and higher percentile make it the more dependable option. For developers or researchers who push OpenCL kernels, the Intel part’s raw compute and memory capacity deliver unmistakable performance. Neither card is a clear overall victor; the benchmark results show a 1-1 split in wins. The A730M’s larger die and transistor count (21,700 million versus 11,060 million) do not translate into universal superiority, as the W6600M’s smaller, more efficient design still wins where API overhead matters. Buyers should match the card to their primary workload rather than chase a single score.
FAQ
Q: Which GPU has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?
A: The Intel Arc A730M scores 70,352, which is 20.2% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M’s 56,140.
Q: Which GPU wins the Geekbench Vulkan test?
A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 67,652, beating the Intel Arc A730M’s 64,693 by 4.6%.
Q: How much memory does each card have?
A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the Intel Arc A730M has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus.
Q: What are the FP32 performance figures for both GPUs?
A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M delivers 7.290 TFLOPS, while the Intel Arc A730M delivers 12.60 TFLOPS.
Q: How do their overall percentile rankings compare?
A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M ranks in the 89th percentile of all GPUs, while the Intel Arc A730M ranks in the 84th percentile.
Q: Which card has a higher memory bandwidth?
A: The Intel Arc A730M has 336.0 GB/s, compared to the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M’s 224.0 GB/s.