AMD Radeon PRO W6800 vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The AMD Radeon PRO W6800 dominates the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile in the shared benchmark suite. In Geekbench OpenCL, the W6800 scores 121,808 against the RTX A3000 Mobile's 79,091, a 54% advantage. The gap widens further in Geekbench Vulkan, where the W6800 reaches 109,961 versus 61,189 for the RTX A3000 Mobile, a 79.7% lead. The database records two wins for the AMD card and zero for the NVIDIA part in direct comparisons.

The magnitude of these deltas is substantial. A 54% OpenCL margin means the W6800 delivers roughly one and a half times the compute output of the mobile NVIDIA card in that API. The 79.7% Vulkan gap is even more pronounced, approaching a near-doubling of performance. These are not marginal differences; they represent a full performance tier separation between a desktop workstation GPU and a mobile laptop part.

Context from the nearest rivals places both cards in different competitive neighborhoods. The W6800's average benchmark score is 135,396, placing it at the 96th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its closest rivals include the NVIDIA A10M at 135,230 (0.1% behind), the RTX 4000 Ada Generation at 135,218 (0.1% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo at 135,774 (0.3% ahead), and the AMD Radeon PRO V620 at 136,472 (0.8% ahead). The W6800 sits in a tightly clustered group where a 1% swing separates the entire pack.

The RTX A3000 Mobile's average is 70,140, at the 91st percentile. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 at 69,986 (0.2% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 at 69,870 (0.4% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE at 70,829 (1% ahead), and the NVIDIA CMP 90HX at 69,000 (1.7% behind). While the percentile ranking looks close (96 vs 91), the absolute scores reveal a 65,256-point average gap, or roughly 93% higher average performance for the W6800.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon PRO W6800 wins every recorded benchmark category where both cards have data. In OpenCL workloads, which are common in scientific computing, video rendering, and general GPU compute, the W6800's 54% advantage indicates a decisive edge for tasks that leverage this API. The Vulkan result is even more favorable to AMD, with a 79.7% lead, suggesting the architecture scales particularly well in Vulkan's explicit, low-overhead execution model.

For the RTX A3000 Mobile, the data shows no benchmark category where it outperforms the W6800. Its strengths must be inferred from its design context rather than direct wins. The card carries 128 tensor cores, a feature entirely absent from the AMD specification, which points toward AI inference and deep learning acceleration as potential areas of utility. However, the database contains no benchmark scores for the RTX A3000 Mobile in AI-specific tests, so this remains a qualitative observation based on hardware configuration rather than measured results.

The use-case split favors the W6800 for compute-heavy professional workloads: rendering, simulation, large dataset processing, and multi-GPU workstation configurations. The RTX A3000 Mobile, with its 70 W TDP and portable form factor, is positioned for mobile workstations where power constraints and thermal envelopes matter more than raw throughput. The data supports this: the W6800 delivers 17.83 TFLOPS FP32 versus 10.08 TFLOPS for the RTX A3000 Mobile, a 76.9% compute advantage in raw shader throughput.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The AMD Radeon PRO W6800 uses the Navi 21 chip built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated by TSMC at 7 nm. The RTX A3000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung at 8 nm. The process node difference is small in numerical terms, but the architectural approaches diverge sharply.

Transistor counts reveal the scale gap. The W6800 packs 26,800 million transistors on a 520 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 51.5M per mm². The RTX A3000 Mobile carries 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, with a density of 44.4M per mm². The AMD chip is both larger and denser, with 54% more transistors overall.

The memory architectures are categorically different in capacity and bandwidth. The W6800 has 32 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 264.0 GB/s. The W6800 offers over 5 times the memory capacity and nearly double the bandwidth. For workloads that exceed 6 GB of working set, the RTX A3000 Mobile would either spill to system memory or fail outright, while the W6800 has headroom for datasets up to its full capacity.

The compute unit configurations differ in striking ways. The W6800 has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, plus 60 ray tracing cores. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, which is actually 256 more than the AMD card, but only 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA part also includes 32 ray tracing cores and 128 tensor cores. The shading unit advantage for NVIDIA does not translate into performance wins, as the clock speeds and memory bandwidth heavily favor AMD.

The FP16 capabilities illustrate a key architectural split. The W6800 delivers 35.67 TFLOPS FP16 with a 2:1 ratio to FP32, meaning it can double throughput by using packed math. The RTX A3000 Mobile delivers 10.08 TFLOPS FP16 with a 1:1 ratio, meaning FP16 offers no throughput advantage over FP32. For workloads that can exploit reduced precision, the W6800 has a 254% FP16 advantage, making it substantially more capable for mixed-precision training or inference tasks that tolerate FP16.

Clock behavior reflects their different operating environments. The W6800 runs at a base clock of 1575 MHz and boosts to 2322 MHz. The RTX A3000 Mobile runs at a base of 600 MHz and boosts to 1230 MHz. The mobile part's clocks are roughly half of the desktop card's, constrained by its 70 W power envelope versus 250 W for the W6800. The memory clocks also differ: 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.

Specification Differences

The TDP figures represent the most dramatic specification gap. The W6800 draws 250 W and requires a 600 W suggested power supply, while the RTX A3000 Mobile draws 70 W and requires no external power connectors. The W6800 uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector; the RTX A3000 Mobile lists "None" for power connectors, relying entirely on the laptop's cooling and power delivery system.

Physical dimensions differ because of their form factors. The W6800 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 120 mm in height, and 50 mm in width. The RTX A3000 Mobile has no recorded dimensions, as it is designed for integration into portable devices rather than standalone installation. The display outputs reflect this as well: the W6800 provides 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a connections, while the RTX A3000 Mobile's outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent."

The release timeline places both cards in the same era. The RTX A3000 Mobile was released on 2021-04-11, and the W6800 followed on 2021-06-07. Both are now end-of-life products. The W6800 had a launch MSRP of 2,249 USD; the RTX A3000 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP, consistent with its mobile OEM distribution model.

The bus interface is identical: both use PCIe 4.0 x16. The API support is also identical: both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The production status matches as well, with both marked end-of-life.

The W6800's predecessor is the Radeon Pro Vega, while the RTX A3000 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M. The NVIDIA part has a successor, Ada-MW, while the AMD card has none recorded.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute throughput in FP32?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6800 delivers 17.83 TFLOPS FP32, which is 76.9% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile's 10.08 TFLOPS.

Q: How much memory capacity advantage does the W6800 have over the RTX A3000 Mobile?

A: The W6800 has 32 GB of GDDR6, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB, giving AMD over five times the memory capacity.

Q: Does the RTX A3000 Mobile have any hardware features that the W6800 lacks?

A: Yes, the RTX A3000 Mobile includes 128 tensor cores, which the W6800 does not list in its specifications. The NVIDIA card also has 4,096 shading units versus 3,840 for the AMD card.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two cards?

A: The W6800 provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth on a 256-bit bus, while the RTX A3000 Mobile provides 264.0 GB/s on a 192-bit bus, a 93.9% advantage for the AMD card.

Q: How do the power requirements compare?

A: The W6800 has a 250 W TDP and requires a 600 W suggested power supply with one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector. The RTX A3000 Mobile has a 70 W TDP and requires no external power connectors.

Q: Which GPU has better Vulkan performance in the database?

A: The W6800 scores 109,961 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 79.7% higher than the RTX A3000 Mobile's 61,189.