AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo vs NVIDIA L4 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a fascinating split decision between these two professional GPUs. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA L4 decisively outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo, scoring 140,838 against 124,335. That is an 11.7% advantage for the L4, a substantial margin in compute workloads that lean on OpenCL acceleration. The L4’s raw FP32 throughput of 30.29 TFLOPS versus the W6800X Duo’s 15.11 TFLOPS explains much of this gap — the NVIDIA card is delivering nearly double the single-precision compute power.

However, the story flips in the Geekbench Vulkan test. Here, the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo takes the win with a score of 125,622, edging out the NVIDIA L4’s 121,306. That is a 3.6% lead for AMD, a narrower margin than NVIDIA’s OpenCL victory but still a clear reversal of fortune. The W6800X Duo’s higher base clock of 1800 MHz compared to the L4’s 795 MHz likely contributes to its Vulkan performance, as does its larger 32 GB memory pool with 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus the L4’s 24 GB and 300.1 GB/s.

Looking at average scores across all benchmarks, the AMD card maintains a slight edge. The W6800X Duo averages 135,774, while the L4 averages 131,072. That is a 3.5% difference in AMD’s favor on the aggregate metric. The AMD card also sits in the 96th percentile of all GPUs, one point higher than the L4’s 95th percentile. These are close cards overall, with each winning one of the two head-to-head tests.

The nearest rivals for the W6800X Duo reinforce its positioning. Its average score of 135,774 is just 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 (135,396), 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA A10M (135,230), and 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation (135,218). It trails the AMD Radeon PRO V620 (136,472) by 0.5%. For the L4, its 131,072 average is 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (131,938), 3.1% behind both the RTX 4000 Ada Generation and A10M, and 3.2% behind the Radeon PRO W6800.

The Verdict

The data paints a clear picture for different use cases. If your workloads are OpenCL-centric, the NVIDIA L4 is the definitive choice — its 11.7% advantage in that specific test is too large to ignore. The L4 also offers the benefit of being an active product with a much lower power envelope, though that is a separate consideration from raw performance.

If your work leans on Vulkan, the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo is the stronger pick, with a 3.6% win in that test. Its higher average benchmark score (135,774 vs 131,072) and superior percentile ranking (96th vs 95th) suggest it is the more consistently capable card across varied workloads. The W6800X Duo also brings double the memory capacity (32 GB vs 24 GB) and substantially higher memory bandwidth (512.0 GB/s vs 300.1 GB/s), which matters for large datasets.

For users who need a display output, the AMD card is the only option — it provides 1x HDMI 2.1 and 4x Thunderbolt outputs, while the NVIDIA L4 has no display outputs at all. The L4 is a compute-only accelerator designed for servers, whereas the W6800X Duo is built for Mac Pro workstations with its Apple MPX bus interface.

The verdict is straightforward: choose the NVIDIA L4 for raw OpenCL compute throughput and its compact single-slot, 72 W design. Choose the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo for Vulkan performance, higher average scores, more memory, display connectivity, and the flexibility of a quad-slot workstation card. The data does not crown a single overall winner — it depends entirely on your software stack and workload requirements.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different architectural generations. The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo is built on RDNA 2.0 using the Navi 21 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA L4 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, built on a more advanced 5 nm process, also at TSMC. This node difference is reflected in transistor density: the L4 packs 121.8M transistors per square millimeter, while the W6800X Duo achieves 51.5M per square millimeter. The L4’s die is smaller at 294 mm² compared to 520 mm², yet it holds more transistors — 35,800 million versus 26,800 million.

The two architectures differ significantly in compute resources. The NVIDIA L4 has 7,424 shading units, nearly double the W6800X Duo’s 3,840. Both have 240 texture mapping units, but the L4 has fewer ROPs (80 vs 96). Ray tracing cores are equal at 60 each, but the L4 adds 240 tensor cores, a feature the AMD card lacks entirely. This tensor core presence is a defining architectural difference, enabling AI and deep learning workloads that the W6800X Duo cannot accelerate in hardware.

Memory architecture also diverges. The AMD card uses a 256-bit bus with GDDR6 memory, while the L4 uses a narrower 192-bit bus. Clock behavior differs markedly: the W6800X Duo has a base clock of 1800 MHz and boost of 1967 MHz, while the L4 starts much lower at 795 MHz base but boosts higher to 2040 MHz. The L4’s memory runs at 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective), while the W6800X Duo’s memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective).

The AMD card belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi II Series) generation, while the L4 is from the Server Ada (Lxx) generation. The L4 lists its predecessor as Server Ampere and successor as Server Hopper, indicating its lineage in NVIDIA’s server product stack. The W6800X Duo has no listed predecessor or successor, reflecting its status as an end-of-life product released on August 2, 2021. The L4 is active and was released on March 20, 2023.

Specification Differences

The most striking specification difference is power consumption. The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo draws 400 W and requires an 800 W suggested power supply, while the NVIDIA L4 consumes just 72 W with a 250 W suggested PSU. This is a massive disparity — the L4 uses less than one-fifth the power of the AMD card. Physical size follows suit: the W6800X Duo is a quad-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 120 mm in height, while the L4 is single-slot at 169 mm long and 56 mm tall.

Memory capacity differs by 8 GB, with the AMD card offering 32 GB versus the L4’s 24 GB, both using GDDR6. Bandwidth heavily favors AMD at 512.0 GB/s compared to 300.1 GB/s. The bus interface tells a story of different target platforms: the W6800X Duo uses Apple MPX, while the L4 uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs are entirely different — the AMD card has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 4x Thunderbolt, while the L4 has no outputs whatsoever.

FP32 compute is nearly double on the L4 (30.29 TFLOPS vs 15.11 TFLOPS), and FP16 performance is identical to FP32 on the L4 (30.29 TFLOPS at 1:1 ratio), whereas the AMD card achieves 30.21 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio. Pixel rate favors AMD slightly (188.8 GPixel/s vs 163.2 GPixel/s), while texture rate favors NVIDIA (489.6 GTexel/s vs 472.1 GTexel/s). The L4 has 240 tensor cores; the AMD card has none. The W6800X Duo has a launch MSRP of 4,999 USD; the L4 has no listed launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in OpenCL performance?

A: The NVIDIA L4 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 140,838, outperforming the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo’s 124,335 by 11.7%.

Q: Which GPU wins in Vulkan performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 125,622, beating the NVIDIA L4’s 121,306 by 3.6%.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo has an average benchmark score of 135,774, which is 4,702 points higher than the NVIDIA L4’s 131,072 — a 3.5% advantage for AMD.

Q: How do their memory capacities compare?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo has 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA L4 has 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 300.1 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

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

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo has a TDP of 400 W with a suggested PSU of 800 W. The NVIDIA L4 has a TDP of just 72 W with a suggested PSU of 250 W.