AMD Radeon PRO W7700 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Comparison

AMD Radeon PRO W7700 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data reveals a decisive but narrow victory for the NVIDIA RTX A4500 in the two available comparative tests, though the margin of that victory varies dramatically depending on the workload. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 scores 141,837 against the AMD Radeon PRO W7700’s 108,245, a substantial 23.7% advantage that places the NVIDIA card firmly ahead in compute-heavy, OpenCL-accelerated tasks. This is not a marginal win; it is a dominant one, suggesting that the RTX A4500’s architecture is significantly better optimized for this particular API and workload type. The Vulkan results tell a completely different story, however, with the RTX A4500 scoring 129,980 versus the W7700’s 129,706, a razor-thin 0.2% delta that is effectively a statistical tie. In Vulkan-based rendering or compute, the data indicates neither card holds a meaningful performance edge, and users should expect near-identical frame throughput or compute times. Notably, the AMD card wins zero of the two head-to-head benchmarks, while the NVIDIA card wins both, yet the overall average benchmark scores present a more nuanced picture: the W7700 boasts an average benchmark score of 118,976, while the RTX A4500 sits lower at 91,671. This discrepancy arises because the RTX A4500’s average includes its additional 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,196, which drags its average down; the W7700 lacks a comparable 3DMark result in the data. Consequently, while the RTX A4500 wins the direct comparisons, the W7700 holds a higher aggregate score across all recorded benchmarks, a 29.8% difference that reflects the AMD card’s more consistent performance across the tests it participates in. The percentile rankings reinforce the high-end positioning of both cards: the W7700 sits in the 95th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A4500 sits in the 93rd, indicating that both are elite performers, but the AMD card edges ahead in overall standing despite losing the head-to-head matchups.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two workstation cards is stark, rooted in fundamentally different design philosophies and manufacturing processes. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 is built on the Navi 32 chip using the RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC with a die size of 346 mm² and a transistor count of 28,100 million. This yields an impressive transistor density of 81.2 million per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA RTX A4500 utilizes the GA102 chip based on the older Ampere architecture, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung with a much larger die size of 628 mm² and nearly identical transistor count of 28,300 million, resulting in a substantially lower transistor density of 45.1 million per mm². The W7700’s advanced 5 nm node allows it to pack similar transistor counts into nearly half the silicon area, which has direct implications for power efficiency and clock speeds. Indeed, the W7700 boosts to 2600 MHz from a 1900 MHz base, while the RTX A4500 is significantly more conservative, with a 1650 MHz boost and 1050 MHz base clock. Despite this clock advantage, the AMD card draws less power (190 W TDP) compared to the NVIDIA card (200 W TDP), though the NVIDIA card requires a larger suggested power supply (550 W versus 450 W). The compute architectures differ markedly as well: the W7700 has 3072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, while the RTX A4500 has 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The NVIDIA card more than doubles the shading unit count, yet the AMD card achieves higher raw FP32 throughput at 31.95 TFLOPS versus 23.65 TFLOPS, a 35% advantage, thanks to its superior clock speeds. The FP16 picture is even more divergent: the W7700 hits 63.90 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX A4500 remains at 23.65 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning the AMD card offers 2.7 times the half-precision compute. Ray tracing hardware is present on both, with the W7700 featuring 48 RT cores and the RTX A4500 featuring 56, but the NVIDIA card uniquely integrates 224 tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks entirely—a critical differentiator for AI and machine learning workloads. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the W7700 offers DisplayPort 2.1 outputs while the RTX A4500 is limited to DisplayPort 1.4a.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 is decisively faster, scoring 141,837 in Geekbench OpenCL compared to the AMD Radeon PRO W7700’s 108,245, a 23.7% advantage.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: They are virtually identical. The RTX A4500 scores 129,980 and the W7700 scores 129,706, a negligible 0.2% difference that is within the margin of error.

Q: Does the AMD card have a higher average benchmark score?

A: Yes. The W7700 has an average benchmark score of 118,976, which is 29.8% higher than the RTX A4500’s 91,671, although this average includes a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score for the NVIDIA card that the AMD card does not have.

Q: What are the memory capacities and bandwidths of each card?

A: The W7700 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX A4500 has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 640.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has more ray tracing and AI acceleration hardware?

A: The RTX A4500 has 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, while the W7700 has 48 RT cores and no tensor cores, making the NVIDIA card better equipped for ray tracing and AI workloads.

Q: What is the process node and transistor density difference?

A: The W7700 is built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 81.2 million transistors per mm², while the RTX A4500 uses Samsung’s 8 nm process with 45.1 million transistors per mm², despite similar total transistor counts.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every major specification. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 uses the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 5 nm TSMC process, while the NVIDIA RTX A4500 uses the GA102 chip with Ampere architecture on an 8 nm Samsung process. The W7700 has a smaller die at 346 mm² versus 628 mm², and a higher transistor density at 81.2M / mm² versus 45.1M / mm². Clock speeds favor AMD significantly: the W7700 has a 1900 MHz base and 2600 MHz boost, while the RTX A4500 has a 1050 MHz base and 1650 MHz boost. Memory configurations differ as well: the W7700 offers 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX A4500 offers 20 GB GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 640.0 GB/s bandwidth. The shading unit count heavily favors NVIDIA at 7168 versus 3072, as do TMUs (224 versus 192) and RT cores (56 versus 48), and the RTX A4500 uniquely has 224 tensor cores. However, the W7700 has higher pixel rate (249.6 GPixel/s versus 158.4 GPixel/s), higher texture rate (499.2 GTexel/s versus 369.6 GTexel/s), higher FP32 (31.95 TFLOPS versus 23.65 TFLOPS), and vastly higher FP16 (63.90 TFLOPS versus 23.65 TFLOPS). The W7700 has a lower TDP of 190 W versus 200 W, a lower suggested PSU of 450 W versus 550 W, and is shorter at 241 mm versus 267 mm. The W7700 features 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, while the RTX A4500 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. The W7700 was released on November 12, 2023, with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, while the RTX A4500 was released on November 22, 2021, and is marked as end-of-life, with its predecessor being Quadro Turing and successor being Workstation Ada. The W7700’s predecessor is Radeon Pro Vega.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split decision that hinges entirely on workload priorities. For users whose primary applications rely on OpenCL compute—common in scientific simulation, certain rendering engines, and data processing—the NVIDIA RTX A4500 is the unequivocal choice, as it outperforms the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 by 23.7% in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark. This is a substantial, workload-defining advantage that cannot be ignored for compute-centric professionals. Conversely, for Vulkan-based workloads, the choice is immaterial, with the RTX A4500 leading by a mere 0.2%, a margin that offers no practical benefit to either card. The AMD card counters with superior raw compute specifications, including 35% higher FP32 throughput (31.95 TFLOPS versus 23.65 TFLOPS) and 2.7 times the FP16 throughput (63.90 TFLOPS versus 23.65 TFLOPS), which could translate to advantages in applications that leverage these formats, particularly in AI training or half-precision compute where the AMD card’s 2:1 FP16 ratio shines. The RTX A4500’s dedicated tensor cores provide a hardware path for AI acceleration that the W7700 lacks entirely, making the NVIDIA card more versatile for machine learning inference and training tasks. The RTX A4500 also offers a larger memory pool (20 GB versus 16 GB) and higher bandwidth (640.0 GB/s versus 576.0 GB/s), which benefits large dataset handling and high-resolution textures. The W7700, however, is more power-efficient with a lower TDP (190 W versus 200 W) and lower suggested PSU (450 W versus 550 W), and it is built on a more advanced 5 nm process, which contributes to its higher clock speeds and better transistor density. The W7700 also holds a higher average benchmark score (118,976 versus 91,671) and a higher percentile ranking (95th versus 93rd), indicating more consistent performance across its tested benchmarks. Ultimately, the RTX A4500 wins the direct benchmark comparisons and offers unique tensor core functionality, but the W7700 provides superior raw compute throughput and efficiency. The choice should be dictated by whether the user’s primary applications favor OpenCL (NVIDIA), Vulkan (either), or raw FP32/FP16 compute and power efficiency (AMD).

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A4500 wins in OpenCL compute applications, where its 23.7% benchmark advantage provides tangible performance gains in tasks like rendering, physics simulations, and any software optimized for NVIDIA’s OpenCL implementation. It also wins in AI and machine learning workloads due to its 224 tensor cores, which enable hardware-accelerated tensor operations that the AMD card cannot perform. The RTX A4500’s larger 20 GB memory capacity and higher 640.0 GB/s bandwidth make it better suited for massive datasets, complex 3D scenes, or multi-application workflows that exceed 16 GB, and its 56 RT cores give it a slight edge in ray-traced rendering scenarios. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 wins in raw compute throughput, with its 31.95 TFLOPS FP32 and 63.90 TFLOPS FP16 representing a 35% and 170% advantage, respectively, over the RTX A4500, making it the better choice for compute-heavy tasks that are not bound by OpenCL API limitations. It wins in power efficiency, drawing 10 W less power and requiring a 100 W smaller suggested PSU, while delivering higher clock speeds, which could make it preferable for multi-GPU systems or constrained power environments. The W7700 also wins in overall benchmark consistency, as evidenced by its higher average score and 95th percentile ranking versus the RTX A4500’s 93rd percentile. For Vulkan-based applications, neither card has a meaningful advantage, so users should make decisions based on other factors like memory capacity, power constraints, or software ecosystem compatibility. The W7700’s support for DisplayPort 2.1 also provides a forward-looking advantage for high-refresh-rate or high-resolution display configurations, whereas the RTX A4500 is limited to DisplayPort 1.4a.