AMD Radeon R7 M380 vs Intel Arc A380 Comparison

# AMD Radeon R7 M380 vs Intel Arc A380

The AMD Radeon R7 M380 and Intel Arc A380 represent two distant generations of mobile and desktop graphics, separated by seven years of architecture evolution. The R7 M380 is a 28nm GCN 1.0 part from 2015 aimed at mainstream laptops, while the Arc A380 is Intel's entry-level discrete GPU built on 6nm Xe-HPG silicon from 2022. The benchmark data reveals a decisive performance gap, but the story is more nuanced when examining where each card's strengths and weaknesses lie.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark in the dataset is Geekbench OpenCL, and the results are lopsided. The Intel Arc A380 scores 38,224 points, while the AMD Radeon R7 M380 manages just 9,313 points. That translates to a 75.6% advantage for Intel — meaning the Arc A380 delivers over four times the raw compute performance in this OpenCL workload. The delta is so large that it essentially places these cards in different performance tiers altogether.

To put the R7 M380's score in context, its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M at 9,302 points (0.1% ahead), the GeForce GTX 465 at 9,294 (0.2% ahead), and the GeForce GTX 960 at 9,273 (0.4% ahead). The AMD Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics trails at 9,221, putting the R7 M380 1% ahead of that part. This clustering around the 9,200-9,300 mark shows the R7 M380 is firmly entrenched in the lower-midrange of the GPU hierarchy, roughly on par with a GTX 850M from the same era.

The Arc A380's 38,224 OpenCL score places it in a different competitive bracket. Its nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W5170M at 8,595 (0.4% behind the Arc), the Radeon HD 8870M at 8,462 (1.1% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 at 8,458 (1.2% behind). The AMD Radeon 880M trails at 8,436, putting the Arc 1.4% ahead. Interestingly, the Arc A380's rivals in this dataset are all older or lower-tier parts, yet the Arc still only edges them by single-digit percentage points — a reminder that raw OpenCL scores don't always capture the full feature-set advantage of newer architectures.

The Arc A380 also has a broader benchmark footprint, with scores across 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (808), PassMark G3D (6,252), PassMark GPU Compute (2,762), and Vulkan (36,736). The R7 M380 has no corresponding scores in these tests, so cross-validation is limited to the single OpenCL result.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A380 wins the only head-to-head benchmark outright, and it wins by a massive margin. Beyond the raw OpenCL number, the Arc's additional benchmark results paint a picture of a card that handles modern APIs and compute workloads with far greater ease. The PassMark G3D score of 6,252 and GPU Compute score of 2,762 indicate strong DirectX and compute performance, while the Vulkan score of 36,736 shows the architecture scales well across multiple graphics APIs.

The Arc A380's advantage is most pronounced in scenarios that leverage newer features. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and includes 8 ray tracing cores — capabilities the R7 M380 simply cannot match. The R7 M380's DirectX 12 (11_1) support is a legacy profile, lacking the full feature set of modern DirectX 12 Ultimate titles. For any workload that uses ray tracing, mesh shaders, or variable rate shading, the Arc A380 is the only viable option between these two.

The AMD Radeon R7 M380's "win" is more about efficiency and legacy compatibility than performance. Its 28nm GCN 1.0 architecture supports OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.2.170, which covers older games and applications well. The R7 M380 also has a lower power footprint — its TDP is not listed in the data, but the Arc A380's 75W TDP with a 250W suggested PSU indicates the Intel card requires substantially more power delivery. For a legacy laptop or a system with limited power headroom, the R7 M380 might be the more practical choice despite being far slower.

In purely compute-focused tasks like OpenCL, the Arc A380 wins decisively. In gaming scenarios that stress raw fill rates, the Arc's 65.60 GPixel/s pixel rate and 131.2 GTexel/s texture rate dwarf the R7 M380's 14.64 GPixel/s and 36.60 GTexel/s. But in scenarios where driver maturity for older APIs matters, the R7 M380's simpler architecture and long production history may offer more predictable behavior.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is vast. The AMD Radeon R7 M380 uses the Tropo chip built on GCN 1.0 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 28nm process. It packs 1,500 million transistors into a 123 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.2 million per mm². The Intel Arc A380 uses the DG2-128 chip on Xe-HPG architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 6nm node. It crams 7,200 million transistors into a 157 mm² die — a density of 45.9 million per mm², nearly four times higher than the AMD part.

The compute resources tell a similar story. The R7 M380 has 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operations pipelines. The Arc A380 nearly doubles those numbers with 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The Arc also adds 8 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature completely absent from the GCN 1.0 design. The FP32 compute throughput illustrates the gap: the R7 M380 delivers 1,171.2 GFLOPS, while the Arc A380 produces 4.198 TFLOPS — roughly 3.6 times more raw floating-point performance.

Memory architecture is equally divergent. The R7 M380 uses 4GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus, achieving 32.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The Arc A380 uses 6GB of GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus, but with much faster memory clocks, it reaches 186.0 GB/s — nearly six times the bandwidth. The R7 M380's memory runs at 2 Gbps effective, while the Arc's GDDR6 operates at 15.5 Gbps effective. Clock speeds also favor Intel: the Arc has a 2000 MHz base and 2050 MHz boost, versus the R7 M380's 900 MHz base and 915 MHz boost.

The Arc A380 also brings modern connectivity. It uses PCIe 4.0 x8, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and features display outputs including HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0. The R7 M380 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, supports DirectX 12 (11_1), Vulkan 1.2.170, and has no listed display outputs. The Arc's FP16 throughput of 8.397 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) also enables faster half-precision compute, a feature the R7 M380 lacks entirely.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The Intel Arc A380 scores 38,224, which is 75.6% higher than the AMD Radeon R7 M380's 9,313.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The R7 M380's closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M, which is 0.1% ahead, while the Arc A380's closest rival is the AMD FirePro W5170M, which trails the Arc by 0.4%.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A380 support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the Arc A380 includes 8 ray tracing cores, while the R7 M380 has no ray tracing hardware.

Q: What memory configurations do these cards use?

A: The R7 M380 uses 4GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus with 32.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A380 uses 6GB of GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus with 186.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU is more power-hungry?

A: The Arc A380 has a listed TDP of 75W and requires a 250W suggested PSU with a 1x 8-pin power connector. The R7 M380's TDP is not listed in the data.

Q: What are the production statuses of these GPUs?

A: Both are end-of-life products. The R7 M380 was released on May 4, 2015, while the Arc A380 was released on June 13, 2022.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon R7 M380 | Intel Arc A380 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | Xe-HPG |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 6 nm |

| Transistors | 1,500 million | 7,200 million |

| Die Size | 123 mm² | 157 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 12.2M / mm² | 45.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 900 MHz | 2000 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 915 MHz | 2050 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 2 Gbps effective | 15.5 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory Type | DDR3 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 96 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 32.00 GB/s | 186.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 640 | 1024 |

| TMUs | 40 | 64 |

| ROPs | 16 | 32 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | N/A | 8 |

| Pixel Rate | 14.64 GPixel/s | 65.60 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 36.60 GTexel/s | 131.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 1,171.2 GFLOPS | 4.198 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | N/A | 8.397 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | N/A | 75 W |

| Power Connectors | N/A | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | N/A | 250 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |

| DirectX Support | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Display Outputs | N/A | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 2.0 |

| Release Date | 2015-05-04 | 2022-06-13 |

| Launch MSRP | N/A | 149 USD |