AMD Radeon R7 M460 vs Intel Arc A310 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains exactly one direct comparison between the Intel Arc A310 and the AMD Radeon R7 M460, and it is a decisive result. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Intel Arc A310 scores 30,607 points, while the AMD Radeon R7 M460 manages 6,612 points. That is a delta of 362.9% in favor of the Intel part, meaning the Arc A310 delivers more than four and a half times the raw compute performance of the older AMD mobile GPU. This is not a close contest by any measure. The gap is so wide that the two cards effectively occupy different performance tiers, despite both being entry-level or low-power parts in their respective generations.

Looked at through the broader lens of the database's average benchmark scores, the same story holds. The Arc A310 has an average benchmark score of 7,550, which places it at the 40th percentile among all GPUs tracked in the database. The R7 M460's average score is 6,612, putting it at the 38th percentile. On the surface, a two-percentile-point difference seems modest, but that is misleading. The Arc A310's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon R7 250, which scores 7,557 (a delta of -0.1% relative to the Arc), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100, which scores 7,580 (a delta of -0.4%). The Arc also sits within 1.4% of the AMD Radeon HD 8850M, which scores 7,447. In other words, the Arc A310 is clustered with a group of desktop and professional cards that are all within a couple of percentage points of each other.

The R7 M460, by contrast, is grouped with a much weaker set of rivals. Its nearest competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1010, which scores 6,698 and is 1.3% ahead of the R7 M460. The AMD Radeon HD 7730M scores 6,581, just 0.5% behind the R7 M460, and the Intel UHD Graphics P750 scores 6,554, a 0.9% gap. The strongest comparison for the R7 M460 is against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M, which scores 6,513 and trails the AMD part by 1.5%. The distance between these two clusters is large: the Arc A310's average score of 7,550 versus the R7 M460's 6,612 represents a difference of roughly 14% in average benchmark terms. The OpenCL head-to-head result, however, shows a far larger chasm, driven by the Arc's modern architecture and far higher shader throughput.

The Arc A310 also carries a richer benchmark profile in the database. It has recorded scores across nine separate tests, including PassMark G3D (5,433), PassMark G2D (625), PassMark GPU Compute (2,157), and three DirectX legacy tests (DirectX 9 at 69, DirectX 10 at 31, DirectX 11 at 33, and DirectX 12 at 29). The R7 M460 has only a single recorded benchmark result, the Geekbench OpenCL score of 6,612. This lack of data makes direct comparisons in other workloads impossible, but the one available datapoint is unambiguous about which GPU is faster.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from very different eras and design philosophies. The Intel Arc A310 is built on the Xe-HPG architecture, specifically the DG2-128 chip, and belongs to the Alchemist generation within the Arc 3 family. It is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC, with 7,200 million transistors packed into a 157 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 45.9 million transistors per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon R7 M460, on the other hand, uses the GCN 3.0 architecture with the Meso chip, part of the Gem System generation under the R7 M400 series. It is built on a much older 28 nm process, also at TSMC, with 1,550 million transistors on a 125 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of just 12.4 million transistors per square millimeter. The Arc A310 is therefore roughly 4.6 times more transistor-dense than the R7 M460, a direct consequence of the process node gap.

The compute resources are similarly lopsided. The Arc A310 has 768 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operation units, along with 6 dedicated ray tracing cores. The R7 M460 has 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs, with no ray tracing hardware at all. That is half the shader count, three-quarters of the TMU count, and half the ROP count relative to the Intel part. Clock speeds also favor Intel: the Arc A310 runs at a base and boost clock of 1,750 MHz, while the R7 M460 has a base clock of 730 MHz and a boost clock of 1,024 MHz. The combination of more shaders and higher clocks produces a massive throughput advantage. The Arc A310 delivers 2.688 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 5.376 TFLOPS of FP16 compute with a 2:1 ratio. The R7 M460 manages 786.4 GFLOPS of FP32 and the same 786.4 GFLOPS of FP16 at a 1:1 ratio. In raw FP32 terms, the Arc is more than three times faster.

Memory configurations differ sharply as well. The Arc A310 comes with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, running at 1,937 MHz with 15.5 Gbps effective speed, producing 124.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The R7 M460 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, at 1,125 MHz with 4.5 Gbps effective speed, yielding just 36.00 GB/s of bandwidth. That is a 3.4 times bandwidth advantage for the Intel card. Pixel and texture fill rates tell the same story: the Arc A310 achieves 28.00 GPixel/s and 56.00 GTexel/s, while the R7 M460 reaches 8.192 GPixel/s and 24.58 GTexel/s. The Arc is 3.4 times faster in pixel throughput and 2.3 times faster in texture throughput.

The feature sets also reflect the generational gap. The Arc A310 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The R7 M460 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Intel card includes ray tracing cores, which the AMD part lacks entirely. The Arc A310 also uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the R7 M460 runs on PCIe 3.0 x8. The Intel GPU has a 30 W TDP and is a single-slot card with no power connectors, plus a suggested PSU of 200 W. The AMD card has no recorded TDP, slot width, power connector, or PSU recommendation in the database. For display output, the Arc A310 offers four mini-DisplayPort 2.0 connections; the R7 M460 has no recorded display outputs. The Arc A310 is also a far more recent product, released in late 2022, while the R7 M460 dates to mid-2016.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The Intel Arc A310 scores 30,607 points versus 6,612 points for the AMD Radeon R7 M460, a 362.9% advantage for the Intel card.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Arc A310 has an average benchmark score of 7,550, while the R7 M460 averages 6,612. The Arc sits at the 40th percentile of all GPUs, the R7 M460 at the 38th percentile.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon R7 M460 support ray tracing?

A: No. The R7 M460 has no ray tracing cores. The Intel Arc A310 includes 6 ray tracing cores.

Q: What memory configurations do the two cards use?

A: The Arc A310 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 124.0 GB/s bandwidth. The R7 M460 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit bus with 36.00 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has higher clock speeds?

A: The Arc A310 runs at 1,750 MHz base and boost. The R7 M460 runs at 730 MHz base and 1,024 MHz boost.

Q: What API levels do the two GPUs support?

A: The Arc A310 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The R7 M460 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion: the Intel Arc A310 is the superior GPU in every measurable category. Its average benchmark score of 7,550 versus 6,612 for the R7 M460, its 362.9% lead in Geekbench OpenCL, and its far higher memory bandwidth, fill rates, and compute throughput all indicate a card that belongs to a different performance class. Users seeking the stronger option between these two should choose the Arc A310 without hesitation, assuming the system can accommodate its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and 30 W TDP. The Arc A310 also brings modern features such as ray tracing hardware and DirectX 12 Ultimate support, neither of which the R7 M460 can offer.

The R7 M460 is not without a niche, though. Its lower average score places it just behind the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1010 and only slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7730M and Intel UHD Graphics P750. For a system that only needs basic display output or very light acceleration, the R7 M460 might suffice. But the recorded data shows no workload in which it beats the Arc A310. The single head-to-head benchmark, the only direct comparison available, goes entirely to Intel. The R7 M460's nearest rivals are all older or weaker parts, and none of them approach the Arc A310's average score. The verdict is therefore straightforward: the Arc A310 wins on performance, features, and efficiency metrics as recorded, and the R7 M460 should only be considered when the Arc A310 is not an option due to platform compatibility or availability constraints.

Specification Differences

| Specification | Intel Arc A310 | AMD Radeon R7 M460 |

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

| Architecture | Xe-HPG | GCN 3.0 |

| Generation | Alchemist (Arc 3) | Gem System (R7 M400) |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 28 nm |

| Transistors | 7,200 million | 1,550 million |

| Die Size | 157 mm² | 125 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 45.9M / mm² | 12.4M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1750 MHz | 730 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1750 MHz | 1024 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1937 MHz, 15.5 Gbps effective | 1125 MHz, 4.5 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 2 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 64 bit | 64 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 124.0 GB/s | 36.00 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 768 | 384 |

| TMUs | 32 | 24 |

| ROPs | 16 | 8 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | 6 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 28.00 GPixel/s | 8.192 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 56.00 GTexel/s | 24.58 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 2.688 TFLOPS | 786.4 GFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 5.376 TFLOPS (2:1) | 786.4 GFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 30 W | Not recorded |

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

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.2.170 |

| Display Outputs | 4x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 | Not recorded |

| Release Date | 2022-10-11 | 2016-05-14 |

| Predecessor | Xe Graphics | Solar System |

| Successor | Battlemage | Polaris Mobile |