AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Comparison

The Verdict

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 is the clear performance winner in every recorded head-to-head benchmark, with margins that are not incremental but transformative. The data shows the A4000 leads by 206.7% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 256.4% in Geekbench OpenCL, and 230.1% in Geekbench Vulkan. For any workload measured in the database, the RTX A4000 is categorically in a different performance class.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is not competitive with the A4000 on raw compute, but it occupies a distinct, older market position. Its average benchmark score of 23061 places it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, while the A4000 sits at the 72nd percentile with an average of 26683. The RX 580 2048SP remains relevant only for legacy DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 workloads, where its architecture still functions adequately, and for systems constrained to PCIe 3.0. The A4000 is the choice for professional 3D rendering, compute acceleration, and any modern API workload. The RX 580 2048SP is only defensible for older software stacks where its feature set is sufficient and its 7 Gbps effective memory speed is not a bottleneck.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different eras and design philosophies. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 uses the GA104 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process, packing 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die for a density of 44.4 million transistors per mm². It is based on the Ampere architecture, specifically the Workstation Ampere (Ax000) generation, and was released in April 2021. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP uses the Polaris 20 chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, yielding a density of 24.6 million transistors per mm². It is GCN 4.0 architecture from the Polaris (RX 500) generation, released in October 2018.

The compute resources differ massively. The A4000 has 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RX 580 2048SP has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX A4000 also carries 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, enabling hardware ray tracing and AI acceleration; the RX 580 2048SP has no RT cores and no tensor cores. Pixel throughput is 149.8 GPixel/s for the A4000 versus 41.09 GPixel/s for the RX 580 2048SP. Texture rate is 299.5 GTexel/s versus 164.4 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 19.17 TFLOPS versus 5.259 TFLOPS. Both support FP16 at a 1:1 ratio.

Memory is another major divide. The A4000 has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 14 Gbps effective speed. The RX 580 2048SP has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth and 7 Gbps effective speed. The A4000 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RX 580 2048SP is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. API support also differs: the A4000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 580 2048SP supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. Power draw is 140 W for the A4000 versus 150 W for the RX 580 2048SP, despite the A4000's far higher performance. The A4000 is a single-slot card with one 6-pin connector and a 300 W suggested PSU, while the RX 580 2048SP is dual-slot with one 8-pin connector and a 450 W suggested PSU.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A4000 wins every benchmark category in the database. Its largest margin is in Geekbench OpenCL at 256.4% ahead, followed by Geekbench Vulkan at 230.1%, and then 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 at 206.7%. The A4000 also has a significantly higher average benchmark score of 26683 versus 23061 for the RX 580 2048SP, a difference of roughly 15.7%. In the nearest rivals comparison, the A4000's average score is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary, 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce MX550, 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon 860M, and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060. This places it in a tight cluster of modern GPUs, all within a 1.3% band.

The RX 580 2048SP, by contrast, has its nearest rivals within a narrower range: it is 0.2% behind the Intel Arc B580, 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, 0.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, and 0.8% behind the NVIDIA P106-100. Its 68th percentile ranking is only four points below the A4000's 72nd percentile, but that hides the fact that the RX 580 2048SP is clustered with older or lower-tier cards. The RX 580 2048SP does have a functional advantage in legacy API support: it handles DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 workloads through its GCN architecture without requiring the driver overhead of newer designs. The A4000's PassMark scores for DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 are 240, 126, and 158 respectively, which are not directly comparable to the RX 580 2048SP since the database did not record those specific tests for the AMD card. The RX 580 2048SP also has a lower memory footprint requirement at 4 GB, which is adequate for older games and basic compute tasks.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 scores 2604, which is 206.7% higher than the RX 580 2048SP's score of 849.

Q: Does the RX 580 2048SP support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 580 2048SP has no RT cores and no tensor cores. The RTX A4000 has 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The RTX A4000 has 16 GB of GDDR6 with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 580 2048SP has 4 GB of GDDR5 with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has better Vulkan performance?

A: The RTX A4000 scores 127645 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 230.1% higher than the RX 580 2048SP's score of 38666.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are marked as end-of-life. The RX 580 2048SP was released in October 2018, and the RTX A4000 was released in April 2021.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The RTX A4000 has a 140 W TDP with a 300 W suggested PSU and a single 6-pin connector. The RX 580 2048SP has a 150 W TDP with a 450 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin connector. The A4000 also occupies a single slot versus dual-slot for the RX 580 2048SP.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head results show an unambiguous sweep. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX A4000 scores 2604 against the RX 580 2048SP's 849, a delta of 206.7%. This is the smallest of the three margins, yet it still represents a tripling of performance. The A4000's advantage comes from its higher pixel rate (149.8 GPixel/s versus 41.09 GPixel/s) and its larger ROP count (96 versus 32), which directly impacts rasterization throughput in DX12 workloads.

Geekbench OpenCL shows the widest gap. The RTX A4000 scores 105739, while the RX 580 2048SP scores 29668, a delta of 256.4%. This test stresses general-purpose compute, and the A4000's 6144 shading units, 192 tensor cores, and 19.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance dwarf the RX 580 2048SP's 2048 shading units and 5.259 TFLOPS. The A4000 also benefits from 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 224.0 GB/s, which matters for OpenCL kernels that are memory-bound.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a delta of 230.1%, with the A4000 scoring 127645 and the RX 580 2048SP scoring 38666. Vulkan performance is influenced by both compute throughput and driver efficiency. The A4000 supports Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 580 2048SP is capped at Vulkan 1.3. The A4000's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface also provides twice the bus bandwidth of the RX 580 2048SP's PCIe 3.0 x16, which reduces transfer bottlenecks in Vulkan workloads that stream geometry or buffer data.

The average benchmark scores tell a similar story but with a smaller relative gap. The A4000's average is 26683, and the RX 580 2048SP's is 23061, a difference of approximately 15.7%. This is because the A4000's average includes PassMark tests where it scores relatively lower (DirectX 9 at 240, DirectX 10 at 126, DirectX 11 at 158, DirectX 12 at 72, G2D at 1024, G3D at 19459, and GPU compute at 9760), while the RX 580 2048SP's average is based only on the three head-to-head tests. The percentile rankings reflect this too: the A4000 sits at the 72nd percentile, and the RX 580 2048SP at the 68th, a modest separation compared to the massive deltas in individual tests.

The nearest rival data further contextualizes the A4000's standing. Its average score of 26683 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26553, 0.5% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (26331, 1.3% difference). This means the A4000, despite being a workstation card from 2021, performs in the same bracket as modern consumer GPUs. The RX 580 2048SP, with an average of 23061, sits closest to the Intel Arc B580 (23021, 0.2% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895, 0.7% difference). Its position in that cluster indicates that its performance level is roughly equivalent to a mid-range GPU from several generations ago, not a current-generation part.

The wins count is decisive: the RTX A4000 records 3 wins, and the RX 580 2048SP records 0 wins. No benchmark in the database favors the AMD card. The RX 580 2048SP's only statistical advantages are its lower transistor count (5,700 million versus 17,400 million), smaller die (232 mm² versus 392 mm²), and lower density, which may imply simpler manufacturing, but those are not performance metrics. Its 14 nm process node is two generations behind the A4000's 8 nm node, and its 150 W TDP is actually higher than the A4000's 140 W despite delivering a fraction of the performance. For any user choosing between these two cards based on the recorded data, the RTX A4000 is the only rational selection unless legacy API compatibility or a 4 GB memory ceiling is an absolute requirement.