GPU Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a clear and consistent picture: the Intel Arc A730M dominates the AMD Radeon RX 6550M in every shared test. In the Geekbench OpenCL workload, the Arc A730M scores 70,352 against the RX 6550M’s 41,991, a commanding 40.3% lead. This is not a marginal victory; it is a decisive margin that places the Intel part in a different performance tier for compute-heavy workloads. The Vulkan results narrow the gap slightly but still favor Intel decisively, with the Arc A730M posting 64,693 versus the RX 6550M’s 51,071, a 21.1% advantage.

The average benchmark scores corroborate this hierarchy. The RX 6550M carries an average score of 46,531, while the Arc A730M sits at 45,592. The delta between them, however, is just 2.1% in favor of the AMD part when looking at the full benchmark suite, which includes tests not shared between the two. This apparent contradiction—Intel winning both head-to-head tests yet having a lower average—stems from the fact that the Arc A730M’s average includes its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 1,732, which drags its aggregate down relative to the RX 6550M’s two strong Geekbench scores.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card adds further context. The RX 6550M’s closest competitor is the Intel Arc A530M, which scores 46,614, a mere 0.2% difference. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT trails the RX 6550M by 1.9% (45,642), and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is 2.5% ahead (47,743). For the Arc A730M, its neighbor list includes the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,642, a 0.1% deficit), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152, a 1% deficit), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,900, a 1.5% deficit). Notably, the RX 6550M appears in the Arc A730M’s rival list with a 2% delta, meaning the AMD part’s average score is 2% higher than the Intel part’s—despite Intel winning both direct benchmark comparisons.

The head-to-head data is unambiguous: Intel wins both tests, with the OpenCL margin being particularly brutal. The 40.3% delta in OpenCL suggests that the Arc A730M’s larger shader array and memory subsystem translate into substantially higher raw throughput in compute-bound scenarios. The 21.1% Vulkan delta, while smaller, still represents a significant performance gap that would be noticeable in real-world gaming or rendering workloads that leverage Vulkan’s modern API features.

The Verdict

From the data alone, the Intel Arc A730M is the superior performer in direct comparison. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, and its wins are not narrow—they are substantial, particularly in OpenCL where it outperforms the RX 6550M by over 40%. Users whose workloads prioritize raw compute, such as GPU-accelerated rendering, machine learning inference, or scientific simulation, should favor the Arc A730M based on these results. The Vulkan advantage of 21.1% also suggests that modern games using this API will run noticeably faster on the Intel part.

However, the average benchmark scores tell a more nuanced story. The RX 6550M’s average of 46,531 is 2.1% higher than the Arc A730M’s 45,592, and the AMD part also holds a slightly better percentile ranking at 86 versus the Arc A730M’s 85. This means that across a broader range of tests, the RX 6550M holds up well, likely due to its more consistent performance in the two Geekbench tests it was evaluated on. The Arc A730M’s inclusion of a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,732—which appears to be a relatively weak result for a GPU of its specifications—pulls its aggregate down.

For a potential buyer, the choice hinges on workload. If the primary use is gaming or compute where Vulkan or OpenCL performance is critical, the Arc A730M is the clear pick. If the workload involves a mix of applications where the average score is more representative, the RX 6550M offers a slight edge in aggregate performance, though the difference is marginal. The production status also matters: the RX 6550M is listed as "Active," while the Arc A730M is "End-of-life," which could influence availability and long-term driver support. Based strictly on the benchmark data, the Arc A730M wins the head-to-head, but the RX 6550M is not far behind in overall average performance.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different architectural lineages. The AMD Radeon RX 6550M is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, using the Navi 24 chip, and belongs to the Navi Mobile (RX 6000M) generation. The Intel Arc A730M, by contrast, uses the Xe-HPG architecture with the DG2-512 chip, from the Alchemist (Arc 7 Mobile) generation. Both are fabricated on TSMC’s 6 nm process node, but the similarities end there.

The transistor counts reveal a massive disparity in silicon complexity. The Intel chip packs 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, while the AMD chip has just 5,400 million transistors on a 107 mm² die. This translates to a transistor density of 53.4M per mm² for Intel versus 50.5M per mm² for AMD. The Intel die is nearly four times larger, which explains its significantly higher compute resources. The RX 6550M’s predecessor is listed as Polaris Mobile, indicating a lineage from older AMD architectures, while the Arc A730M has no listed predecessor, reflecting Intel’s relative newcomer status in the discrete GPU market.

The feature sets are broadly aligned on the API front—both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4—but the underlying hardware differs substantially. The Arc A730M boasts 24 ray tracing cores versus the RX 6550M’s 16, suggesting more robust ray tracing performance, though neither card has tensor cores listed. The Intel part also has triple the shading units (3,072 versus 1,024), triple the texture mapping units (192 versus 64), and triple the render output units (96 versus 32). These ratios are consistent with the die size difference and indicate that the Arc A730M is designed for much higher throughput across all graphics stages.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet shows a clear divergence in nearly every measurable category, with the Intel Arc A730M holding the advantage in compute resources and memory configuration. The RX 6550M has a base clock of 2000 MHz and a boost clock of 2840 MHz, with a game clock of 2560 MHz. The Arc A730M runs lower clocks—1100 MHz base and 2050 MHz boost—but compensates with far more execution units. Both cards have an 80 W TDP and are listed as IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factors with portable-device-dependent display outputs.

Memory is where the gap widens dramatically. The RX 6550M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding 144.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Arc A730M offers 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s—more than double the bandwidth. The memory clocks differ as well: the AMD card runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective), while the Intel card runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The higher clock on the AMD part cannot compensate for the narrower bus, so the Intel card’s bandwidth advantage is decisive for texture-heavy and high-resolution workloads.

The compute throughput figures reinforce Intel’s dominance. The Arc A730M delivers 12.60 TFLOPS FP32 and 25.19 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), while the RX 6550M manages 5.816 TFLOPS FP32 and 11.63 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). Pixel and texture rates follow the same pattern: the Intel card hits 196.8 GPixel/s and 393.6 GTexel/s, versus 90.88 GPixel/s and 181.8 GTexel/s for the AMD card. The bus interface also differs—PCIe 4.0 x16 for Intel versus PCIe 4.0 x4 for AMD—which could impact data transfer in bandwidth-sensitive scenarios, though the practical impact in mobile implementations is often limited.

The release dates are a notable differentiator: the RX 6550M launched on January 3, 2023, while the Arc A730M has no listed release date. The production status further separates them, with AMD still active and Intel marked end-of-life. Neither card has a launch MSRP listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL performance?

A: The Intel Arc A730M wins decisively, scoring 70,352 against the AMD Radeon RX 6550M’s 41,991, a 40.3% lead.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 6550M ahead in any benchmark?

A: No. In the head-to-head tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the Intel Arc A730M wins both. The RX 6550M does have a 2.1% higher average benchmark score (46,531 versus 45,592).

Q: How does the memory configuration differ?

A: The Arc A730M has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 6550M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 144.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The Intel DG2-512 chip contains 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, while the AMD Navi 24 chip has 5,400 million transistors on a 107 mm² die.

Q: Are both GPUs on the same process node?

A: Yes, both are fabricated on TSMC’s 6 nm process node, though Intel’s transistor density is slightly higher at 53.4M / mm² versus AMD’s 50.5M / mm².

Q: Which GPU has a higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The Intel Arc A730M, with 12.60 TFLOPS FP32, more than double the RX 6550M’s 5.816 TFLOPS. The Intel card also leads in FP16 at 25.19 TFLOPS versus 11.63 TFLOPS.