AMD Radeon RX 6650M vs AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded benchmark data separates these two AMD GPUs clearly, but the split is not what the older card's raw specifications might suggest. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins both head-to-head tests in the database, taking the OpenCL test by 5.2% and the Vulkan test by a decisive 16%. Its average benchmark score of 71768 places it at the 91st percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 sits at the 86th percentile with an average score of 50001. That gap is substantial: the RX 6650M outperforms the RX Vega 64 by roughly 43.5% in average score, a figure derived from the two cards' respective averages.

Who should pick which? The data points to the RX 6650M for almost every scenario where current-generation API support matters. Its Vulkan advantage of 16% is the single largest margin in the head-to-head comparison, and its OpenCL lead of 5.2% reinforces the pattern. The RX Vega 64 does retain a theoretical raw compute advantage in its FP32 rating of 12.66 TFLOPS against the RX 6650M's 8.659 TFLOPS, but that does not translate into a single benchmark win in the recorded data. For users prioritizing modern graphics API performance, the RX 6650M is the clear pick. For those who need a dual-slot desktop card with HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, the RX Vega 64 is the only one of the two that physically offers those connectors, as the RX 6650M is an integrated graphics package with portable-device-dependent outputs. The RX Vega 64 also holds the only launch MSRP in the database at 499 USD, but no pricing analysis is offered here.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and different process nodes. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M uses the Navi 23 chip built on RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 uses the Vega 10 chip on GCN 5.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The process node difference is stark: 7 nm versus 14 nm, which contributes to the RX 6650M's far lower power draw of 120 W against the RX Vega 64's 295 W.

Transistor counts tell an interesting story. The RX Vega 64 packs 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, while the RX 6650M contains 11,060 million transistors on a much smaller 237 mm² die. Transistor density reflects this: the RX 6650M reaches 46.7 million transistors per square millimeter, while the RX Vega 64 manages 25.3 million per square millimeter. The newer process allows nearly double the density.

The shading unit counts differ dramatically. The RX Vega 64 has 4096 shading units and 256 texture mapping units, while the RX 6650M has 1792 shading units and 112 TMUs. Both have 64 raster operation pipelines. The RX 6650M includes 28 ray tracing cores, a feature the RX Vega 64 lacks entirely, as it predates ray tracing hardware. The RX 6650M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX Vega 64 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Memory architecture differs completely. The RX 6650M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX Vega 64 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 483.8 GB/s. The RX Vega 64's bandwidth is more than double, but the benchmark results show this does not translate into a win. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x8 for the RX 6650M versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the RX Vega 64.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the two head-to-head tests in the database, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins both. The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the RX 6650M scoring 65800 against the RX Vega 64's 62552, a 5.2% margin. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a larger separation: 77735 for the RX 6650M versus 67032 for the RX Vega 64, a 16% advantage. These are the only two direct comparison tests recorded, and the RX 6650M wins both, giving it 2 wins and the RX Vega 64 zero wins.

The RX Vega 64 does not win any recorded head-to-head benchmark. Its strongest statistical claim is its nearest rival comparison: it sits within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M, 1.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, and 3.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. The RX 6650M, by contrast, sits 0.5% behind the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal, 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64, 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE, and 2.2% behind the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition.

For use cases, the RX 6650M appears better suited to modern Vulkan workloads, given its 16% lead in that API. The RX Vega 64's higher FP32 rating of 12.66 TFLOPS and higher texture rate of 395.8 GTexel/s versus 270.6 GTexel/s for the RX 6650M suggest raw compute potential, but the recorded benchmarks do not reflect any advantage. The RX Vega 64's pixel rate is lower at 98.94 GPixel/s versus 154.6 GPixel/s for the RX 6650M, indicating the newer card fills pixels faster despite fewer shading units.

The RX Vega 64 is the only card with a physical desktop form factor, with a 280 mm length, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, 111 mm height, and 40 mm width, with dual-slot occupancy, 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a 600 W suggested PSU. The RX 6650M is an IGP with no power connectors and no discrete dimensions recorded.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins both recorded tests. It beats the RX Vega 64 by 5.2% in Geekbench OpenCL (65800 versus 62552) and by 16% in Geekbench Vulkan (77735 versus 67032).

Q: What is the percentile ranking difference between the two?

A: The RX 6650M ranks at the 91st percentile of all GPUs, while the RX Vega 64 ranks at the 86th percentile. The RX 6650M's average benchmark score is 71768, and the RX Vega 64's is 50001.

Q: Does the RX Vega 64 have more memory bandwidth?

A: Yes. The RX Vega 64 has 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth from its HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, while the RX 6650M has 224.0 GB/s from GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. Both have 8 GB of memory.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the AMD Radeon RX 6650M. It has 28 ray tracing cores, while the RX Vega 64 has no ray tracing cores listed. The RX 6650M also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX Vega 64 supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RX 6650M has a TDP of 120 W, while the RX Vega 64 has a TDP of 295 W. The RX Vega 64 requires 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU, while the RX 6650M has no power connectors listed.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The RX Vega 64 has 4096 shading units and 256 TMUs, while the RX 6650M has 1792 shading units and 112 TMUs. Despite this, the RX 6650M wins both head-to-head benchmarks.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench Vulkan test is the defining result of this comparison. The RX 6650M scores 77735, and the RX Vega 64 scores 67032. That is a 16% delta, the largest margin between the two in any recorded test. Vulkan is a low-overhead API that tends to reward architectural efficiency over raw shader count, and the RDNA 2.0 design appears to exploit this. The RX 6650M's 1792 shading units outperform the RX Vega 64's 4096 shading units by a wide margin in this workload.

The Geekbench OpenCL test is closer but still favors the RX 6650M. The RX 6650M scores 65800, and the RX Vega 64 scores 62552. The 5.2% delta is modest compared to the Vulkan gap, suggesting that OpenCL workloads bring the two cards closer together. Even so, the RX Vega 64 cannot secure a win in its more favorable API scenario.

The average score gap is worth contextualizing through the nearest rivals. The RX 6650M's average score of 71768 places it near the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (72098, 0.5% behind) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (72379, 0.8% behind). It also sits 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE and 2.2% behind the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. The RX Vega 64's average of 50001 places it in a lower tier: 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M, 1.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, and 3.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. The gap between the two cards' average scores is larger than the gap between either card and its closest rivals.

The pixel rate comparison reinforces the RX 6650M's advantage. It delivers 154.6 GPixel/s versus the RX Vega 64's 98.94 GPixel/s. The texture rate tells the opposite story: the RX Vega 64 reaches 395.8 GTexel/s, and the RX 6650M reaches 270.6 GTexel/s. FP32 compute also favors the RX Vega 64 at 12.66 TFLOPS versus 8.659 TFLOPS. These raw specifications do not produce benchmark wins for the RX Vega 64, which indicates that the RDNA 2.0 architecture extracts more practical performance per unit of compute in the recorded tests.

Specification Differences

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 differ across nearly every measurable specification. The RX 6650M uses the Navi 23 chip on RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm TSMC process, while the RX Vega 64 uses the Vega 10 chip on GCN 5.0 architecture with a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process. The RX 6650M has 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, and the RX Vega 64 has 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die. Transistor density is 46.7 million per square millimeter for the RX 6650M and 25.3 million per square millimeter for the RX Vega 64.

Clock speeds differ substantially. The RX 6650M has a base clock of 2068 MHz, a boost clock of 2416 MHz, and a game clock of 2222 MHz. The RX Vega 64 has a base clock of 1247 MHz and a boost clock of 1546 MHz, with no game clock recorded. The RX 6650M's memory runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, while the RX Vega 64's memory runs at 945 MHz with 1890 Mbps effective speed.

The memory systems are entirely different. The RX 6650M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX Vega 64 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 483.8 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 6650M has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 28 ray tracing cores. The RX Vega 64 has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and no ray tracing cores.

Pixel and texture rates differ in opposite directions. The RX 6650M has a pixel rate of 154.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 270.6 GTexel/s. The RX Vega 64 has a pixel rate of 98.94 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 395.8 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 8.659 TFLOPS for the RX 6650M and 12.66 TFLOPS for the RX Vega 64. FP16 compute is 17.32 TFLOPS for the RX 6650M and 25.33 TFLOPS for the RX Vega 64, both at a 2:1 ratio.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The RX 6650M has a TDP of 120 W, IGP slot width, no power connectors, and a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The RX Vega 64 has a TDP of 295 W, dual-slot width, 2x 8-pin power connectors, a 600 W suggested PSU, and a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. The RX 6650M has portable-device-dependent display outputs, while the RX Vega 64 offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX Vega 64 measures 280 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width. API support differs with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 on the RX 6650M versus DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3 on the RX Vega 64, with both sharing OpenGL 4.6. The RX 6650M released on 2022-01-03, and the RX Vega 64 released on 2017-08-06, with the RX Vega 64 carrying a launch MSRP of 499 USD. The RX 6650M's predecessor is Polaris Mobile, and the RX Vega 64's predecessor is Polaris, with the RX Vega 64's successor listed as Navi.