AMD Radeon RX 6700S vs AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Comparison

AMD Radeon RX 6700S is the clear winner in this matchup, taking both head-to-head benchmark victories with decisive margins. The RX 6700S posts a 263% higher score in Geekbench OpenCL and a 234.6% higher score in Geekbench Vulkan compared to the RX Vega M GL. The data shows a generational leap rather than a close contest, with the 6700S representing RDNA 2.0 architecture against the older GCN 4.0 design. The RX Vega M GL retains a niche appeal only for legacy systems where its 65W TDP and embedded form factor are already in place, but for any new build or upgrade path, the RX 6700S is the only rational choice based on benchmark performance.

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 6700S is the pick for anyone who needs modern graphics performance in a portable device. Its average benchmark score of 22154 places it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX Vega M GL sits at 21153 in the 66th percentile — a modest overall gap that masks the much larger differences in individual compute workloads. The 6700S delivers over 2.6 times the OpenCL performance and over 3.3 times the Vulkan performance of the Vega M GL, making it the obvious choice for compute-heavy tasks. The Vega M GL, with its 65W TDP and IGP bus interface, belongs in older ultraportables where it was originally deployed; its 4GB HBM2 memory and 1024-bit bus were innovative for 2018 but are now limiting factors. Benchmark results indicate the 6700S is closer in average score to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (22435, delta -1.3%) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (22549, delta -1.7%) than to its actual rival here. The RX Vega M GL's nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379, delta -1.1%), shows it competes with professional mobile GPUs from a different era.

Architecture Differences

The RX 6700S uses the Navi 23 chip built on TSMC's 7 nm process, packing 11,060 million transistors into a 237 mm² die with a transistor density of 46.7 million per square millimeter. The RX Vega M GL uses Polaris 22 on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, with 5,000 million transistors on a 208 mm² die at 24.0 million per square millimeter. This process advantage alone explains much of the performance gap: the 6700S runs at a 1700 MHz base and 2000 MHz boost clock, while the Vega M GL operates at 931 MHz base and 1011 MHz boost. The 6700S features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, compared to 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs on the Vega M GL. Critically, the 6700S includes 28 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the GCN 4.0 architecture. The 6700S supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega M GL is limited to DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. FP32 throughput tells the story: 7.168 TFLOPS for the 6700S versus 2.588 TFLOPS for the Vega M GL, with the 6700S offering FP16 at 14.34 TFLOPS (2:1) while the Vega M GL is capped at 2.588 TFLOPS (1:1).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two shared benchmarks are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the RX 6700S dominates both. In OpenCL, the 6700S scores 70965 against 19549 for the Vega M GL, a delta of 263%. This means the 6700S delivers more than three and a half times the raw compute throughput in this cross-platform API. In Vulkan, the 6700S scores 76150 against 22757, a delta of 234.6%, again more than three times the performance. These are not marginal improvements; they represent a complete architectural overhaul. The Vega M GL's best result in any benchmark is its Geekbench Vulkan score of 22757, which is still less than one-third of the 6700S's Vulkan score. The 6700S also has additional benchmark data beyond the shared tests: it scores 1451 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 72864 in Geekbench Metal, 15066 in Passmark G3D, and 5990 in Passmark GPU Compute. These figures show consistent strength across different workloads. The Vega M GL has no results for DirectX, Metal, or Passmark tests in this data, suggesting its benchmark coverage is limited to compute-focused APIs.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RX 6700S delivers 7.168 TFLOPS FP32 versus 2.588 TFLOPS for the RX Vega M GL, a 2.77x advantage in raw floating-point throughput.

Q: How do the memory subsystems compare?

A: The 6700S uses 8GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Vega M GL uses 4GB HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus with 179.2 GB/s bandwidth. The 6700S has more capacity and higher bandwidth despite the narrower bus.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the RX 6700S has ray tracing support, featuring 28 dedicated RT cores. The RX Vega M GL has no RT cores and its GCN 4.0 architecture lacks this capability entirely.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The 6700S has an 80W TDP while the Vega M GL has a 65W TDP. The 6700S uses 15W more but delivers over 200% higher benchmark scores, making it substantially more power-efficient per unit of performance.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life. The 6700S was released on 2022-01-03, and the Vega M GL was released on 2018-01-31. Neither has a listed successor.

Q: Which GPU has better driver and API support?

A: The 6700S supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Vega M GL supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The 6700S is one full DirectX feature level ahead and has a newer Vulkan version.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 6700S wins in every measured category and every shared benchmark. Its 8GB GDDR6 memory at 224.0 GB/s provides both more capacity and more bandwidth than the Vega M GL's 4GB HBM2 at 179.2 GB/s, which matters for modern game textures and compute buffers. The 28 RT cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature the Vega M GL cannot offer at any setting. The 7 nm process node allows higher clocks (2000 MHz boost versus 1011 MHz boost) with only a 15W TDP increase, which is why the 6700S achieves 128.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 224.0 GTexel/s texture rate against the Vega M GL's 32.35 GPixel/s and 80.88 GTexel/s. For portable devices, the 6700S's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides twice the bandwidth of the Vega M GL's IGP bus. The Vega M GL's only theoretical advantages are its 1024-bit memory bus and 65W TDP, but the data shows these do not translate into competitive performance. Its 2.588 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1) matches its FP32 rate, which is rare but irrelevant given the overall performance deficit. The Vega M GL's 24.0M/mm² transistor density versus the 6700S's 46.7M/mm² puts it at a fundamental silicon disadvantage. In practical terms, the 6700S is suited for gaming, content creation, and compute workloads on modern laptops, while the Vega M GL is only viable for legacy systems where its embedded design is already soldered in place.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 6700S | AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL |

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

| Architecture | RDNA 2.0 | GCN 4.0 |

| Process Node | 7 nm (TSMC) | 14 nm (GlobalFoundries) |

| Transistors | 11,060 million | 5,000 million |

| Die Size | 237 mm² | 208 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 46.7M / mm² | 24.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1700 MHz | 931 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2000 MHz | 1011 MHz |

| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 | 4 GB HBM2 |

| Memory Bus | 128 bit | 1024 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 179.2 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1792 | 1280 |

| TMUs | 112 | 80 |

| ROPs | 64 | 32 |

| RT Cores | 28 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 128.0 GPixel/s | 32.35 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 224.0 GTexel/s | 80.88 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 7.168 TFLOPS | 2.588 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 14.34 TFLOPS (2:1) | 2.588 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 80 W | 65 W |

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

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | IGP |

| Release Date | 2022-01-03 | 2018-01-31 |

| Average Score | 22154 | 21153 |

| Percentile | 67 | 66 |

The specification table shows a complete generational overhaul. Every meaningful metric favors the 6700S, from transistor count (11,060 million versus 5,000 million) to FP32 throughput (7.168 TFLOPS versus 2.588 TFLOPS). The Vega M GL's 1024-bit memory bus is its only spec that exceeds the 6700S, but the 179.2 GB/s bandwidth it provides is still lower than the 6700S's 224.0 GB/s. The 6700S achieves this with a 128-bit bus through faster GDDR6 memory. The 15W TDP increase on the 6700S buys a 2.77x improvement in FP32 and 3.96x improvement in pixel rate, making it the far more efficient architecture. The release date gap of nearly four years shows in every benchmark and specification.