AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs Intel Arc A750 Comparison

The Intel Arc A750 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX represent two vastly different approaches to GPU design, separated by a wide gulf in physical scale, memory capacity, and raw compute resources. The data paints a clear picture of a mainstream graphics card facing a flagship-class one, yet the benchmark results include a surprising twist: the Intel card wins a compute-oriented test by a massive margin, while the AMD card dominates every DirectX gaming workload. This analysis explores the hardware specifications and benchmark scores to determine where each card holds a genuine advantage, and what the numbers imply about their respective design philosophies.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score, and how do their percentile rankings compare?

A: The Intel Arc A750 has a higher average benchmark score of 20582, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX scores 19410. Despite this, the Intel card sits at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, and the AMD card is at the 64th percentile, making them statistically close in overall ranking.

Q: How do the two cards compare in pure rasterization performance according to the DirectX 11 benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is overwhelmingly faster, scoring 356 in the Passmark DirectX 11 test compared to the Intel Arc A750's 72. This represents a delta of -79.8%, meaning the AMD card's score is nearly five times higher.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two cards?

A: The Intel Arc A750 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth—exactly double the bandwidth of the Intel card.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor count and density, and what does that indicate about their architectures?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 57,700 million transistors on a 5 nm process, yielding a density of 109.1M per mm². The Intel Arc A750 has 21,700 million transistors on a 6 nm process, with a density of 53.4M per mm². The AMD chip is both larger and denser.

Q: In the Geekbench Vulkan test, how significant is the performance difference?

A: The difference is negligible. The Intel Arc A750 scores 85631, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX scores 85612, a delta of 0%. This is a statistical tie, suggesting similar Vulkan API performance in this specific workload.

Q: What are the thermal and power requirements for each card?

A: The Intel Arc A750 has a TDP of 225 W and requires a 550 W power supply. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has a TDP of 355 W and needs a 750 W power supply. The AMD card also uses two 8-pin power connectors, while the Intel card uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data reveals a distinct split in strengths. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the clear winner across almost every gaming and graphics workload tested. It takes the top spot in all four Passmark DirectX tests (10, 11, 12, and 9), the Passmark G3D test, the Passmark G2D test, the Passmark GPU compute test, and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark. That is eight wins out of ten head-to-head comparisons. The AMD card's dominance is particularly pronounced in the DirectX 11 test, where its score of 356 dwarfs the Intel card's 72.

The Intel Arc A750, however, claims victory in two specific areas. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 98554 is nearly double the AMD card's 50465, a 95.3% advantage. It also edges out the AMD card in the Geekbench Vulkan test, albeit by a razor-thin margin of 19 points (85631 vs 85612). These wins suggest that the Intel architecture excels in certain compute-oriented or API-specific workloads, despite lagging significantly in traditional rasterization benchmarks.

The use-case split is clear: for gamers relying on DirectX APIs, the RX 7900 XTX is the obvious choice. For users running OpenCL compute tasks, the Arc A750's surprising strength makes it a contender, though its lower overall performance in other areas limits its broader appeal. The Vulkan tie is noteworthy, indicating that API efficiency can level the playing field between disparate hardware.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures from different generations. The Intel Arc A750 uses the DG2-512 chip based on the Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation (Arc 7), and is manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX uses the Navi 31 chip based on RDNA 3.0, under the codename Plum Bonito, part of the Navi III (RX 7000) generation, and is built on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC.

The physical scale of the chips differs dramatically. The AMD chip contains 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, while the Intel chip has 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die. This translates to a transistor density of 109.1M per mm² for AMD versus 53.4M per mm² for Intel, meaning the AMD chip packs more than twice the transistors per square millimeter.

Architecturally, the AMD card features 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, with 96 ray tracing cores. The Intel card has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, with 28 ray tracing cores. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the raw compute resources are heavily skewed toward AMD. The AMD card's FP32 performance is 61.39 TFLOPS, while the Intel card manages 17.20 TFLOPS, a ratio of roughly 3.5 to 1. The pixel and texture rates follow a similar pattern, with AMD leading 479.6 GPixel/s vs 268.8 GPixel/s and 959.2 GTexel/s vs 537.6 GTexel/s.

Specification Differences

The most glaring difference is memory. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Intel Arc A750 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. Clock speeds also differ: the Intel card has a base clock of 2050 MHz and a boost of 2400 MHz, while the AMD card runs at a lower 1929 MHz base but a higher 2498 MHz boost, with a game clock of 2365 MHz. Memory speed is 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for Intel versus 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) for AMD.

The power draw is a significant separator. The AMD card's TDP is 355 W, requiring a 750 W power supply, whereas the Intel card has a 225 W TDP and a 550 W power supply recommendation. The AMD card uses two 8-pin connectors, while the Intel card uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Physically, the AMD card is listed at 287 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width, while the Intel card's dimensions are not provided. Both are dual-slot cards with PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces. Display outputs differ slightly: the Intel card has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0, while the AMD card offers 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test sets the tone for gaming performance. The AMD card scores 6841, while the Intel card manages only 2612, a delta of -61.8% in favor of AMD. This gap is consistent across all Passmark DirectX tests. In DirectX 10, AMD leads 166 to 65 (-60.8%); in DirectX 11, the margin widens to 356 vs 72 (-79.8%); in DirectX 12, it's 131 vs 70 (-46.6%); and in DirectX 9, 330 vs 181 (-45.2%). The Passmark G3D test shows AMD at 31238 versus Intel's 12534, a 59.9% deficit for Intel.

The compute workloads tell a different story. In Passmark GPU Compute, AMD wins 17689 to 5368, a 69.7% lead. However, in Geekbench OpenCL, the Intel Arc A750 achieves 98554, which is 95.3% higher than the AMD card's 50465. This is the largest delta in the entire benchmark suite, and it flips the expected hierarchy. The Geekbench Vulkan result is essentially identical, with Intel at 85631 and AMD at 85612, a 0% difference. The Passmark G2D test rounds out the results with AMD winning 1267 to 732 (-42.2%).

The data shows that the AMD card's lead is largest in DirectX 11, where its score is nearly five times higher, and smallest in DirectX 12, where it is "only" about 87% higher. The Intel card's OpenCL victory is extraordinary, suggesting that its architecture is exceptionally well-tuned for that specific compute API, even outperforming a card with nearly four times the FP32 throughput.

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the unequivocal choice for gaming and traditional graphics workloads. Its wins in every DirectX benchmark, along with higher scores in Passmark G3D and G2D, make it the superior card for any application that relies on rasterization. The magnitude of its lead—often 50-80%—leaves no room for doubt. The 24 GB memory capacity and double bandwidth further cement its position for high-resolution textures and demanding scenes.

The Intel Arc A750, however, should not be dismissed outright. Its 95.3% advantage in Geekbench OpenCL is a genuine strength that could matter for compute-intensive tasks such as certain scientific or AI workloads that leverage that API. Its near-perfect tie in Vulkan also indicates that API optimization can narrow the gap between vastly different hardware.

For a user prioritizing gaming or professional graphics, the RX 7900 XTX is the only logical selection based on this data. For a user whose primary workload is OpenCL compute and who does not require high-end gaming performance, the Arc A750 offers a compelling, albeit niche, alternative. The Verdict is clear: choose AMD for graphics, choose Intel for specific compute scenarios, and recognize that the two cards are not direct competitors but rather solutions for different needs.