AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 vs Intel Arc A550M Comparison

The Verdict

The Intel Arc A550M and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 occupy very different positions in the database, despite both being end-of-life products. The Arc A550M, a mobile Alchemist part, posts an average benchmark score of 49,737, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The RX Vega 56, a desktop card from 2017, averages 37,507, landing in the 81st percentile. The numerical gap is substantial: the Intel part is roughly 32.6% ahead on average score. However, the interpretation requires context, as the two cards serve entirely different form factors and power envelopes.

The Arc A550M is the clear performance leader in raw compute benchmarks. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 49,957 (0.4% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 50,951 (2.4% ahead). This places the mobile Intel GPU in rarefied company, trading blows with top-tier desktop parts from both NVIDIA and AMD. The RX Vega 56, by contrast, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648 score, 0.4% ahead) and the RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135 score, 1.6% ahead). For a card with a 210 W TDP, the Vega 56 is competitive with modern midrange offerings, but it is clearly a generation behind the Arc's league.

Who should pick which? Users needing a mobile solution with high compute throughput in a low-power package should choose the Arc A550M. Its 60 W TDP and integrated form factor make it suitable for laptops where space and cooling are constrained. The RX Vega 56, with its dual-slot design, 2x 8-pin power connectors, and 280 mm length, is a desktop-only part requiring a 550 W power supply. Enthusiasts building a legacy AMD system or seeking HBM2 memory bandwidth might prefer the Vega 56, but the data shows it is outperformed by the Intel part in every recorded benchmark. There is no scenario in the database where the Vega 56 wins.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different architectural eras. Intel's Arc A550M uses the Xe-HPG architecture on the DG2-512 chip, built on a 6 nm process at TSMC. It packs 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 53.4 million per mm². AMD's RX Vega 56 uses the older GCN 5.0 architecture on the Vega 10 chip, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 12,500 million transistors across a larger 495 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of just 25.3 million per mm². The Intel chip is more than twice as dense, a direct consequence of the newer process node.

The compute layouts differ sharply. The Arc A550M has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. It also features 16 dedicated ray tracing cores, a hardware capability entirely absent from the Vega 56. The AMD card counters with 3,584 shading units and 224 TMUs, both higher counts, but its 64 ROPs match the Intel part. Raw shading throughput favors AMD on paper: 10.54 TFLOPS FP32 versus 8.397 TFLOPS for Intel. However, the Arc's pixel rate of 131.2 GPixel/s exceeds the Vega's 94.14 GPixel/s, indicating better rasterization efficiency per clock. Texture rate tells a mixed story: 329.5 GTexel/s for AMD versus 262.4 GTexel/s for Intel.

Memory subsystems diverge completely. The Arc A550M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega 56 employs 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, achieving 409.6 GB/s, nearly double the bandwidth. This is a crucial architectural difference: the AMD card was designed for bandwidth-hungry workloads, while the Intel part relies on cache and newer memory compression techniques. Clock speeds also favor AMD's base frequency (1,156 MHz vs 900 MHz), but Intel's boost clock reaches 2,050 MHz versus 1,471 MHz for AMD, showing the Arc's ability to scale much higher under load.

API support is another differentiator. The Arc A550M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The Vega 56 only reaches DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, though it matches OpenGL 4.6. The newer API levels on the Intel part unlock modern rendering features like mesh shaders and advanced ray tracing, which the AMD card cannot claim. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 for Intel versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for AMD, though this matters less in practice for GPU-bound workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 offers higher theoretical FP32 compute at 10.54 TFLOPS versus 8.397 TFLOPS for the Intel Arc A550M. However, the Arc achieves a higher average benchmark score of 49,737 versus 37,507, indicating better real-world efficiency.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A550M support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the Arc A550M includes 16 dedicated ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which is required for hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 has no ray tracing cores and only supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: Which card offers more memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 provides 409.6 GB/s of bandwidth using HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus. The Intel Arc A550M offers 224.0 GB/s with GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. AMD's bandwidth advantage is significant, nearly double.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Intel Arc A550M has a TDP of 60 W and no power connectors, as it is an integrated mobile part. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 has a TDP of 210 W, requires two 8-pin power connectors, and needs a 550 W power supply.

Q: Which card is smaller?

A: The Intel Arc A550M is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no defined slot width, designed for portable devices. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is a dual-slot desktop card measuring 280 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width.

Q: When was each card released?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 was released on August 13, 2017, with a launch MSRP of 399 USD. The Intel Arc A550M has no recorded release date in the database, but its production status is end-of-life, same as the Vega 56.

Specification Differences

| Specification | Intel Arc A550M | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 |

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

| Architecture | Xe-HPG | GCN 5.0 |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 21,700 million | 12,500 million |

| Die Size | 406 mm² | 495 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 53.4M / mm² | 25.3M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 900 MHz | 1156 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2050 MHz | 1471 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) | 800 MHz (1600 Mbps effective) |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 2048 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 409.6 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2048 | 3584 |

| TMUs | 128 | 224 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | 16 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 131.2 GPixel/s | 94.14 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 262.4 GTexel/s | 329.5 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 8.397 TFLOPS | 10.54 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) | 21.09 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 60 W | 210 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | None | 550 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Dimensions | Portable Device Dependent | 280 mm x 111 mm x 40 mm |

| Release Date | None recorded | 2017-08-13 |

| Predecessor | None | Polaris |

| Successor | None | Navi |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no direct head-to-head benchmark results between the Intel Arc A550M and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56. Instead, each card has its own recorded test scores, and the comparison must be drawn from their average benchmark scores and percentile rankings.

The Intel Arc A550M records a Geekbench OpenCL score of 49,894 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 49,580. Its average benchmark score is 49,737. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 records a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,501 and a Geekbench Metal score of 73,512. Its average benchmark score is 37,507. The difference in average scores is 12,230 points, or approximately 32.6% in favor of Intel.

Looking at the nearest rivals clarifies the standings. The Arc A550M is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49,957 score) and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50,001 score). It is 2.4% behind the RX 6900 XT (50,951) but 2.6% ahead of the RX 6800 XT (48,477). This cluster of scores, all within a few percentage points, shows the Arc A550M performing at the level of high-end desktop GPUs from the previous generation. The Vega 56, meanwhile, is 0.3% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628) and 0.4% behind the GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648). It is 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37,157) and 1.6% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135). The Vega 56's rivals are a mix of professional and mobile parts, none of which approach the Arc's performance tier.

The biggest win for Intel is the sheer score differential: 49,737 versus 37,507, a lead of over 12,000 points. This places the Arc A550M in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the Vega 56 sits at the 81st percentile. The percentile gap of 5 points understates the raw score gap, as the distribution of GPUs is denser in the mid-range. For AMD, the only advantages are in specifications that do not translate to benchmark wins: higher FP32 throughput (10.54 TFLOPS), greater memory bandwidth (409.6 GB/s), and more shading units (3,584). None of these advantages appear in the recorded scores. The data is unambiguous: the Intel Arc A550M is the faster GPU in every measured benchmark, despite its mobile form factor and dramatically lower power draw. The Vega 56's higher bandwidth and shader counts are theoretical strengths that the benchmark results do not confirm.