AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 vs NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows two very different performance profiles. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile achieves an average benchmark score of 47743, while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 sits at 37507. That is a 27.3% gap in favor of the NVIDIA part, and it places these GPUs in different competitive tiers. The A1000 Mobile ranks in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, while the Vega 56 ranks in the 81st percentile. Despite the percentile difference being small, the actual score delta is substantial.

Looking at individual tests, the A1000 Mobile posts a Geekbench OpenCL score of 48703 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 46782. The Vega 56 counters with a Geekbench Metal score of 73512 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1501. The Metal score is heavily platform-dependent, so it does not translate directly to Windows or Linux workloads. The DX12 result for the Vega 56 is a single data point, while the A1000 Mobile has no equivalent DX12 entry in the database. What matters more is the average score, and there the A1000 Mobile is clearly ahead.

When comparing to their nearest rivals, the A1000 Mobile sits just 1.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT in average score, which is a remarkable result for a 60 W mobile chip. It is 2.2% ahead of the RX 6550M, 2.4% ahead of the Intel Arc A530M, and 2.5% ahead of the RX 5600M. The Vega 56, by contrast, is 0.3% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P4, 0.4% behind the GeForce RTX 4070, and 1.6% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile, while edging out the Radeon PRO W6400 by 0.9%. The Vega 56 is essentially trading blows with desktop-class cards from a later generation, which shows its age. The A1000 Mobile is competing with much newer and more efficient parts and coming out on top.

The biggest win for the A1000 Mobile is the overall average score, where it leads by 10236 points. That is not a marginal difference; it is a decisive margin. The biggest win for the Vega 56 is the raw compute headroom, which shows up in its FP32 and FP16 figures, but those do not translate into benchmark wins in the recorded data. In every comparable metric in the database, the A1000 Mobile is ahead. The Vega 56 has no recorded benchmark where it beats the A1000 Mobile in a head-to-head comparison, because the database lists zero wins for either side. That means the comparison relies on the average scores and the individual tests each card has.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different design philosophies and different eras. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile uses the GA107 chip on the Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip on the GCN 5.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The node difference is significant: 8 nm versus 14 nm means the NVIDIA chip is denser and more power-efficient per transistor. The A1000 Mobile packs 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. The Vega 56 packs 12,500 million transistors into a 495 mm² die, giving a density of only 25.3 million per square millimeter. The Vega 56 is a much larger and older chip, and it shows.

Memory is another major split. The A1000 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 176.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 409.6 GB/s. That is a 2.33x bandwidth advantage for the AMD card, and it is the one specification where the Vega 56 clearly dominates. The HBM2 memory is also a legacy of the Vega design, which was aimed at high-bandwidth compute workloads. The A1000 Mobile's smaller memory pool and narrower bus are typical for a mobile workstation chip.

Compute resources differ just as sharply. The A1000 Mobile has 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, plus 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores. The Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, but it has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The Vega 56 has 1.75x more shading units and 3.5x more TMUs, which is why its texture rate is 329.5 GTexel/s versus 72.96 GTexel/s for the A1000 Mobile. The pixel rate also favors AMD: 94.14 GPixel/s versus 36.48 GPixel/s. The A1000 Mobile's advantage is in feature support, not raw rasterization throughput.

Clock speeds are also different. The A1000 Mobile runs at a base of 630 MHz and a boost of 1140 MHz, with memory at 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective). The Vega 56 runs at a base of 1156 MHz and a boost of 1471 MHz, with memory at 800 MHz (1600 Mbps effective). The Vega 56 has higher clocks, but it also consumes far more power. The TDP figures tell the story: the A1000 Mobile is rated at 60 W, while the Vega 56 is rated at 210 W. That is a 3.5x power draw difference, and it comes with the Vega 56 requiring a dual-slot cooler, a 280 mm length, and two 8-pin power connectors. The A1000 Mobile is an integrated GPU (IGP) with no power connectors and a portable-device-dependent display output.

The Verdict

The data is clear: the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is the better GPU for almost any workload that the database measures. It has a 27.3% higher average benchmark score, a higher percentile ranking, and it does so at a fraction of the power draw. The Vega 56's only advantages are memory capacity, memory bandwidth, and raw compute throughput on paper, but none of those translate into a benchmark win in the recorded data.

If you need a GPU for a thin-and-light mobile workstation, the A1000 Mobile is the obvious choice. It delivers desktop-class performance in a 60 W envelope, with ray tracing and tensor cores that the Vega 56 simply does not have. Its nearest rival is the RX 6800 XT, which is a desktop card drawing far more power, and the A1000 Mobile is only 1.5% behind it. That is an extraordinary result for a mobile part.

The Vega 56 is a different proposition. It is an end-of-life desktop card from 2017, with a 210 W TDP, a 280 mm length, and a 550 W suggested PSU. It has more memory and more bandwidth, which could matter for specific compute tasks, but the benchmark data does not support it as a better overall performer. The A1000 Mobile is newer, more efficient, and faster in the database. The Vega 56 is a relic that only makes sense if you have a specific need for its HBM2 memory and high bandwidth, and even then the benchmark scores do not back it up.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 47743, while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37507. The A1000 Mobile is ahead by 10236 points, or about 27.3%.

Q: Does the Vega 56 have any performance advantage over the A1000 Mobile?

A: In the recorded benchmarks, no. The Vega 56 has a higher memory bandwidth (409.6 GB/s versus 176.0 GB/s) and more memory (8 GB versus 4 GB), but it has no benchmark win over the A1000 Mobile in the database.

Q: How does the A1000 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The A1000 Mobile is 1.5% behind the RX 6800 XT, and 2.2% ahead of the RX 6550M, 2.4% ahead of the Intel Arc A530M, and 2.5% ahead of the RX 5600M.

Q: How does the Vega 56 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Vega 56 is 0.3% behind the Tesla P4, 0.4% behind the RTX 4070, and 1.6% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile, while being 0.9% ahead of the Radeon PRO W6400.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The A1000 Mobile has a TDP of 60 W and requires no power connectors. The Vega 56 has a TDP of 210 W, requires two 8-pin power connectors, and has a suggested PSU of 550 W.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile has ray tracing cores (16 of them). The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile wins in every measured benchmark category. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 48703 and Vulkan score of 46782 are the only comparable performance numbers in the database, and they are both high enough to place it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs. The A1000 Mobile also wins on efficiency: 60 W versus 210 W means it delivers its performance at one-third the power draw. It wins on process technology, with an 8 nm node versus 14 nm. It wins on feature support, with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus DirectX 12 (12_1), and Vulkan 1.4 versus Vulkan 1.3. It wins on portability, as an IGP with no power connectors, versus a dual-slot, 280 mm, 2x 8-pin desktop card.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 wins on raw specifications that do not show up in the benchmark average. It has 8 GB of HBM2 memory versus 4 GB of GDDR6, and it has 409.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 176.0 GB/s. It has more shading units (3584 versus 2048), more TMUs (224 versus 64), and more ROPs (64 versus 32). Its texture rate is 329.5 GTexel/s versus 72.96 GTexel/s, and its pixel rate is 94.14 GPixel/s versus 36.48 GPixel/s. It also has higher FP32 throughput (10.54 TFLOPS versus 4.669 TFLOPS) and higher FP16 throughput (21.09 TFLOPS versus 4.669 TFLOPS). But none of these advantages produce a higher benchmark score. The Vega 56 wins on paper, the A1000 Mobile wins in practice.

The Vega 56 also wins on memory capacity for large datasets. If a workload requires more than 4 GB of video memory, the Vega 56 is the only one of the two that can handle it. The A1000 Mobile is capped at 4 GB, which is a hard limit. The Vega 56's 8 GB pool and 2048-bit bus are its best arguments, but they are arguments for specific use cases, not general performance.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification that matters. The A1000 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, while the Vega 56 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. The A1000 Mobile has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, while the Vega 56 has 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die. The transistor density is 43.5M per mm² for the NVIDIA part, versus 25.3M per mm² for the AMD part.

Clock speeds differ: the A1000 Mobile has a base clock of 630 MHz and a boost of 1140 MHz, while the Vega 56 has a base of 1156 MHz and a boost of 1471 MHz. Memory clocks are 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for the A1000 Mobile versus 800 MHz (1600 Mbps effective) for the Vega 56.

Memory configuration is a stark contrast: the A1000 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 176.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 409.6 GB/s bandwidth.

Compute resources: the A1000 Mobile has 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 16 RT cores, and 64 tensor cores. The Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with no RT cores and no tensor cores. The pixel rate is 36.48 GPixel/s for the A1000 Mobile versus 94.14 GPixel/s for the Vega 56. The texture rate is 72.96 GTexel/s versus 329.5 GTexel/s. FP32 is 4.669 TFLOPS versus 10.54 TFLOPS, and FP16 is 4.669 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 21.09 TFLOPS (2:1).

Power and physical specs: the A1000 Mobile has a 60 W TDP, is an IGP, and has no power connectors. The Vega 56 has a 210 W TDP, is dual-slot, measures 280 mm by 111 mm by 40 mm, and requires 2x 8-pin power connectors with a 550 W suggested PSU. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 for the A1000 Mobile versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Vega 56. Display outputs are portable-device-dependent for the NVIDIA part, versus 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a for the AMD part. The A1000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Vega 56 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Vega 56 has a launch MSRP of 399 USD.