AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded head-to-head benchmark, 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, delivers a decisive result. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 7025, while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 1501. That is a 78.6% deficit for the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA card delivers roughly 4.7 times the raw performance in this modern DirectX 12 workload. The delta is enormous and not close to being competitive.

Beyond that lone direct comparison, the database's aggregate scores tell a broader story. The RX Vega 56 holds an average benchmark score of 37507, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, despite winning the head-to-head test, has a lower average score of 31532 and sits in the 76th percentile. This apparent contradiction stems from the different benchmark suites recorded for each card. The Vega 56's average is buoyed by its Geekbench Metal score of 73512, a test that does not appear for the NVIDIA card. The RTX PRO 4500 instead has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 221768, which is not part of the Vega 56's recorded data.

The nearest rivals for each card reinforce this split. The Vega 56 sits within 1.6% of cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37648, delta -0.4%) and the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628, delta -0.3%). The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, on the other hand, is within 1.1% of the NVIDIA TITAN RTX (31676, delta -0.5%) and the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (31206, delta 1%). The two cards are not competing in the same performance tier according to the aggregate data, despite the RTX PRO 4500's massive win in the Steel Nomad test.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards spans nearly a decade of design philosophy. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 uses the Vega 10 chip built on GCN 5.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 12,500 million transistors into a 495 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.3 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses the GB203 chip on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 45,600 million transistors on a smaller 378 mm² die, achieving 120.6 million transistors per square millimeter. That is roughly 4.8 times the transistor density of the AMD chip.

Core configurations differ fundamentally. The Vega 56 has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 10496 shading units, 328 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The NVIDIA card also includes 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores, neither of which exist on the Vega 56. The AMD card does not support hardware ray tracing or tensor operations.

The memory systems are equally divergent. The Vega 56 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 409.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the newer GDDR7 memory more than doubles the bandwidth.

Clock speeds and power characteristics also shift heavily. The Vega 56 has a base clock of 1156 MHz and a boost clock of 1471 MHz, with a TDP of 210 W. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has a base clock of 1635 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, yet its TDP is lower at 200 W. The NVIDIA card achieves higher clocks and higher peak performance while consuming slightly less power.

Interface and output differences matter for workstation use. The Vega 56 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and offers one HDMI 2.0b port plus three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses PCIe 5.0 x16 and provides four DisplayPort 2.1b outputs. API support also differs: the Vega 56 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell wins decisively with a score of 7025 versus the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56's 1501, a 78.6% difference in favor of NVIDIA.

Q: Does the AMD card have ray tracing hardware?

A: No. The RX Vega 56 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell includes 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The RX Vega 56 has 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RX Vega 56 has a higher average score of 37507 compared to the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's 31532. This is based on different benchmark sets recorded for each card.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 120.6 million transistors per square millimeter, while the RX Vega 56 has 25.3 million. The NVIDIA chip is roughly 4.8 times denser.

Q: Do both cards use the same PCIe interface?

A: No. The RX Vega 56 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses PCIe 5.0 x16.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear generational and capability split. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the faster card in modern DirectX 12 workloads, as shown by its 7025 Steel Nomad score versus 1501 for the Vega 56. It also offers substantially more memory, higher clock speeds, ray tracing support, and a more advanced process node. The Vega 56's higher average benchmark score comes from different test suites, not from superior raw performance in shared workloads.

The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the appropriate choice for anyone running current DirectX 12 applications, ray-traced content, or compute tasks that benefit from tensor cores. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for large datasets and high-resolution textures. The Vega 56, with its older GCN architecture and 8 GB of HBM2, remains competitive only in legacy workloads or Metal-based environments where its recorded Geekbench score of 73512 applies.

The RX Vega 56's end-of-life production status and 2017 release date contrast with the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's active status and 2025 release. The AMD card has a successor (Navi), while the NVIDIA card has none listed. For new purchases, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the only rational choice based on the recorded data.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell |

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

| Architecture | GCN 5.0 | Blackwell 2.0 |

| Process Node | 14 nm | 5 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 12,500 million | 45,600 million |

| Die Size | 495 mm² | 378 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.3M / mm² | 120.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1156 MHz | 1635 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1471 MHz | 2407 MHz |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 32 GB |

| Memory Type | HBM2 | GDDR7 |

| Memory Bus | 2048 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 409.6 GB/s | 896.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3584 | 10496 |

| TMUs | 224 | 328 |

| ROPs | 64 | 112 |

| RT Cores | None | 82 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 328 |

| FP32 | 10.54 TFLOPS | 50.53 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 21.09 TFLOPS (2:1) | 50.53 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 210 W | 200 W |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 16-pin |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | 4x DisplayPort 2.1b |

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

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2017-08-13 | 2025-03-17 |

| Launch MSRP | 399 USD | Not listed |

Where Each One Wins

The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell wins in every modern workload category represented in the data. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 7025 is nearly 4.7 times the Vega 56's 1501. It leads in raw FP32 compute at 50.53 TFLOPS versus 10.54 TFLOPS. It leads in texture rate at 789.5 GTexel/s versus 329.5 GTexel/s. It leads in pixel rate at 269.6 GPixel/s versus 94.14 GPixel/s. It has 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores where the Vega 56 has none. It has 4 times the memory capacity and more than double the memory bandwidth.

The RX Vega 56's only recorded wins are in aggregate benchmark average and percentile rank. Its average score of 37507 places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, versus the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's 31532 average and 76th percentile. This is driven by its Geekbench Metal score of 73512, which suggests strength in Metal-based macOS or iOS-adjacent workloads. The Vega 56 also has a higher launch MSRP of 399 USD, though no comparable figure exists for the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell.

For workstation users running Vulkan or DirectX 12 applications, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the clear winner. For legacy Metal environments or scenarios where the Vega 56's specific benchmark profile applies, the AMD card retains a narrow niche. Everything else points to the NVIDIA card as the superior modern solution.