AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 vs Intel Arc A550M Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and Intel Arc A550M occupy the same performance tier according to aggregate data, yet their individual benchmark profiles and underlying specifications could not be more different. The Vega 64, a desktop flagship from the GCN 5.0 era, and the A550M, a mobile-first Xe-HPG part, both land at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with average benchmark scores of 50001 and 49737 respectively. That places them within 0.5% of each other overall, making them direct competitors in synthetic averages despite representing opposite ends of the design spectrum—one a 295 W dual-slot behemoth, the other a 60 W integrated-class mobile chip.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison data contains two benchmark runs, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 wins both decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Vega 64 scores 62552 against the Arc A550M's 49894, a delta of 25.4%. The gap widens further in Geekbench Vulkan, where the Vega 64 posts 67032 versus 49580 for the Intel part, a 35.2% advantage. These are substantial margins in compute-oriented workloads, indicating that the Vega 64's raw shader throughput translates into real-world API performance advantages.

The Vulkan result is particularly telling. A 35.2% lead suggests that the Vega 64's 4096 shading units and 12.66 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are being fully utilized, while the Arc A550M's 2048 shading units and 8.397 TFLOPS cannot keep pace in this API. Even in OpenCL, where the Intel part shows relative strength, the Vega 64 still maintains a 25.4% edge. The data shows no benchmark where the Arc A550M takes the lead; the wins tally stands at 2 for AMD and 0 for Intel.

However, the aggregate picture tells a more nuanced story. The Vega 64's average score of 50001 is only 0.5% ahead of the A550M's 49737, a margin that falls within the noise of any benchmarking methodology. This means that while the head-to-head tests favor AMD heavily, other unlisted benchmarks must be pulling the Intel part up to near-parity. The nearest rival data reinforces this: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti scores 49957, sitting between the two with a 0.1% delta to the Vega 64 and a -0.4% delta to the A550M. Both cards effectively trade blows with a much newer, higher-tier NVIDIA product, which contextualizes their overall standing.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench Vulkan performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 wins decisively with a score of 67032, which is 35.2% higher than the Intel Arc A550M's 49580. This is the largest performance gap recorded in the head-to-head data.

Q: How close are the two GPUs in average benchmark score?

A: The average scores are nearly identical. The Vega 64 averages 50001, and the Arc A550M averages 49737, making the AMD part just 0.5% faster overall. Both GPUs sit at the 86th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two?

A: The Vega 64 features HBM2 memory with a 2048-bit bus, delivering 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The Arc A550M uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s—less than half of the AMD card's bandwidth.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A550M support ray tracing hardware?

A: Yes. The Arc A550M includes 16 dedicated RT cores. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, based on GCN 5.0, has no RT core count listed, indicating it lacks dedicated ray tracing hardware.

Q: What are the TDP requirements for each card?

A: The Vega 64 has a TDP of 295 W and requires a 600 W power supply with two 8-pin connectors. The Arc A550M has a TDP of just 60 W and lists no power connectors or suggested PSU, reflecting its mobile integration.

Q: How does each GPU compare to the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT?

A: The Vega 64 is 1.9% behind the RX 6900 XT in average score, while the Arc A550M is 2.4% behind. This places both cards in the same performance bracket as AMD's previous-generation flagship.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the data, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is the clear winner in direct compute benchmarks. It outperforms the Intel Arc A550M by 25.4% in OpenCL and 35.2% in Vulkan, with both wins being substantial and consistent. The Vega 64 also offers significantly more memory bandwidth (483.8 GB/s vs 224.0 GB/s) and higher raw throughput (12.66 TFLOPS vs 8.397 TFLOPS FP32). For anyone running OpenCL or Vulkan workloads—which includes many professional applications and modern game engines—the Vega 64 is the stronger choice, despite its age.

The Intel Arc A550M, however, achieves near-identical average benchmark scores with a fraction of the power draw. Its 60 W TDP versus the Vega 64's 295 W represents a 5x efficiency gap in favor of Intel. The A550M also brings modern features the Vega 64 lacks, including 16 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support. For mobile platforms or constrained power envelopes, the A550M is the only viable option—the Vega 64's dual-slot, 280 mm length, and 2x 8-pin connectors make it unsuitable for such applications.

The data suggests a user should pick the Vega 64 if maximum compute performance in OpenCL/Vulkan is the priority and desktop power constraints are irrelevant. The Arc A550M is the pick for those needing this performance tier in a portable form factor or with reduced power consumption, though it will not match the Vega 64's peak throughput in the tested APIs.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every fundamental specification. The process node separates them by two generations of fabrication: the Vega 64 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, while the Arc A550M uses TSMC's 6 nm node. This translates to a stark transistor density contrast—the Vega 64 packs 12,500 million transistors into 495 mm² (25.3M / mm²), whereas the A550M crams 21,700 million transistors into 406 mm² (53.4M / mm²). The Intel die is smaller yet holds nearly twice the transistor count.

Clock speeds favor Intel in boost frequency: the A550M boosts to 2050 MHz versus the Vega 64's 1546 MHz, though the Vega 64 has a higher base clock at 1247 MHz versus 900 MHz. Memory subsystems are completely different: the Vega 64 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, while the A550M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. This yields 483.8 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth respectively.

Compute resources diverge sharply. The Vega 64 has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The A550M halves these counts to 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, but retains 64 ROPs. The Vega 64's pixel rate is 98.94 GPixel/s and texture rate is 395.8 GTexel/s; the A550M counters with 131.2 GPixel/s and 262.4 GTexel/s respectively. FP32 throughput is 12.66 TFLOPS for AMD versus 8.397 TFLOPS for Intel, with FP16 scaling to 25.33 TFLOPS and 16.79 TFLOPS respectively.

Power and physical characteristics are polar opposites. The Vega 64 draws 295 W, requires a 600 W PSU, two 8-pin connectors, and occupies a dual-slot 280 mm by 111 mm by 40 mm footprint. The A550M is an IGP with a 60 W TDP, no power connectors, no suggested PSU, and no listed dimensions—it is designed for direct motherboard integration. The Vega 64 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the A550M uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the Vega 64 has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the A550M's outputs are "Portable Device Dependent."

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is generational and philosophical. The Vega 64 is built on GCN 5.0, AMD's fifth iteration of the Graphics Core Next architecture, under the "Vega" generation with the Vega 10 chip. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Intel Arc A550M uses Xe-HPG architecture under the "Alchemist" generation with the DG2-512 chip, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4—a more modern API set with hardware ray tracing support.

The most significant feature difference is ray tracing. The A550M includes 16 dedicated RT cores, while the Vega 64 has no RT core count listed, confirming it lacks hardware ray tracing acceleration. This is a fundamental architectural capability gap that affects modern game rendering and any ray-traced workload. The Vega 64's architecture was designed before ray tracing became a mainstream GPU feature, whereas the A550M's Xe-HPG architecture was built with it as a core competency.

Other architectural traits reflect their different origins. The Vega 64's 14 nm process and 25.3M / mm² density represent a mature design from 2017, with a predecessor in Polaris and successor in Navi. The A550M's 6 nm process and 53.4M / mm² density show a modern, dense design from TSMC, released with no predecessor or successor listed. The Vega 64's architecture prioritizes raw compute throughput and memory bandwidth, evidenced by its HBM2 stack and 2048-bit bus. The A550M's architecture prioritizes efficiency and feature completeness, using GDDR6 on a narrow 128-bit bus but compensating with higher clocks and newer API support. The transistor counts tell the story: 12,500 million in a 495 mm² die versus 21,700 million in a 406 mm² die, showing how far process technology advanced between their respective design periods.