AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 vs Intel Arc A730M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct benchmark comparison between the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and the Intel Arc A730M reveals a narrow split, with the Intel mobile part taking two of the three head-to-head tests. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the Arc A730M scores 1732 against the Vega 64's 1669, a 3.6% lead for Intel. This is a significant result because the Steel Nomad workload is a modern DirectX 12 stress test, and the Arc A730M's newer architecture handles it with a slight edge. The gap widens considerably in the Geekbench OpenCL compute test, where the Arc A730M posts 70352 versus 62552 for the Vega 64, a decisive 11.1% advantage. OpenCL is a raw compute workload, and Intel's Xe-HPG architecture clearly extracts more performance from its shading units in this scenario.

However, the AMD card claims the remaining test. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Vega 64 scores 67032, edging out the Arc A730M's 64693 by 3.6%. Vulkan is a lower-level API that often favors architectures with mature driver optimizations, and the Vega 64, despite its age, demonstrates strong performance here. The overall win count stands at 2 for Intel and 1 for AMD, but the margin in each test is relatively modest, with the largest delta being the 11.1% OpenCL gap. Neither card dominates the other by a wide margin in any single test, suggesting the two are closely matched in raw performance despite their very different designs.

Considering the average benchmark scores, the Vega 64 holds an edge in overall standing. Its average benchmark score is 50001, while the Arc A730M sits at 45592. This places the Vega 64 in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the 84th percentile for the Arc A730M. The 50001 average score puts the Vega 64 within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49957) and 0.5% of the Intel Arc A550M (49737), indicating it trades blows with those parts. The Arc A730M's 45592 average is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45384) and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45152), but it falls 0.8% behind the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45972) and 1% behind the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (46043). This data shows that while the Arc A730M wins two direct head-to-head tests, its overall average is dragged down by a weaker showing in the aggregate benchmark suite.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 wins in scenarios that favor the Vulkan API, where its 67032 score demonstrates a 3.6% advantage over the Arc A730M. This makes it the better choice for Vulkan-based games and applications, particularly those that rely on the API's explicit control and low overhead. The Vega 64 also holds the higher overall percentile ranking at 86, compared to 84 for the Arc A730M, and its average benchmark score of 50001 is roughly 9.7% higher than the Arc A730M's 45592. For users seeking a card with a stronger aggregate benchmark profile, the Vega 64 is the safer pick.

The Intel Arc A730M wins in DirectX 12 and OpenCL workloads. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1732 is 3.6% higher, making it the better option for modern DX12 titles that stress geometry and ray tracing features. More emphatically, its OpenCL score of 70352 is 11.1% higher, indicating a clear advantage in compute-heavy tasks like rendering, machine learning inference, and scientific workloads that leverage OpenCL. The Arc A730M also benefits from a much lower power draw, which does not directly affect performance but does influence the use case; it is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factor, meaning it is designed for mobile platforms where power efficiency is paramount. The Vega 64, by contrast, is a dual-slot, 295 W desktop card requiring a 600 W PSU, limiting it to desktop systems.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent fundamentally different architectural generations and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is built on the GCN 5.0 architecture, using the Vega 10 chip fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. This is a large, power-hungry design with a die size of 495 mm² and 12,500 million transistors, yielding a transistor density of 25.3 million per mm². The architecture is a mature iteration of GCN, designed for high-throughput compute and rasterization, with a focus on raw shader count rather than specialized acceleration.

The Intel Arc A730M is based on the Xe-HPG architecture, using the DG2-512 chip manufactured by TSMC on a 6 nm process. This is a significantly denser design, packing 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 53.4 million per mm² — more than double that of the Vega 64. The Xe-HPG architecture is designed from the ground up for gaming and includes dedicated ray tracing hardware, with 24 ray tracing cores. The Vega 64 has no ray tracing cores at all. This architectural difference explains the Arc A730M's higher pixel rate of 196.8 GPixel/s versus 98.94 GPixel/s for the Vega 64, despite having fewer shading units. The Arc A730M also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Vega 64 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1), indicating a lack of hardware-level support for features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading on the AMD part.

The memory subsystems are also architecturally distinct. The Vega 64 uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering a massive 483.8 GB/s bandwidth. The Arc A730M uses 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, with a lower 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Vega 64's HBM2 provides higher bandwidth, which benefits memory-intensive workloads, while the Arc A730M's larger capacity and newer memory technology offer different trade-offs. The Vega 64 has 4096 shading units and 256 TMUs, while the Arc A730M has 3072 shading units and 192 TMUs, but the Arc A730M has more ROPs (96 vs 64), which contributes to its higher pixel fill rate.

Specification Differences

The most striking difference is in power consumption. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has a TDP of 295 W and requires two 8-pin power connectors, while the Intel Arc A730M has a TDP of just 80 W and requires no external power connectors, being an IGP. This leads to a suggested PSU rating of 600 W for the Vega 64, with no such requirement for the Arc A730M. The form factors reflect this: the Vega 64 is a dual-slot card measuring 280 mm in length, while the Arc A730M is an IGP with no listed dimensions.

Clock speeds differ significantly. The Vega 64 has a base clock of 1247 MHz and a boost clock of 1546 MHz, while the Arc A730M has a lower base clock of 1100 MHz but a much higher boost clock of 2050 MHz. The memory also runs at different speeds, with the Vega 64's HBM2 at 945 MHz (1890 Mbps effective) and the Arc A730M's GDDR6 at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The bus interface differs as well: the Vega 64 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Arc A730M uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The Vega 64 has display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the Arc A730M's display outputs are described as "Portable Device Dependent." The process nodes are different (14 nm vs 6 nm), and the foundries differ (GlobalFoundries vs TSMC). The Vega 64 has a launch MSRP of 499 USD, while the Arc A730M has no listed launch MSRP. The Vega 64 was released on 2017-08-06, while the Arc A730M has no release date listed. The Vega 64's predecessor is Polaris and successor is Navi, while the Arc A730M has no listed predecessor or successor. The Vega 64 also has a higher FP32 performance at 12.66 TFLOPS versus 12.60 TFLOPS for the Arc A730M, but the AMD card's FP16 performance of 25.33 TFLOPS (2:1) is slightly higher than the Intel card's 25.19 TFLOPS (2:1). The texture rates are nearly identical at 395.8 GTexel/s for the Vega 64 and 393.6 GTexel/s for the Arc A730M.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has a higher average benchmark score of 50001, compared to 45592 for the Intel Arc A730M. This places the Vega 64 in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A730M sits in the 84th percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The Intel Arc A730M wins this test with a score of 1732, which is 3.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64's score of 1669.

Q: What is the memory capacity and type for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has 8 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, providing 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The Intel Arc A730M has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A730M support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the Intel Arc A730M has 24 ray tracing cores, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has no ray tracing cores and only supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The Intel Arc A730M has a significantly higher pixel rate of 196.8 GPixel/s, compared to 98.94 GPixel/s for the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, despite the Vega 64 having more shading units.

Q: What is the power consumption difference between the two?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 has a TDP of 295 W and requires a 600 W PSU, while the Intel Arc A730M has a TDP of 80 W and does not require a separate PSU rating, as it is an IGP form factor.