AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile and AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL occupy the same percentile tier (66th) among all GPUs, yet their average benchmark scores tell a story of two very different designs. The RTX A4000 Mobile posts an average score of 21,379, edging out the RX Vega M GL’s 21,153 by a slim 1.1% margin. However, this aggregate parity masks a chasm in compute-oriented workloads, where the NVIDIA part leads by margins of 220% to 397%. The AMD part is an older, lower-power integrated graphics processor (IGP), while the NVIDIA part is a discrete mobile workstation GPU with a much larger silicon footprint. Their head-to-head results are lopsided, but their overall standings suggest that in certain legacy or lightly threaded scenarios, the gap narrows considerably.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split in suitability. For any workload that stresses raw compute throughput — OpenCL or Vulkan compute — the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile is the only rational choice. Its 397.1% lead in Geekbench OpenCL (97,178 vs. 19,549) and 220.8% lead in Geekbench Vulkan (73,002 vs. 22,757) are not incremental advantages; they are generational leaps. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, by contrast, is an IGP with a 65 W TDP, designed for compact systems where power and space are at a premium. If the task is portable, light-duty graphics or compute with minimal thermal headroom, the AMD part suffices. But the benchmark results indicate that any serious 3D rendering, simulation, or GPU-accelerated analysis would be severely hampered on the RX Vega M GL.

The percentile ranking (both at 66) is misleading in this context. It reflects the full spectrum of GPUs, including far weaker integrated solutions. Within this specific pairing, the NVIDIA part wins 2 out of 2 head-to-head tests, with zero wins for AMD. The nearest rival data reinforces this: the RTX A4000 Mobile is 1.1% ahead of the RX Vega M GL in average score, but that average is pulled down by the NVIDIA part’s poor showing in Passmark DirectX 10 (105) and DirectX 12 (66) tests. Those low scores suggest driver or architecture-specific quirks in synthetic legacy benchmarks, not real-world compute capability. For a buyer choosing between these two, the verdict is simple: choose the RTX A4000 Mobile for performance, unless the 65 W IGP form factor is an absolute requirement.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is stark. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, packing 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL uses the Polaris 22 chip on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, with only 5,000 million transistors on a 208 mm² die, for a density of 24.0 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA part is not just bigger; it is denser by a factor of roughly 1.85.

The compute resources reflect this disparity. The RTX A4000 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, 160 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 80 raster operations pipelines (ROPs). The RX Vega M GL has 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA part also features 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores, which the AMD part lacks entirely (null values for both). This is a fundamental capability gap: the RTX A4000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX Vega M GL tops out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA part’s FP32 throughput is 17.20 TFLOPS, versus 2.588 TFLOPS for the AMD part — a 6.65-fold difference.

Memory architecture is equally divergent. The RTX A4000 Mobile uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 12 Gbps effective. The RX Vega M GL uses 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus, but at a much lower clock (700 MHz, 1400 Mbps effective), yielding only 179.2 GB/s. The AMD part’s wider bus cannot compensate for the slower memory clock. The NVIDIA part also has a higher boost clock (1680 MHz vs. 1011 MHz) and a higher base clock (1140 MHz vs. 931 MHz). The TDP difference is notable: 115 W for NVIDIA vs. 65 W for AMD, reflecting the discrete vs. integrated design philosophy.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the benchmark data, the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile wins exclusively in compute-heavy scenarios. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 97,178 is nearly five times the AMD part’s 19,549. This suggests a massive advantage in general-purpose GPU compute, such as physics simulations, data processing, or machine learning inference (the tensor cores would be relevant here, though no specific tensor benchmark is listed). The Vulkan score of 73,002 vs. 22,757 indicates a strong lead in modern graphics APIs that leverage asynchronous compute and low-level hardware access. For any modern game engine or Vulkan-based renderer, the NVIDIA part is decisively faster.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL has no benchmark wins in the head-to-head data. However, its existence as a 65 W IGP implies a use case the NVIDIA part cannot match: integration into a compact system without a discrete graphics card. The data shows the RX Vega M GL has a higher Passmark DirectX 9 score (157) than the RTX A4000 Mobile’s DirectX 10 score (105) and DirectX 12 score (66), but those are cross-API comparisons, not direct wins. The AMD part’s average score of 21,153 is within 1.1% of the NVIDIA part, which suggests that in the specific set of benchmarks that contribute to the average (which includes the NVIDIA part’s strong Passmark G3D score of 14,796 and the AMD part’s lack thereof), the AMD part holds up in aggregate. But this is an artifact of the NVIDIA part’s weak Passmark DirectX scores, not a genuine advantage.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. It delivers 17.20 TFLOPS FP32 vs. 2.588 TFLOPS for the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, and leads by 397.1% in Geekbench OpenCL.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL support ray tracing?

A: No. The data lists null values for both ray tracing cores and tensor cores on the AMD part. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile has 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The NVIDIA part has 384.0 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The AMD part has 179.2 GB/s from 4 GB of HBM2 on a 1024-bit bus, which is 46.7% of the NVIDIA bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU is more power-efficient based on the data?

A: The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL has a 65 W TDP vs. 115 W for the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile, but its FP32 throughput is 2.588 TFLOPS vs. 17.20 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA part delivers 6.65 times the compute at 1.77 times the power.

Q: Why are the average benchmark scores so close (21,379 vs. 21,153)?

A: The NVIDIA part’s average is dragged down by low Passmark DirectX scores (105 for DirectX 10, 66 for DirectX 12), while its Geekbench scores are extremely high. The AMD part has no Passmark scores listed, so its average is based solely on Geekbench results.

Q: Which API versions does each support?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data consists of two tests, and both are decisive wins for the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA part scores 97,178 against the AMD part’s 19,549, a delta of 397.1%. This is the single largest margin in the entire comparison. It reflects the difference in shading units (5,120 vs. 1,280) and FP32 throughput (17.20 vs. 2.588 TFLOPS). The OpenCL test is a strong proxy for general compute workloads, and the data shows the RTX A4000 Mobile is in a different performance class entirely.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA part scores 73,002 against 22,757, a delta of 220.8%. While a smaller margin than OpenCL, it is still a dominant victory. The Vulkan test exercises modern graphics rendering and compute, and the NVIDIA part’s newer architecture (Ampere vs. GCN 4.0) plus its higher memory bandwidth (384.0 GB/s vs. 179.2 GB/s) likely contribute to this lead. The RX Vega M GL’s 1024-bit memory bus is wide but slow, which hinders it in bandwidth-sensitive Vulkan workloads.

The wins tally is 2 for NVIDIA and 0 for AMD. The nearest rival data confirms the narrow average-score gap: the RTX A4000 Mobile is 1.1% ahead of the RX Vega M GL, while the RX Vega M GL is 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon HD 8970M and 0.6% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050. These deltas suggest that in the broader GPU landscape, both parts are mid-pack performers (66th percentile), but the RTX A4000 Mobile’s compute strengths are concentrated in modern APIs, not legacy DirectX tests. The Passmark DirectX 10 score of 105 and DirectX 12 score of 66 for the NVIDIA part are anomalously low compared to its Passmark G3D score of 14,796, indicating either driver issues or a benchmarking artifact. The AMD part has no Passmark scores listed, so its aggregate performance is inferred solely from Geekbench. In summary, the head-to-head is a blowout in compute, and the only reason the averages are close is the NVIDIA part’s weak legacy DirectX showing, which should not be interpreted as real-world parity.