AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile vs Intel Arc A380 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data reveals a decisive performance gap between the Intel Arc A380 and the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile. In the two shared benchmark tests, the Intel discrete GPU wins both outright, with margins that are not merely incremental but transformative. The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the Arc A380 scoring 38,224 points against the Vega 8 Mobile’s 7,435 points, a delta of 414.1% in favor of Intel. The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story: 36,736 for the Arc A380 versus 6,970 for the Vega 8 Mobile, a delta of 427.1%. These are not close contests; they are generational and architectural mismatches.

What makes these numbers particularly striking is the context provided by the average benchmark scores. The Arc A380 holds an average benchmark score of 8,558 across all its recorded tests, while the Vega 8 Mobile averages 7,203. That overall average gap of roughly 19% is far smaller than the individual OpenCL and Vulkan deltas, which suggests the Arc A380’s advantage is especially pronounced in compute-heavy and modern API workloads. The Vulkan delta being slightly higher than OpenCL (427.1% versus 414.1%) hints that the Intel architecture scales better with low-level, explicit APIs, whereas the AMD Vega architecture, built on older GCN 5.0, loses more ground in that environment.

The percentile rankings reinforce this picture. The Arc A380 sits at the 44th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Vega 8 Mobile sits at the 39th percentile. That five-point percentile gap is modest, but it understates the head-to-head disparity because the percentile is computed across all recorded benchmarks, not just the shared ones. The Arc A380’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD FirePro W5170M with an average score of 8,595 (0.4% below the Arc) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 at 8,458 (1.2% below), are all discrete GPUs. The Vega 8 Mobile’s nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 at 7,222 (0.3% below) and the Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580 at 7,170 (0.5% below), are a mix of older discrete parts and integrated graphics. The Arc A380 competes in a higher tier entirely.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A380 wins every head-to-head benchmark in this comparison, so the use-case split is heavily skewed toward the discrete card. The OpenCL score of 38,224 indicates strong general-purpose compute performance, which matters for applications that leverage GPU acceleration for tasks like video encoding, image processing, or scientific calculations. The Vulkan score of 36,736 points to solid performance in modern games and applications that use Vulkan’s low-overhead rendering path. The Arc A380 also has a Passmark G3D score of 6,252, which is a more traditional gaming-oriented metric, and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 2,762, indicating respectable compute throughput beyond the synthetic OpenCL test.

The AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile, by contrast, wins nowhere in this data set. Its only recorded benchmarks are the same two OpenCL and Vulkan tests, and it loses both by massive margins. However, the database does show it has a lower power envelope: a TDP of 25 W versus the Arc A380’s 75 W, and it is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no power connectors, whereas the Arc A380 requires a 1x 8-pin connector and a suggested 250 W power supply. For a system builder prioritizing power efficiency over raw performance, the Vega 8 Mobile is the only choice that makes sense from the data, though the performance sacrifice is enormous. The Arc A380’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus the Vega 8 Mobile’s system-shared memory and system-dependent bandwidth further cements the discrete card’s dominance in any memory-bandwidth-sensitive workload.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A380 than the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile in OpenCL?

A: The Arc A380 scores 38,224 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Vega 8 Mobile scores 7,435. That is a delta of 414.1% in favor of the Intel card.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile win any benchmark against the Intel Arc A380?

A: No. In the two shared benchmark tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the Arc A380 wins both. The wins count is 2 for Intel and 0 for AMD.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has an average benchmark score of 8,558 across all its recorded tests, while the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile averages 7,203. The Arc A380’s average is about 18.8% higher.

Q: How do their percentile rankings compare?

A: The Arc A380 is at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the Vega 8 Mobile is at the 39th percentile. This indicates the Intel card sits slightly higher in the overall performance distribution.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The Intel Arc A380 has 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth from its 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus. The AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile uses system-shared memory, and its bandwidth is listed as system dependent, meaning it varies with the host system.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each GPU based on average score?

A: For the Arc A380, the nearest rival is the AMD FirePro W5170M with an average score of 8,595 (0.4% lower). For the Vega 8 Mobile, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 with an average score of 7,222 (0.3% lower).

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measurable specification, reflecting their very different roles. The Intel Arc A380 uses a 6 nm process from TSMC, while the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. The Arc A380 packs 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 45.9M per mm². The Vega 8 Mobile has 4,940 million transistors on a larger 210 mm² die, with a density of only 23.5M per mm². The Intel chip is smaller and denser, a direct result of the more advanced process node.

Clock speeds show a similar divergence. The Arc A380 has a base clock of 2000 MHz and a boost clock of 2050 MHz, while the Vega 8 Mobile has a base clock of just 300 MHz and a boost clock of 1101 MHz. The Intel card’s memory runs at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective), whereas the AMD part uses system-shared memory with no dedicated clock. The Arc A380 has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus delivering 186.0 GB/s; the Vega 8 Mobile has system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth.

The compute units tell the performance story. The Arc A380 has 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 raster operation units (ROPs). The Vega 8 Mobile has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and only 8 ROPs. The Intel card also features 8 ray tracing cores, while the AMD part has none. Pixel rate is 65.60 GPixel/s for Intel versus 8.808 GPixel/s for AMD; texture rate is 131.2 GTexel/s versus 35.23 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 4.198 TFLOPS for the Arc A380 versus 1,127.4 GFLOPS for the Vega 8 Mobile.

Power and physical requirements are also starkly different. The Arc A380 has a TDP of 75 W, is dual-slot, requires a 1x 8-pin power connector and a suggested 250 W PSU, and uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The Vega 8 Mobile has a TDP of 25 W, is an IGP with no power connectors, no suggested PSU, and uses an IGP bus interface. The Arc A380 has dimensions of 222 mm length, 114 mm height, and 42 mm width; the Vega 8 Mobile has no recorded dimensions, as it is integrated. Display outputs also differ: the Arc A380 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0, while the Vega 8 Mobile’s outputs are portable-device dependent.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two is fundamental. The Intel Arc A380 is built on the Xe-HPG architecture, specifically the DG2-128 chip, and belongs to the Alchemist generation (Arc 3). It uses a 6 nm process and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile is built on the GCN 5.0 architecture with the Raven-M chip, part of the Vega IGP generation (Raven Ridge-M). It uses a 14 nm process and supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The DirectX feature level difference (12_2 versus 12_1) is significant: the Arc A380 supports the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set, including hardware ray tracing via its 8 dedicated RT cores, while the Vega 8 Mobile does not support ray tracing at all.

The transistor and die data also reveal different design philosophies. The Arc A380 has a smaller die (157 mm²) but more transistors (7,200 million), resulting in a density of 45.9M per mm². The Vega 8 Mobile has a larger die (210 mm²) but fewer transistors (4,940 million), with a density of 23.5M per mm². The Intel architecture is clearly more modern and efficient in terms of transistor packing. The Vega 8 Mobile’s predecessor is GCN 3.0 IGP and its successor is Navi II IGP, while the Arc A380’s predecessor is Xe Graphics and its successor is Battlemage. Both are end-of-life products, but the Arc A380 was released in June 2022, while the Vega 8 Mobile was released in January 2019, a gap of over three years that explains much of the performance delta.

The memory architecture is another fundamental difference. The Arc A380 uses dedicated GDDR6 memory with a 96-bit bus and 186.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is essential for sustained GPU workloads. The Vega 8 Mobile relies on system-shared memory, meaning its bandwidth is dependent on the host system’s memory configuration. This makes the AMD part inherently more variable in performance, as the same GPU could perform differently depending on whether it is paired with fast or slow system memory. The Intel card’s fixed memory subsystem provides more predictable performance.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the Intel Arc A380 outperforms the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile in every shared benchmark by margins exceeding 400%. The wins count is 2 for Intel, 0 for AMD. The Arc A380’s average benchmark score of 8,558 versus the Vega 8 Mobile’s 7,203 places it in a higher performance tier, as evidenced by its nearest rivals being discrete GPUs like the AMD FirePro W5170M and NVIDIA GeForce MX330, while the Vega 8 Mobile’s rivals are older discrete parts and integrated graphics like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 and Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580.

Who should pick the Intel Arc A380? Anyone who needs compute performance, modern API support, or dedicated memory bandwidth. The OpenCL and Vulkan scores, combined with the 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 186.0 GB/s bandwidth, make it suitable for gaming, content creation, and GPU-accelerated applications. The ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support also future-proof it for modern titles.

Who should pick the AMD Radeon Vega 8 Mobile? The only scenario supported by the data is extreme power and space constraints. Its 25 W TDP is one-third of the Arc A380’s 75 W, and as an IGP it requires no power connectors, no PSU recommendation, and no physical slot. For a compact, low-power laptop or embedded system where performance is secondary to efficiency, the Vega 8 Mobile is the logical choice. But the benchmark data shows that choice comes with a massive performance penalty: 414.1% slower in OpenCL and 427.1% slower in Vulkan. The verdict is clear: the Arc A380 is the superior performer, and the Vega 8 Mobile is the efficiency play.