AMD Radeon Vega 8 vs NVIDIA Quadro P4000 Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 and AMD Radeon Vega 8 occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum: the former is a professional, discrete workstation card, while the latter is an integrated graphics processor within a mobile or desktop APU. The benchmark data reveals a decisive performance gulf, with the Quadro P4000 winning both shared tests by margins exceeding 300%. However, the comparison is not merely about raw speed; it involves fundamental architectural and specification differences that define their respective roles. The data shows the Quadro P4000 as an end-of-life, single-slot PCIe card targeting professional workloads, while the Vega 8 is a power-sipping IGP with no dedicated memory, designed for basic computing tasks.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 has a higher average benchmark score of 9665, compared to the AMD Radeon Vega 8's 9221. This places the Quadro P4000 in the 47th percentile of all GPUs, while the Vega 8 sits in the 45th percentile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The Quadro P4000 scores 36212 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 310.5% higher than the Vega 8's score of 8822. This indicates that the discrete NVIDIA card delivers more than four times the compute performance in this specific workload.

Q: What is the difference in their process nodes and foundries?

A: The Quadro P4000 uses a 16 nm process from TSMC, while the Vega 8 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. Despite the smaller process node, the Quadro P4000 has a larger die size at 314 mm² versus 210 mm² for the Vega 8.

Q: Do both GPUs support DirectX 12?

A: Yes, both the Quadro P4000 and the Vega 8 support DirectX 12 (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6. However, they differ in Vulkan support, with the NVIDIA card supporting Vulkan 1.4 and the AMD card supporting Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the memory configuration of each GPU?

A: The Quadro P4000 has 8 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 243.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega 8 uses System Shared memory, meaning its bandwidth is system dependent and its bus width is not specified.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units and TMUs?

A: The Quadro P4000 has significantly more processing units, with 1792 shading units and 112 texture mapping units (TMUs). The Vega 8 has 512 shading units and 32 TMUs.

Where Each One Wins

The data shows a clear split in use cases, driven by the Quadro P4000's dominant performance and the Vega 8's integrated nature. The Quadro P4000 wins in every scenario requiring dedicated graphics processing power. Its 5.304 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 243.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth make it suitable for demanding professional applications like 3D rendering, CAD, and scientific visualization. The Vega 8, with its 1,126.4 GFLOPS of FP32 performance and system-shared memory, is adequate for basic desktop tasks, light media playback, and legacy or low-demand games. The Quadro P4000's 8 GB of dedicated VRAM is a major advantage for large datasets and textures, whereas the Vega 8's performance is inherently limited by system RAM speed and capacity. The Quadro P4000's single-slot design and 105 W TDP make it a drop-in solution for workstations, while the Vega 8's 25 W TDP and IGP form factor are ideal for low-power, compact systems where discrete graphics are not an option.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures. The Quadro P4000 is based on NVIDIA's Pascal architecture, using the GP104 chip. The Vega 8 is based on AMD's GCN 5.0 architecture, using the Raven chip. This architectural divergence is reflected in their compute capabilities. The Quadro P4000's FP16 performance is a meager 82.88 GFLOPS, a 1:64 ratio to its FP32 output, indicating a design focused on single-precision workloads. In contrast, the Vega 8's FP16 performance is 2.253 TFLOPS, a 2:1 ratio, meaning it can process half-precision data at twice the rate of FP32. The transistor counts also differ significantly, with the Quadro P4000 housing 7,200 million transistors versus 4,940 million for the Vega 8. The transistor density is similar, at 22.9M / mm² for the NVIDIA card and 23.5M / mm² for the AMD chip, but the larger die of the Quadro P4000 provides more raw resources. The Quadro P4000 is part of the Quadro Pascal (Px000) generation, succeeding Quadro Maxwell and preceding Quadro Volta. The Vega 8 belongs to the Vega IGP (Raven Ridge) generation, succeeding GCN 3.0 IGP and preceding Vega II IGP.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark contrasts in nearly every category. The Quadro P4000 has a base clock of 1202 MHz and a boost clock of 1480 MHz, while the Vega 8 operates at a much lower base clock of 300 MHz with a boost clock of 1100 MHz. The memory subsystems are entirely different: the Quadro P4000 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus and 243.3 GB/s bandwidth, whereas the Vega 8 relies on System Shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The rendering pipelines differ, with the Quadro P4000 offering a pixel rate of 94.72 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 165.8 GTexel/s, compared to the Vega 8's 8.800 GPixel/s and 35.20 GTexel/s. The power requirements are vastly different: the Quadro P4000 has a TDP of 105 W and requires a single 6-pin power connector, while the Vega 8 has a TDP of 25 W and needs no power connectors. The bus interface also separates them, with the Quadro P4000 using PCIe 3.0 x16 and the Vega 8 being an IGP. Display outputs differ, with the Quadro P4000 providing 4x DisplayPort 1.4a and the Vega 8 being motherboard dependent. The physical dimensions are only listed for the Quadro P4000, which is 241 mm long and 111 mm high. Finally, the Quadro P4000 has a launch MSRP of 815 USD, while the Vega 8 has no listed launch MSRP.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark data is limited to two tests, but the results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 achieves a score of 36212, while the AMD Radeon Vega 8 scores 8822. This represents a delta of 310.5% in favor of the Quadro P4000. This massive margin underscores the difference between a dedicated professional GPU and an integrated solution. The Quadro P4000's 1792 shading units, 8 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, and 243.3 GB/s of bandwidth provide a compute platform that is over four times faster than the Vega 8's 512 shading units and system-shared memory. The second test, Geekbench Vulkan, shows an even larger gap. The Quadro P4000 scores 41786, compared to the Vega 8's 8134, resulting in a delta of 413.7%. This near-5x advantage in Vulkan performance suggests the Pascal architecture is particularly strong in this API, or that the Vega 8's low base clock and shared memory are severe bottlenecks. The Vega 8 also has a Geekbench Metal score of 10706, but the Quadro P4000 has no corresponding Metal benchmark in the data, so no direct comparison is possible there.

The average benchmark scores provide additional context. The Quadro P4000's average score of 9665 is 444 points higher than the Vega 8's 9221. This 4.8% difference in average score is much smaller than the head-to-head deltas, which indicates that the Quadro P4000's performance is more consistent across a wider range of tests, while the Vega 8's scores are competitive in some legacy or compute benchmarks but collapse in modern APIs like Vulkan. The Quadro P4000's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 (avg score 9653, delta 0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (avg score 9645, delta 0.2%), and the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 (avg score 9637, delta 0.3%). The Vega 8's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon 890M (avg score 9210, delta 0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (avg score 9273, delta -0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (avg score 9294, delta -0.8%). These rival comparisons show that the Quadro P4000 sits in a cluster of similarly performing cards, while the Vega 8 is slightly below the GTX 960 and GTX 465, but the absolute performance gap between the two subject GPUs remains substantial. The data clearly indicates that the Quadro P4000 is the superior performer in all shared benchmarks, with the Vega 8 offering only the advantages of integration, low power consumption, and system-level simplicity.