AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition vs NVIDIA A10G Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive victory for the NVIDIA A10G across the two shared benchmark tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the A10G scores 158,063 against the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition's 76,111, a delta of 107.7% in favor of the NVIDIA part. The Vulkan test tells a similar story, with the A10G posting 145,863 versus 71,937 for the Vega Frontier Edition, a 102.8% advantage. In both cases, the A10G more than doubles the AMD card's output, which is a striking margin for two workstation-oriented products.

The magnitude of these deltas is worth pausing on. A 107.7% lead in OpenCL means the A10G is not simply faster; it is performing at roughly twice the level of the Vega Frontier Edition in that workload. The Vulkan gap of 102.8% reinforces this pattern, suggesting the A10G's architectural advantages translate consistently across different compute APIs rather than being limited to one specific software path. The AMD card's best result in either test is its OpenCL score of 76,111, which still falls short of the A10G's Vulkan score of 145,863, let alone its OpenCL figure.

Context from the wider database positions these scores within their respective peer groups. The A10G sits at the 97th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 151,963. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB, which trails by just 1.1%, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X, which leads by 5.4%. The A10G also outperforms the AMD Instinct MI100 by 9.3%. The Vega Frontier Edition, by contrast, lands at the 91st percentile with an average score of 73,370, and its closest competitors are far closer in performance: the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 is only 1.4% behind, the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal is 1.8% behind, and the AMD Radeon RX 6650M is 2.2% behind. The tight grouping around the Vega Frontier Edition suggests it is very much a mid-pack performer among its contemporaries, while the A10G sits in a higher performance tier altogether.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different manufacturing nodes and very different design philosophies. The NVIDIA A10G is built on an 8 nm process at Samsung, housing 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, which works out to a transistor density of 45.1 million per mm². The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, with 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, giving a density of 25.3 million per mm². The A10G's newer node and higher density are consistent with its performance advantage, but the Vega card is also an older design, released in 2017 versus the A10G's 2021 launch.

The compute architectures diverge sharply. The A10G is built on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, with the GA102 chip, and features 9,216 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It also includes 72 RT cores and 288 tensor cores, which are absent from the Vega Frontier Edition entirely. The AMD card uses the Vega 10 chip under the GCN 5.0 architecture, with 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The shading unit count alone, 9,216 versus 4,096, more than doubles the NVIDIA part, and the A10G's dedicated RT and tensor hardware gives it capabilities the AMD card cannot match in ray tracing or tensor-accelerated workloads.

Memory configurations also reflect different design targets. The A10G carries 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 600.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega Frontier Edition has 16 GB of HBM2 on a much wider 2048-bit bus, yet its bandwidth tops out at 483.8 GB/s. The A10G wins on both capacity and bandwidth despite the narrower bus, a result of faster memory clocks. The A10G's memory runs at 1563 MHz with 12.5 Gbps effective transfer, while the Vega card's memory runs at 945 MHz with 1890 Mbps effective. Both cards share the same 267 mm length, but the A10G is a single-slot design with an 8-pin EPS connector and a 150 W TDP, while the Vega Frontier Edition is dual-slot with two 8-pin connectors and a 300 W TDP.

Other feature differences are notable. The A10G supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Vega Frontier Edition uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The A10G has no display outputs, marking it as a compute-only accelerator, whereas the Vega card includes 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. API support also differs: the A10G supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega Frontier Edition tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The Vega card's launch MSRP was 999 USD, though no launch price is recorded for the A10G.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA A10G has an average benchmark score of 151,963, compared to 73,370 for the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. The A10G also sits at the 97th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Vega card is at the 91st percentile.

Q: How much faster is the A10G in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The A10G scores 158,063 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 76,111 for the Vega Frontier Edition, a delta of 107.7% in the A10G's favor.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The Vega Frontier Edition has neither RT cores nor tensor cores. The NVIDIA A10G, by contrast, includes 72 RT cores and 288 tensor cores.

Q: What are the memory capacities of the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA A10G has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with 600.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has 16 GB of HBM2 memory with 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has higher power consumption?

A: The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has a TDP of 300 W and requires two 8-pin power connectors plus a 700 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA A10G has a TDP of 150 W, uses a single 8-pin EPS connector, and has a 450 W suggested PSU.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are listed as end-of-life products. The A10G was released in April 2021, and the Vega Frontier Edition was released in June 2017.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category. The NVIDIA A10G uses an 8 nm process and the GA102 chip, while the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses a 14 nm process and the Vega 10 chip. Transistor counts are 28,300 million versus 12,500 million, and die sizes are 628 mm² versus 495 mm². Transistor density is 45.1M per mm² for the A10G and 25.3M per mm² for the Vega card.

Compute resources diverge heavily: the A10G has 9,216 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, while the Vega Frontier Edition has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The A10G adds 72 RT cores and 288 tensor cores; the Vega card has none. Clock speeds are 1320 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost for the A10G, versus 1382 MHz base and 1600 MHz boost for the Vega card. The A10G's memory runs at 1563 MHz with 12.5 Gbps effective, whereas the Vega card's memory runs at 945 MHz with 1890 Mbps effective.

Memory capacity and bandwidth favor the A10G: 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 600.2 GB/s, versus 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 483.8 GB/s. Pixel rate is 164.2 GPixel/s for the A10G and 102.4 GPixel/s for the Vega card. Texture rate is 492.5 GTexel/s versus 409.6 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 31.52 TFLOPS for the A10G and 13.11 TFLOPS for the Vega card. FP16 performance is 31.52 TFLOPS for the A10G at a 1:1 ratio, while the Vega card achieves 26.21 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio.

Power and physical specifications also differ. The A10G is rated at 150 W TDP, is single-slot, uses an 8-pin EPS connector, and suggests a 450 W PSU. The Vega Frontier Edition is rated at 300 W TDP, is dual-slot, uses two 8-pin connectors, and suggests a 700 W PSU. The A10G has no display outputs; the Vega card has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The A10G uses PCIe 4.0 x16; the Vega card uses PCIe 3.0 x16. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the A10G and 12 (12_1) for the Vega card. Vulkan support is 1.4 versus 1.3. Both are end-of-life, but the A10G was released in 2021 while the Vega card was released in 2017.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for most applications. The NVIDIA A10G wins both head-to-head benchmarks by margins exceeding 100%, holds a higher average benchmark score, and ranks higher in the database percentile. It also offers more memory, higher bandwidth, more compute units, and additional hardware features like RT and tensor cores, all while consuming half the power of the AMD card. The Vega Frontier Edition is not competitive on raw performance metrics in this comparison.

The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition does have one distinguishing characteristic: it includes display outputs, making it usable for tasks that require a video signal, whereas the A10G is a compute-only accelerator. The Vega card also supports a wider memory bus, though that does not translate into higher bandwidth. For any workload where compute performance is the priority, the A10G is the clear choice based on the recorded numbers.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA A10G wins in every benchmark category where both cards were tested. It leads in Geekbench OpenCL by 107.7% and in Geekbench Vulkan by 102.8%. Its 97th percentile ranking and average score of 151,963 place it in a different performance class than the Vega Frontier Edition's 91st percentile and 73,370 average. The A10G also wins on memory capacity, memory bandwidth, FP32 compute, pixel rate, texture rate, and transistor density. Its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 600.2 GB/s bandwidth are superior to the Vega card's 16 GB of HBM2 and 483.8 GB/s. The A10G's 31.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than double the Vega card's 13.11 TFLOPS.

The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has no benchmark wins in this comparison, but it does hold advantages in a few specific areas. It offers display outputs, which the A10G lacks entirely. It has a higher base clock of 1382 MHz versus 1320 MHz for the A10G, though its boost clock is lower at 1600 MHz versus 1710 MHz. Its memory bus is 2048 bits wide versus 384 bits for the A10G, and its FP16 performance at 26.21 TFLOPS, while lower than the A10G's 31.52 TFLOPS, is achieved at a 2:1 ratio that may be relevant for certain FP16 workloads. The Vega card also has a wider set of connectivity options through its HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, making it suitable for setups that need a GPU with display capabilities. For compute-heavy tasks in a server environment, the A10G's advantages in performance, efficiency, and memory make it the stronger candidate.