AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition vs NVIDIA A10M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records one direct comparison between the NVIDIA A10M and the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition: the Geekbench OpenCL test. This is a decisive result. The NVIDIA A10M scores 135,230 points, while the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition scores 76,111 points. The delta is 77.7% in favor of the A10M. That is not a marginal lead; it is a dominant margin that places the two cards in entirely different performance tiers for compute workloads.

Context from the nearest rivals list reinforces how strong the A10M's position is. The A10M's score of 135,230 places it at the 96th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its closest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation at 135,218 (a 0% delta), the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 at 135,396 (a 0.1% deficit for the A10M), the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo at 135,774 (a 0.4% deficit), and the AMD Radeon PRO V620 at 136,472 (a 0.9% deficit). In other words, the A10M is effectively tied with a cluster of modern workstation cards, all within roughly one percentage point of each other. The Vega Frontier Edition, by contrast, sits at the 91st percentile with an average benchmark score of 73,370. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 at 72,379 (a 1.4% lead for the Frontier Edition), the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal at 72,098 (a 1.8% lead), the AMD Radeon RX 6650M at 71,768 (a 2.2% lead), and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE at 70,829 (a 3.6% lead). The Frontier Edition leads its own peer group, but that peer group is far behind the A10M's peer group.

The magnitude of the gap between the two cards is worth emphasizing. The A10M's OpenCL score is not just higher; it is higher by an amount that exceeds the entire average score of the Frontier Edition's closest competitor. The delta of 77.7% means the A10M delivers nearly 78% more performance in this specific test. No other benchmark in the head-to-head data offsets this result. The record shows one win for the A10M and zero wins for the Vega Frontier Edition.

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data provides only one shared benchmark, so the use-case split is straightforward. The NVIDIA A10M wins the OpenCL compute test outright. For any workload that relies on OpenCL performance, the database shows a clear and substantial advantage for the A10M. This includes general compute tasks, data processing, and any application that offloads parallel work to the GPU through OpenCL.

The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition does have recorded wins in other API tests, but these cannot be compared directly to the A10M because the A10M has no entries for those tests. The Frontier Edition scores 72,061 in Geekbench Metal, 71,937 in Geekbench Vulkan, and 76,111 in Geekbench OpenCL. Its strongest result is the OpenCL score, which is still far below the A10M's OpenCL result. The Metal and Vulkan scores are lower than its OpenCL score, indicating that the card's best API performance in the database is OpenCL. However, without corresponding A10M scores in Metal or Vulkan, the database cannot establish a head-to-head comparison in those APIs.

The architecture of the two cards also suggests distinct use-case profiles. The A10M is a server-oriented accelerator with no display outputs, which points toward headless compute deployments. The Vega Frontier Edition includes display outputs (1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a), which makes it usable in a workstation setup with direct display connectivity. The A10M's feature set includes ray tracing cores and tensor cores, which are absent from the Vega Frontier Edition. This indicates that the A10M is positioned for workloads that benefit from those dedicated units, while the Vega Frontier Edition lacks those capabilities entirely.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different manufacturers, different architecture generations, and different process nodes. The NVIDIA A10M uses the GA102 chip built on the Ampere architecture, manufactured by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses the Vega 10 chip built on the GCN 5.0 architecture, manufactured by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm process. The transistor counts reflect the generational gap: the A10M packs 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 45.1 million per mm². The Vega Frontier Edition has 12,500 million transistors on a 495 mm² die, for a density of 25.3 million per mm². The A10M has more than double the transistor count and significantly higher density, which is consistent with the newer process node and more complex architecture.

The memory subsystems are also fundamentally different. The A10M uses 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding 500.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Vega Frontier Edition uses 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, yielding 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth. Despite the much wider bus on the AMD card, the A10M still achieves higher total bandwidth. The A10M's memory clock is listed as 1563 MHz with 12.5 Gbps effective, while the Vega Frontier Edition's memory runs at 945 MHz with 1890 Mbps effective.

Compute resources differ sharply. The A10M has 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. The Vega Frontier Edition has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The A10M has far more shading units, but the Vega Frontier Edition has more TMUs. The A10M also includes 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores; the Vega Frontier Edition has neither. Pixel rate favors the A10M at 130.8 GPixel/s versus 102.4 GPixel/s. Texture rate favors the Vega Frontier Edition at 409.6 GTexel/s versus 366.2 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 23.44 TFLOPS for the A10M versus 13.11 TFLOPS for the Vega Frontier Edition. FP16 is where the comparison takes a different turn: the A10M delivers 23.44 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, while the Vega Frontier Edition delivers 26.21 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio. The Vega card has a higher raw FP16 figure, but the A10M's FP16 and FP32 rates are identical, meaning no rate penalty for FP16 work.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The A10M has a 150 W TDP, while the Vega Frontier Edition has a 300 W TDP. The A10M is single-slot with an 8-pin EPS connector and a suggested 450 W PSU. The Vega Frontier Edition is dual-slot with 2x 8-pin connectors and a suggested 700 W PSU. The A10M runs on PCIe 4.0 x16; the Vega Frontier Edition uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Both cards are 267 mm in length, and the heights are nearly identical at 112 mm for the A10M and 111 mm for the Vega Frontier Edition. Both are end-of-life products. The Vega Frontier Edition has a launch date of 2017-06-26 and a launch MSRP of 999 USD; the A10M has no recorded launch MSRP.

API support differs as well. The A10M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Vega Frontier Edition supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The A10M has a more recent DirectX feature level and a newer Vulkan version.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA A10M scores 135,230 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition scores 76,111. The A10M leads by 77.7%.

Q: How does the NVIDIA A10M compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The A10M sits at the 96th percentile among all GPUs. Its closest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation at 135,218 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 at 135,396 (0.1% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo at 135,774 (0.4% behind), and the AMD Radeon PRO V620 at 136,472 (0.9% behind).

Q: How does the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Vega Frontier Edition sits at the 91st percentile with an average score of 73,370. It leads the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 by 1.4%, the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal by 1.8%, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M by 2.2%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE by 3.6%.

Q: Does the Vega Frontier Edition win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: In the recorded head-to-head data, the Vega Frontier Edition has zero wins. The only shared test is Geekbench OpenCL, which the A10M wins.

Q: What is the memory configuration of each card?

A: The A10M has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus with 500.2 GB/s bandwidth. The Vega Frontier Edition has 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 483.8 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores?

A: The NVIDIA A10M includes 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the NVIDIA A10M and the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition:

• Manufacturer: NVIDIA versus AMD
• Chip: GA102 versus Vega 10
• Architecture: Ampere versus GCN 5.0
• Generation: Server Ampere (Axx) versus Radeon Pro Vega (Vega Series)
• Process node: 8 nm versus 14 nm
• Foundry: Samsung versus GlobalFoundries
• Transistors: 28,300 million versus 12,500 million
• Die size: 628 mm² versus 495 mm²
• Transistor density: 45.1M / mm² versus 25.3M / mm²
• Base clock: 975 MHz versus 1382 MHz
• Boost clock: 1635 MHz versus 1600 MHz
• Memory clock: 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective) versus 945 MHz (1890 Mbps effective)
• Memory size: 20 GB versus 16 GB
• Memory type: GDDR6 versus HBM2
• Memory bus width: 320 bit versus 2048 bit
• Memory bandwidth: 500.2 GB/s versus 483.8 GB/s
• Shading units: 7168 versus 4096
• TMUs: 224 versus 256
• ROPs: 80 versus 64
• Ray tracing cores: 56 versus none
• Tensor cores: 224 versus none
• Pixel rate: 130.8 GPixel/s versus 102.4 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: 366.2 GTexel/s versus 409.6 GTexel/s
• FP32: 23.44 TFLOPS versus 13.11 TFLOPS
• FP16: 23.44 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 26.21 TFLOPS (2:1)
• TDP: 150 W versus 300 W
• Slot width: Single-slot versus Dual-slot
• Power connectors: 8-pin EPS versus 2x 8-pin
• Suggested PSU: 450 W versus 700 W
• Bus interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16
• Display outputs: No outputs versus 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
• DirectX support: 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus 12 (12_1)
• Vulkan support: 1.4 versus 1.3
• Height: 112 mm versus 111 mm
• Release date: not recorded versus 2017-06-26
• Predecessor: Tesla Turing versus Radeon Pro Polaris
• Successor: Server Ada versus Radeon Pro Navi
• Launch MSRP: not recorded versus 999 USD