AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition vs NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits cleanly along workload type. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition dominates both recorded compute tests, while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile has no wins in the head-to-head comparison. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card scores 76,111 against the NVIDIA’s 48,703, a 56.3% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin narrows slightly but remains decisive: 71,937 versus 46,782, a 53.8% lead.

The AMD card’s strength is raw throughput. Its FP32 rating of 13.11 TFLOPS and FP16 rating of 26.21 TFLOPS (2:1) dwarf the NVIDIA’s 4.669 TFLOPS in both precisions. For general-purpose compute, OpenCL workloads, or any task that scales with shading unit count, the Vega Frontier Edition is the clear choice. It also holds a 91st percentile ranking across all GPUs in the database, versus the RTX A1000 Mobile’s 85th percentile. That gap of six percentile points reflects a substantial performance tier difference, not a marginal one.

The NVIDIA card’s wins are not in raw speed but in efficiency and feature set. Its 60 W TDP versus the AMD’s 300 W TDP means it delivers its compute capability at a fraction of the power draw. The RTX A1000 Mobile also brings 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores, features the AMD card lacks entirely. For ray tracing acceleration or AI inference via tensor operations, the NVIDIA is the only option here. The data shows no benchmark where the RTX A1000 Mobile outranks the Vega Frontier Edition, but its lower power envelope and specialized hardware give it a different kind of win in mobile or power-constrained environments.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different eras and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition uses the Vega 10 chip built on GCN 5.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 12,500 million transistors into a 495 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.3M per mm². The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile uses the GA107 chip on Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It has 8,700 million transistors in a 200 mm² die, achieving 43.5M per mm². The NVIDIA chip is more than twice as dense, reflecting its newer process node.

Memory configurations differ sharply. The AMD card has 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 483.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, with 176.0 GB/s. The AMD’s bandwidth advantage is 2.7 times the NVIDIA’s, which matters for large datasets or memory-heavy compute workloads. However, the NVIDIA’s GDDR6 is more power-efficient per byte moved, and its smaller memory footprint is typical for a mobile part.

Compute resources also diverge. The AMD card has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has 2,048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The AMD’s shading unit count is double the NVIDIA’s, and its texture rate of 409.6 GTexel/s versus 72.96 GTexel/s shows a 5.6x gap. Pixel rates tell a similar story: 102.4 GPixel/s versus 36.48 GPixel/s. The AMD card is built for brute-force rasterization throughput, while the NVIDIA card relies on its RT cores and tensor cores for tasks the AMD cannot accelerate.

Clock behavior differs as well. The AMD card runs at a 1382 MHz base and 1600 MHz boost, while the NVIDIA runs at 630 MHz base and 1140 MHz boost. The AMD’s higher clocks contribute to its compute lead, but they also explain its 300 W TDP versus the NVIDIA’s 60 W. The NVIDIA’s lower clocks and smaller die make it suitable for an IGP form factor, whereas the AMD is a dual-slot card requiring 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 700 W suggested PSU.

API support favors the NVIDIA card. It lists DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the AMD lists DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The NVIDIA’s newer API versions enable features like mesh shaders and hardware ray tracing, which the AMD cannot offer.

The Verdict

Choose the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition if your workloads are compute-heavy and you have the power budget. Its 56.3% lead in OpenCL and 53.8% lead in Vulkan over the RTX A1000 Mobile are decisive. The 16 GB HBM2 pool and 483.8 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for large datasets, and its 91st percentile ranking places it above rivals like the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (1.4% faster) and NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (1.8% faster) in average score. It is also 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M and 3.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE.

Choose the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile if power efficiency or specialized acceleration matters more than raw compute. Its 60 W TDP is one-fifth the AMD’s 300 W, and its RT cores and tensor cores provide hardware support for ray tracing and AI workloads that the AMD cannot handle. Its average score of 47,743 sits 1.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, 2.2% above the AMD Radeon RX 6550M, and 2.4% above the Intel Arc A530M in the nearest rival set. The NVIDIA card is end-of-life like the AMD, so neither offers future upgrade paths, but the NVIDIA’s mobile form factor makes it the only choice for portable systems.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher benchmark score in OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition scores 76,111 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 56.3% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile’s 48,703.

Q: Does the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile have any benchmark win over the AMD card?

A: No. In the head-to-head comparison, the AMD card wins both recorded tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The NVIDIA has zero wins.

Q: What memory configuration does each GPU use?

A: The AMD card has 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus with 483.8 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 176.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile has 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores, enabling hardware ray tracing and AI acceleration. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition has no RT cores or tensor cores.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The AMD card has a 300 W TDP and requires 2x 8-pin power connectors with a 700 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card has a 60 W TDP, uses no power connectors, and is an IGP form factor.

Q: What are their production statuses?

A: Both GPUs are end-of-life. The AMD card was released on 2017-06-26, and the NVIDIA card was released on 2022-03-29.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result is in Geekbench OpenCL. The AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition posts 76,111, while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile manages 48,703. That is a 56.3% delta, the largest margin in the head-to-head set. The AMD’s FP32 rating of 13.11 TFLOPS and its 4,096 shading units explain this gap. The NVIDIA’s 4.669 TFLOPS and 2,048 shading units simply cannot match that throughput. For OpenCL workloads, the AMD card is in a different class.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a similar pattern but with a slightly smaller gap. The AMD scores 71,937, and the NVIDIA scores 46,782, a 53.8% delta. The AMD’s Vulkan 1.3 support, combined with its higher pixel rate of 102.4 GPixel/s, helps it maintain a strong lead. The NVIDIA’s Vulkan 1.4 support is newer, but that does not translate into a performance advantage in this test. The AMD’s 256 TMUs versus the NVIDIA’s 64 TMUs, and its 409.6 GTexel/s versus 72.96 GTexel/s, are the underlying factors.

Looking at the nearest rival data provides context for these scores. The AMD card’s average benchmark score is 73,370, which is 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (72,379), 1.8% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (72,098), 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M (71,768), and 3.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE (70,829). It sits at the 91st percentile of all GPUs. The NVIDIA card’s average score is 47,743, which is 1.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48,477), 2.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6550M (46,702), 2.4% ahead of the Intel Arc A530M (46,614), and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (46,601). It sits at the 85th percentile.

The delta between the two cards in average score is 25,627 points, or roughly 54%. That is a consistent gap across both tests. The AMD card’s 16 GB memory and 2048-bit bus provide a 483.8 GB/s bandwidth advantage, which is critical for memory-intensive compute. The NVIDIA card’s 4 GB memory and 128-bit bus are more suited to portable workloads where power and space are limited. The data does not show any scenario where the NVIDIA card closes the compute gap, but its 60 W TDP and RT/tensor core support are features the AMD card cannot offer.