AMD Radeon VII vs Intel Arc A550M Comparison

AMD Radeon VII and Intel Arc A550M occupy very different positions in the database. The Radeon VII is a desktop-class card from AMD’s Vega generation, built on a 7 nm process, while the Arc A550M is a mobile GPU from Intel’s Alchemist generation, using a 6 nm process. The recorded benchmarks show a clear overall winner, but the two products are designed for different workloads and form factors, which shapes where each one makes sense.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon VII wins every head-to-head benchmark recorded in the database. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon VII scores 91,947 against the Arc A550M’s 49,894, a delta of 84.3%. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon VII scores 91,788 against 49,580, a delta of 85.1%. That is a dominant margin in raw compute performance, and it reflects the Radeon VII’s larger silicon, higher transistor count, and much wider memory interface.

The Radeon VII also holds a higher average benchmark score overall. Its average is 66,004, placing it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs. The Arc A550M averages 49,737, which puts it in the 86th percentile. While both are above the median, the Radeon VII sits comfortably ahead in aggregate performance.

However, the Arc A550M has its own advantages that the benchmarks do not capture directly. It is a mobile part with a 60 W TDP, compared to the Radeon VII’s 295 W TDP. That is a massive difference in power draw, and it means the Arc A550M can operate in thin-and-light laptops where the Radeon VII, a dual-slot desktop card requiring 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU, simply cannot exist. The Arc A550M also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Radeon VII uses PCIe 3.0 x16, giving the mobile part a newer bus interface.

The Radeon VII wins on raw compute, memory bandwidth, and shading resources. It has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, versus 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs on the Arc A550M. Its memory subsystem is far larger: 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, versus 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s. The Radeon VII also has higher pixel and texture rates, 112.0 GPixel/s and 420.0 GTexel/s, compared to 131.2 GPixel/s and 262.4 GTexel/s for the Arc A550M. Interestingly, the Arc A550M has a higher pixel rate despite fewer ROPs, due to its higher boost clock, but the Radeon VII’s texture rate is substantially higher.

The Verdict

The data says the AMD Radeon VII is the faster GPU in every measured workload. If the task is pure compute performance, the Radeon VII wins outright. Its Geekbench OpenCL score is 84.3% higher, and its Vulkan score is 85.1% higher. Those are not marginal differences; they represent a generational gap in throughput.

The Arc A550M, however, is not competing on the same terms. It is a mobile GPU with a 60 W TDP, designed for laptops, whereas the Radeon VII is a 295 W desktop card. The Arc A550M’s nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 49,957 (0.4% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 at 50,001 (0.5% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 50,951 (2.4% ahead), while it sits 2.6% ahead of the RX 6800 XT at 48,477. That places the Arc A550M in a competitive mobile class, but it is still far behind the Radeon VII’s nearest rivals, which include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 at 66,733 (1.1% behind the Radeon VII) and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 at 65,095 (1.4% ahead).

For a buyer choosing between these two, the decision is about platform. The Radeon VII is for a desktop workstation or gaming rig where power draw and physical size are not constraints. The Arc A550M is for a laptop where the 60 W TDP and integrated form factor are essential. In terms of pure benchmark scores, the Radeon VII is the clear choice. In terms of mobility and efficiency, the Arc A550M is the only viable option.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains only two tests, both of which the AMD Radeon VII wins decisively.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon VII produces a score of 91,947. The Arc A550M scores 49,894. The delta is 84.3%, meaning the Radeon VII delivers nearly double the compute throughput. This test stresses general-purpose compute, and the Radeon VII’s larger GPU, with 3,840 shading units and 13.44 TFLOPS FP32 performance, overwhelms the Arc A550M’s 2,048 shading units and 8.397 TFLOPS.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon VII scores 91,788 against 49,580. The delta is 85.1%, the largest margin in the head-to-head set. Vulkan is a lower-level graphics API, and the Radeon VII’s 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth likely plays a significant role. The Arc A550M’s 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is less than a quarter of that figure, which can bottleneck memory-intensive workloads.

The Radeon VII also has higher FP16 throughput at 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Arc A550M, and its texture rate is 420.0 GTexel/s versus 262.4 GTexel/s. The only rate where the Arc A550M leads is pixel output, 131.2 GPixel/s versus 112.0 GPixel/s, but that does not translate into a benchmark win in the recorded tests.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon VII has an average benchmark score of 66,004, while the Intel Arc A550M averages 49,737. The Radeon VII is in the 90th percentile of all GPUs, and the Arc A550M is in the 86th percentile.

Q: How much faster is the Radeon VII in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The Radeon VII scores 91,947 versus the Arc A550M’s 49,894, which is 84.3% higher.

Q: What is the largest performance gap in the head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The largest gap is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the Radeon VII scores 91,788 versus 49,580, a delta of 85.1%.

Q: Does the Arc A550M beat the Radeon VII in any recorded benchmark?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows two wins for the Radeon VII and zero wins for the Arc A550M.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each GPU in the database?

A: The Radeon VII’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla T4, with an average score of 66,733, which is 1.1% behind. The Arc A550M’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, at 49,957, which is 0.4% ahead.

Q: Why would anyone choose the Arc A550M given the score difference?

A: The Arc A550M has a 60 W TDP and an integrated form factor, making it suitable for laptops, whereas the Radeon VII is a dual-slot desktop card with a 295 W TDP, 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a 600 W suggested PSU.

Architecture Differences

The Radeon VII is built on AMD’s GCN 5.1 architecture, using the Vega 20 chip. It is fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC, with 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.0M per mm². The Arc A550M uses Intel’s Xe-HPG architecture with the DG2-512 chip, fabricated on a 6 nm process also at TSMC, containing 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, for a density of 53.4M per mm². The Intel chip has more transistors and a higher density, but the AMD chip uses a wider memory interface.

The Radeon VII supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Arc A550M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Arc A550M also includes 16 ray tracing cores, which the Radeon VII lacks entirely. That is a significant architectural feature: the Radeon VII predates dedicated ray tracing hardware, while the Arc A550M includes it as part of the Xe-HPG design. Neither GPU has tensor cores listed.

The Radeon VII’s memory is HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A550M uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s. The Radeon VII has 16 GB of memory, double the Arc A550M’s 8 GB. The Radeon VII’s base clock is 1400 MHz with a boost of 1750 MHz, while the Arc A550M has a lower base of 900 MHz but a higher boost of 2050 MHz. The Arc A550M’s memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), versus 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective) for the Radeon VII, though the Radeon VII’s bus width makes its effective bandwidth far larger.

The Radeon VII is a PCIe 3.0 x16 card, while the Arc A550M is PCIe 4.0 x16. The Radeon VII has display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Arc A550M’s outputs are listed as portable device dependent. The Radeon VII is dual-slot with dimensions of 280 mm length, 125 mm height, and 40 mm width, while the Arc A550M is an integrated GPU (IGP) with no listed dimensions.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every major specification. The Radeon VII has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, versus 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs for the Arc A550M. The Radeon VII’s FP32 performance is 13.44 TFLOPS, while the Arc A550M produces 8.397 TFLOPS. FP16 is 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Radeon VII and 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Arc A550M.

Power consumption is the starkest difference. The Radeon VII has a TDP of 295 W, a dual-slot footprint, 2x 8-pin power connectors, and a 600 W suggested PSU. The Arc A550M has a TDP of 60 W, is an IGP with no power connectors listed, and has no suggested PSU. The Radeon VII is 280 mm long, 125 mm tall, and 40 mm wide; the Arc A550M has no recorded dimensions.

Memory configuration also diverges sharply. The Radeon VII has 16 GB of HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A550M has 8 GB of GDDR6 with a 128-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon VII’s memory clock is 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective), and the Arc A550M’s is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Despite the Arc A550M’s higher memory clock, the Radeon VII’s bus width gives it over four times the bandwidth.

Clock speeds differ as well: the Radeon VII runs at 1400 MHz base and 1750 MHz boost, while the Arc A550M runs at 900 MHz base and 2050 MHz boost. The Arc A550M’s higher boost clock helps its pixel rate reach 131.2 GPixel/s, above the Radeon VII’s 112.0 GPixel/s, but the Radeon VII’s texture rate of 420.0 GTexel/s is well above the Arc A550M’s 262.4 GTexel/s. The Radeon VII was released on 2019-02-06 with a launch MSRP of 699 USD, while the Arc A550M has no recorded release date or launch MSRP. Both are end-of-life products.