AMD Radeon VII vs Intel Arc A730M Comparison

# AMD Radeon VII vs Intel Arc A730M

The benchmark database places these two GPUs in different performance tiers. The AMD Radeon VII sits near the top of the desktop discrete GPU charts, while the Intel Arc A730M is a mobile part aimed at thin-and-light laptops. Their average benchmark scores diverge significantly: the Radeon VII averages 66,004 points across all recorded tests, against 45,592 for the Arc A730M. That is a 44.8% gap in raw compute throughput. The Radeon VII is the clear winner in raw performance, but the Arc part has its own strengths in efficiency and feature set. This analysis breaks down the data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database includes four direct comparison runs between these two GPUs. The AMD card wins all four. The margins are substantial.

The largest single win for the Radeon VII comes in the Vulkan compute test. The AMD card scores 91,788 against 64,693 for the Intel. That is a 41.9% advantage. Vulkan is a low-level, cross-vendor API, and this gap suggests the GCN 5.1 architecture scales better than Xe-HPG in this workload.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows a 33% lead for the Radeon VII: 2,304 versus 1,732 points. This is a modern DirectX 12 ray-traced workload, and the AMD card's 3840 shading units and 64 ROPs handle it with ease. The Arc A730M has 3072 shading units and 96 ROPs, but the lower memory bandwidth (336.0 GB/s versus 1.02 TB/s) holds it back.

The OpenCL benchmark (Geekbench) is the closest margin: 91,947 for the Radeon VII against 70,352 for the Arc. That is a 30.7% win for AMD. OpenCL is a heterogeneous computing standard, which favors the Radeon VII's 13.44 TFLOPS FP32 rate.

The Vulkan test is the biggest delta. The Arc A730M has 12.60 TFLOPS FP32 and 25.19 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), but the Radeon VII still wins by 41.9%. This shows the Vega 20 die, with its 13,230 million transistors, scales better with Vulkan's explicit control over GPU resources.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster, the AMD Radeon VII or the Intel Arc A730M?

A: The AMD Radeon VII. The recorded data shows a 3-0 sweep in direct head-to-head tests. Its average benchmark score is 66,004 versus 45,592 for the Intel part. That is a 44.8% higher average score. The Radeon VII has 60% more shading units (3840 versus 3072) and a 1.5x wider memory bus (4096-bit versus 192-bit).

Q: Is the Radeon VII always the better choice, or does the Arc A730M win anywhere?

A: From the numbers in the database, the Arc A730M does not win any of the four direct comparisons. The Radeon VII has a higher FP32 rate (13.44 TFLOPS versus 12.60 TFLOPS), more memory (16 GB HBM2 versus 12 GB GDDR6), and more memory bandwidth (1.02 TB/s versus 336.0 GB/s). Intel's advantage is the 6 nm process (versus 7 nm for AMD) and the integrated mobile form factor.

Q: What does the 100th percentile score mean?

A: The Radeon VII is in the 90th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The Arc A730M is in the 84th. This means the AMD card scores better in 90% of the tracked GPUs, while the Intel card scores better than 84%.

Q: Does the Radeon VII use more power?

A: Yes, the Radeon VII has a 295 W TDP and requires a dual-slot cooler and two 8-pin power connectors. The Arc A730M is an integrated mobile GPU with a TDP of 80 W and no external power connectors. The data records a 600 W power supply recommendation for the Radeon, while the Arc has no specific recommendation.

Q: Which card has the higher transistor count and die size?

A: The Arc A730M has 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die (53.4M per mm²). The Radeon VII has 13,230 million on a 331 mm² die (40.0M per mm²). The Intel chip is built on the TSMC 6 nm process, the AMD chip on the TSMC 7 nm process.

The Verdict

The data in this database is heavily weighted towards the AMD Radeon VII. It has a 44.8% higher average benchmark score, and it wins every direct head-to-head test. The Intel Arc A730M is a modern 6nm mobile GPU with 24 ray tracing cores and a 192-bit memory bus, but the Radeon VII has a memory bus 4096-bit wide, 16 GB HBM2, and a 1TB/s bandwidth. The Radeon VII is a desktop-class card with 3840 shaders, 64 ROPs, and 240 texture units; the Arc A730M is a mobile part with 3072 shaders, 96 ROPs, and 192 texture units.

The choice is clear for raw compute and desktop use: the Radeon VII wins. The Arc A730M is the better fit for a laptop where 80W TDP is critical. The Radeon VII has reached end-of-life, while the Arc A730M is end-of-life. For a desktop workstation with power to spare, the Radeon VII is the faster GPU. For a thin laptop, the Arc A730M is the more practical part. The benchmark data is decisive: 3 wins for AMD, with an average score of 65,004 vs 45,592. The Radeon VII is the performance king.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every key specification. The Radeon VII is built on the Vega 20 die, GCN 5.1. The Arc A730M uses the DG2-512 die, Xe-HPG architecture.

Process node: AMD uses a 7nm TSMC process. Intel uses a 6nm TSMC process. Both are advanced finFET nodes, but Intel has a slight density advantage.

Transistors and die: The Intel die has 21,700 million transistors on 406 mm² (53.4M/mm²). The AMD die has 13,230 million transistors on 331 mm² (40.0M/mm²). Intel has a 24% transistor count advantage.

Memory subsystem: The Radeon VII has 16GB HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, with 1.02TB/s bandwidth. The Arc A730M has 12GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, with 336GB/s.

Shading units: The Radeon has 3840 shaders, 240 TMUs, 64 ROPs. The Arc has 3072 shaders, 192 TMUs, 96 ROPs.

Clock speeds: The Radeon VII base/boost is 1400/1750MHz. The Arc A730M base/boost 1100/2050MHz. The Arc has a higher boost clock, but fewer cores.

API support: Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL, and Vulkan. The Radeon supports Vulkan 1.3; the Arc supports Vulkan 1.4.

FP32/FP16: The Radeon VII is rated at 13.44 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.88 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The Arc is 12.60 TFLOPS FP32 and 25.19 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1).

Display outputs: The Radeon VII has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Arc A730M is portable, device-dependent outputs.

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon VII wins: raw compute and desktop workloads. It wins the direct head-to-head tests, with 33-41.6% higher scores. The 1TB/s memory bandwidth and 16GB HBM2 make it ideal for large data sets and AI training. The 4096-bit bus is 21.3x wider than the Arc's 192-bit bus.

Intel Arc A730M wins: laptops and efficiency. At 80W TDP, the Arc is a mobile part. The Radeon VII requires 295W and two 8-pin connectors. The Arc is a mobile integrated GPU with no external power connectors. The Arc has a higher transistor density (53.4M/mm² vs 40.0M/mm²) and a higher boost clock (2050MHz vs 1750MHz).

The Arc A730M is the modern mobile GPU, best for thin laptops. The Radeon VII is the old, high-power desktop card, best for compute workloads where the 44.8% faster benchmark score matters more than power draw.