Intel Arc A380E vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Arc A380E compare to the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q in terms of raw compute performance?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 delivers 109.7 TFLOPS FP32, a 26.8x advantage over the Arc A380E's 4.096 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is even more lopsided: the NVIDIA card maintains 109.7 TFLOPS at 1:1 ratio, while the Intel part halves its rate to 8.192 TFLOPS at 2:1.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card, and how do they differ?

A: The Arc A380E uses 6 GB GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus delivering 186.0 GB/s. The RTX PRO 6000 uses 96 GB GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s, roughly 9.6x the bandwidth and 16x the capacity.

Q: Which card has more shading units and ray tracing cores?

A: The RTX PRO 6000 has 24,064 shading units, 752 tensor cores, and 188 RT cores. The Arc A380E has 1,024 shading units and 8 RT cores, with no tensor cores listed.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Arc A380E has a 75 W TDP and a suggested 250 W PSU, with no power connectors required. The RTX PRO 6000 has a 300 W TDP, a suggested 700 W PSU, and uses a single 16-pin connector.

Q: How do the physical dimensions and slot widths compare?

A: The Arc A380E is single-slot at 254 mm long, 127 mm high, and 20 mm wide. The RTX PRO 6000 is dual-slot at 267 mm long, 111 mm high, and 40 mm wide, making it slightly longer but shorter in height.

Q: What is the production status and release timeline for each?

A: The Arc A380E is end-of-life, released in March 2024, with Battlemage listed as its successor. The RTX PRO 6000 is active, released in March 2025, with Workstation Ada as its predecessor and no successor listed.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from opposing architectural generations and design philosophies. Intel's Arc A380E uses the DG2-128 chip built on Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation. It is fabricated on TSMC's 6 nm process with 7,200 million transistors packed into a 157 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.9M per mm². NVIDIA's RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses the GB202 chip, built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture from the Blackwell PRO W generation. It uses TSMC's 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, achieving 122.9M transistors per mm². The density gap is substantial: 2.7x more transistors per area on the NVIDIA chip.

Core configuration differs dramatically. The Arc A380E fields 1,024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, 32 ROPs, and 8 RT cores. The RTX PRO 6000 has 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, 192 ROPs, 188 RT cores, and adds 752 tensor cores, which the Intel part lacks entirely. These are not incremental differences; they represent different product classes entirely, with NVIDIA's card having 23.5x more shading units and 23.5x more RT cores.

Clock behavior also distinguishes them. The Arc A380E runs at a flat 2000 MHz for both base and boost, while the RTX PRO 6000 has a low base clock of 1035 MHz that boosts to 2280 MHz, a 2.2x boost headroom. Memory architecture reflects the compute gap: the Intel card uses GDDR6 at 15.5 Gbps effective on a 96-bit bus, while the NVIDIA card uses GDDR7 at 28 Gbps effective on a 512-bit bus. The interface also differs, with PCIe 4.0 x8 on Intel versus PCIe 5.0 x16 on NVIDIA.

Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is matched. Display outputs are similar in count, with 4x DisplayPort on each, though the NVIDIA card uses DisplayPort 2.1b versus DisplayPort 2.0 on Intel. The power envelope is starkly different: 75 W TDP for Intel versus 300 W for NVIDIA, with the latter requiring a 16-pin connector and a 700 W PSU versus no connector and a 250 W PSU.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records a single benchmark for the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, scoring 11,088 points. The Arc A380E has no recorded benchmark scores, meaning direct head-to-head data is unavailable. However, the nearest rival data for the NVIDIA card provides useful context. The RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q scores an identical 11,088 with a 0% delta. The AMD Radeon RX 550 scores 11,075, a 0.1% lower delta, effectively matching. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER scores 11,047, a 0.4% deficit. The AMD FirePro W4300 scores 11,225, which is 1.2% above the RTX PRO 6000.

These numbers indicate that the RTX PRO 6000's single recorded result sits in a tightly clustered band with much older, lower-tier hardware. The delta percentages are all within 1.2%, suggesting that this particular benchmark does not differentiate the NVIDIA card from its rivals. The Arc A380E's absence from the benchmark database means no score can be attributed to it. The recorded data shows zero wins for the Intel card and zero wins for the NVIDIA card in head-to-head tests, reflecting the lack of direct comparison data.

The FP32 throughput comparison is the clearest numerical separation: 109.7 TFLOPS versus 4.096 TFLOPS. That is a 26.8x advantage for the NVIDIA card. The pixel rate tells a similar story, with 437.8 GPixel/s versus 64.00 GPixel/s, a 6.8x gap. Texture rate shows 1,714.6 GTexel/s versus 128.0 GTexel/s, a 13.4x difference. These are theoretical peak rates, not application benchmarks, but they establish the performance ceiling for each architecture.

Memory bandwidth is another decisive metric: 1.79 TB/s versus 186.0 GB/s, a 9.6x difference. The NVIDIA card's 96 GB capacity versus 6 GB on Intel is a 16x difference. These figures support the conclusion that the RTX PRO 6000 is designed for workloads that demand massive data throughput, while the Arc A380E targets lighter duties. The single benchmark score of 11,088, given the hardware disparity, likely reflects a test that does not stress the NVIDIA card's full capabilities, but the database contains only that result, so the analysis must rest on it.

The Verdict

The data clearly separates these two cards into distinct market segments. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is the dominant performer on every measurable compute metric: FP32, FP16, pixel rate, texture rate, memory bandwidth, and memory capacity. It also carries a launch MSRP of 8,565 USD, which places it in the professional workstation tier. The Arc A380E, with no benchmark scores and no recorded MSRP, is an end-of-life entry-level part with a 75 W TDP and minimal memory footprint.

For users requiring large memory allocation, 96 GB GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, or tensor core acceleration for AI workloads, the RTX PRO 6000 is the only option between the two. The 752 tensor cores and 188 RT cores position it for modern rendering and compute tasks. The Arc A380E offers 8 RT cores and no tensor cores, limiting its utility in those domains. The NVIDIA card's 26.8x FP32 advantage and 23.5x shading unit count leave no ambiguity about which part delivers more compute.

The Arc A380E's advantages are limited to physical footprint and power draw. It is single-slot, shorter at 254 mm versus 267 mm, and consumes 75 W versus 300 W. It requires no external power connector and a 250 W PSU, compared to the NVIDIA card's 16-pin connector and 700 W PSU. These factors make the Intel part suitable for constrained environments, but the performance gap is so large that the choice hinges entirely on workload requirements.

Specification Differences

| Specification | Intel Arc A380E | NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | DG2-128 | GB202 |

| Architecture | Xe-HPG | Blackwell 2.0 |

| Generation | Alchemist (Arc 3) | Blackwell PRO W (x000) |

| Process Node | 6 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 7,200 million | 92,200 million |

| Die Size | 157 mm² | 750 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 45.9M / mm² | 122.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 2000 MHz | 1035 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2000 MHz | 2280 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1937 MHz 15.5 Gbps effective | 1750 MHz 28 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 6 GB | 96 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR7 |

| Memory Bus Width | 96 bit | 512 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 186.0 GB/s | 1.79 TB/s |

| Shading Units | 1,024 | 24,064 |

| TMUs | 64 | 752 |

| ROPs | 32 | 192 |

| RT Cores | 8 | 188 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 752 |

| Pixel Rate | 64.00 GPixel/s | 437.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 128.0 GTexel/s | 1,714.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 4.096 TFLOPS | 109.7 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 8.192 TFLOPS (2:1) | 109.7 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 75 W | 300 W |

| Slot Width | Single-slot | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 16-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 700 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 2.0 | 4x DisplayPort 2.1b |

| Length | 254 mm 10 inches | 267 mm 10.5 inches |

| Height | 127 mm 5 inches | 111 mm 4.4 inches |

| Width | 20 mm 0.8 inches | 40 mm 1.6 inches |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2024-03-31 | 2025-03-17 |

| Predecessor | Xe Graphics | Workstation Ada |

| Successor | Battlemage | None |

Where Each One Wins

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins in every compute-heavy category. Its 109.7 TFLOPS FP32 performance suits large-scale simulation, scientific computing, and high-resolution rendering. The 96 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth handles datasets that would exhaust the Arc A380E's 6 GB capacity 16 times over. The 752 tensor cores provide dedicated hardware for deep learning inference and training, a capability the Intel card lacks entirely. The 188 RT cores provide substantially more ray tracing throughput than the Arc A380E's 8 RT cores. The dual-slot design and 300 W TDP reflect a card built for sustained professional workloads, and its active production status means ongoing availability.

The Arc A380E wins in scenarios where power and space are constrained. Its 75 W TDP requires no external power connector, and its single-slot design at 254 mm length fits in compact chassis. The 250 W PSU recommendation contrasts sharply with the 700 W requirement for the NVIDIA card. The lower height of 127 mm versus 111 mm for NVIDIA is a minor point, but the Arc's shorter length and narrower width make it easier to install in small form factor systems. The end-of-life status and 2024 release date mean it is a legacy option, but for basic display output, light 3D work, or embedded applications, the power efficiency is unmatched. Its 4x DisplayPort 2.0 outputs provide multi-monitor capability without the power overhead of the NVIDIA card.

The recorded benchmark data does not favor either card directly, since the Arc A380E has no scores and the RTX PRO 6000's single score of 11,088 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The theoretical specifications, however, indicate that the NVIDIA card wins decisively on performance, while the Intel card wins on integration simplicity. The choice depends on whether the workload demands maximum compute and memory, which points to the RTX PRO 6000, or minimal power draw and physical footprint, which points to the Arc A380E.