Intel Arc A380E x2 vs NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data presents a stark contrast between two workstation-focused cards from different generations and market positions. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is the clear performance leader, sitting at the 95th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Intel Arc A380E x2 lands at the 50th percentile. The NVIDIA card delivers roughly 4.7 times the FP32 compute throughput of the Intel part, 19.17 TFLOPS versus 4.096 TFLOPS, and offers more than three times the memory capacity at 20 GB versus 6 GB. For any workload that relies on raw compute, ray tracing, or large datasets, the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is the only viable choice from this pair.

The Intel Arc A380E x2 does hold specific advantages. It uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface versus the NVIDIA card's x16, but its physical footprint is a single-slot design at 20 mm wide, compared to the RTX 4000 SFF's dual-slot width. The Intel card also supports eight mini-DisplayPort 2.0 outputs, whereas the NVIDIA card provides four mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. Those characteristics make the Intel part suitable for multi-display signage or dense visual installations where output count matters more than compute horsepower. The RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, by contrast, draws just 70 W and requires no auxiliary power connector, which makes it an exceptional fit for compact, power-constrained workstations that still demand high-end compute.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher benchmark scores in the database?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation has an average benchmark score of 117,088, placing it at the 95th percentile of all GPUs. The Intel Arc A380E x2 has no recorded benchmark scores in the database and sits at the 50th percentile.

Q: How much memory does each card offer?

A: The Intel Arc A380E x2 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus with 186.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 280.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What are the power requirements for these cards?

A: The Intel Arc A380E x2 has a TDP of 130 W, requires a 1x 6-pin power connector, and needs a 300 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation has a TDP of 70 W, needs no power connectors, and requires a 250 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card supports more display outputs?

A: The Intel Arc A380E x2 supports 8x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 outputs. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation supports 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: What is the physical size difference?

A: The Intel Arc A380E x2 measures 265 mm in length, 127 mm in height, and 20 mm in width, and is a single-slot card. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation measures 168 mm in length and 69 mm in height, and is a dual-slot card.

Q: How does the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: Its average benchmark score of 117,088 is 0.3% below the NVIDIA GB10, 1.6% below the AMD Radeon PRO W7700, 2.4% above the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB, and 2.8% above the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from fundamentally different architecture generations. Intel's Arc A380E x2 uses the DG2-128 chip built on the Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation (Arc 3). It is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC with 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.9M per mm². The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation uses the AD104 chip built on Ada Lovelace, part of the Workstation Ada generation. It is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8M per mm².

The compute resources differ dramatically. The Intel card contains 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 8 ray tracing cores, with no tensor cores listed. The NVIDIA card contains 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 48 ray tracing cores, and 192 tensor cores. That configuration gives NVIDIA a 6x advantage in shading units, 3x in TMUs, 2x in ROPs, and 6x in ray tracing cores.

The FP16 capabilities also differ in implementation. The Intel card delivers 8.192 TFLOPS of FP16 with a 2:1 ratio relative to its FP32 throughput, indicating a shared execution path. The NVIDIA card delivers 19.17 TFLOPS of FP16 with a 1:1 ratio, meaning its FP16 throughput matches its FP32 throughput exactly.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Intel card is marked as end-of-life with a predecessor of Xe Graphics and a successor of Battlemage. The NVIDIA card is active in production with a predecessor of Workstation Ampere and a successor of Blackwell PRO W.

Specification Differences

The clock speeds present a notable inversion. The Intel Arc A380E x2 runs at a fixed 2000 MHz for both base and boost clocks, with memory at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective). The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation runs at a 720 MHz base clock and a 1560 MHz boost clock, with memory at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Despite the lower clocks, NVIDIA's much larger shader count produces far higher throughput.

Memory configuration differences are substantial. The Intel card has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus with 186.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus with 280.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card provides 3.33x the capacity and roughly 1.5x the bandwidth.

Rasterization and texture throughput follow the same pattern. The Intel card achieves 64.00 GPixel/s pixel rate and 128.0 GTexel/s texture rate. The NVIDIA card achieves 99.84 GPixel/s pixel rate and 299.5 GTexel/s texture rate. NVIDIA leads by roughly 1.56x in pixel rate and 2.34x in texture rate.

The physical and electrical specifications differ in ways that matter for system integration. The Intel card is single-slot, 265 mm long, 127 mm tall, and 20 mm wide, uses a 1x 6-pin power connector, and has a 300 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card is dual-slot, 168 mm long and 69 mm tall, uses no power connectors, and has a 250 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card is shorter and draws less power, but it occupies two slot widths. The bus interface also differs: Intel uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while NVIDIA uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

Display output capabilities diverge significantly. The Intel card provides 8x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 outputs, while the NVIDIA card provides 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The Intel card's DisplayPort 2.0 support is newer than NVIDIA's DisplayPort 1.4a, but the NVIDIA card's output count is lower by half.

Release timing also separates the cards. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation launched on 2023-03-20, while the Intel Arc A380E x2 launched on 2024-03-31.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no direct head-to-head benchmark entries between these two cards, and the Intel Arc A380E x2 has no individual benchmark scores recorded. The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation has two recorded benchmark results. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 124,812. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 109,364. Its average benchmark score across the database is 117,088, which places it at the 95th percentile of all GPUs.

The Intel Arc A380E x2, with no recorded benchmark scores, cannot be directly compared on the same test suite. However, its 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with its compute specifications, indicates a fundamentally lower performance tier. The NVIDIA card's FP32 throughput of 19.17 TFLOPS is approximately 4.68x the Intel card's 4.096 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card's FP16 throughput of 19.17 TFLOPS is approximately 2.34x the Intel card's 8.192 TFLOPS.

In the context of the broader database, the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation sits in a competitive cluster. Its average score of 117,088 is 0.3% below the NVIDIA GB10 at 117,393 and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 at 118,976. It beats the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB at 114,395 by 2.4% and the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile at 113,944 by 2.8%. These margins show that the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is closely matched with other high-end workstation cards, with performance differences of less than 3% across all four nearest rivals.

The Intel Arc A380E x2's 50th percentile ranking places it in the middle of the database distribution, which is consistent with its smaller chip, lower transistor count, and reduced memory subsystem. The NVIDIA card's 95th percentile ranking places it near the top of the distribution, a gap of 45 percentile points. The compute, memory, and feature-set differences all point in the same direction: the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is the dominant card for performance-oriented workloads, while the Intel Arc A380E x2 offers specific advantages only in physical footprint, display output count, and newer DisplayPort standard support.