Intel Arc Pro A30M vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Arc Pro A30M compare to the NVIDIA RTX A4000 in the database's OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 scores 105,739 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Intel Arc Pro A30M scores 31,894. This gives the RTX A4000 a 69.8% advantage, making it the clear winner in that single head-to-head test.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each GPU relative to all GPUs in the database?

A: The Intel Arc Pro A30M sits at the 76th percentile, while the NVIDIA RTX A4000 is at the 72nd percentile. Despite the lower percentile, the RTX A4000 has a higher average benchmark score of 26,683 compared to the Arc Pro A30M's 31,894, which reflects different benchmark distributions.

Q: Which GPU has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Intel Arc Pro A30M has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, providing 128.0 GB/s. The RTX A4000 offers four times the capacity and 3.5 times the bandwidth.

Q: What are the process node and transistor differences between the two cards?

A: The Intel Arc Pro A30M uses TSMC's 6 nm process with 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 uses Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The transistor densities are similar: 45.9M per mm² for Intel and 44.4M per mm² for NVIDIA.

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

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4000 has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, 96 ROPs, 48 ray tracing cores, and 192 tensor cores. The Intel Arc Pro A30M has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 8 ray tracing cores. The RTX A4000 leads in every computational unit count.

Q: What are the power requirements and physical dimensions of each card?

A: The Intel Arc Pro A30M has a 50 W TDP with no power connectors, making it suitable for portable devices. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 has a 140 W TDP, requires one 6-pin power connector, a 300 W suggested PSU, and is a single-slot card measuring 241 mm in length and 112 mm in height.

Where Each One Wins

The database records only one head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. In that test, the NVIDIA RTX A4000 wins decisively. However, the broader benchmark portfolio for each card tells a more nuanced story about their intended roles.

The Intel Arc Pro A30M shows its strength in the context of mobile professional workloads. Its 50 W TDP and lack of power connectors position it as a low-power solution for thin-and-light workstations. The GPU's 76th percentile ranking across all GPUs in the database indicates respectable performance for its class. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA TITAN RTX (0.7% ahead) and the AMD Radeon Pro 570X (0.9% behind), which places it in a competitive bracket despite its modest specifications.

The NVIDIA RTX A4000, by contrast, is designed for desktop workstations with higher power budgets. Its 140 W TDP, single-slot form factor, and 16 GB of memory make it a heavy-duty option for professionals who need large datasets in memory. The card's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (0.5% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (1% ahead), and the AMD Radeon 860M (1.1% ahead). The RTX A4000 also demonstrates versatility across multiple benchmark suites: it records scores in PassMark DirectX 9 (240), DirectX 10 (126), DirectX 11 (158), DirectX 12 (72), G2D (1,024), G3D (19,459), and GPU Compute (9,760), plus Geekbench Vulkan (127,645). This breadth of testing shows the A4000 is validated across legacy and modern graphics APIs.

Where the Arc Pro A30M wins is in efficiency per watt, though the database does not provide a direct efficiency metric. Its 4.096 TFLOPS of FP32 performance at 50 W contrasts sharply with the RTX A4000's 19.17 TFLOPS at 140 W. The A4000 delivers roughly 4.7 times the FP32 throughput at 2.8 times the power draw, suggesting each card wins in different scenarios: the Arc for battery-constrained mobile work, the A4000 for peak throughput in desktop rendering and compute tasks.

Architecture Differences

The Intel Arc Pro A30M is built on the Xe-HPG architecture, specifically using the DG2-128 chip from the Alchemist generation, marketed as Pro-Series Mobile. This is Intel's dedicated GPU architecture designed to bring hardware ray tracing and modern feature sets to professional mobile workloads. The chip is fabricated on TSMC's 6 nm process, which allows for a relatively compact 157 mm² die with 7,200 million transistors.

The NVIDIA RTX A4000 uses the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, part of the Workstation Ampere family (Ax000 series). Samsung's 8 nm process is used here, resulting in a much larger 392 mm² die housing 17,400 million transistors. Ampere is NVIDIA's second-generation ray tracing architecture, and it introduces third-generation tensor cores, which the A4000 implements with 192 units.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level feature parity exists. The key architectural divergence lies in compute resource allocation. The Intel chip uses a unified shading approach with 1,024 shading units, while NVIDIA distributes 6,144 CUDA cores across its GPU. The ray tracing implementations differ as well: Intel provides 8 ray tracing units, while NVIDIA offers 48. Tensor cores, which accelerate AI workloads like DLSS and OptiX denoising, are present only on the NVIDIA side; the Intel chip has no tensor core count listed in the database.

The FP16 compute ratio also separates the two. Intel achieves 8.192 TFLOPS FP16 via a 2:1 ratio over its FP32 throughput, meaning it halves the rate for FP32. NVIDIA's FP16 is 19.17 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, matching its FP32 output exactly. This suggests the A4000 can handle FP16 workloads without a throughput penalty, which is useful for AI inference and certain scientific workloads.

Specification Differences

The most glaring difference is memory capacity: 4 GB on the Intel Arc Pro A30M versus 16 GB on the NVIDIA RTX A4000. Bandwidth follows suit with 128.0 GB/s versus 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock differs, with Intel using 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and NVIDIA using 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), though the wider bus on the A4000 more than compensates.

Shader resources heavily favor NVIDIA: 6,144 shading units versus 1,024, 192 TMUs versus 64, 96 ROPs versus 32, 48 RT cores versus 8, and 192 tensor cores versus none. Pixel rate is 149.8 GPixel/s on NVIDIA versus 64.00 GPixel/s on Intel. Texture rate is 299.5 GTexel/s versus 128.0 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 19.17 TFLOPS versus 4.096 TFLOPS.

Power and physical design differ substantially. Intel's TDP is 50 W with no power connectors and a bus interface of PCIe 4.0 x8. NVIDIA's TDP is 140 W with one 6-pin connector, a 300 W suggested PSU, and PCIe 4.0 x16. The A4000 is a single-slot card with 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and specific dimensions (241 mm length, 112 mm height), while the Arc Pro A30M's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," reflecting its mobile nature.

Release dates also differ: the Arc Pro A30M launched on August 7, 2022, while the RTX A4000 launched earlier on April 11, 2021. Both are marked as end-of-life in production status. The RTX A4000 has a named predecessor (Quadro Turing) and successor (Workstation Ada), while the Intel card has neither listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one head-to-head benchmark result between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. In this test, the NVIDIA RTX A4000 scores 105,739, while the Intel Arc Pro A30M scores 31,894. The delta is -69.8%, meaning the Intel card trails by nearly 70%. This is a decisive victory for the A4000, and it aligns with the raw specification differences: the A4000 has six times the shading units, four times the memory, and 3.5 times the bandwidth.

To contextualize the Intel card's OpenCL result, its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA TITAN RTX with an average score of 31,676 (0.7% ahead of the Arc) and the AMD Radeon Pro 570X at 32,176 (0.9% behind). This places the Arc Pro A30M in a performance tier that is competitive with older high-end desktop cards, despite its mobile form factor and low power draw.

For the NVIDIA RTX A4000, its average benchmark score of 26,683 across all recorded tests places it near the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26,553, 0.5% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26,421, 1% ahead), and the AMD Radeon 860M (26,401, 1.1% ahead). The Geekbench OpenCL score is an outlier on the high side for the A4000, while its PassMark G3D score of 19,459 and GPU Compute score of 9,760 provide a more balanced picture of its compute capabilities.

Looking at the A4000's benchmark suite in isolation, the Geekbench Vulkan score of 127,645 is the highest recorded, indicating strong cross-vendor API performance. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 72 is notably lower than DirectX 11 (158), which suggests driver maturity or workload characteristics that favor older APIs. The G2D score of 1,024 reflects 2D desktop performance, which is less critical for professional 3D workloads.

The Intel Arc Pro A30M's only recorded benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, is its sole data point in the database. With an average benchmark score equal to that single result (31,894), there is no additional context from other tests. This limits direct comparison, but the head-to-head result is unambiguous: the RTX A4000 dominates in raw compute throughput. The Arc's 50 W power envelope and mobile design remain its primary advantages, but in pure performance terms, the A4000 is the superior GPU in this matchup.