First Benchmarks for MacBook Pro With New Radeon Pro Vega Graphics Surface

Apple last week introduced new upgrade options for the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro, allowing customers to add Radeon Pro Vega 16 and 20 graphics cards to the device for superior graphics performance.

Benchmarks for the 15-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with the Radeon Pro Vega 20 option have been shared by a MacRumors reader, giving us an idea of the performance improvements over 15-inch MacBook Pro models with the standard Radeon Pro 560X graphics card that was previously the highest-end option available.


The machine, which includes a 2.6GHz Core i7 Intel processor, a Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics card, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, earned an OpenCL score of 72799. Additional benchmarks found on Geekbench with a similar machine using an upgraded Core i9 processor demonstrated OpenCL scores of 75817, 76017, and 80002.

In a separate benchmark uploaded to Geekbench, the new high-end MacBook Pro with Core i9 processor also earned a Metal score of 73953.

Comparatively, machines with similar specs and Radeon Pro 560X graphics cards on Geekbench earned maximum OpenCL scores of right around 65000 and Metal scores of approximately 57000, suggesting much higher graphics performance with the new Radeon Pro Vega 20 card.

At the current time, benchmarks are only available for the higher-end Radeon Pro Vega 20 card, with no data available for the Radeon Pro Vega 16 card. CPU benchmarks on Geekbench between machines using the new cards and the existing cards are similar because there have been no changes to the CPU.

The new Radeon Pro Vega graphics cards can only be added to the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro model, which starts at $2,799. The Radeon Pro Vega 16 costs an additional $250, while the Radeon Pro Vega 20 costs an additional $350.