AMD FirePro D300 vs AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the two cards compare in average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro D300 posts an average benchmark score of 19,637, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX averages 19,410. The D300 edges ahead by roughly 1.2% in this aggregate metric, despite the massive generational gap.

Q: Which card wins in OpenCL performance?

A: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX scores 50,465 in Geekbench OpenCL versus the FirePro D300's 19,515. That represents a 61.3% advantage for the newer card, a decisive margin.

Q: What about Vulkan performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX dominates with a Geekbench Vulkan score of 85,612, compared to 19,759 for the FirePro D300. The delta is 76.9% in favor of the Radeon, making this the largest gap between the two in any shared test.

Q: Are these cards in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both sit at the 64th percentile against all GPUs in the database. Their average scores land within 1.2% of each other, which explains their identical percentile ranking despite wildly different architectures.

Q: What are the nearest rivals for each card?

A: The FirePro D300's closest competitor is the NVIDIA Quadro K5200, which scores 19,602 (0.2% behind). The RX 7900 XTX's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB, scoring 19,334 (0.4% behind). Notably, each card appears as a rival to the other.

Q: Which card has higher pixel and texture throughput?

A: The RX 7900 XTX delivers 479.6 GPixel/s and 959.2 GTexel/s, versus 27.20 GPixel/s and 68.00 GTexel/s for the FirePro D300. The Radeon is roughly 17.6x faster in pixel rate and 14.1x faster in texture rate.

Architecture Differences

The FirePro D300 is built on GCN 1.0 architecture with the Pitcairn chip, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 2,800 million transistors into a 212 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.2M per mm². The RX 7900 XTX uses RDNA 3.0 with the Navi 31 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 57,700 million transistors across a 529 mm² die, achieving 109.1M transistors per mm² — a density roughly 8.3x higher.

The FirePro D300 features 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. It has no dedicated ray tracing cores. The RX 7900 XTX scales dramatically: 6,144 shading units, 384 TMUs, 192 ROPs, and 96 ray tracing cores. Both cards are AMD products, but they belong to different lineages — the D300 comes from the FirePro Data Center (Dx00) generation, while the 7900 XTX is part of the Radeon RX 7000 series under the Navi III (RX 7000) generation.

Memory architecture differs fundamentally. The D300 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 162.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit interface, delivering 960.0 GB/s — a 5.9x increase in capacity and a similar leap in bandwidth. Clock speeds also diverge: the D300's memory runs at 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective), while the 7900 XTX's memory operates at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), and its base and boost clocks are 1929 MHz and 2498 MHz respectively, with a game clock of 2365 MHz.

API support shows the generational jump. The FirePro D300 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RX 7900 XTX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The newer card also adds hardware ray tracing cores, which the older GCN design lacks entirely. Power and physical specifications reflect the performance gulf: the D300 consumes 150 W with a suggested 450 W PSU, while the 7900 XTX draws 355 W requiring a 750 W PSU. The D300 is single-slot with four DisplayPort 1.2 outputs; the 7900 XTX is dual-slot with one HDMI 2.1a, two DisplayPort 2.1, and one USB Type-C.

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a curious case. In aggregate average score, the FirePro D300 actually leads the RX 7900 XTX by 1.2% (19,637 vs 19,410). This is driven entirely by the D300's competitive OpenCL and Vulkan scores relative to the 7900 XTX's surprisingly middling results in those specific tests. However, the head-to-head benchmarks tell a different story: the RX 7900 XTX wins both shared tests decisively, with a 61.3% margin in OpenCL and a 76.9% margin in Vulkan.

For users prioritizing raw compute in Geekbench workloads, the RX 7900 XTX is the clear choice — its 50,465 OpenCL and 85,612 Vulkan scores dwarf the D300's 19,515 and 19,759. The Radeon also offers vastly superior pixel rate (479.6 GPixel/s vs 27.20 GPixel/s), texture rate (959.2 GTexel/s vs 68.00 GTexel/s), and FP32 throughput (61.39 TFLOPS vs 2.176 TFLOPS). It supports ray tracing natively with 96 cores, a capability entirely absent from the FirePro.

That said, the D300's aggregate score parity suggests it remains surprisingly relevant in specific legacy workloads, likely due to driver optimizations or test-specific quirks. Its 64th percentile ranking matches the 7900 XTX exactly, and its nearest rival list includes the Radeon itself. For anyone working with modern APIs, DirectX 12 Ultimate, or ray-traced content, the RX 7900 XTX is unequivocally the stronger part. For those constrained to older DisplayPort 1.2 setups or single-slot chassis, the D300 holds niche appeal — but its 2 GB memory and GCN 1.0 architecture severely limit modern applicability.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD FirePro D300 | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX |

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

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | RDNA 3.0 |

| Chip | Pitcairn | Navi 31 |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 5 nm |

| Transistors | 2,800 million | 57,700 million |

| Die Size | 212 mm² | 529 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 13.2M / mm² | 109.1M / mm² |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 24 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 162.6 GB/s | 960.0 GB/s |

| Memory Clock | 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps) | 2500 MHz (20 Gbps) |

| Shading Units | 1280 | 6144 |

| TMUs | 80 | 384 |

| ROPs | 32 | 192 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | None | 96 |

| Pixel Rate | 27.20 GPixel/s | 479.6 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 68.00 GTexel/s | 959.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.176 TFLOPS | 61.39 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not specified | 122.8 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 150 W | 355 W |

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

| Power Connectors | Not specified | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 450 W | 750 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 1.2 | 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C |

| DirectX Support | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Base Clock | Not specified | 1929 MHz |

| Boost Clock | Not specified | 2498 MHz |

| Game Clock | Not specified | 2365 MHz |

| Length | 242 mm (9.5 inches) | 287 mm (11.3 inches) |

| Height | Not specified | 110 mm (4.3 inches) |

| Width | Not specified | 51 mm (2 inches) |

| Release Date | 2014-01-17 | 2022-11-02 |

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

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two tests where both cards have recorded scores are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the RX 7900 XTX wins both outright.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7900 XTX scores 50,465 against the FirePro D300's 19,515. The delta of 61.3% is substantial, reflecting the Radeon's modern compute architecture and vastly higher FP32 throughput of 61.39 TFLOPS versus 2.176 TFLOPS. The D300's GCN 1.0 design, while competitive in its era, simply cannot match the raw execution resources of 6,144 shading units against 1,280.

Geekbench Vulkan shows an even wider gap. The RX 7900 XTX posts 85,612, while the FirePro D300 manages 19,759 — a 76.9% difference. Vulkan's low-level API behavior favors the newer architecture's scheduling and memory subsystem. The 7900 XTX's 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus 162.6 GB/s provides a massive data throughput advantage, and its 96 ray tracing cores add workload flexibility the D300 cannot offer.

Away from shared tests, the RX 7900 XTX has additional benchmark data that underscores its strengths. It scores 31,238 in Passmark G3D, 17,689 in Passmark GPU Compute, and 6,841 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It also posts 1,267 in Passmark G2D, along with DirectX-specific results of 356 (DX11), 330 (DX9), 166 (DX10), and 131 (DX12). These scores are not directly comparable to any D300 results, but they demonstrate the Radeon's versatility across legacy and modern graphics APIs.

The FirePro D300's aggregate score of 19,637 versus the RX 7900 XTX's 19,410 creates an interesting statistical anomaly. The D300's nearest rival list includes the Quadro K5200 (0.2% behind), the RX 6650 XT (0.6% behind), the RX 7900 XTX itself (1.2% behind), and the Tesla K40m (1.2% ahead). The 7900 XTX's rivals include the GTX 1060 3 GB (0.4% behind), the Quadro K5200 (1% ahead), the FirePro D300 (1.2% ahead), and the TITAN Xp (1.2% behind). This mutual inclusion reflects how close their average scores are, even though their individual benchmark profiles could not be more different. In practical terms, the RX 7900 XTX wins every shared test decisively, making it the superior choice for any workload represented in this data.