AMD FirePro D300 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Comparison

The AMD FirePro D300 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by nearly five years of architectural evolution. The data available for direct comparison is limited to two compute-focused benchmarks, but the results are decisive and reveal a generational chasm in raw processing capability. This analysis examines the head-to-head results, the architectural and specification chasms, and what the numbers imply for different use cases.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a clear and one-sided picture. The RTX 2070 wins both available head-to-head tests, and it does so by a staggering margin. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 2070 scores 79,966 against the FirePro D300’s 19,515. This represents a delta of -75.6% from the perspective of the AMD card, meaning the NVIDIA GPU is roughly four times faster in this compute workload. The result is not a marginal victory but a complete obliteration of the older card’s performance.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story. The RTX 2070 achieves a score of 82,521, while the FirePro D300 manages only 19,759. The delta here is -76.1%, again indicating a massive performance advantage for the NVIDIA card. This consistency across both OpenCL and Vulkan APIs suggests that the RTX 2070’s advantage is not tied to a single software stack but is fundamental to its hardware design.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the FirePro D300’s average benchmark score is 19,637, placing it in the 64th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602, delta 0.2%), the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (19,765, delta -0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (19,410, delta 1.2%). These deltas are all within a couple of percentage points, showing that the FirePro D300 is competitive with a range of cards that, in the case of the RX 7900 XTX, are far more modern and powerful in other workloads. This suggests the FirePro D300’s score is a solid, if unspectacular, baseline for its era.

The RTX 2070, in contrast, has an average benchmark score of 18,789, which is actually lower than the FirePro D300’s average. This is a curious data point. However, the RTX 2070’s score is dragged down by its inclusion of numerous Passmark tests that score very low on an absolute scale (e.g., Passmark DirectX 9 at 211, DirectX 12 at 60). The RTX 2070’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla K80 (18,866, delta -0.4%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT (18,685, delta 0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 560X (18,626, delta 0.9%). The RTX 2070’s percentile rank is 63rd, nearly identical to the FirePro D300’s 64th percentile. This implies that while the RTX 2070 dominates in the specific Geekbench tests, its overall average is pulled down by other metrics, making the two cards appear similar in a generalized ranking despite the enormous gap in the head-to-head compute tests.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is the superior performer in every measurable head-to-head benchmark provided. The deltas of -75.6% and -76.1% in OpenCL and Vulkan respectively indicate a performance gulf that no driver update or software optimization could bridge. The FirePro D300, while holding its own against its direct contemporaries in the nearestRivals list, is simply outclassed by the newer architecture.

For any user prioritizing raw compute performance, as measured by Geekbench, the RTX 2070 is the only logical choice. The question is not whether the RTX 2070 wins, but why the margin is so vast. The answer lies in the architectural and specification differences, which are explored in the following sections. The FirePro D300’s higher average benchmark score compared to the RTX 2070 is a statistical anomaly driven by the different test suites, but it does not translate to a win in any direct comparison. The verdict from the head-to-head data is a decisive victory for the RTX 2070.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2070 wins exclusively in the available head-to-head benchmarks, covering both OpenCL and Vulkan compute workloads. Its 79,966 OpenCL score and 82,521 Vulkan score are more than four times higher than the FirePro D300’s corresponding results. This indicates a clear win for general-purpose GPU compute tasks that leverage these APIs, including rendering, simulation, and machine learning inference.

The FirePro D300 has zero head-to-head wins. However, its position in the nearestRivals data shows that it is not a weak card in isolation. Its average benchmark score of 19,637 is competitive with the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with deltas of 0.2% and 1.2% respectively. This suggests that in a narrow band of legacy or specific workloads where the FirePro D300’s drivers are optimized, it can match or slightly exceed some much newer cards. Yet, this is a defensive position. The FirePro D300 does not win any direct comparison in the provided data; it merely holds its own against a specific set of rivals in an average score calculation. The RTX 2070, by contrast, wins every direct comparison it has against the FirePro D300.

FAQ

Q: What is the most significant performance difference between the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is 75.6% faster than the AMD FirePro D300 in the Geekbench OpenCL test (79,966 vs. 19,515) and 76.1% faster in the Geekbench Vulkan test (82,521 vs. 19,759).

Q: Are these two GPUs even in the same performance class?

A: No. The deltas of over 75% in both head-to-head benchmarks indicate a massive performance gap. The RTX 2070 delivers roughly four times the compute performance of the FirePro D300 in these tests.

Q: The FirePro D300 has a higher average benchmark score than the RTX 2070. Does that mean it is faster?

A: No. The FirePro D300’s average score is 19,637, while the RTX 2070’s is 18,789. However, this average is skewed by the RTX 2070’s inclusion of low-scoring Passmark tests. In direct head-to-head comparisons, the RTX 2070 wins both tests by a wide margin.

Q: Which card has a better percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD FirePro D300 is in the 64th percentile, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 is in the 63rd percentile. Despite the RTX 2070’s dominance in direct comparison, their overall percentile rankings are nearly identical.

Q: Does the FirePro D300 win any benchmark against the RTX 2070?

A: No. The data shows zero wins for the AMD FirePro D300 and two wins for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 in the head-to-head benchmarks.

Q: What does the RTX 2070’s nearest rivals list reveal about its performance?

A: The RTX 2070’s average score of 18,789 is within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon RX 560X (18,626) and within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT (18,685), showing it is grouped with those cards in overall average performance, despite its superior showings in the Geekbench tests.

Architecture Differences

The foundational architectures of these two GPUs are generations apart. The AMD FirePro D300 is built on the GCN 1.0 architecture, using the Pitcairn chip, and is fabricated on a 28 nm process node at TSMC. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 utilizes the Turing architecture with the TU106 chip, manufactured on a more advanced 12 nm process, also at TSMC. This node shrink is a primary driver of the performance difference, allowing for a significantly higher transistor count.

The transistor counts highlight the scale of the difference. The FirePro D300 has 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 13.2 million per mm². The RTX 2070 is a much larger and more complex chip, packing 10,800 million transistors onto a 445 mm² die, achieving a density of 24.3 million per mm². This is nearly four times the transistor count and nearly double the density, providing the RTX 2070 with far more computational resources.

The RTX 2070’s Turing architecture also introduces dedicated hardware that is entirely absent from the GCN 1.0-based FirePro D300. The RTX 2070 features 36 RT cores and 288 tensor cores, which are designed for real-time ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, respectively. The FirePro D300 has no such hardware, relying solely on its general-purpose shader units. This is a qualitative difference in capability, not just a quantitative one. The API support also diverges, with the RTX 2070 supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the FirePro D300 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Specification Differences

The core specifications differ dramatically, explaining the benchmark results. The RTX 2070 has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 64 raster operations pipelines (ROPs). The FirePro D300 is equipped with 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This means the RTX 2070 has nearly double the shader count, 80% more TMUs, and double the ROPs, giving it a massive advantage in pixel fill rate (103.7 GPixel/s vs. 27.20 GPixel/s) and texture rate (233.3 GTexel/s vs. 68.00 GTexel/s).

Memory is another area of significant divergence. The FirePro D300 offers 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 162.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 2070 comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on the same 256-bit bus, but with a much higher bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The RTX 2070’s memory clock is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), compared to the FirePro D300’s 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective). This quadrupling of memory capacity and nearly tripling of bandwidth is critical for modern, high-resolution textures and large datasets.

Clock speeds, where listed, also favor the RTX 2070. The RTX 2070 has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1620 MHz. The FirePro D300’s base and boost clocks are not listed, but its memory clock is significantly lower. The compute output reflects these differences: the RTX 2070 delivers 7.465 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the FirePro D300 delivers 2.176 TFLOPS. The RTX 2070 also offers FP16 performance of 14.93 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability not listed for the FirePro D300. Even the power profile differs, with the RTX 2070 rated at 175 W TDP and the FirePro D300 at 150 W, though both suggest a 450 W power supply.