AMD FirePro D300 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Comparison

# AMD FirePro D300 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile

The AMD FirePro D300 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile represent two very different eras of GPU design. The FirePro D300 is a 2014 workstation card built on GCN 1.0 architecture, while the RTX 3060 Mobile is a 2021 laptop GPU based on Ampere. The benchmark data shows a dramatic performance gap: in Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79,483 versus the FirePro D300's 19,515, a 75.4% advantage for the NVIDIA part. Similarly, in Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 3060 Mobile reaches 80,344 against 19,759 for the FirePro D300, another 75.4% delta. These are not close competitors; the RTX 3060 Mobile is in a completely different performance class.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro D300 has an average benchmark score of 19,637, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile averages 18,159. Despite the RTX 3060 Mobile winning both head-to-head tests by large margins, the FirePro D300's average is actually higher by roughly 8% because the RTX 3060 Mobile's broader benchmark suite includes lower DirectX scores.

Q: How do the two cards compare in raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 5 times higher than the FirePro D300's 2.176 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card also offers FP16 at 10.94 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the FirePro D300 has no listed FP16 capability.

Q: Which GPU supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The FirePro D300 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), Vulkan 1.2.170, and OpenGL 4.6. The RTX 3060 Mobile also adds hardware ray tracing with 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, which the FirePro D300 lacks entirely.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The FirePro D300 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 162.6 GB/s bandwidth and 1270 MHz memory clock (5.1 Gbps effective). The RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth and 1750 MHz memory clock (14 Gbps effective).

Q: Which GPU has better percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The FirePro D300 sits at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 3060 Mobile is at the 62nd percentile. This means the FirePro D300 ranks slightly higher in the overall distribution, even though it loses decisively in the direct head-to-head benchmarks.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The FirePro D300 has a TDP of 150 W and requires a 450 W power supply. The RTX 3060 Mobile has a TDP of 80 W with no power connectors listed, as it is designed for portable devices where power delivery is integrated into the motherboard.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is massive. The FirePro D300 uses the Pitcairn chip built on TSMC's 28 nm process with 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.2 million per mm². It is based on the GCN 1.0 architecture, which was AMD's first-generation compute-oriented design. The RTX 3060 Mobile, by contrast, uses the GA106 chip fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process, packing 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die with a density of 43.5 million transistors per mm². This represents a 3.3x improvement in transistor density.

The compute configurations are equally divergent. The FirePro D300 has 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 3,840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The NVIDIA part also adds 30 RT cores dedicated to ray tracing and 120 tensor cores for AI workloads, features that simply don't exist in the older AMD architecture. The RTX 3060 Mobile's pixel rate of 68.40 GPixel/s is 2.5x the FirePro D300's 27.20 GPixel/s, and its texture rate of 171.0 GTexel/s is 2.5x the 68.00 GTexel/s of the older card.

The memory subsystem differs as well. The FirePro D300 uses GDDR5 on a 256-bit interface, producing 162.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3060 Mobile uses faster GDDR6 on a narrower 192-bit bus, yet still achieves 336.0 GB/s — more than double the bandwidth. The PCIe interface also advances from PCIe 3.0 x16 on the FirePro D300 to PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 3060 Mobile. The RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the FirePro D300 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Mobile wins in every shared benchmark category. In Geekbench OpenCL, it delivers 79,483 points versus the FirePro D300's 19,515, a 75.4% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 80,344 versus 19,759, also a 75.4% lead. The RTX 3060 Mobile also holds the edge in feature support, offering ray tracing, tensor cores, and modern API compliance that the FirePro D300 cannot match.

However, the FirePro D300 does have areas where it appears favorable. Its average benchmark score of 19,637 is higher than the RTX 3060 Mobile's 18,159, driven by the NVIDIA part's weak DirectX legacy performance. The RTX 3060 Mobile scores only 146 in Passmark DirectX 9, 110 in DirectX 11, 90 in DirectX 10, and 58 in DirectX 12. The FirePro D300's percentile ranking of 64 is also above the RTX 3060 Mobile's 62, indicating that in the broader GPU landscape, the older card sits relatively higher.

The FirePro D300 is a desktop workstation card with 4x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs and a single-slot design, making it suitable for multi-display professional setups. The RTX 3060 Mobile is a mobile part with portable-device-dependent display outputs, which means its display capabilities vary by laptop implementation. The FirePro D300 also benefits from a 256-bit memory bus, which provides better memory efficiency per clock compared to the narrower 192-bit bus of the RTX 3060 Mobile, though the NVIDIA card's higher memory clocks more than compensate.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD FirePro D300 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile |

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

| Process Node | 28 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 2,800 million | 12,000 million |

| Die Size | 212 mm² | 276 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 13.2M / mm² | 43.5M / mm² |

| Base Clock | Not listed | 900 MHz |

| Boost Clock | Not listed | 1425 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1270 MHz / 5.1 Gbps | 1750 MHz / 14 Gbps |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 162.6 GB/s | 336.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1280 | 3840 |

| TMUs | 80 | 120 |

| ROPs | 32 | 48 |

| RT Cores | None | 30 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 120 |

| Pixel Rate | 27.20 GPixel/s | 68.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 68.00 GTexel/s | 171.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.176 TFLOPS | 10.94 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not listed | 10.94 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 150 W | 80 W |

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

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

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 1.2 | Portable Device Dependent |

| Power Connectors | Not listed | None |

| Suggested PSU | 450 W | Not listed |

| Release Date | 2014-01-17 | 2021-01-11 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two directly comparable benchmarks are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the RTX 3060 Mobile dominates both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79,483 against the FirePro D300's 19,515. The delta is 75.4% in favor of the NVIDIA card, meaning the FirePro D300 achieves only about a quarter of the RTX 3060 Mobile's compute throughput in this workload. This massive gap reflects the 5x difference in FP32 performance and the 2x difference in memory bandwidth.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the results are nearly identical in proportional terms. The RTX 3060 Mobile posts 80,344 points, while the FirePro D300 manages 19,759. The 75.4% delta is exactly the same as the OpenCL result, indicating that the performance relationship between these two cards is consistent across different compute APIs. The RTX 3060 Mobile's Vulkan score is slightly higher than its OpenCL score (80,344 vs 79,483), suggesting the NVIDIA architecture handles Vulkan particularly well. The FirePro D300 shows the opposite pattern, with its Vulkan score of 19,759 slightly surpassing its OpenCL score of 19,515.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's broader benchmark suite reveals additional context. Its Passmark G3D score is 13,230, and its Passmark GPU Compute score is 5,718. However, its DirectX legacy scores are surprisingly low: 146 in DirectX 9, 110 in DirectX 11, 90 in DirectX 10, and 58 in DirectX 12. These low DirectX scores drag down its average benchmark score to 18,159, which is below the FirePro D300's 19,637 average. The FirePro D300's only two benchmarks — OpenCL and Vulkan — are both in the 19,500-19,800 range, giving it a narrower but more consistent profile.

When compared to their respective rivals, both cards sit in similar competitive positions. The FirePro D300's nearest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 with an average score of 19,602, just 0.2% higher. It also trades blows with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (19,765, 0.6% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (19,410, 1.2% lower). The RTX 3060 Mobile's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 at 18,189, which is 0.2% higher. It also compares closely to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (18,093, 0.4% lower), AMD Radeon RX 460 (18,373, 1.2% higher), and Intel Arc A770M (18,383, 1.2% higher).

The Verdict

The data presents a clear hierarchy. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is the overwhelmingly more capable GPU in raw performance, winning both head-to-head benchmarks by 75.4%. Its 10.94 TFLOPS FP32 performance, 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, and support for ray tracing and tensor cores place it in a different league than the FirePro D300. Anyone needing modern gaming features, AI acceleration, or high-throughput compute should pick the RTX 3060 Mobile without hesitation.

However, the FirePro D300 is not without a niche. Its average benchmark score of 19,637 is higher than the RTX 3060 Mobile's 18,159, and its 64th percentile ranking beats the NVIDIA card's 62nd. The FirePro D300 offers 4x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs and a single-slot desktop form factor, making it a practical choice for legacy multi-display professional workstations that don't require modern compute features. Its lower transistor count and older architecture also mean it has simpler driver requirements for older software environments.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's low DirectX legacy scores (90 in DirectX 10, 146 in DirectX 9) suggest that older DirectX-based applications may run poorly on it, which could be a deciding factor for users with legacy software dependencies. The FirePro D300's consistent performance across OpenCL and Vulkan, combined with its higher average score, makes it the safer pick for pure compute tasks that don't leverage modern features.

In practical terms, choose the RTX 3060 Mobile if you need maximum performance, modern API support, ray tracing, or AI capabilities. Choose the FirePro D300 if you require a desktop workstation card with multiple DisplayPort outputs, are constrained by a 450 W power supply budget, or need to run legacy DirectX applications where the RTX 3060 Mobile's performance drops dramatically. The RTX 3060 Mobile is the better GPU by virtually every modern metric; the FirePro D300's advantages are confined to niche legacy scenarios.