AMD FirePro D300 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records only one shared benchmark between the AMD FirePro D300 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2, which makes a direct comparison limited. The FirePro D300 was tested with Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 19,515 and 19,759 respectively, for an average benchmark score of 19,637. The RTX 5090 D V2 was tested with 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, scoring 16,504. These tests measure different workloads, so the raw numbers are not directly comparable. What matters is how each card ranks against its own nearest rivals in the database.

The FirePro D300 sits at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, a respectable position for a card from its era. Its average score of 19,637 places it within a tight cluster of competitors. The closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, which scores 19,765, a delta of negative 0.6 percent, meaning the FirePro trails that card by less than one percent. Against the NVIDIA Quadro K5200, the FirePro leads by 0.2 percent, with the K5200 scoring 19,602. The gap to the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is larger, with the FirePro ahead by 1.2 percent (that card scores 19,410), while the NVIDIA Tesla K40m beats it by 1.2 percent with a score of 19,885. This clustering shows the FirePro D300 performing within a narrow band of roughly one to two percent across four very different GPUs, from a professional workstation card to modern gaming flagships.

The RTX 5090 D V2, by contrast, sits at the 59th percentile of all GPUs, which is surprisingly modest for a flagship. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 16,504 is nearly matched by the NVIDIA T400 at 16,508, a delta of 0 percent, meaning the two are statistically identical. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 16,415, putting it 0.5 percent behind the 5090 D V2. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16,408, a 0.6 percent deficit, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT scores 16,361, trailing by 0.9 percent. The data shows the 5090 D V2 leading all four rivals, but by margins of less than one percent in every case. That is a remarkably tight grouping for a card with such a high launch MSRP.

The wins are split unevenly. The FirePro D300 has no recorded head-to-head benchmark wins against the 5090 D V2, and the 5090 D V2 likewise has no recorded wins against the FirePro. The database does not list any shared test between these two products. The only way to interpret performance is through the percentile and nearest-rival data. The FirePro's average score of 19,637 versus the 5090 D V2's 16,504 cannot be compared directly because they come from different test suites. What can be said is that both cards occupy similar percentile positions (64 versus 59), and both beat their nearest rivals by very small margins. The FirePro is more consistent across its two tests, while the 5090 D V2 has only one recorded benchmark, which limits confidence in its standing.

Where Each One Wins

The FirePro D300 wins in legacy compute workloads. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 19,515 and Vulkan score of 19,759 demonstrate strong performance in cross-platform compute tasks that stress shading units and memory bandwidth. The card's 2,176 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, delivered through 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, makes it suitable for OpenCL compute in professional applications from its 2014 era. The 2 GB GDDR5 memory with 162.6 GB/s bandwidth is modest by modern standards, but the benchmark data shows it holding its own against cards from much later generations. The FirePro's nearest rival comparison shows it beating the Quadro K5200 and the RX 7900 XTX, both of which are significantly more powerful on paper. This suggests the FirePro's benchmark scores benefit from efficient driver optimization in legacy tests.

The RTX 5090 D V2 wins in modern graphics workloads. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 16,504 reflects a card built for contemporary gaming and rendering pipelines. The 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, delivered through 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, provides massive raw compute. The 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores add specialized hardware that the FirePro completely lacks. The 24 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.34 TB/s bandwidth is over eight times the bandwidth of the FirePro's GDDR5. The 5090 D V2 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the FirePro supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. For any workload using ray tracing, tensor operations, or modern graphics APIs, the 5090 D V2 is the clear choice.

The use-case split is straightforward. The FirePro D300 is suited for legacy OpenCL compute tasks, particularly in environments that still rely on older driver stacks and workstation software from the early 2010s. Its 64th percentile ranking shows it remains functional, but it is end-of-life and cannot handle modern graphics features. The RTX 5090 D V2 is suited for demanding graphics workloads, AI inference through tensor cores, and ray-traced rendering. Its 59th percentile ranking in the database, while lower than the FirePro's, reflects a single test that may not capture its full capabilities. The 5090 D V2 leads its nearest rivals by up to 0.9 percent, while the FirePro leads its nearest rivals by up to 1.2 percent, indicating that the FirePro has a slightly stronger relative standing in its own benchmark suite.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro D300 has an average benchmark score of 19,637, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 has an average score of 16,504. However, these scores come from different benchmark tests, so they are not directly comparable.

Q: How does each card compare to its closest rival?

A: The FirePro D300 is closest to the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, trailing by 0.6 percent. The RTX 5090 D V2 is closest to the NVIDIA T400, with a delta of 0 percent, meaning they score identically in the recorded test.

Q: What are the biggest performance gaps for each card?

A: The FirePro D300 leads the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX by 1.2 percent and trails the NVIDIA Tesla K40m by 1.2 percent. The RTX 5090 D V2 leads the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT by 0.9 percent and trails no rival in its nearest group.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 supports ray tracing, with 170 ray tracing cores. The AMD FirePro D300 has no ray tracing cores listed in the database.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The FirePro D300 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit bus and 162.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 5090 D V2 has 24 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 384-bit bus and 1.34 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile ranking?

A: The FirePro D300 ranks at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 5090 D V2 ranks at the 59th percentile. The FirePro's higher percentile reflects its strong performance in its recorded benchmarks.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The FirePro D300 uses a Pitcairn chip built on a 28 nm process with 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die. The RTX 5090 D V2 uses a GB202 chip built on a 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The transistor density is 13.2 million per mm² for the FirePro versus 122.9 million per mm² for the RTX 5090 D V2, a nine-fold difference in packing density.

Clock speeds show a similar gulf. The FirePro D300 has no recorded base or boost clock, but its memory runs at 1270 MHz with 5.1 Gbps effective. The RTX 5090 D V2 has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory at 1750 MHz and 28 Gbps effective. The memory interfaces differ radically: 2 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus versus 24 GB GDDR7 on a 384-bit bus. Bandwidth is 162.6 GB/s versus 1.34 TB/s, an eight-fold increase.

The compute units scale dramatically. The FirePro has 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 5090 D V2 has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The FirePro has no ray tracing or tensor cores, while the RTX 5090 D V2 includes 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 27.20 GPixel/s versus 423.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 68.00 GTexel/s versus 1,636.8 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 2.176 TFLOPS versus 104.8 TFLOPS, a 48-fold difference.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The FirePro consumes 150 W TDP with a suggested PSU of 450 W, while the RTX 5090 D V2 consumes 575 W with a suggested PSU of 950 W. The FirePro is single-slot measuring 242 mm (9.5 inches) in length, while the RTX 5090 D V2 is dual-slot measuring 304 mm (12 inches) by 137 mm (5.4 inches) by 48 mm (1.9 inches). The FirePro uses 4x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, while the RTX 5090 D V2 uses 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. The FirePro connects via PCIe 3.0 x16, the RTX 5090 D V2 via PCIe 5.0 x16. The RTX 5090 D V2 has a 1x 16-pin power connector; the FirePro lists no power connector. The FirePro is end-of-life, released on 2014-01-17, while the RTX 5090 D V2 is active, released on 2025-08-14.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs spans over a decade of development. The FirePro D300 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture, AMD's Graphics Core Next design from 2012. The RTX 5090 D V2 uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, NVIDIA's latest generation from 2025. The FirePro belongs to the FirePro Data Center (Dx00) generation, while the RTX 5090 D V2 belongs to the GeForce 50 series.

The process technology explains much of the performance difference. The FirePro is built on 28 nm at TSMC, while the RTX 5090 D V2 is built on 5 nm, also at TSMC. This allows the RTX 5090 D V2 to pack 92,200 million transistors versus 2,800 million, a 33-fold increase, while maintaining a die size of 750 mm² versus 212 mm². The transistor density of 122.9 million per mm² versus 13.2 million per mm² shows the scaling efficiency of modern manufacturing.

The API support reveals the generational divide. The FirePro supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RTX 5090 D V2 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate designation includes hardware ray tracing, mesh shaders, and variable rate shading, none of which the GCN 1.0 architecture can handle. The FirePro's Vulkan 1.2.170 support is functional but lacks the extensions and optimizations available in Vulkan 1.4.

The feature set differences are stark. The RTX 5090 D V2 includes 170 dedicated ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores, enabling real-time ray tracing and AI acceleration. The FirePro has neither, relying entirely on its 1,280 shading units for all compute work. The FP16 performance of the RTX 5090 D V2 is 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio with FP32), while the FirePro lists no FP16 capability, indicating it either lacks native FP16 support or does not advertise it. The RTX 5090 D V2 also supports HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1b, which enable higher resolutions and refresh rates than the FirePro's DisplayPort 1.2 outputs.

The production status and lifecycle also differ. The FirePro D300 is end-of-life, with its predecessor being FirePro Terascale and its successor being Radeon Instinct. The RTX 5090 D V2 is active, with its predecessor being GeForce 40 and its successor being GeForce 60. The FirePro launched on 2014-01-17, the RTX 5090 D V2 on 2025-08-14. The launch MSRP of the RTX 5090 D V2 is 2,299 USD. These architectural differences explain why the FirePro, despite its strong relative benchmark performance, cannot compete with the RTX 5090 D V2 in modern workloads that leverage ray tracing, tensor operations, and advanced graphics APIs.