AMD FirePro D500 vs Intel Arc A770M Comparison

The Verdict

The data presents a stark generational contrast. The AMD FirePro D500, a 2014 workstation card built on GCN 1.0, is decisively outclassed by the Intel Arc A770M in the only shared benchmark. The Intel part delivers a Geekbench Vulkan score of 74,422, which is 75.1% higher than the FirePro D500's 18,533. This is not a close contest; it is a fundamental shift in computing capability. The Arc A770M also holds a significant advantage in raw specifications, with a much newer architecture, more memory, and higher bandwidth.

The FirePro D500's only statistical saving grace is that its average benchmark score of 18,533 places it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, which matches the Arc A770M's percentile. However, this parity in percentile is misleading. The FirePro D500's nearest rival list includes the AMD Radeon RX 560X (18,626) and the RX 460 (18,373), showing it is firmly in the lower-midrange of modern performance. The Arc A770M, despite its similar percentile, has a much broader benchmark portfolio, including OpenCL and Passmark scores, indicating a more versatile and capable processor. For any user choosing between these two, the data overwhelmingly favors the Intel Arc A770M, unless legacy software compatibility with the older GCN architecture is a non-negotiable requirement.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the provided benchmark data, the Intel Arc A770M wins in every measurable category where a direct comparison exists. It achieves a Vulkan score of 74,422, which is a 75.1% improvement over the FirePro D500. Beyond the shared test, the Arc A770M shows strength across multiple APIs. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 89,494 and Passmark G3D score of 11,774 indicate robust performance in compute and general 3D rendering tasks. The FirePro D500 has no other benchmark entries, so its only claim to a "win" is its historical role as a professional workstation card with 6x mini-DisplayPort outputs, which is a feature set, not a performance metric.

The FirePro D500's wins are entirely contextual. It is a dual-slot, 274 W card designed for a fixed workstation environment. The Arc A770M is an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) for mobile devices, with a 120 W TDP. The data suggests the FirePro D500 wins in the niche of legacy professional display connectivity, but it loses in every performance and efficiency metric. The Arc A770M is the clear winner for any modern workload, from gaming to content creation, while the FirePro D500's advantage is purely its professional I/O configuration.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is enormous. The AMD FirePro D500 uses the Tahiti chip built on the GCN 1.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 4,313 million transistors into a 352 mm² die, yielding a density of 12.3M transistors per mm². In contrast, the Intel Arc A770M uses the DG2-512 chip with the Xe-HPG architecture, built on a 6 nm process, also at TSMC. This newer process allows Intel to pack 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die, achieving a density of 53.4M transistors per mm². This is a 4.3x increase in transistor density, which is the primary driver of its performance advantage.

The compute resources are also vastly different. The FirePro D500 has 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The Arc A770M has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. More importantly, the Arc A770M introduces 32 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the GCN 1.0 architecture. The FirePro D500 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the Arc A770M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing and other modern features. The Vulkan support also differs, with the FirePro D500 supporting version 1.2.170, while the Arc A770M supports version 1.4. The memory subsystem is also a generation apart, with the FirePro D500 using GDDR5 and the Arc A770M using GDDR6. This architectural evolution explains the massive performance delta.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A770M in Vulkan graphics performance?

A: The Intel Arc A770M scores 74,422 in the Geekbench Vulkan test, which is 75.1% higher than the AMD FirePro D500's score of 18,533.

Q: Which GPU has more memory bandwidth?

A: The Intel Arc A770M has a memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s, which is more than double the 243.8 GB/s of the AMD FirePro D500.

Q: What is the difference in their transistor counts?

A: The Intel Arc A770M has 21,700 million transistors, while the AMD FirePro D500 has 4,313 million, making the Intel chip roughly five times more complex.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the Intel Arc A770M supports ray tracing, as it has 32 dedicated RT cores. The AMD FirePro D500 has no RT cores listed.

Q: Is the AMD FirePro D500 a better choice for a modern desktop PC?

A: Data suggests no. The FirePro D500 is a dual-slot, 274 W card with a PCIe 3.0 interface, while the Arc A770M is an IGP with a 120 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 interface. The Arc A770M is also significantly faster in the shared benchmark.

Q: What is the DirectX support difference?

A: The AMD FirePro D500 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the Intel Arc A770M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes newer features.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench Vulkan test. In this test, the Intel Arc A770M scores 74,422, while the AMD FirePro D500 scores 18,533. This represents a delta of -75.1% for the FirePro D500 when compared to the Arc A770M. This is a crushing defeat, showing the Intel part is nearly four times faster in this specific API workload. The sheer magnitude of this difference underscores the generational leap between GCN 1.0 and Xe-HPG.

Beyond the head-to-head, the Arc A770M's other benchmark scores provide context for its dominance. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 89,494 is substantially higher than its Vulkan score, suggesting its compute capabilities are even stronger. The Passmark G3D score of 11,774, combined with a Passmark GPU Compute score of 4,778, further reinforces its ability to handle both graphics and general-purpose compute tasks. The FirePro D500 has no comparable scores in the data, meaning its 18,533 Vulkan result is its only performance data point. This single data point positions it near the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18,373) and RX 560X (18,626), which are entry-level GPUs, while the Arc A770M is closer to the Radeon Pro 5700 (18,189) in the rival list, though its actual score is far higher.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every specification field. The AMD FirePro D500 uses the Tahiti chip on a 28 nm process, while the Intel Arc A770M uses the DG2-512 chip on a 6 nm process. Transistor counts are 4,313 million versus 21,700 million, respectively. The die size is 352 mm² for the FirePro D500 and 406 mm² for the Arc A770M. Memory configurations are entirely different: the FirePro D500 has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 243.8 GB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A770M has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. Clock speeds are also different, with the FirePro D500 listing no base or boost clock, but a memory clock of 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective), while the Arc A770M has a base clock of 1650 MHz, a boost clock of 2050 MHz, and a memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective).

Compute unit counts show the Arc A770M with 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, compared to the FirePro D500's 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The Arc A770M also has 32 RT cores, which the FirePro D500 lacks. Pixel and texture rates are also vastly different: the Arc A770M has a pixel rate of 262.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 524.8 GTexel/s, while the FirePro D500 has 23.20 GPixel/s and 69.60 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 16.79 TFLOPS for the Arc A770M versus 2.227 TFLOPS for the FirePro D500. The TDP is 120 W for the Arc A770M versus 274 W for the FirePro D500. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for the Intel part and PCIe 3.0 x16 for the AMD part. Display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent" for the Arc A770M versus 6x mini-DisplayPort and 1x SDI for the FirePro D500. Finally, the FirePro D500 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the Arc A770M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4.