AMD FirePro D500 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Comparison

The AMD FirePro D500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER are separated by five years of GPU development, and the benchmark data reflects that chasm. This comparison pits a 2014 workstation-oriented card built on 28nm GCN 1.0 against a 2019 consumer Turing card on 12nm. While both hold the same 62nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, their performance characteristics and feature sets are entirely different worlds.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro D500 has a higher average benchmark score of 18,533 compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER's 18,093. However, this is based on a single Geekbench Vulkan test for the AMD card, while the NVIDIA card's average is derived from ten different benchmarks.

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

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER scores 77,402 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 76.1% higher than the FirePro D500's 18,533. This is the only head-to-head benchmark available, and NVIDIA wins it decisively.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The FirePro D500 uses 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 243.8 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 2060 SUPER uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s bandwidth — nearly double the throughput despite a narrower bus.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has 2,176 shading units, which is 640 more than the FirePro D500's 1,536. The NVIDIA card also has 136 texture mapping units versus 96, and 64 ROPs versus 32.

Q: What API feature-level differences exist?

A: The FirePro D500 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the RTX 2060 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA card also includes hardware ray tracing cores and tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks entirely.

Q: Do both cards use the same power supply recommendation?

A: No. The FirePro D500 has a suggested PSU of 600 W with a 274 W TDP, while the RTX 2060 SUPER has a suggested PSU of 450 W with a 175 W TDP. The NVIDIA card draws 99 W less power.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is the primary driver of their performance disparity. The FirePro D500 is built on GCN 1.0 architecture using a Tahiti chip, fabricated on a 28nm process at TSMC. This is a first-generation Graphics Core Next design that prioritizes compute workloads over gaming efficiency. The RTX 2060 SUPER, by contrast, uses the Turing architecture on a TU106 chip, built on a 12nm process — also at TSMC, but a significantly more advanced node.

Transistor counts tell a stark story. The FirePro D500 packs 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per mm². The RTX 2060 SUPER crams 10,800 million transistors onto a 445 mm² die, achieving 24.3 million per mm² — nearly double the density. This density advantage translates directly into more functional units per square millimeter.

The FirePro D500 has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores, while the RTX 2060 SUPER includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. This is a fundamental feature divergence: the Turing card can accelerate ray-traced lighting and AI-based operations like DLSS in hardware, while the older GCN card relies entirely on traditional shader compute for everything. The RTX 2060 SUPER also supports FP16 compute at 14.36 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), whereas the FirePro D500 lists no FP16 capability at all.

Memory architecture differs substantially as well. The FirePro D500 uses 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with memory clocked at 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective). The RTX 2060 SUPER uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The newer GDDR6 standard's higher data rate allows the narrower 256-bit bus to achieve 448.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 243.8 GB/s for the wider 384-bit bus — an 84% bandwidth advantage for NVIDIA.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single direct comparison available is Geekbench Vulkan, and it is not close. The RTX 2060 SUPER scores 77,402 against the FirePro D500's 18,533, representing a 76.1% delta in NVIDIA's favor. This is a massive margin that reflects not just raw compute differences but also driver maturity and architecture efficiency in modern API workloads.

Looking at the FirePro D500's nearest rivals provides context for its performance tier. It sits within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18,373) and 0.8% below the Intel Arc A770M (18,383). Against the AMD Radeon RX 560X (18,626), it trails by 0.5%, and it is 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT (18,685). These are all modern or near-modern cards, and the FirePro D500 holds its own in this narrow band, despite its age.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's nearest rivals paint a different picture. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 460 by 1.5% (18,373 vs 18,093 average), sits 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18,189), and is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18,159). Against the Intel Arc A770M (18,383), it lags by 1.6%. These are tight margins, suggesting the RTX 2060 SUPER's average score is competitive with a range of mid-range GPUs from various generations.

The NVIDIA card's individual benchmark results show strength across different workloads. It scores 76,957 in Geekbench OpenCL, 16,462 in Passmark G3D, and 6,721 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its Passmark DirectX scores are 218 (DX9), 130 (DX11), 111 (DX10), and 61 (DX12). The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2,011. These figures show a card that is well-rounded across traditional rasterization workloads, though the DX12 Passmark score is notably lower than DX9 or DX11.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. The FirePro D500 has a TDP of 274 W versus 175 W for the RTX 2060 SUPER — the NVIDIA card is 99 W more power-efficient. Suggested PSU requirements follow suit: 600 W for AMD, 450 W for NVIDIA.

Memory capacity differs by 5 GB (3 GB vs 8 GB), and memory type differs entirely (GDDR5 vs GDDR6). Bus width favors AMD at 384-bit versus 256-bit, but bandwidth strongly favors NVIDIA at 448.0 GB/s versus 243.8 GB/s. Memory clock rates are 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA.

Compute resources: the FirePro D500 has 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 2060 SUPER has 2,176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs — all higher. Pixel rate is 23.20 GPixel/s for AMD versus 105.6 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rate is 69.60 GTexel/s versus 224.4 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 2.227 TFLOPS versus 7.181 TFLOPS — a 3.2x advantage for NVIDIA.

Clock speeds are listed only for NVIDIA: 1470 MHz base and 1650 MHz boost. AMD's clocks are not specified. The FirePro D500 measures 279 mm (11 inches) in length, while the RTX 2060 SUPER is 229 mm (9 inches) with a height of 113 mm (4.4 inches) and width of 35 mm (1.4 inches). Both are dual-slot cards. Display outputs: AMD offers 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 and 1x SDI; NVIDIA offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C.

Release dates are January 2014 for AMD and July 2019 for NVIDIA. The FirePro D500's predecessor is FirePro Terascale with a successor of Radeon Instinct. The RTX 2060 SUPER's predecessor is GeForce 10 with a successor of GeForce 30. Both are end-of-life products.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the RTX 2060 SUPER is the superior performer in every measurable category except average benchmark score — a metric that is skewed by the FirePro D500 having only one benchmark result. In the head-to-head Geekbench Vulkan test, NVIDIA wins by 76.1%. The RTX 2060 SUPER offers more than 3x the FP32 compute, nearly double the memory bandwidth, more than double the pixel rate, and a 99 W lower power draw.

The FirePro D500's only advantages are its wider 384-bit memory bus, six mini-DisplayPort outputs plus SDI for professional display configurations, and its higher average benchmark score of 18,533 versus 18,093. The latter is a statistical artifact of comparing one test to ten. For any modern workload — gaming, compute, or content creation — the RTX 2060 SUPER is the clear choice.

That said, these are end-of-life products. The FirePro D500's GCN 1.0 architecture lacks hardware ray tracing, tensor cores, and modern API support like DirectX 12 Ultimate. The RTX 2060 SUPER has all of these. The NVIDIA card also supports newer Vulkan 1.4 versus 1.2.170, and DirectX 12_2 versus 11_1.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2060 SUPER wins in raw performance across the board. Its 7.181 TFLOPS FP32 versus 2.227 TFLOPS means it crushes the FirePro D500 in compute-heavy tasks. Its 448.0 GB/s bandwidth handles large textures and high-resolution assets far better. The 8 GB memory capacity versus 3 GB allows for modern game textures and larger datasets. The 34 RT cores enable ray-traced effects, and 272 tensor cores accelerate AI workloads.

The FirePro D500 wins in specific professional contexts. Its 6x mini-DisplayPort outputs and SDI connectivity make it suitable for multi-display or broadcast environments where many simultaneous outputs are needed. The 384-bit bus, while delivering less bandwidth overall, may have different latency characteristics in certain legacy workstation applications. Its GCN 1.0 architecture was designed for compute-heavy professional workloads and may have particular driver optimizations for specific CAD or simulation software from its era.

For gaming, content creation, or general modern computing, the RTX 2060 SUPER is the only rational choice from this data. For a legacy broadcast or multi-output professional setup requiring many display connections with minimal compute demands, the FirePro D500's connectivity could be the deciding factor. But the 76.1% Vulkan performance deficit and 3.2x FP32 gap are too large to overcome for any performance-critical application. The RTX 2060 SUPER also requires a smaller power supply (450 W vs 600 W), runs cooler at 175 W versus 274 W, and supports modern APIs that the FirePro D500 simply cannot.