AMD FirePro D500 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile Comparison

The benchmark data places the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile and AMD FirePro D500 in vastly different performance tiers, with the RTX 4050 Mobile delivering a decisive generational leap. In the only directly comparable benchmark, the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile outscores the FirePro D500 by 306% in Geekbench Vulkan, making the comparison lopsided. The RTX 4050 Mobile is an active, modern mobile processor, while the FirePro D500 is an end-of-life, dual-slot workstation card from a previous era. The data indicates that the RTX 4050 Mobile is the superior choice for virtually all modern workloads, while the FirePro D500’s only remaining relevance is its high memory bandwidth and legacy display outputs.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile wins every benchmark category where both products have recorded scores. In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 75,235, compared to the FirePro D500’s 18,533, a 306% advantage. This indicates a clear victory for NVIDIA in modern graphics API performance, which is critical for current games and compute applications. The RTX 4050 Mobile also has a substantial lead in raw compute, with FP32 performance of 8.986 TFLOPS versus the FirePro D500’s 2.227 TFLOPS, a fourfold difference.

The AMD FirePro D500 does not win any recorded benchmark. However, it holds specific hardware advantages that could be relevant in niche legacy scenarios. Its memory bus is 384-bit wide, compared to the RTX 4050 Mobile’s 96-bit bus, which gives it a higher memory bandwidth of 243.8 GB/s versus 192.0 GB/s. This could theoretically benefit large, bandwidth-intensive datasets in older professional applications, but the lack of benchmark data and its lower compute throughput make this advantage difficult to quantify. The FirePro D500 also offers six mini-DisplayPort outputs and one SDI output, whereas the RTX 4050 Mobile’s display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent," meaning the FirePro D500 is the clear winner for multi-display professional setups.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile than the AMD FirePro D500 in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile scores 75,235 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the FirePro D500 scores 18,533. This results in a 306% performance advantage for the NVIDIA card, meaning it is roughly four times faster in this specific test.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth, and why does it matter?

A: The AMD FirePro D500 has higher memory bandwidth at 243.8 GB/s, thanks to its 384-bit bus and GDDR5 memory. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 192.0 GB/s over a 96-bit bus. Higher bandwidth can help with large data sets, but the RTX 4050 Mobile’s much faster compute cores likely compensate in most tasks.

Q: Are these two GPUs comparable in terms of modern feature support?

A: No. The RTX 4050 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and includes dedicated ray tracing cores (20) and tensor cores (80). The FirePro D500 only supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, with no ray tracing or tensor cores.

Q: What is the process node difference between the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, while the AMD FirePro D500 uses a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. This is a major factor in the NVIDIA card’s superior efficiency and performance per watt.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile has 2,560 shading units, whereas the AMD FirePro D500 has 1,536. This higher count contributes to the NVIDIA card’s significantly higher FP32 throughput.

Q: What is the performance percentile ranking for each GPU?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile sits in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,049. The FirePro D500 is in the 62nd percentile, with an average score of 18,533.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded head-to-head benchmark is Geekbench Vulkan, where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile achieves a score of 75,235 against the AMD FirePro D500’s 18,533. The delta is a staggering 306%, meaning the RTX 4050 Mobile is more than four times faster. This is not a marginal win; it is a complete rout that reflects the architectural and generational gap between the two products.

Beyond the direct comparison, the average benchmark scores reinforce this dominance. The RTX 4050 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 19,049 across all tests, while the FirePro D500 has an average of 18,533. While these averages are close, the RTX 4050 Mobile’s score is derived from nine different benchmarks (including Geekbench OpenCL, Passmark DirectX 10/11/12/9, G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute), whereas the FirePro D500’s score is based on a single Vulkan test. This indicates that the RTX 4050 Mobile has consistent high performance across a wide range of workloads, while the FirePro D500’s average is not representative of general performance.

In terms of nearest rivals, the RTX 4050 Mobile’s average score of 19,049 is within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (19,036) and 0.1% of the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030). It is also 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954). This suggests the RTX 4050 Mobile performs like a mid-range desktop card. The FirePro D500’s average score of 18,533 is 0.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 560X (18,626) and 0.8% above the Intel Arc A770M (18,383), placing it in a much older, lower-performance bracket.

Specification Differences

The core specifications differ dramatically between the two cards. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile has 2,560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The AMD FirePro D500 has 1,536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. While the FirePro D500 has more texture mapping units, the RTX 4050 Mobile has 66% more shading units and 50% more ROPs, which drives its superior pixel and texture rates. The RTX 4050 Mobile’s pixel rate is 84.24 GPixel/s and texture rate is 140.4 GTexel/s, compared to the FirePro D500’s 23.20 GPixel/s and 69.60 GTexel/s.

Memory configurations also differ significantly. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, yielding 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The FirePro D500 has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, yielding 243.8 GB/s. The FirePro D500 has higher bandwidth but half the capacity. The power requirements are polar opposites: the RTX 4050 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W and is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors, while the FirePro D500 has a 274 W TDP, is a dual-slot card, and requires a 600 W suggested PSU. The bus interface also differs, with the RTX 4050 Mobile using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the FirePro D500 using PCIe 3.0 x16.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf is the root cause of the performance disparity. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD107 chip, and is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 118.9M / mm². It also includes 20 dedicated ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI features. The FP16 and FP32 performance are identical at 8.986 TFLOPS, indicating a 1:1 ratio.

The AMD FirePro D500 uses the much older GCN 1.0 architecture, based on the Tahiti chip, and is fabricated on a 28 nm process. It contains 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die, with a transistor density of only 12.3M / mm². It has no ray tracing or tensor cores. Its FP32 performance is 2.227 TFLOPS, and it has no listed FP16 performance, suggesting it may lack native half-precision support. The RTX 4050 Mobile also supports the latest APIs, including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the FirePro D500 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark by 306%, has a higher average benchmark score (19,049 vs 18,533), and offers a modern feature set with ray tracing, tensor cores, and a 5 nm process. Its 8.986 TFLOPS FP32 performance is four times the FirePro D500’s 2.227 TFLOPS. The RTX 4050 Mobile is also far more efficient, with a 50 W TDP versus 274 W, making it suitable for portable devices, while the FirePro D500 is a dual-slot desktop card.

The AMD FirePro D500 is only relevant for legacy professional use cases. Its advantages are limited to a higher memory bandwidth (243.8 GB/s) and a wider 384-bit bus. It also offers six mini-DisplayPort outputs and one SDI output, which is useful for multi-monitor video walls. However, these benefits are undermined by its low compute performance, lack of modern API support, and end-of-life production status. Any user needing current GPU acceleration should choose the RTX 4050 Mobile. The FirePro D500 is a relic for specific, non-benchmarked workstation environments. The data shows no scenario where the FirePro D500 outperforms the RTX 4050 Mobile in compute or graphics workloads; its only theoretical edge is in raw memory throughput, which is not reflected in any recorded score.