AMD FirePro D700 vs AMD Radeon RX 6800S Comparison

The data clearly separates these two AMD GPUs: the Radeon RX 6800S is the decisive winner in every shared benchmark, delivering roughly 2.5 to 3 times the raw compute performance of the FirePro D700. The FirePro D700, an older professional workstation card, retains value only in legacy display connectivity and its historical role, while the RX 6800S is the modern, efficient choice for any current workload. Benchmark results indicate the RX 6800S wins both head-to-head tests with massive margins, making it the only rational pick for performance.

The Verdict

Choose the Radeon RX 6800S if you need raw performance. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks by over 65%, and it posts dramatically higher scores in every shared test. The FirePro D700 is not competitive in modern compute tasks; its best result is roughly one-third of the RX 6800S’s score in the same test. The RX 6800S also achieves this with a 100 W TDP versus the D700’s 274 W, making it more than two and a half times as power-efficient. The D700’s only advantages are its dual-slot form factor with six mini-DisplayPort outputs and an SDI connection, which suit specific legacy workstation setups. For general use, gaming, or compute, the RX 6800S is the unequivocal choice.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from completely different eras and design philosophies. The FirePro D700 uses the Tahiti chip built on GCN 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process by TSMC. It packs 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. The Radeon RX 6800S uses the Navi 23 chip with RDNA 2.0 architecture, also from TSMC but on a far more advanced 7 nm process. It contains 11,060 million transistors on a smaller 237 mm² die, achieving a density of 46.7 million per square millimeter. This density difference is stark: the RX 6800S fits over two and a half times more transistors per area.

Both cards have 2048 shading units and 128 texture mapping units, but the similarities end there. The RX 6800S doubles the ROPs to 64 from the D700’s 32. The RX 6800S also adds 32 dedicated ray tracing cores, which the D700 lacks entirely. Memory subsystems differ fundamentally: the D700 uses 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the RX 6800S uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. Despite the narrower bus, the newer memory runs at 16 Gbps effective versus 5.5 Gbps, giving the RX 6800S a slightly lower bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s compared to the D700’s 263.0 GB/s. The RX 6800S supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the D700 only reaches DirectX 12 (11_1); both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan, though the RX 6800S has a newer Vulkan 1.4 versus 1.2.170.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RX 6800S dominates every shared benchmark, with the largest gap in OpenCL compute. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6800S scores 73,202 against the D700’s 23,716, a delta of -67.6% from the D700’s perspective. That is a 3.09x advantage for the RX 6800S, indicating that modern RDNA 2.0 architecture handles compute workloads far more efficiently than the older GCN 1.0 design. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 6800S scores 81,272 versus the D700’s 27,968, a delta of -65.6%. This translates to a 2.91x performance lead, confirming that the RX 6800S’s advantage holds across different API abstraction levels. The D700’s scores put it near rivals like the AMD FirePro W7100 (25,856, delta -0.1%) and the AMD Radeon R9 M395X (25,891, delta -0.2%), showing it is roughly equivalent to those older cards. The RX 6800S, meanwhile, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24,170, delta -0.4%) and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 (23,877, delta 0.8%), placing it in a much higher performance tier.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The FirePro D700 has an average benchmark score of 25,842, while the Radeon RX 6800S has 24,063. However, the RX 6800S only includes one matching test with the D700; its other benchmarks are not comparable. In the shared Geekbench tests, the RX 6800S wins decisively.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The FirePro D700 has a slightly higher memory bandwidth at 263.0 GB/s, thanks to its 384-bit bus. The Radeon RX 6800S has 256.0 GB/s on a 128-bit bus. Despite the lower bandwidth, the RX 6800S achieves far higher performance due to its faster GDDR6 memory at 16 Gbps effective versus 5.5 Gbps.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the Radeon RX 6800S supports ray tracing, with 32 dedicated RT cores. The FirePro D700 has no RT cores, as it predates ray tracing hardware.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Radeon RX 6800S has a TDP of 100 W, while the FirePro D700 has a TDP of 274 W. The RX 6800S delivers over three times the OpenCL performance while consuming less than half the power.

Q: Are these cards still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life products. The FirePro D700 was released on January 17, 2014, while the Radeon RX 6800S was released on January 3, 2022.

Q: Which card has better pixel and texture rates?

A: The Radeon RX 6800S is far superior, with a pixel rate of 134.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 268.8 GTexel/s. The FirePro D700 manages only 27.20 GPixel/s and 108.8 GTexel/s, respectively.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon RX 6800S wins in virtually every measurable performance category. It leads in raw compute, with 8.602 TFLOPS FP32 against the D700’s 3.482 TFLOPS. It also offers FP16 performance at 17.20 TFLOPS (2:1), which the D700 does not list. The RX 6800S has a higher pixel rate (134.4 vs 27.20 GPixel/s), a higher texture rate (268.8 vs 108.8 GTexel/s), and doubles the ROP count. It supports modern APIs including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4. It is also more compact, being an IGP (integrated graphics package) with no power connectors required, versus the D700’s dual-slot design needing a 600 W suggested PSU. The RX 6800S is the clear winner for gaming, modern compute, and any workload leveraging ray tracing or newer DirectX features.

The FirePro D700’s only wins are in specific legacy areas. It offers six mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs plus one SDI connection, which is unique for multi-display professional setups. It also has a higher memory bandwidth (263.0 GB/s) and a wider 384-bit memory bus, which can be advantageous for certain large-data workloads that are sensitive to bus width rather than raw speed. Its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is more traditional, while the RX 6800S uses PCIe 4.0 x8. For any modern application, the D700 is obsolete; its percentile rank of 71 versus the RX 6800S’s 69 shows they are in similar overall tiers, but the D700’s scores come from a much older and less capable architecture.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD FirePro D700 | AMD Radeon RX 6800S |

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

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | RDNA 2.0 |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 7 nm |

| Transistors | 4,313 million | 11,060 million |

| Die Size | 352 mm² | 237 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 12.3M / mm² | 46.7M / mm² |

| Base Clock | — | 1800 MHz |

| Boost Clock | — | 2100 MHz |

| Game Clock | — | 1975 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1370 MHz / 5.5 Gbps effective | 2000 MHz / 16 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 6 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 263.0 GB/s | 256.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2048 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 128 | 128 |

| ROPs | 32 | 64 |

| RT Cores | — | 32 |

| Pixel Rate | 27.20 GPixel/s | 134.4 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 108.8 GTexel/s | 268.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 3.482 TFLOPS | 8.602 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | — | 17.20 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 274 W | 100 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | — | None |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | — |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |

| Display Outputs | 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.2, 1x SDI | Portable Device Dependent |

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

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Release Date | 2014-01-17 | 2022-01-03 |

| Predecessor | FirePro Terascale | Polaris Mobile |