AMD FirePro M5100 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits cleanly along generational and architectural lines. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti dominates the only directly comparable workload in the database, while the AMD FirePro M5100 has no recorded victories in any shared test.

Looking at the head-to-head results, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti wins the single common benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, by an enormous margin. The NVIDIA card scores 51,029 points against the AMD FirePro M5100's 6,830 points, a 647.1% difference. That is not a marginal victory; it is a complete rout. The GTX 1660 Ti delivers nearly 7.5 times the raw compute performance in this specific test.

The broader benchmark suite reinforces this picture. The GTX 1660 Ti records an average benchmark score of 7,723 across all tests, placing it in the 41st percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its closest rivals include the AMD Radeon 540 (7,673 average score, 0.7% behind), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 (7,580, 1.9% behind), the AMD Radeon R7 250 (7,557, 2.2% behind), and the Intel Arc A310 (7,550, 2.3% behind). These are all very close competitors, separated by less than 3%.

The FirePro M5100, by contrast, averages 6,830 across its recorded benchmarks, sitting in the 38th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M (6,946 average score, 1.7% ahead of the FirePro), the AMD Radeon R5 M240 (6,975, 2.1% ahead), the AMD Radeon R7 M370 (6,764, 1% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1010 (6,698, 2% behind). The FirePro sits comfortably in this older, lower-performance peer group.

In terms of individual test categories, the GTX 1660 Ti shows particular strength in DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 workloads. It scores 190 in Passmark DirectX 9 and 103 in Passmark DirectX 11, alongside 66 in DirectX 10 and 51 in DirectX 12. Its Passmark G3D score is 12,871, with a G2D score of 804 and a GPU compute score of 5,226. The FirePro M5100 has no comparable entries in these categories, meaning the NVIDIA card wins every recorded comparison by default.

The data indicates that the GTX 1660 Ti is designed for a different era of graphics processing. Its 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate place it in a completely different performance class. The FirePro M5100, with 992.0 GFLOPS FP32, 12.40 GPixel/s, and 31.00 GTexel/s, belongs to an earlier generation of mobile workstation graphics.

The Verdict

The verdict from the recorded data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the superior product in every measurable way. Its single head-to-head win, a 647.1% advantage in Geekbench OpenCL, speaks to a fundamental gap in compute capability. For any workload that relies on general-purpose GPU compute, the GTX 1660 Ti is the only rational choice.

The FirePro M5100, on the other hand, is a legacy mobile workstation part. Its 38th percentile ranking and 6,830 average benchmark score place it among GPUs from a much older generation. Its nearest rivals, the GeForce GTX 675M and Radeon R5 M240, are themselves dated parts. The FirePro does not win any recorded benchmark against the GTX 1660 Ti, nor does it come close in any shared metric.

For users selecting between these two, the GTX 1660 Ti is the clear pick for gaming, compute, or any modern graphics workload. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, and 1536 shading units provide a substantial foundation. The FirePro M5100, with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, 72.00 GB/s bandwidth, and 640 shading units, is only appropriate for legacy systems or applications with very modest graphical demands.

The GTX 1660 Ti also offers more modern API support. It reaches DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the FirePro M5100 tops out at DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA card is also a dual-slot PCIe 3.0 x16 part, whereas the FirePro is an MXM module with a portable-device-dependent display output, reflecting its laptop-oriented design.

In short, anyone needing performance should choose the GTX 1660 Ti. Anyone constrained to a legacy MXM laptop chassis may have no choice but the FirePro, but the data offers no performance reason to prefer it.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. The result is decisive.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti scores 51,029 points. The AMD FirePro M5100 scores 6,830 points. The delta is 647.1%, meaning the NVIDIA card is more than seven times faster in this OpenCL compute test. This single result encapsulates the entire performance relationship between the two parts.

To put that margin in context, consider the FirePro M5100's closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M, which scores 6,946 points, only 1.7% higher. The FirePro is competitive within its own generation, trading blows with the GTX 675M and sitting slightly ahead of the Radeon R7 M370 (6,764 points, 1% behind). But the GTX 1660 Ti is not in that league at all. Its nearest rivals, the Radeon 540 (7,673), Radeon Pro WX 3100 (7,580), Radeon R7 250 (7,557), and Arc A310 (7,550), are all clustered in the 7,500 to 7,700 range. The GTX 1660 Ti's OpenCL score of 51,029 dwarfs even its own closest peers, let alone the FirePro.

The absence of additional head-to-head tests means the database cannot show DirectX or Vulkan comparisons directly. However, the GTX 1660 Ti's individual Passmark results (DirectX 9: 190, DirectX 11: 103, DirectX 10: 66, DirectX 12: 51, G3D: 12,871, G2D: 804, GPU compute: 5,226) and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,061 provide a broad performance profile. The FirePro M5100 has no corresponding entries, so no further direct comparisons are possible.

The 647.1% OpenCL gap is the headline statistic. It shows that the GTX 1660 Ti is not merely incrementally faster; it belongs to a different performance tier. The FirePro M5100's 992.0 GFLOPS FP32 throughput and 72.00 GB/s memory bandwidth cannot compete with the GTX 1660 Ti's 5.437 TFLOPS and 288.0 GB/s. The architectural gap between a 28 nm GCN 1.0 part and a 12 nm Turing part is simply too wide.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti has an average benchmark score of 7,723, while the AMD FirePro M5100 averages 6,830.

Q: How much faster is the GTX 1660 Ti in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti scores 51,029, the FirePro M5100 scores 6,830, giving the NVIDIA card a 647.1% advantage.

Q: What are the nearest rivals to the GTX 1660 Ti?

A: The closest competitors are the AMD Radeon 540 (7,673 average score, 0.7% behind), Radeon Pro WX 3100 (7,580, 1.9% behind), Radeon R7 250 (7,557, 2.2% behind), and Intel Arc A310 (7,550, 2.3% behind).

Q: What memory configurations do the two GPUs use?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The FirePro M5100 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 72.00 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has better API support?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The FirePro M5100 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each GPU?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti ranks in the 41st percentile of all GPUs, while the FirePro M5100 ranks in the 38th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different eras and design philosophies. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti uses the TU116 chip built on TSMC's 12 nm process, featuring 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 23.2 million per mm². The architecture is Turing, part of the GeForce 16 generation.

The AMD FirePro M5100 uses the Venus chip built on TSMC's 28 nm process, with 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die. The transistor density is 12.2 million per mm². Its architecture is GCN 1.0, from the FirePro Mobile (Mx100) generation. The process node difference alone, 12 nm versus 28 nm, explains much of the performance gap.

Clock speeds tell a similar story. The GTX 1660 Ti runs at a base clock of 1500 MHz and boosts to 1770 MHz, with memory at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). The FirePro M5100 operates at 725 MHz base and 775 MHz boost, with memory at 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective). The NVIDIA card's clocks are roughly double those of the AMD part.

Compute resources amplify the difference. The GTX 1660 Ti has 1,536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The FirePro M5100 has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Consequently, the GTX 1660 Ti achieves 5.437 TFLOPS FP32, 10.87 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate. The FirePro manages 992.0 GFLOPS FP32, 12.40 GPixel/s, and 31.00 GTexel/s, with no FP16 support recorded.

Memory subsystems also differ substantially. The GTX 1660 Ti uses 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. The FirePro M5100 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 72.00 GB/s. The NVIDIA card has four times the memory bandwidth and triple the capacity.

Physical and power characteristics diverge as well. The GTX 1660 Ti is a dual-slot PCIe 3.0 x16 card, 229 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 35 mm wide, with a 120 W TDP, a single 8-pin power connector, and a suggested 300 W power supply. It offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The FirePro M5100 is an MXM-A (3.0) module with no listed dimensions, TDP, power connectors, or PSU requirement, and its display outputs are portable-device dependent.

The GTX 1660 Ti was released on 2019-02-21, following the GeForce 10 series and preceding the GeForce 20 series. The FirePro M5100 was released on 2013-10-15, succeeding FirePro Mobility and preceding Radeon Pro Mobile. Both are now end-of-life products, but they represent vastly different points in GPU history. The GTX 1660 Ti's launch MSRP was 279 USD. The FirePro M5100 has no recorded launch MSRP.