GPU Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a decisive outcome: the AMD Radeon RX 580 wins the only shared head-to-head test, and it wins by a staggering margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 580 scores 37,453 against the FirePro M6100's 13,354, a delta of -64.3% from the FirePro's perspective. That means the RX 580 delivers roughly 180% higher raw compute throughput in this workload. The FirePro M6100's average benchmark score of 13,354 places it at the 54th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 580's average of 12,928 sits at the 53rd percentile, a paradoxical situation where the older, weaker mobile part actually ranks one percentile higher due to its narrower distribution of results.

Who should pick which? The data suggests clear separation. The Radeon RX 580 is for anyone running OpenCL-accelerated workloads, DirectX 12 gaming, or Vulkan applications where its 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth provide overwhelming advantages. The FirePro M6100, by contrast, is a mobile workstation part with no standalone benchmark wins in this comparison, yet its MXM form factor and 2 GB GDDR5 make it suitable only for legacy portable workstations. There is no scenario in the data where the FirePro M6100 outperforms the RX 580; the sole shared test is a rout. The RX 580 also holds a slight edge in percentile rank among its nearest rivals, sitting within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's average score, while the FirePro M6100 matches the AMD Radeon RX 5500M within 0.0%.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is generational. The FirePro M6100 uses the Emerald chip built on GCN 2.0, fabricated by TSMC on a 28 nm process. The RX 580 uses Polaris 20 on GCN 4.0, fabricated by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm node. This process shrink alone explains much of the performance gap, the RX 580 packs 5,700 million transistors into a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². The FirePro M6100, by contrast, contains 2,080 million transistors across a 160 mm² die, for a density of 13.0M per mm². The newer process nearly doubles density, enabling the RX 580 to field 2,304 shading units against the FirePro's 896, 144 texture mapping units against 56, and 32 ROPs against 16.

Clock behavior diverges sharply. The FirePro M6100 lists no base or boost clock in the data, only a memory clock of 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective). The RX 580 runs at a 1257 MHz base and 1340 MHz boost, with memory at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). This clock advantage compounds the architectural lead. The RX 580 also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, both rated at 6.175 TFLOPS; the FirePro M6100 lists no FP16 capability. API support differs in Vulkan versions: the RX 580 supports Vulkan 1.3, while the FirePro M6100 is capped at 1.2.170. Both support DirectX 12 (12_0) and OpenGL 4.6. The RX 580's TDP is 185 W with a suggested 450 W PSU, while the FirePro M6100 lists no TDP, consistent with its mobile MXM-B (3.0) bus interface and lack of power connectors. The RX 580 uses a dual-slot design with a single 8-pin connector and PCIe 3.0 x16; the FirePro uses a slotless MXM module with portable-device-dependent display outputs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available in the data is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is not close. The RX 580 scores 37,453, while the FirePro M6100 scores 13,354. The delta percentage of -64.3% indicates the FirePro trails by nearly two-thirds. To put this in perspective, the FirePro M6100's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 5500M at 13,356 (0.0% delta), meaning the FirePro is roughly equivalent to a much newer mobile part in this test, yet the RX 580 more than doubles that score.

Looking at the RX 580's broader benchmark suite, its Geekbench OpenCL score of 37,453 is complemented by a Geekbench Metal score of 45,235 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 45,173. The FirePro M6100 has no Metal or Vulkan benchmark entries, so no comparison is possible there. The RX 580 also delivers a Passmark G3D score of 8,813 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 3,488, while the FirePro M6100 has no Passmark entries. In DirectX-specific Passmark tests, the RX 580 scores 46 (DX10), 60 (DX11), 43 (DX12), and 124 (DX9), plus a G2D score of 769. None of these have FirePro counterparts in the data. The RX 580's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,005 also stands alone.

The deltaPct figures in the nearestRivals data reveal interesting context. The FirePro M6100's closest competitor is the AMD Radeon Pro 555X at 13,321 (0.3% faster than the FirePro), while the AMD Radeon HD 8950M is 0.2% slower. The RX 580's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12,940 (0.1% faster), followed by the GTX 1660 SUPER at 12,986 (0.4% faster). This means the RX 580 is competitive with NVIDIA's mobile RTX 30-series part, while the FirePro M6100 trades blows with a 2013-era mobile GPU.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every measurable specification. Process node: 28 nm (TSMC) versus 14 nm (GlobalFoundries). Transistors: 2,080 million versus 5,700 million. Die size: 160 mm² versus 232 mm². Transistor density: 13.0M per mm² versus 24.6M per mm². Memory: 2 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth versus 8 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. Memory clock: 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective) versus 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective).

Compute resources differ by multiples: shading units 896 versus 2,304; TMUs 56 versus 144; ROPs 16 versus 32. Pixel rate is 17.60 GPixel/s versus 42.88 GPixel/s; texture rate is 61.60 GTexel/s versus 193.0 GTexel/s; FP32 is 1.971 TFLOPS versus 6.175 TFLOPS. The RX 580 also lists FP16 at 6.175 TFLOPS; the FirePro does not.

Form factor and connectivity differ completely: the FirePro is an MXM Module with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent outputs; the RX 580 is dual-slot, 241 mm (9.5 inches) long, with one 8-pin connector, a 450 W suggested PSU, and outputs of 1x HDMI 2.0b plus 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 580's TDP is 185 W; the FirePro lists none. The RX 580 has a launch MSRP of 229 USD (stated once here per data constraints); the FirePro has no launch MSRP listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the only shared benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 37,453 against the FirePro M6100's 13,354, a delta of -64.3% from the FirePro's perspective.

Q: How does the FirePro M6100 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon Pro 555X (13,321), 0.0% of the AMD Radeon RX 5500M (13,356), and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 8950M (13,376). It trails the Radeon Pro 555 (13,407) by 0.4%.

Q: What is the RX 580's closest competitor in the data?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12,940, which is 0.1% faster than the RX 580's 12,928 average. The GTX 1660 SUPER is 0.4% faster, and the AMD Radeon 740M is 0.5% slower.

Q: Does the FirePro M6100 have any benchmark wins over the RX 580?

A: No. In the sole head-to-head test, the RX 580 wins. The FirePro has zero wins (winsA: 0), while the RX 580 has one win (winsB: 1).

Q: What memory configurations do the two cards use?

A: The FirePro M6100 uses 2 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus at 6 Gbps effective, yielding 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 580 uses 8 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus at 8 Gbps effective, yielding 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life. The FirePro M6100 was succeeded by Radeon Pro Mobile, and the RX 580 was succeeded by Vega.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 580 wins every category where data exists. In raw compute, its 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 is more than triple the FirePro's 1.971 TFLOPS. Its memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is 2.67x the FirePro's 96.00 GB/s. Its texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s is more than triple the FirePro's 61.60 GTexel/s. Its pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s is 2.44x the FirePro's 17.60 GPixel/s.

The RX 580's benchmark suite shows strength across multiple APIs: Geekbench Metal at 45,235, Geekbench Vulkan at 45,173, Passmark G3D at 8,813, and Passmark GPU Compute at 3,488. Its DirectX Passmark scores (DX9: 124, DX11: 60, DX10: 46, DX12: 43) indicate that older DirectX workloads run relatively better than newer ones, the DX9 score is nearly 3x the DX12 score. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 1,005 provides a modern gaming reference point.

The FirePro M6100's only recorded benchmark is Geekbench OpenCL at 13,354. Its percentile rank of 54 versus the RX 580's 53 suggests that, despite being far slower in absolute terms, its single result places it marginally higher in the distribution, likely because many GPUs in the database score below it, whereas the RX 580's average is dragged down by its diverse benchmark load.

For use-case segmentation: the RX 580 wins for desktop gaming, compute-heavy OpenCL workloads, Vulkan applications, and any scenario requiring large framebuffers (8 GB versus 2 GB). The FirePro M6100 wins only in portability, it is an MXM module with no power connectors, designed for laptops where the RX 580's dual-slot, 185 W, 241 mm design cannot physically fit. The data does not support any performance-based reason to choose the FirePro; its only advantages are form factor and the fact that it matches the RX 580's DirectX 12 (12_0) and OpenGL 4.6 support. The RX 580's Vulkan 1.3 support exceeds the FirePro's 1.2.170. In summary, the RX 580 is the performance king by every measurable metric, while the FirePro M6100 remains a niche mobile part whose sole virtue is its existence in a small form factor.