AMD FirePro S10000 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a clear hierarchy between these two end-of-life professional and consumer cards. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti decisively outperforms the AMD FirePro S10000 in every recorded head-to-head test. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 980 Ti scores 43,513 against the FirePro S10000's 30,631, a delta of 29.6 percent in NVIDIA's favor. The Vulkan test shows a similar story: 47,724 for NVIDIA versus 34,145 for AMD, a 28.5 percent advantage. The average benchmark score reinforces this, with the GTX 980 Ti at 28,020 and the FirePro S10000 at 32,388, though this aggregate metric is influenced by the different test suites each card participated in.

Who should pick which, strictly from the data? Users prioritizing raw compute performance in OpenCL and Vulkan workloads should choose the GTX 980 Ti. Its higher shading unit count, texture units, and memory bandwidth all align with its benchmark dominance. The FirePro S10000, despite being the older architecture, holds a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs (77th versus 73rd), indicating that within the database's broader collection of tested cards, the AMD part sits slightly higher relative to its peers. This suggests that in certain legacy or specialized professional workloads not captured in these two tests, the FirePro S10000 may still be competitive. However, for any workload represented by the head-to-head benchmarks, the GTX 980 Ti is the clear choice. The FirePro S10000 also demands a 375 W TDP and a 750 W suggested PSU, while the GTX 980 Ti requires only 250 W and a 600 W PSU, making NVIDIA the more efficient option as well.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro S10000 has a higher average benchmark score of 32,388 compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti's 28,020. However, this aggregate figure includes different benchmark suites, and in the two direct head-to-head tests, the GTX 980 Ti wins both.

Q: How much faster is the GTX 980 Ti in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA card scores 47,724 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 28.5 percent higher than the FirePro S10000's 34,145. This represents the larger of the two head-to-head deltas in percentage terms.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between these two cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory, while the AMD FirePro S10000 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory. Both use a 384-bit memory bus, but the GTX 980 Ti achieves 336.6 GB/s bandwidth versus 240.0 GB/s for the AMD card.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the AMD FirePro S10000 supports DirectX 12 (11_1). The NVIDIA card also lists Vulkan 1.4 support, whereas the AMD card lists Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti has a pixel rate of 103.3 GPixel/s, more than three times the FirePro S10000's 30.40 GPixel/s. This difference is driven by the GTX 980 Ti's 96 ROPs versus 32 ROPs on the AMD card.

Q: How do their transistor counts compare?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti contains 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die, while the AMD FirePro S10000 contains 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die. The GTX 980 Ti also has a slightly higher transistor density at 13.3M per mm² versus 12.3M per mm².

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is substantial, reflecting their different design philosophies and release eras. The AMD FirePro S10000 is built on the GCN 1.0 architecture using the Tahiti chip, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti uses the Maxwell 2.0 architecture with the GM200 chip. Both are fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, but the implementations diverge sharply in scale.

The FirePro S10000 packs 4,313 million transistors into a 352 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 12.3M per mm². The GTX 980 Ti nearly doubles the transistor count with 8,000 million transistors on a much larger 601 mm² die, achieving 13.3M per mm². This scale difference translates directly into compute resources: the NVIDIA card has 2,816 shading units, 176 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, while the AMD card has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and just 32 ROPs.

The generational gap is also visible in API support. The FirePro S10000 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GTX 980 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The higher DirectX feature level and newer Vulkan version on the NVIDIA card indicate more modern driver and hardware feature support.

Memory architecture differs as well despite both using a 384-bit bus. The FirePro S10000 has 3 GB of GDDR5 at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective), yielding 240.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 980 Ti doubles capacity to 6 GB of GDDR5 at 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective), producing 336.6 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card's higher memory clock and larger capacity give it a clear advantage in bandwidth-bound workloads.

The physical and power characteristics also reflect their different positioning. The FirePro S10000 is a 305 mm dual-slot card requiring 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 750 W PSU, with a 375 W TDP. The GTX 980 Ti is shorter at 267 mm, also dual-slot, uses 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors, and requires a 600 W PSU, with a 250 W TDP. The AMD card was released in November 2012 with a launch MSRP of 3,599 USD, while the GTX 980 Ti launched in June 2015 with a launch MSRP of 649 USD.

Specification Differences

The recorded specifications show every major compute and memory parameter favoring the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. The base clock of the GTX 980 Ti is 1000 MHz with a boost of 1076 MHz, compared to the FirePro S10000's 825 MHz base and 950 MHz boost. The memory clock is 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective) on the NVIDIA card versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) on the AMD card.

Shading units: 2,816 on the GTX 980 Ti versus 1,792 on the FirePro S10000. Texture units: 176 versus 112. ROPs: 96 versus 32. The NVIDIA card's FP32 throughput is 6.060 TFLOPS, nearly double the AMD card's 3.405 TFLOPS. Pixel rate is 103.3 GPixel/s versus 30.40 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 189.4 GTexel/s versus 106.4 GTexel/s.

Memory size differs at 6 GB versus 3 GB, bandwidth at 336.6 GB/s versus 240.0 GB/s, with the bus width identical at 384 bit. TDP is 250 W for NVIDIA versus 375 W for AMD. Power connectors: 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin versus 2x 8-pin. Suggested PSU: 600 W versus 750 W. The GTX 980 Ti has a width dimension of 40 mm, while the FirePro S10000's width is not recorded. Both cards share PCIe 3.0 x16 interfaces and dual-slot designs, and both are marked as end-of-life production. The GTX 980 Ti has additional display outputs including HDMI 2.0, whereas the FirePro S10000 lists DVI and 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.2.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct head-to-head comparisons, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti wins both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 980 Ti scores 43,513 against the FirePro S10000's 30,631. The delta is 29.6 percent in NVIDIA's favor. This is a substantial margin that aligns with the GTX 980 Ti's wider compute resources: 2,816 shading units, 176 TMUs, and 6.060 TFLOPS FP32 throughput.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the GTX 980 Ti scores 47,724 against 34,145 for the FirePro S10000, a 28.5 percent advantage. The NVIDIA card's Vulkan 1.4 support, compared to the AMD card's Vulkan 1.2.170, may contribute to this result, though the hardware compute advantage is likely the dominant factor.

The total win tally is 2 for the GTX 980 Ti and 0 for the FirePro S10000. Notably, the FirePro S10000's average benchmark score of 32,388 is higher than the GTX 980 Ti's 28,020, but this reflects different test participation. The FirePro S10000 only has Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores in its record, while the GTX 980 Ti also includes 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (1,321) and Geekbench Metal (19,520). These additional tests, particularly the low 3DMark score, drag down the NVIDIA card's average. The FirePro S10000's percentile ranking of 77 versus 73 for the GTX 980 Ti further illustrates that the AMD card performs better relative to the full database of GPUs, even though it loses both direct comparisons.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the recorded data, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti wins in every measurable head-to-head category. It is faster in OpenCL compute by 29.6 percent and in Vulkan by 28.5 percent. Its 6 GB memory capacity, 336.6 GB/s bandwidth, and 6.060 TFLOPS FP32 throughput make it the superior choice for compute-heavy workloads such as rendering, simulation, and modern graphics APIs. The lower 250 W TDP and 600 W PSU requirement also make it the more practical option for system integration. The GTX 980 Ti's higher pixel rate (103.3 GPixel/s) and texture rate (189.4 GTexel/s) suggest it would handle rasterization and texture-heavy tasks far better, though no direct gaming benchmarks are recorded in this dataset.

The AMD FirePro S10000's wins are more subtle and derived from aggregate positioning rather than direct comparisons. Its average benchmark score of 32,388 exceeds the GTX 980 Ti's 28,020, and its 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs is four points higher than NVIDIA's 73rd. This indicates that within the database's broader GPU population, the FirePro S10000 sits relatively higher, possibly due to its professional FirePro lineage and the workload characteristics of the tests it participated in. For users running legacy professional applications that favor GCN 1.0 architectures or older OpenCL implementations, the FirePro S10000 may retain relevance. Its 3 GB memory and 384-bit bus still provide 240.0 GB/s bandwidth, which remains adequate for many professional tasks. The card's 32 ROPs and 30.40 GPixel/s pixel rate are far lower than the GTX 980 Ti, so it would not be the choice for pixel-throughput-bound work. The FirePro S10000 also carries a significantly higher launch MSRP of 3,599 USD versus 649 USD for the GTX 980 Ti, though both are now end-of-life products. The data ultimately shows a straightforward recommendation: the GTX 980 Ti for anyone choosing between these two for modern compute tasks, with the FirePro S10000 retaining a niche only in specific legacy professional contexts where its higher relative percentile suggests untested strengths.