AMD FirePro S7150 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro S7150, with an average benchmark score of 28,117, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z's 23,736. This places the AMD part at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, while the NVIDIA card sits at the 69th percentile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the Vulkan test?

A: The AMD FirePro S7150 leads decisively in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 29,690 versus the GTX TITAN Z's 22,006. That is a 34.9% advantage for the AMD card, representing the largest single-test margin between the two.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card win any benchmark?

A: No. In the recorded head-to-head data, the AMD FirePro S7150 wins both tests: Geekbench OpenCL (26,543 vs. 25,465, a 4.2% lead) and Geekbench Vulkan (29,690 vs. 22,006, a 34.9% lead). The wins tally is 2 for AMD and 0 for NVIDIA.

Q: How does the AMD FirePro S7150 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The database places the FirePro S7150 within 1% of several competitors: it is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (which scores 28,020), 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (27,973), 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7800M (27,883), and 1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 (27,839).

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The AMD FirePro S7150 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card has a wider bus and higher bandwidth, but less total memory.

Q: What are the power requirements listed in the database?

A: The AMD FirePro S7150 has a TDP of 150 W and requires a single 6-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z has a TDP of 375 W, requires two 8-pin connectors, and a suggested PSU of 750 W.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD FirePro S7150 is the faster GPU in every recorded benchmark. Its average score of 28,117 eclipses the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z's 23,736 by a substantial margin, and the AMD part also achieves a higher percentile ranking (73rd vs. 69th) across the database's full GPU population. For applications that rely on Vulkan compute, the choice is particularly clear, as the FirePro S7150's 34.9% lead in that test represents a dominant advantage.

However, the decision is not purely about raw performance. The NVIDIA card offers strengths in other areas that the AMD card lacks. The GTX TITAN Z has a higher FP32 throughput (5.046 TFLOPS vs. 3.768 TFLOPS), a notably higher pixel rate (52.56 GPixel/s vs. 29.44 GPixel/s), and more than double the texture rate (210.2 GTexel/s vs. 117.8 GTexel/s). It also provides display outputs, whereas the FirePro S7150 has none. For a workstation that needs to drive monitors directly, the NVIDIA card is the only viable option from these two.

The AMD FirePro S7150 is the pick for compute-focused server workloads, especially those leveraging Vulkan, where it delivers a decisive performance edge. It also consumes far less power (150 W vs. 375 W) and fits in a single slot, making it the more efficient and density-friendly choice for multi-GPU configurations. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, despite losing every benchmark comparison, remains relevant for tasks that demand high pixel throughput or where the card's display connectivity is essential. Ultimately, the FirePro S7150 wins on benchmark scores and efficiency, while the GTX TITAN Z wins on raw rasterization throughput and I/O flexibility.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data contains two benchmarks, and the AMD FirePro S7150 wins both. The first test, Geekbench OpenCL, sees the AMD card score 26,543 against the NVIDIA card's 25,465, a modest 4.2% advantage. This is a narrow win, indicating that in OpenCL workloads the two GPUs are closely matched. The second test, Geekbench Vulkan, is a rout: the FirePro S7150 scores 29,690 while the GTX TITAN Z manages only 22,006, a 34.9% gap. This is the single largest delta in the comparison and suggests that the AMD architecture's Vulkan driver and compute capabilities are significantly stronger.

Translating these scores into context, the FirePro S7150's average benchmark score of 28,117 puts it just 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (28,020), a card known for strong performance. The GTX TITAN Z, by contrast, sits 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (23,628) and 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 (23,877). This means the AMD FirePro S7150 performs roughly 18.5% above the GTX TITAN Z's average score, a difference that would be noticeable in any compute-heavy application.

The Vulkan result deserves particular attention. A 34.9% lead is not a marginal difference; it indicates that the AMD FirePro S7150 is categorically better suited to Vulkan compute tasks. The OpenCL result, while narrower, still favors AMD. Across both tests, the database shows a consistent pattern: the FirePro S7150 holds the performance crown, and the GTX TITAN Z cannot match it in any recorded workload.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every core specification. Starting with compute units, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z has 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The AMD FirePro S7150 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA card's higher counts in all three categories are reflected in its higher theoretical rates: 5.046 TFLOPS FP32, 52.56 GPixel/s pixel fill, and 210.2 GTexel/s texture fill. The AMD card produces 3.768 TFLOPS FP32, 29.44 GPixel/s, and 117.8 GTexel/s. Notably, the AMD card has a listed FP16 rate of 7.537 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the NVIDIA card has no FP16 figure recorded.

Memory configurations also diverge. The AMD card uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA card uses 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s. The GTX TITAN Z has more than double the memory bandwidth, which is consistent with its higher pixel and texture rates. Clock speeds tell a similar story: the NVIDIA card has a base clock of 705 MHz and a boost clock of 876 MHz, while the AMD card has no base or boost clock listed. Memory clocks are 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) for the AMD card and 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) for the NVIDIA card.

Power and physical specifications are starkly different. The AMD FirePro S7150 has a TDP of 150 W, a single 6-pin connector, and a suggested PSU of 450 W. It is a single-slot card measuring 241 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z has a TDP of 375 W, two 8-pin connectors, and a suggested PSU of 750 W. It is a triple-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 62 mm in width. The NVIDIA card is also heavier on power delivery and physical footprint.

Display outputs show a fundamental difference: the AMD FirePro S7150 has no outputs, while the NVIDIA card offers 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The AMD card is clearly designed for headless server use, while the NVIDIA card retains traditional display connectivity. Both cards use a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface and are marked end-of-life in the database.

Architecture Differences

The AMD FirePro S7150 is built on the Tonga chip using AMD's GCN 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The die contains 5,000 million transistors on a 366 mm² area, giving a transistor density of 13.7M per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z uses the GK110B chip with NVIDIA's Kepler architecture, also on a 28 nm TSMC process. Its die is larger at 561 mm² and contains 7,080 million transistors, but the density is lower at 12.6M per mm². The larger die and higher transistor count for NVIDIA reflect a physically bigger chip, but the AMD design packs more transistors per square millimeter.

Architecturally, the two designs are generations apart. The AMD card belongs to the FirePro Server (Sx100) generation, while the NVIDIA card is from the GeForce 700 series. The AMD card's predecessor is the FirePro Terascale and its successor is the Radeon Pro GCN. The NVIDIA card's predecessor is the GeForce 600 and its successor is the GeForce 900. Both are at the end of their production life, but they represent different design philosophies: GCN 3.0 was optimized for compute throughput and efficiency, while Kepler was designed for high rasterization performance.

API support shows minor differences. The AMD card supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The Vulkan version is slightly newer on the NVIDIA side, but the AMD card has a higher DirectX feature level (12_0 vs. 11_1). In terms of compute features, the AMD card's FP16 support (7.537 TFLOPS) is a notable advantage for workloads that can use half-precision math, while the NVIDIA card has no recorded FP16 capability.

The cache and RT/tensor core fields are null for both cards, meaning neither has dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware in the database. The AMD card's smaller die and lower power draw suggest a more efficient design for server deployments, while the NVIDIA card's larger die and higher power envelope are consistent with its higher raw fill rates. The release dates also differ significantly: the AMD card launched on January 31, 2016, while the NVIDIA card launched on May 27, 2014. The nearly two-year gap explains the architectural evolution, with AMD's GCN 3.0 offering better compute efficiency in benchmarks despite the NVIDIA card's superior theoretical throughput numbers.