AMD FirePro S7150 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Comparison

The AMD FirePro S7150 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly five years of architectural evolution. The data positions the RTX 3090 as the clear performance leader in shared benchmarks, but the FirePro S7150 retains relevance in specific server-oriented contexts. This analysis examines the benchmark results, architectural chasms, and practical implications for each card based strictly on the provided facts.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head comparison yields two decisive victories for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, with the AMD FirePro S7150 failing to secure a single win. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 3090 scores 172,758 against the FirePro S7150’s 26,543, representing an 84.6% advantage for the NVIDIA card. This is not a marginal gap; it is a generational chasm. The RTX 3090 delivers over six times the raw compute throughput in this workload, reflecting its massive lead in shading units, texture units, and memory bandwidth.

The Vulkan benchmark tells a similar but slightly less extreme story. The RTX 3090 posts 53,927 points versus the FirePro S7150’s 29,690, a 44.9% margin. While still a decisive win for NVIDIA, the smaller delta in Vulkan suggests that the older GCN architecture is relatively more competitive in this API, possibly due to better driver optimization for legacy compute paths. Nevertheless, the RTX 3090’s newer Ampere architecture and dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores provide a substantial advantage even in this lower-level API.

Contextualizing these scores against the nearest rivals clarifies the positioning. The FirePro S7150’s average benchmark score of 28,117 places it within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (28,020, 0.3% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (27,973, 0.5% delta), and the AMD Radeon RX 7800M (27,883, 0.8% delta). This indicates the FirePro S7150 sits at the upper tier of mid-range performance from its era, competitive with flagship gaming cards of 2015-2016. In contrast, the RTX 3090’s average score of 27,565 is actually lower than the FirePro S7150’s average, a quirk driven by the RTX 3090’s inclusion of many additional benchmark tests (PassMark, 3DMark) that drag its average down. The RTX 3090’s nearest rivals—the RTX 4070 Mobile (27,435, 0.5% delta) and RX 6700 XT (27,425, 0.5% delta)—are far closer in average score, showing that the 3090’s raw OpenCL and Vulkan dominance is partially offset by weaker relative performance in other synthetic tests like PassMark G2D (1,063) or DirectX 9 (268).

The percentile ranking for both cards is identical at 73, meaning they outperform 73% of all GPUs in the database. This is a surprising statistical tie, given the massive raw performance gap. The explanation lies in the different benchmark suites used for each card. The FirePro S7150 only has two benchmarks (OpenCL and Vulkan), both of which are compute-heavy and favor its architecture. The RTX 3090 has ten benchmarks, including legacy DirectX tests where it scores poorly (e.g., PassMark DirectX 10 at 182, DirectX 11 at 220, DirectX 12 at 110), diluting its overall standing. This highlights the importance of interpreting benchmark averages with caution, as the composition of tests heavily influences the final percentile.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two cards is profound. The FirePro S7150 uses the Tonga chip built on GCN 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process by TSMC. It packs 5,000 million transistors into a 366 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.7 million per square millimeter. The RTX 3090 employs the GA102 chip on Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm node. It contains 28,300 million transistors—over five times more—on a 628 mm² die, achieving a density of 45.1 million per square millimeter, more than three times the FirePro’s density.

The memory subsystems are equally divergent. The FirePro S7150 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.0 GB/s bandwidth with a memory clock of 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective). The RTX 3090 provides 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, achieving 936.2 GB/s—nearly six times the bandwidth—with a memory clock of 1219 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective). The RTX 3090’s memory size is triple that of the FirePro, and its bandwidth advantage is even more pronounced.

Compute resources show a similar scaling. The FirePro S7150 has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3090 features 10,496 shading units, 328 TMUs, and 112 ROPs—5.1x, 2.6x, and 3.5x more respectively. The RTX 3090 also introduces hardware that the FirePro completely lacks: 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores. The pixel rate of the RTX 3090 (189.8 GPixel/s) is 6.4x higher than the FirePro (29.44 GPixel/s), and the texture rate (556.0 GTexel/s) is 4.7x higher (117.8 GTexel/s). FP32 compute jumps from 3.768 TFLOPS on the FirePro to 35.58 TFLOPS on the RTX 3090—a 9.4x increase. Notably, the FirePro’s FP16 rate is 7.537 TFLOPS due to a 2:1 ratio, while the RTX 3090 achieves 35.58 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, indicating the FirePro uses packed math while the RTX 3090 has native FP16 capability.

Power and physical design also contrast sharply. The FirePro S7150 has a 150 W TDP, a single-slot form factor, and requires a 450 W PSU with one 6-pin connector. The RTX 3090 draws 350 W, occupies a triple-slot design, and needs a 750 W PSU with a single 12-pin connector. The FirePro measures 241 mm in length and 111 mm in height, while the RTX 3090 is 336 mm long, 140 mm tall, and 61 mm wide. The FirePro has no display outputs, indicating its server-oriented design, whereas the RTX 3090 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The FirePro uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the RTX 3090 uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw compute performance in OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 dominates with a score of 172,758 versus 26,543 for the AMD FirePro S7150, an 84.6% advantage.

Q: Are both cards in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both cards rank at the 73rd percentile versus all GPUs, despite the RTX 3090’s far higher peak scores. This is because the FirePro S7150’s average score (28,117) is actually higher than the RTX 3090’s (27,565), due to the RTX 3090’s inclusion of many low-scoring legacy DirectX tests.

Q: Does the FirePro S7150 support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The FirePro S7150 has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, while the RTX 3090 includes 82 ray tracing cores and 328 tensor cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 3090 offers 936.2 GB/s with GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, while the FirePro S7150 provides 160.0 GB/s with GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. The RTX 3090 has nearly six times the bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a larger memory capacity?

A: The RTX 3090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X, three times the 8 GB of GDDR5 on the FirePro S7150.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The FirePro S7150 has a 150 W TDP and requires a 450 W PSU with a single 6-pin connector. The RTX 3090 has a 350 W TDP and needs a 750 W PSU with a single 12-pin connector.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD FirePro S7150 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 |

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

| Architecture | GCN 3.0 | Ampere |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 8 nm |

| Transistors | 5,000 million | 28,300 million |

| Die Size | 366 mm² | 628 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 13.7M / mm² | 45.1M / mm² |

| Base Clock | null | 1395 MHz |

| Boost Clock | null | 1695 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1250 MHz (5 Gbps) | 1219 MHz (19.5 Gbps) |

| Memory Size | 8 GB | 24 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6X |

| Bus Width | 256 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 160.0 GB/s | 936.2 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2048 | 10496 |

| TMUs | 128 | 328 |

| ROPs | 32 | 112 |

| RT Cores | null | 82 |

| Tensor Cores | null | 328 |

| Pixel Rate | 29.44 GPixel/s | 189.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 117.8 GTexel/s | 556.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 3.768 TFLOPS | 35.58 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 7.537 TFLOPS (2:1) | 35.58 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 150 W | 350 W |

| Slot Width | Single-slot | Triple-slot |

| Power Connectors | 1x 6-pin | 1x 12-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 450 W | 750 W |

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

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | 241x111 mm | 336x140x61 mm |

| Release Date | 2016-01-31 | 2020-08-31 |

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 wins decisively in every shared benchmark and every relevant performance metric. Its 84.6% OpenCL advantage and 44.9% Vulkan advantage make it the unequivocal choice for compute-heavy workloads, gaming, and any application leveraging ray tracing or tensor cores. The 24 GB memory capacity and 936.2 GB/s bandwidth enable large dataset processing, while the 35.58 TFLOPS FP32 and FP16 performance in a 1:1 ratio supports modern AI and scientific workloads. The triple-slot cooler and 350 W TDP are trade-offs for this level of performance, but the PCIe 4.0 interface and DisplayPort outputs make it suitable for workstation use where visual output is required.

The AMD FirePro S7150 wins in specific niche scenarios. Its single-slot design and 150 W TDP allow deployment in dense server chassis where space and power are constrained. The lack of display outputs confirms its purpose as a headless compute accelerator, and its 8 GB GDDR5 memory is sufficient for legacy compute tasks. Its 73rd percentile ranking, tied with the RTX 3090, indicates that in the limited set of benchmarks it runs, it performs competitively against peers from its era, such as the GTX 980 Ti (0.3% delta) and Radeon Pro W5500X (0.5% delta). For organizations maintaining legacy GCN-based compute stacks, the FirePro S7150 offers a familiar architecture with 2048 shading units and 128 TMUs, which may be adequate for older CUDA-agnostic or OpenCL-based workloads. However, its 28 nm process, 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, and lack of modern features like ray tracing mean it cannot compete with the RTX 3090 in any forward-looking application. The data is unambiguous: the RTX 3090 is the superior card in nearly all measurable aspects, with the FirePro S7150 retaining value only as a low-power, low-profile server compute option.