AMD FirePro S7150 vs NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits cleanly between these two workstation cards, but only one of them actually shows up as a consistent winner across the recorded tests. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB takes the sole head-to-head benchmark victory, and it does so decisively. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A2000 scores 66,998 points against the AMD FirePro S7150's 26,543 points, a gap of 152.4 percent. That is not a narrow margin; it is a generational leap expressed in raw compute throughput.

The AMD FirePro S7150 does not win any of the recorded head-to-head benchmarks. Its only listed benchmark result is the Geekbench OpenCL score of 26,543, and it also has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 29,690, but the Vulkan test was not run on the NVIDIA card in the database, so there is no direct comparison there. What the data does show is that the FirePro S7150 sits in a different performance tier entirely. Its average benchmark score of 28,117 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which averages 28,020 (a 0.3 percent delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at 27,973 (0.5 percent delta). The RTX A2000, by contrast, averages 34,154, placing it near the NVIDIA TITAN V at 34,355 (a 0.6 percent delta in the TITAN's favor).

For use-case splitting, the RTX A2000 is the card for OpenCL compute workloads, which are common in rendering, simulation, and GPU-accelerated analysis. The FirePro S7150, given its 2:1 FP16 ratio, can process half-precision data at a higher rate than its FP32 throughput, which suggests it was aimed at early deep learning inference or scientific workloads that tolerated reduced precision. But in the actual recorded OpenCL test, the A2000's raw FP32 performance of 7.987 TFLOPS dwarfs the S7150's 3.768 TFLOPS, so even the S7150's theoretical FP16 advantage of 7.537 TFLOPS does not rescue it in general compute.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is vast, and it explains most of the performance difference. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 uses the GA106 chip built on Samsung's 8 nm process, with 12,000 million transistors packed into a 276 mm² die. That works out to a transistor density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. The AMD FirePro S7150 uses the Tonga chip on TSMC's 28 nm process, with 5,000 million transistors on a much larger 366 mm² die, giving it only 13.7 million transistors per square millimeter. The A2000 is built on a far more advanced node, which directly translates into higher clock speeds and better power efficiency.

The RTX A2000 is an Ampere architecture card, part of the Workstation Ampere generation. It includes 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores, features that the FirePro S7150 lacks entirely. The S7150 is GCN 3.0, a server-oriented FirePro design from the Sx100 generation, and it has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor hardware. This is a fundamental difference: the A2000 can accelerate ray-traced rendering and AI inference through dedicated hardware, while the S7150 relies entirely on its general-purpose shading units.

Memory architecture also differs sharply. The A2000 has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The S7150 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.0 GB/s. Despite the wider bus on the AMD card, the A2000's faster memory type and higher effective clock (12 Gbps versus 5 Gbps) give it nearly double the bandwidth. The A2000 also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the S7150 is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16, which matters for data transfer in and out of the card.

The S7150 is a server card with no display outputs, meaning it is not designed for a workstation desktop at all. The A2000 has 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. Power requirements differ as well: the A2000 draws 70 W and needs no power connector, while the S7150 draws 150 W and requires a single 6-pin connector. The S7150 is also physically larger at 241 mm long and 111 mm tall, versus the A2000's 167 mm by 69 mm.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark recorded in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is a total blowout. The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB scores 66,998, while the AMD FirePro S7150 scores 26,543. The delta is 152.4 percent in favor of the A2000. To put that in context, the A2000's nearest rivals in the overall database are the AMD Radeon RX 560 XT at 34,133 (0.1 percent slower), the NVIDIA RTX A1000 at 34,207 (0.2 percent faster), and the NVIDIA TITAN V at 34,355 (0.6 percent faster). The A2000's OpenCL score is roughly double its own average benchmark score, which indicates that OpenCL is a particularly strong workload for this card.

The S7150's nearest rivals, on the other hand, cluster around its own average: the GTX 980 Ti at 28,020 (0.3 percent slower), the Radeon Pro W5500X at 27,973 (0.5 percent slower), the RX 7800M at 27,883 (0.8 percent slower), and the Radeon Pro Vega 20 at 27,839 (1 percent slower). The S7150's OpenCL score of 26,543 is actually below its own average of 28,117, meaning it underperforms its typical result in this specific test. The A2000, by contrast, exceeds its average by a wide margin.

There is no Vulkan head-to-head result because the A2000 was not tested in Geekbench Vulkan. The S7150's Vulkan score of 29,690 is higher than its OpenCL score, but without a comparable A2000 result, it cannot be used as a direct comparison. The data only supports the OpenCL comparison, and that comparison is unambiguous: the A2000 is more than 2.5 times faster in this workload.

FAQ

Q: Which card has better OpenCL performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB scores 66,998 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 152.4 percent higher than the AMD FirePro S7150's 26,543. This is the only head-to-head benchmark recorded.

Q: Can the AMD FirePro S7150 be used with a display?

A: No. The FirePro S7150 has no display outputs, making it a compute-only server card. The RTX A2000 has 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: Does the RTX A2000 support ray tracing?

A: Yes. The RTX A2000 has 26 ray tracing cores and 104 tensor cores as part of its Ampere architecture. The FirePro S7150 has neither.

Q: How do their memory bandwidths compare?

A: The RTX A2000 has 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. The FirePro S7150 has 160.0 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The RTX A2000 has a 70 W TDP and requires no power connector. The FirePro S7150 has a 150 W TDP and needs a single 6-pin power connector.

Q: Which card is physically smaller?

A: The RTX A2000 is 167 mm long and 69 mm tall, while the FirePro S7150 is 241 mm long and 111 mm tall. The A2000 is dual-slot, while the S7150 is single-slot.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB | AMD FirePro S7150 |

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

| Chip | GA106 | Tonga |

| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 3.0 |

| Process node | 8 nm | 28 nm |

| Foundry | Samsung | TSMC |

| Transistors | 12,000 million | 5,000 million |

| Die size | 276 mm² | 366 mm² |

| Transistor density | 43.5M / mm² | 13.7M / mm² |

| Base clock | 562 MHz | Not specified |

| Boost clock | 1200 MHz | Not specified |

| Memory clock | 1500 MHz, 12 Gbps effective | 1250 MHz, 5 Gbps effective |

| Memory size | 12 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory bus | 192 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 288.0 GB/s | 160.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 3328 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 104 | 128 |

| ROPs | 48 | 32 |

| Ray tracing cores | 26 | None |

| Tensor cores | 104 | None |

| Pixel rate | 57.60 GPixel/s | 29.44 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 124.8 GTexel/s | 117.8 GTexel/s |

| FP32 performance | 7.987 TFLOPS | 3.768 TFLOPS |

| FP16 performance | 7.987 TFLOPS (1:1) | 7.537 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 70 W | 150 W |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power connectors | None | 1x 6-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 450 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a | No outputs |

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

| Vulkan support | 1.4 | 1.2.170 |

| Release date | 2021-11-22 | 2016-01-31 |

| Launch MSRP | 449 USD | 2,399 USD |

The Verdict

The data points to a single conclusion: the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB is the superior card in nearly every measurable way. Its OpenCL score of 66,998 versus 26,543 is a 152.4 percent advantage, and its average benchmark score of 34,154 places it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the FirePro S7150's average of 28,117 puts it in the 73rd percentile. The A2000 also has more memory, faster memory, higher FP32 throughput, a smaller die, lower power draw, and display outputs. The only areas where the S7150 holds any edge are its wider 256-bit memory bus, higher TMU count, and its 2:1 FP16 ratio, but none of those translate into a benchmark win.

Who should pick the RTX A2000? Anyone building a workstation that needs OpenCL compute, ray tracing, or AI acceleration. It is a dual-slot card that fits in a 250 W system, provides four DisplayPort outputs, and is built on a modern 8 nm process. It is also end-of-life, but its performance profile is far ahead of the S7150.

Who should pick the FirePro S7150? Only a scenario requiring a single-slot, compute-only server card with no display output and a 150 W TDP, and even then the performance penalty is severe. The S7150 is a 2016 design on 28 nm with half the FP32 throughput and nearly half the memory bandwidth. Its 2,399 USD launch MSRP was dramatically higher than the A2000's 449 USD, yet it delivers a fraction of the performance. For any modern workload, the RTX A2000 is the only rational choice from the recorded data.