AMD FirePro W2100 vs AMD Radeon HD 6770 Comparison

The AMD FirePro W2100 and the AMD Radeon HD 6770 are both end-of-life graphics cards from AMD, but they represent fundamentally different generations and design goals. The benchmark data in the database shows a clear, albeit narrow, victory for the newer FirePro W2100 in the only head-to-head test available. The FirePro W2100 scores 4,093 points in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon HD 6770 scores 3,649 points, a difference of 12.2%. This result places the FirePro W2100 in the 25th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon HD 6770 sits slightly lower at the 22nd percentile. The performance gap is real, but the two cards are built on such different architectures that their strengths and weaknesses are not fully captured by a single compute benchmark.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in the recorded Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD FirePro W2100 is faster, scoring 4,093 points compared to the AMD Radeon HD 6770's 3,649 points, giving the FirePro W2100 a 12.2% lead.

Q: How does the FirePro W2100 compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The FirePro W2100's average benchmark score is 4,295. It is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M (4,282), 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Vega 3 (4,268), and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro K3000M (4,241). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 (4,335) by 0.9%.

Q: What is the performance context for the Radeon HD 6770?

A: The Radeon HD 6770 has an average benchmark score of 3,649. It is 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (3,629), 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 735M (3,616), and 1.5% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Mobile Ada Generation (3,596). It is 1.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce 825M (3,694).

Q: What are the differences in memory configuration?

A: The FirePro W2100 has 2 GB of DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 28.80 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon HD 6770 has 1 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing significantly higher bandwidth at 76.80 GB/s.

Q: What are the key architectural differences between the two cards?

A: The FirePro W2100 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture on a 28 nm process, while the Radeon HD 6770 uses the older TeraScale 2 architecture on a 40 nm process. The Radeon HD 6770 has more shading units (800 vs 320), texture mapping units (40 vs 20), and render output units (16 vs 8).

Q: Which card has a higher power consumption rating?

A: The Radeon HD 6770 has a much higher TDP of 108 W, requiring a 6-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested power supply. The FirePro W2100 has a TDP of only 26 W, requires no power connectors, and has a 200 W suggested power supply.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the recorded data, the AMD FirePro W2100 wins in general compute performance. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 4,093 is 12.2% higher than the Radeon HD 6770's score of 3,649. This indicates that for tasks that leverage OpenCL, such as certain professional applications and compute workloads, the FirePro W2100 is the more capable card despite its lower raw specifications. The FirePro W2100 also wins on modern feature support, including DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, which are absent on the older card.

The AMD Radeon HD 6770 wins in theoretical raw throughput. The database shows it has a higher pixel rate (13.60 GPixel/s vs 5.440 GPixel/s), a higher texture rate (34.00 GTexel/s vs 13.60 GTexel/s), and higher FP32 performance (1,360.0 GFLOPS vs 435.2 GFLOPS). It also has significantly more memory bandwidth at 76.80 GB/s compared to the FirePro W2100's 28.80 GB/s. These figures suggest that in legacy applications or scenarios heavily dependent on raw fill rates and memory bandwidth, the Radeon HD 6770 could perform better, but this is not reflected in the single head-to-head benchmark result.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are products of entirely different architectural eras. The FirePro W2100 is built on the GCN 1.0 architecture, using the Oland chip, and is manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It contains 950 million transistors on a 77 mm² die. The Radeon HD 6770 uses the TeraScale 2 architecture, based on the Juniper chip, and is built on a 40 nm process at TSMC. It houses 1,040 million transistors on a much larger 166 mm² die. This makes the FirePro W2100's transistor density 12.3M per mm², which is nearly double the Radeon HD 6770's 6.3M per mm². The newer process node and denser design give the FirePro W2100 a significant efficiency advantage. The Radeon HD 6770 has a much higher number of execution units: 800 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units, compared to the FirePro W2100's 320 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 8 render output units. This disparity explains the large difference in theoretical performance figures, such as FP32 and texture rates, which favor the older card.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for the two cards highlight their different design goals. The FirePro W2100 is a low-profile, power-efficient professional card. It has a TDP of 26 W, is single-slot, and requires no power connectors. Its bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x8. Its display outputs are two DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. It supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. Its dimensions are 168 mm in length and 69 mm in height.

The Radeon HD 6770 is a more power-hungry consumer card. It has a TDP of 108 W, is dual-slot, and requires a single 6-pin power connector. Its bus interface is PCIe 2.0 x16. Its display outputs are more varied, including 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.1. It supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4, but has no Vulkan support. Its length is 198 mm. The Radeon HD 6770 has a launch MSRP of 129 USD. The FirePro W2100's memory configuration includes 2 GB of DDR3, while the Radeon HD 6770 uses 1 GB of GDDR5. The FirePro W2100 has a higher memory clock at 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective) compared to the Radeon HD 6770's 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective), but the Radeon HD 6770's GDDR5 memory yields much higher bandwidth.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison recorded in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this test, the AMD FirePro W2100 decisively outperforms the AMD Radeon HD 6770. The FirePro W2100 scores 4,093 points, while the Radeon HD 6770 scores 3,649 points. This represents a 12.2% performance advantage for the FirePro W2100. This result is notable because the Radeon HD 6770 has significantly higher theoretical compute capabilities, including more than three times the FP32 performance (1,360.0 GFLOPS vs 435.2 GFLOPS) and nearly three times the memory bandwidth (76.80 GB/s vs 28.80 GB/s). The FirePro W2100's victory in this test suggests that its modern GCN architecture is far more efficient at executing OpenCL workloads than the older TeraScale 2 design. The FirePro W2100's average benchmark score of 4,295 also places it ahead of the Radeon HD 6770's average of 3,649, confirming that this is not an isolated result.

The Verdict

This comparison is between two very different products. The AMD FirePro W2100 is a modern, efficient professional workstation card that delivers better compute performance in the recorded benchmark. The AMD Radeon HD 6770 is an older, power-hungry consumer card with higher theoretical raw specs but lower actual performance in the OpenCL test.

The data clearly indicates that the FirePro W2100 is the better choice for anyone running OpenCL-based workloads. Its 12.2% higher score in the head-to-head benchmark, combined with its support for newer APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan, makes it a more future-proof and capable card for compute tasks. Its extremely low power draw of 26 W, no need for external power connectors, and single-slot design also make it a far easier card to integrate into a system.

The Radeon HD 6770, on the other hand, holds an advantage in theoretical throughput metrics. Its higher pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 performance suggest it could be superior in older, less compute-heavy applications that rely on raw fill rates. Its GDDR5 memory also provides significantly more bandwidth. However, the database's only recorded benchmark shows it losing to the FirePro W2100, and its lack of modern API support is a major drawback.

For a professional user or anyone prioritizing compute performance and efficiency, the AMD FirePro W2100 is the clear winner based on the recorded data. For a user with legacy applications that are not optimized for OpenCL and rely on raw rasterization power, the Radeon HD 6770 might still have a place, but the benchmark data does not support it being the faster card overall. The FirePro W2100's victory in the head-to-head test, despite its lower raw specs, is the decisive factor.