AMD FirePro W4190M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 Comparison

The AMD FirePro W4190M and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 represent two completely different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. The data shows a stark contrast: the FirePro W4190M is a 28nm mobile workstation part from 2015, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is a 5nm desktop enthusiast card from 2024. Their benchmark scores land in a similar percentile range relative to all GPUs—26th for the AMD and 25th for the NVIDIA—but this is where the similarity ends. The FirePro W4190M achieves a Geekbench OpenCL score of 4505, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6 posts a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4334.5, with each card competing against vastly different rivals in its respective test.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD FirePro W4190M wins in the legacy compute workload, as measured by Geekbench OpenCL. Its score of 4505 places it within a tight cluster of older and lower-power parts, sitting 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R7 M260's 4499 average. This margin is negligible, but it is a win nonetheless. The data shows this card is competitive with integrated graphics like the Intel HD Graphics P530 (4560, a 1.2% deficit for the FirePro) and entry-level discrete parts like the AMD Radeon RX 560 (4569, a 1.4% deficit). For a 2015 mobile workstation GPU, the FirePro W4190M holds its own in this specific OpenCL test, suggesting it was designed for compatibility and consistent throughput in professional applications that relied on OpenCL acceleration.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 wins in the modern DirectX 12 rasterization test, as measured by 3DMark Steel Nomad. Its score of 4334.5 places it 0.9% ahead of the AMD FirePro W2100 (4295) and 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M (4282). While these deltas are small, the context is important: the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is being compared against much older and weaker GPUs in its nearest rivals list, which indicates that the benchmark database ranks it in a low percentile (25th) despite its modern architecture. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also loses to the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce 930M by 1.2%, which is counterintuitive given its specifications. The data suggests that the RTX 4070 GDDR6's win here is about its ability to execute a demanding DX12 workload at all, not about dominating its immediate rivals.

In terms of raw feature support, the RTX 4070 GDDR6 wins decisively. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, whereas the FirePro W4190M is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1), Vulkan 1.2.170, and OpenGL 4.6. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also has dedicated ray tracing cores (46) and tensor cores (184), which the FirePro W4190M lacks entirely. This makes the RTX 4070 GDDR6 the clear winner for any workload that leverages ray tracing, DLSS-style AI acceleration, or modern graphics APIs.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast. The AMD FirePro W4190M is built on GCN 1.0 architecture, using the Opal chip, and fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It contains 950 million transistors on a 77 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6, in contrast, uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It packs 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, achieving a density of 121.8 million per square millimeter—nearly ten times the density of the FirePro.

Memory configurations are equally divergent. The FirePro W4190M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 480.0 GB/s of bandwidth—7.5 times more bandwidth and six times more capacity. The RTX 4070 GDDR6's memory clock is 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), compared to the FirePro's 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective).

Compute resources show the NVIDIA card's overwhelming advantage. The FirePro W4190M has 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 8 raster output units (ROPs). The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. This translates to a pixel rate of 7.200 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 21.60 GTexel/s for the AMD, versus 158.4 GPixel/s and 455.4 GTexel/s for the NVIDIA. FP32 performance is 691.2 GFLOPS for the FirePro versus 29.15 TFLOPS for the RTX 4070 GDDR6—a 42-fold difference. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also offers FP16 at 29.15 TFLOPS (1:1), while the FirePro lists no FP16 capability.

Physical and interface differences further separate them. The FirePro W4190M is an MXM module with no power connectors and a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 is a dual-slot card measuring 240 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, requiring a single 16-pin power connector and a 550 W suggested power supply, with a 200 W TDP. The FirePro's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," while the RTX 4070 GDDR6 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

There are no direct head-to-head benchmark entries in the data between these two GPUs. Instead, the comparison must be drawn from their individual benchmark scores and their relative positions against nearest rivals. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the FirePro W4190M's 4505 score puts it in a dead heat with the Radeon R7 M260 (4499), while the RTX 4070 GDDR6's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 4334.5 sits just 0.9% above the FirePro W2100 (4295).

The biggest win for the AMD card is its ability to stay within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon R5 M230 (4577) in OpenCL, despite being a workstation-oriented part. The biggest win for the NVIDIA card is its 1.2% lead over the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M (4282) in the DX12 Steel Nomad test, a workload that the GTX 460M was never designed to run efficiently. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also outperforms the AMD FirePro W2100 by 0.9%, which is notable because both cards carry the FirePro workstation branding lineage, but the NVIDIA part achieves this with consumer hardware.

The data also reveals that the RTX 4070 GDDR6's nearest rival, the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, beats it by 0.6% in Steel Nomad, and the NVIDIA GeForce 930M beats it by 1.2%. This suggests that the benchmark score for the RTX 4070 GDDR6 may be anomalous relative to its specifications, or that the Steel Nomad test is highly sensitive to specific driver optimizations. The FirePro W4190M's nearest rivals are all within a 1.6% band of its score, indicating a very tight competitive cluster in that OpenCL test.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 has 29.15 TFLOPS FP32, while the AMD FirePro W4190M has 691.2 GFLOPS, making the NVIDIA card approximately 42 times faster.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 offers 480.0 GB/s of bandwidth with 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, whereas the FirePro W4190M has 64.00 GB/s with 2 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Do both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate?

A: No. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD card supports DirectX 12 (11_1). The AMD card also lacks ray tracing and tensor cores.

Q: How do their benchmark scores compare?

A: The FirePro W4190M scores 4505 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6 scores 4334.5 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. They are in similar percentile ranks (26th and 25th), but the tests are entirely different workloads.

Q: Which GPU has a smaller manufacturing process?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 is built on a 5 nm process, while the FirePro W4190M is on 28 nm. Both are fabricated by TSMC.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. The FirePro W4190M has 950 million transistors on a 77 mm² die.

The Verdict

The data makes the verdict straightforward for different use cases. If the workload is legacy OpenCL compute in a mobile workstation form factor, the AMD FirePro W4190M is the relevant part, with a score of 4505 that sits competitively against its contemporaries. It is an end-of-life product from 2015, with a 28 nm process, 2 GB of GDDR5, and no modern API support beyond DirectX 12 (11_1). It wins in the sense that it exists and performs as expected for its era, but it is not a viable option for any modern graphics task.

If the workload is modern gaming or professional rendering requiring DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing, or tensor core acceleration, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 is the only choice between the two. Its 29.15 TFLOPS FP32, 480 GB/s of bandwidth, and 12 GB of memory provide the necessary foundation. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 4334.5 places it in the 25th percentile, but its nearest rivals are all far older and weaker GPUs, indicating that the score does not reflect its architectural capability. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also carries a launch MSRP of 599 USD, which is a factual data point but not a value judgment.

The verdict is clear: the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is the superior hardware by every architectural metric, while the FirePro W4190M is a historical artifact with a specific niche in older mobile workstations. The benchmark scores are not directly comparable due to different tests, but the architectural data overwhelmingly favors the NVIDIA card. For anyone considering a purchase today, the FirePro W4190M is end-of-life and unsuitable, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6, despite also being end-of-life, offers modern features and performance. The data does not support any scenario where the FirePro W4190M is the recommended pick over the RTX 4070 GDDR6.