AMD FirePro W4300 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Comparison

The AMD FirePro W4300 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti represent two very different generations of GPU design, separated by nearly five years of architectural evolution. The benchmark data places the FirePro W4300 ahead in the single available compute test, but the comparison reveals a more nuanced story about how each card was optimized for its intended workload. The FirePro W4300 achieves a Geekbench OpenCL score of 11,225, while the GTX 560 Ti scores 10,690, a 5% advantage for the AMD card. This margin is modest, but it is consistent across the hardware specifications that feed into compute performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is Geekbench OpenCL, a compute-focused test that measures raw throughput for general-purpose GPU workloads. The AMD FirePro W4300 scores 11,225 points, edging out the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti’s 10,690 points by a 5% delta. This win is statistically significant but not overwhelming; it reflects the architectural advantages of the newer GCN 2.0 design rather than a dramatic generational leap in raw horsepower. For context, the FirePro W4300’s closest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200, scores 11,228, a 0% delta, placing the W4300 in a tight cluster of similarly performing workstation cards. The GTX 560 Ti, meanwhile, sits near the AMD Radeon RX 6600S, which scores 10,629 with a 0.6% delta in favor of the NVIDIA card, and the NVIDIA Quadro K2200 at 10,761, which is 0.7% faster.

The 5% delta between the two cards in this review translates to roughly 535 points. In practical terms, this means the FirePro W4300 completes OpenCL compute tasks slightly faster, but the GTX 560 Ti is by no means obsolete in this metric. Looking at the percentile rankings, the FirePro W4300 lands at the 50th percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 560 Ti sits just below at the 49th percentile. These percentiles confirm that both cards occupy the mid-range of the performance spectrum, with the AMD card holding a slim but real edge in compute throughput. The data shows a clear winner in the head-to-head, but the margin is narrow enough that other factors—such as driver optimization for specific applications—could easily tip the scales in real-world scenarios.

Architecture Differences

The fundamental divide between these two GPUs is architectural. The AMD FirePro W4300 is built on the GCN 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. Its chip, codenamed Bonaire, packs 2,080 million transistors into a 160 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.0 million transistors per mm². The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti, in contrast, uses the Fermi 2.0 architecture, also from TSMC but on a 40 nm process. Its GF114 chip contains 1,950 million transistors spread across a much larger 332 mm² die, giving a density of just 5.9 million transistors per mm². The smaller process node allows AMD to pack more transistors into less space, which is a key reason the W4300 achieves higher compute throughput despite its lower power envelope.

The compute resources differ significantly. The FirePro W4300 features 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 raster operation units (ROPs). The GTX 560 Ti has exactly half the shading units at 384, but more TMUs (64) and double the ROPs (32). This configuration explains the performance profile: AMD’s card favors parallel compute throughput, while NVIDIA’s older design emphasizes texture and pixel fill rates. The pixel rate for the W4300 is 14.88 GPixel/s versus 13.17 GPixel/s for the GTX 560 Ti, a 13% advantage for AMD. However, the texture rate tells a different story: the GTX 560 Ti achieves 52.67 GTexel/s, beating the W4300’s 44.64 GTexel/s by 18%. These rates reflect the underlying TMU and ROP counts, showing that NVIDIA’s card was designed for rasterization-heavy workloads common in gaming, while AMD’s card targets compute.

Floating-point performance reinforces this split. The FirePro W4300 delivers 1,428.5 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the GTX 560 Ti manages 1,263.4 GFLOPS—a 13% gap in favor of AMD. Neither card supports FP16 natively, as both lack the tensor cores or dedicated half-precision paths found in modern accelerators. The memory subsystems also diverge: the W4300 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth, while the GTX 560 Ti has just 1 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 256-bit bus, achieving 128.3 GB/s. The GTX 560 Ti’s 34% bandwidth advantage is notable, but it comes with far less capacity, which limits its ability to hold large datasets in memory.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD FirePro W4300 wins in compute-oriented scenarios. Its 5% Geekbench OpenCL lead, combined with 13% higher FP32 throughput, makes it the better choice for GPU-accelerated tasks like OpenCL-based rendering, scientific simulation, or video encoding that leverage shading units heavily. The 4 GB memory capacity is another decisive factor for professional workloads; it can hold larger textures, datasets, or intermediate buffers without spilling to system memory. The card’s 50 W TDP, versus the GTX 560 Ti’s 170 W, also makes it far easier to integrate into dense workstations or small form factor systems—the W4300 is a single-slot card with no power connectors, while the GTX 560 Ti requires a dual-slot design and two 6-pin power connectors. This efficiency is a direct result of the 28 nm process and the GCN 2.0 architecture’s power management.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti wins in traditional rasterization and texture-heavy workloads. Its 18% higher texture rate and double the ROP count give it an edge in fill-rate-bound scenarios, such as early DirectX 11 game titles or CAD applications that rely heavily on textured geometry. The 256-bit memory bus and 128.3 GB/s bandwidth provide faster data transfer for streaming textures, which was a critical advantage in its 2011-era gaming context. The GTX 560 Ti also supports the same OpenGL 4.6 API as the W4300, making it viable for legacy OpenGL applications, though its DirectX support is capped at 12 (11_0), while the W4300 supports 12 (12_0), a feature-level difference that matters for newer compute workloads. For users running older software that was optimized for Fermi’s architecture, the GTX 560 Ti’s dual-slot cooler and robust power delivery might actually deliver more consistent performance in sustained workloads.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge across nearly every major specification. The FirePro W4300 uses a 28 nm process, while the GTX 560 Ti uses 40 nm. Transistor count is close (2,080 million vs. 1,950 million), but die size differs dramatically (160 mm² vs. 332 mm²), leading to a transistor density of 13.0M / mm² versus 5.9M / mm². Memory configuration: the W4300 has 4 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus (96.00 GB/s), while the GTX 560 Ti has 1 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus (128.3 GB/s). Memory clock speeds are 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for AMD and 1002 MHz (4 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA. The W4300 has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs; the GTX 560 Ti has 384 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

Pixel rate: 14.88 GPixel/s for the W4300 vs. 13.17 GPixel/s for the GTX 560 Ti. Texture rate: 44.64 GTexel/s vs. 52.67 GTexel/s. FP32: 1,428.5 GFLOPS vs. 1,263.4 GFLOPS. TDP: 50 W vs. 170 W. Slot width: single-slot vs. dual-slot. Power connectors: none vs. 2x 6-pin. Suggested PSU: 250 W vs. 450 W. Bus interface: PCIe 3.0 x16 vs. PCIe 2.0 x16. Display outputs: the W4300 offers 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.2; the GTX 560 Ti offers 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a. API support: the W4300 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the GTX 560 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and no Vulkan. Release dates are November 30, 2015, for the W4300 and January 24, 2011, for the GTX 560 Ti. The GTX 560 Ti has a launch MSRP of 249 USD. Physical dimensions: the W4300 is 171 mm (6.7 inches) long and 69 mm (2.7 inches) high, while the GTX 560 Ti is 229 mm (9 inches) long.

FAQ

Q: Which card performs better in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD FirePro W4300 scores 11,225, which is 5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti’s 10,690. The W4300 wins the only head-to-head benchmark available.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two cards?

A: The GTX 560 Ti has higher memory bandwidth at 128.3 GB/s due to its 256-bit bus, versus the W4300’s 96.00 GB/s on a 128-bit bus. However, the W4300 has 4 GB of memory compared to the GTX 560 Ti’s 1 GB.

Q: What are the power consumption differences?

A: The FirePro W4300 has a TDP of 50 W and requires no power connectors, while the GTX 560 Ti has a TDP of 170 W and needs two 6-pin power connectors. The suggested PSU rating is 250 W for the AMD card and 450 W for the NVIDIA card.

Q: Which card supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The FirePro W4300 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GTX 560 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 but has no Vulkan support.

Q: How do the transistor densities compare?

A: The W4300 has a transistor density of 13.0M / mm², packing 2,080 million transistors into a 160 mm² die. The GTX 560 Ti has a density of 5.9M / mm², with 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die.

Q: What is the performance percentile ranking for each card?

A: The FirePro W4300 ranks at the 50th percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 560 Ti ranks at the 49th percentile. This places both near the median of the performance distribution.