AMD FirePro W5170M vs Intel Arc A310 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD FirePro W5170M has a higher average benchmark score of 8595, while the Intel Arc A310 averages 7550. However, the Intel card wins both recorded head-to-head tests decisively.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap in the head-to-head tests?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the Intel Arc A310 scores 30607 versus 8140 for the AMD FirePro W5170M, a delta of 73.4% in favor of Intel. The Vulkan test shows a 68.8% gap, with Intel at 28964 and AMD at 9050.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The FirePro W5170M sits within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon HD 8870M and NVIDIA GeForce MX330, and is 1.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro P2200. The Arc A310 is nearly tied with the AMD Radeon R7 250 (0.1% behind) and lands 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The FirePro W5170M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 72.00 GB/s bandwidth. The Arc A310 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 124.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the Intel Arc A310 includes 6 dedicated ray tracing cores. The AMD FirePro W5170M has no ray tracing hardware.

Q: What is the production status of both cards?

A: Both are end-of-life products. The AMD FirePro W5170M launched in August 2014, and the Intel Arc A310 launched in October 2022.

Architecture Differences

The AMD FirePro W5170M is built on the Tropo chip using the GCN 1.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The chip packs 1,500 million transistors into a 123 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.2 million per square millimeter. This is an older mobile workstation design from the FirePro Mobile (Wx100M) generation.

The Intel Arc A310 uses the DG2-128 chip with the Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist (Arc 3) generation. It is fabricated on a 6 nm process, also at TSMC, with 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die. The density jumps to 45.9 million transistors per square millimeter, a nearly 4x improvement over the AMD part.

The two architectures diverge significantly in feature support. The AMD card supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Intel card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Arc A310 also brings hardware ray tracing with 6 RT cores, something the GCN 1.0 architecture lacks entirely.

Clock behavior differs as well. The FirePro W5170M runs at a base of 900 MHz and boosts to 925 MHz, with memory at 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective). The Arc A310 runs at a flat 1750 MHz for both base and boost, with memory at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective). The Intel chip operates at nearly twice the GPU clock speed.

The bus interface also tells a story of era. The AMD card uses MXM-A (3.0), a mobile module standard, while the Intel card uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The display outputs on the FirePro are listed as portable device dependent, whereas the Arc A310 provides 4x mini-DisplayPort 2.0.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data includes only two shared tests, and the Intel Arc A310 wins both by a wide margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Arc A310 scores 30607 against the FirePro W5170M's 8140. That is a 73.4% advantage, meaning the Intel card delivers roughly 3.8 times the OpenCL throughput of the AMD part.

Geekbench Vulkan tells a similar story. The Arc A310 posts 28964, while the FirePro W5170M manages 9050. The delta is 68.8%, again a massive lead for Intel. The FirePro's Vulkan score is actually higher than its OpenCL score, but both remain far below the Intel figures.

The FirePro W5170M wins zero head-to-head tests, while the Arc A310 wins both. The average benchmark scores tell a slightly different story, however. The AMD card averages 8595 across its two recorded tests, while the Intel card averages 7550 across nine tests. The Arc A310's average is dragged down by several low PassMark scores, including 31 in DirectX 10, 33 in DirectX 11, and 29 in DirectX 12. Its PassMark G3D score of 5433 and GPU compute score of 2157 are more representative of its capability.

The percentile rankings place the FirePro W5170M at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A310 sits at the 40th percentile. Despite the Intel card's dominant head-to-head wins, its broader benchmark profile shows it landing slightly lower in the overall distribution.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification category. The process node moves from 28 nm on AMD to 6 nm on Intel. Transistor count rises from 1,500 million to 7,200 million, while die size grows from 123 mm² to 157 mm². Transistor density improves from 12.2M per mm² to 45.9M per mm².

Clock speeds are substantially higher on the Intel card. The FirePro W5170M runs at 900 MHz base and 925 MHz boost. The Arc A310 runs at 1750 MHz for both. Memory clock jumps from 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective) to 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective).

Memory configuration changes completely. The AMD card uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 72.00 GB/s bandwidth. The Intel card uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 124.0 GB/s bandwidth. Despite the narrower bus, the Intel card delivers 72% more bandwidth thanks to faster memory.

Compute resources differ in structure. The FirePro W5170M has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Arc A310 has 768 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The AMD card has more texture units, while the Intel card has more shaders. The Intel card also adds 6 ray tracing cores.

Rates and throughput favor Intel. Pixel rate is 14.80 GPixel/s on AMD versus 28.00 GPixel/s on Intel. Texture rate is 37.00 GTexel/s versus 56.00 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 1,184.0 GFLOPS on the FirePro versus 2.688 TFLOPS on the Arc A310. The Intel card also supports FP16 at 5.376 TFLOPS (2:1), while the AMD card has no FP16 specification listed.

Power and form factor differ. The FirePro W5170M has no TDP listed, uses an MXM Module slot, and has no power connectors. The Arc A310 has a 30 W TDP, is single-slot, has no power connectors, and lists a 200 W suggested PSU. The AMD card predates the Intel card by eight years, with release dates of August 2014 and October 2022 respectively.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A310 is the clear winner in raw compute performance. It dominates both shared benchmarks, with a 73.4% lead in OpenCL and a 68.8% lead in Vulkan. The 2.688 TFLOPS FP32 figure is more than double the FirePro's 1,184.0 GFLOPS. The Arc A310 also offers hardware ray tracing, a feature entirely absent from the older AMD part. For any modern workload that leverages DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, or ray tracing, the Intel card is the only viable choice between the two.

The Arc A310 also wins on memory capacity and bandwidth. Its 4 GB GDDR6 frame buffer doubles the FirePro's 2 GB, and its 124.0 GB/s bandwidth exceeds the AMD card's 72.00 GB/s. The higher effective memory speed of 15.5 Gbps versus 4.5 Gbps gives the Intel card a substantial advantage in memory-bound tasks.

The AMD FirePro W5170M wins in one narrow sense: its average benchmark score of 8595 is higher than the Arc A310's 7550. This is because the Intel card's average is pulled down by low PassMark DirectX scores that do not appear in the shared head-to-head tests. The FirePro also holds a slight edge in texture unit count with 40 TMUs versus 32, though the Intel card's higher clock speeds more than compensate in practice.

For legacy application compatibility, the FirePro W5170M's GCN 1.0 architecture with DirectX 12 (11_1) support may be better suited to older software that expects that feature level. However, the Arc A310's DirectX 12 Ultimate support is backward compatible, so this is a narrow advantage. The AMD card also uses the MXM-A (3.0) interface, which may be relevant in specific mobile workstation chassis, while the Arc A310 uses PCIe 4.0 x8.

The data does not favor the FirePro W5170M in any measured performance test. The Arc A310 wins both head-to-head benchmarks, offers newer API support, has ray tracing, and delivers more than double the FP32 throughput. The FirePro's higher average score reflects a smaller benchmark set rather than actual superiority. For any modern workload, the Intel Arc A310 is the stronger GPU. The AMD card's only practical advantages are its smaller die size, lower transistor count, and compatibility with older mobile module standards.