AMD FirePro W5170M vs NVIDIA GeForce 945M Comparison

The AMD FirePro W5170M and NVIDIA GeForce 945M are two end-of-life mobile graphics solutions aimed at very different audiences, yet they land surprisingly close in raw compute performance. The data shows a single head-to-head benchmark result, with the AMD part edging out a narrow victory. This analysis breaks down what that result means, where each card excels, and which type of user should favor one over the other based strictly on the available facts.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this test, the AMD FirePro W5170M scores 8140, while the NVIDIA GeForce 945M scores 8099. This gives the AMD card a win by a razor-thin margin of 0.5 percent. In practical terms, this difference is essentially negligible—it falls well within the noise of typical benchmarking variance, and neither card will feel faster than the other in a blind test based on this single metric.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the AMD FirePro W5170M also has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 9050, a test which the NVIDIA card does not have a recorded result for. This absence is notable, as it suggests the AMD card offers a verifiable advantage in Vulkan workloads, at least based on the available data. The NVIDIA card's lack of a Vulkan score in the pack means it cannot be directly compared in that API, which could be a deciding factor for users running modern applications that leverage Vulkan.

The average benchmark scores tell a similar story to the head-to-head result. The AMD FirePro W5170M averages 8595 across its two recorded tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce 945M averages 8099 from its single OpenCL result. This gives the AMD card a 6.1 percent higher average score, but that figure is skewed by the fact that the AMD card has two data points, one of which is the strong Vulkan result. The OpenCL head-to-head remains the most apples-to-apples comparison, and it shows a virtual tie.

Contextualizing these scores against their nearest rivals further clarifies the picture. The AMD FirePro W5170M sits at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, and its average score of 8595 places it within 1.1 percent of the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8686) and 0.4 percent above the Intel Arc A380 (8558). It also leads the AMD Radeon HD 8870M and NVIDIA GeForce MX330 by 1.6 percent each. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M, meanwhile, sits at the 42nd percentile, with its 8099 average score landing 0.4 percent below the AMD Radeon R9 M360 (8129) and 0.4 percent below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M (8135). It edges out the NVIDIA GRID K2 (8080) and GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (8067) by 0.2 and 0.4 percent, respectively. The data shows that both cards are firmly in the mid-range mobile tier, with the AMD card having a slight edge in overall percentile ranking.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD FirePro W5170M wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 8140, narrowly beating the NVIDIA GeForce 945M's 8099. The margin is only 0.5 percent, making it effectively a tie in real-world performance.

Q: Does the NVIDIA GeForce 945M have any benchmark advantage over the AMD card?

A: No. Based on the available data, the NVIDIA card has zero wins in the head-to-head comparison. The AMD card wins the sole recorded benchmark test, and the NVIDIA card has no Vulkan score to counter the AMD card's 9050 in that test.

Q: How do these cards compare to their direct competitors?

A: The AMD FirePro W5170M is 1.1 percent behind the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 and 0.4 percent ahead of the Intel Arc A380. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M is 0.4 percent behind the AMD Radeon R9 M360 and 0.4 percent behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card?

A: The AMD FirePro W5170M has an average benchmark score of 8595 across two tests. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M has an average benchmark score of 8099 from a single test, which is its OpenCL result.

Q: Which card has a higher overall GPU percentile ranking?

A: The AMD FirePro W5170M ranks at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce 945M ranks at the 42nd percentile. This indicates the AMD card sits slightly higher in the overall performance distribution.

Q: Is there a significant performance gap between these two cards?

A: No. The only shared benchmark shows a 0.5 percent difference in favor of the AMD card. The NVIDIA card does have higher raw compute throughput on paper, but the real-world OpenCL result does not reflect that theoretical advantage.

The Verdict

The data makes it clear that these two cards are extremely close in actual compute performance, despite their different architectural approaches. The AMD FirePro W5170M takes the single head-to-head win and also has the advantage of a higher average benchmark score and a better overall percentile ranking. For users prioritizing raw compute in OpenCL and Vulkan, the AMD card is the safer choice based on the available numbers.

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M, however, is not without its merits. Its theoretical FP32 performance of 1,305.6 GFLOPS is higher than the AMD card's 1,184.0 GFLOPS, and its boost clock of 1020 MHz is faster than the AMD card's 925 MHz. These specs suggest the NVIDIA card may have untapped potential in workloads not captured by the limited benchmark data, but the evidence provided does not show it translating into a win.

For a strict performance-per-dollar or performance-per-watt analysis, the data is insufficient, as neither card has a launch MSRP and only the NVIDIA card has a TDP listed at 75 W. What the data does show is a tie in compute performance, with the AMD card having a slight edge in the measured tests. The choice between them should come down to other factors, such as API support and platform compatibility, rather than raw speed.

Specification Differences

The two cards share several core specifications. Both have 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operation pipelines. Both feature 2 GB of memory on a 128-bit bus, and both use a 28 nm process node from TSMC. Both are MXM modules with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs.

The differences begin with the memory type. The AMD FirePro W5170M uses GDDR5 memory running at 1125 MHz with an effective data rate of 4.5 Gbps, yielding a memory bandwidth of 72.00 GB/s. The NVIDIA GeForce 945M uses DDR3 memory at 900 MHz with an effective rate of 1800 Mbps, resulting in a significantly lower bandwidth of 28.80 GB/s. This is a major difference, as the AMD card offers 150 percent more memory bandwidth.

Clock speeds also differ. The AMD card has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 925 MHz. The NVIDIA card has a base clock of 928 MHz and a boost clock of 1020 MHz. The NVIDIA card also has a listed TDP of 75 W, while the AMD card's TDP is not provided. The bus interface differs as well: the AMD card uses MXM-A (3.0), while the NVIDIA card uses MXM-B (3.0).

Architecture Differences

The AMD FirePro W5170M is built on the GCN 1.0 architecture, using the Tropo chip. It belongs to the FirePro Mobile (Wx100M) generation and was released on August 24, 2014. Its predecessor is the FirePro Mobility, and its successor is the Radeon Pro Mobile. The chip contains 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 12.2M per mm².

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M is built on the Maxwell architecture, using the GM107 chip. It belongs to the GeForce 900M generation and was released on October 26, 2015. Its predecessor is the GeForce 800M, and its successor is the GeForce 10 Mobile. The chip contains 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 12.6M per mm².

In terms of API support, the AMD card supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This is a notable difference: the NVIDIA card has a higher Vulkan version (1.4 vs 1.2.170), while the AMD card has a slightly higher DirectX feature level (11_1 vs 11_0). The AMD card also has a recorded Vulkan benchmark score, which the NVIDIA card lacks.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD FirePro W5170M wins in the only benchmark where both cards have a result, and it also has a Vulkan score that the NVIDIA card cannot match. Its GDDR5 memory provides substantially higher bandwidth, which could benefit memory-intensive workloads, even if the compute performance is comparable. The data shows it also holds a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The NVIDIA GeForce 945M wins in theoretical raw compute, with higher FP32 throughput and faster clock speeds. Its higher boost clock of 1020 MHz and 1,305.6 GFLOPS FP32 performance suggest it could outperform the AMD card in compute-bound tasks that are not reflected in the OpenCL benchmark. Its newer Vulkan 1.4 support also gives it a software advantage for future applications.

In a practical sense, the AMD card's memory bandwidth advantage and its verified Vulkan performance make it the better choice for users running modern APIs and memory-heavy workloads. The NVIDIA card's higher theoretical compute and newer Vulkan version make it a competitive option for users who favor NVIDIA's ecosystem or need the specific feature set of its architecture. Given the 0.5 percent difference in the only shared benchmark, the decision should hinge on platform compatibility and software requirements rather than performance, as the data shows neither card holds a meaningful speed advantage over the other.