AMD FirePro W600 vs AMD Radeon R7 M445 Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD FirePro W600 and AMD Radeon R7 M445 occupy entirely different corners of the GPU landscape, and the data reflects that clearly. The FirePro W600, a professional workstation card from 2012, is the stronger performer in the only shared benchmark, scoring 6223 in Geekbench OpenCL against the R7 M445's 5358. That is a 16.1% advantage, and it places the W600 at the 36th percentile of all GPUs, while the R7 M445 sits at the 31st percentile. The W600 also lands within 0.9% of the NVIDIA Quadro K620 and within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SUPER in the database's nearest-rival rankings, which underscores that its compute output remains competitive even against much newer parts.

For a professional workload, the W600 is the clear choice. It offers six mini-DisplayPort outputs, a full PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, and a single-slot design with no external power connectors. Its 512 shading units and 16 ROPs, paired with a 128-bit memory bus delivering 64.00 GB/s, make it a capable compute and multi-display card. The R7 M445, by contrast, is an integrated mobile part with a 64-bit bus yielding only 32.00 GB/s, and it carries just 320 shading units. It is not designed for heavy lifting; it is a laptop GPU meant for casual use, and the benchmark results confirm that.

The verdict is simple: if the task is professional rendering, multi-monitor output, or OpenCL compute, the FirePro W600 wins outright. If the need is a low-power mobile GPU for a compact laptop, the R7 M445 fits that niche, but it loses every head-to-head benchmark and offers no performance advantage. The database records one win for the W600 and zero for the R7 M445. There is no scenario in which the R7 M445 outperforms the W600 in the measured data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The AMD FirePro W600 scores 6223 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 16.1% higher than the AMD Radeon R7 M445's 5358. The W600 wins the only head-to-head benchmark recorded.

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

A: The FirePro W600 is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 6950, 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SUPER, and 0.9% behind the NVIDIA Quadro K620. The R7 M445 is 0.2% behind the Intel UHD Graphics P630 and 0.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 840M.

Q: What memory configurations do these cards use?

A: The FirePro W600 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 64.00 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon R7 M445 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit bus with 32.00 GB/s bandwidth. The W600 has double the memory bandwidth despite half the capacity.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The FirePro W600 has 512 shading units, while the Radeon R7 M445 has 320. The W600 also has 32 texture mapping units and 16 ROPs, compared to 20 TMUs and 8 ROPs on the R7 M445.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life products. The FirePro W600 was released on June 12, 2012, and the Radeon R7 M445 was released on May 14, 2016.

Q: Which GPU supports more display outputs?

A: The FirePro W600 supports six mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, making it a multi-display workstation card. The Radeon R7 M445's outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary by laptop implementation.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different generations of AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture. The FirePro W600 uses GCN 1.0, built on the Cape Verde chip, while the Radeon R7 M445 uses GCN 3.0, built on the Meso chip. Both are fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, but the architectural gap of two full generations shows in their feature sets and compute capabilities.

The transistor counts are nearly identical: the W600 packs 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, and the R7 M445 packs 1,550 million on a 125 mm² die. Transistor density is also close, at 12.2 million per mm² for the W600 and 12.4 million per mm² for the R7 M445. The real differences lie in how those transistors are deployed. The W600's GCN 1.0 design prioritizes raw compute throughput with 512 shading units, while the R7 M445's GCN 3.0 design uses fewer cores but adds newer features.

DirectX support is a notable split. The W600 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the R7 M445 supports DirectX 12 (12_0). That means the newer mobile GPU can handle more advanced DirectX 12 features, even though it has less compute horsepower. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.2.170, so API-level compatibility is otherwise identical.

The W600 is a desktop workstation card with a single-slot form factor and no power connectors, drawing 75 W. The R7 M445 is an integrated mobile GPU with no standalone slot width, listed as "IGP," and its TDP is not recorded in the database. The W600 connects via PCIe 3.0 x16, while the R7 M445 uses PCIe 3.0 x8, halving the available bus bandwidth for data transfers.

The W600 also has a fixed display output configuration of six mini-DisplayPort 1.2 ports, which is a hallmark of professional multi-monitor cards. The R7 M445's display outputs are dependent on the portable device it is installed in, so there is no standardized output set. These architectural choices reflect their intended markets: the W600 for fixed workstation environments, the R7 M445 for flexible laptop integration.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification. The FirePro W600 uses a 128-bit memory bus with 2 GB of GDDR5, delivering 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon R7 M445 uses a 64-bit bus with 4 GB of GDDR5, delivering 32.00 GB/s. The W600's bandwidth advantage is 100% despite carrying half the capacity.

Core counts follow a similar pattern. The W600 has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The R7 M445 has 320 shading units, 20 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. Pixel rate and texture rate scale accordingly: the W600 reaches 12.00 GPixel/s and 24.00 GTexel/s, while the R7 M445 reaches 7.360 GPixel/s and 18.40 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 768.0 GFLOPS for the W600 versus 588.8 GFLOPS for the R7 M445. The R7 M445 does have one advantage: it supports FP16 at 588.8 GFLOPS (1:1), while the W600 has no recorded FP16 capability.

Clock behavior also differs. The W600 has no recorded base or boost clock in the database, only a memory clock of 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective). The R7 M445 has a base clock of 780 MHz, a boost clock of 920 MHz, and the same 1000 MHz memory clock. The W600's fixed clocks are compensated by its larger core configuration.

Power and physical specifications are polar opposites. The W600 is a 75 W single-slot card, 168 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 20 mm wide, with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The R7 M445 has no recorded TDP, dimensions, power connectors, or suggested PSU, because it is an integrated part. The W600 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, the R7 M445 uses PCIe 3.0 x8.

Release timing is also far apart. The W600 launched on June 12, 2012, with a launch MSRP of 599 USD. The R7 M445 launched on May 14, 2016, with no recorded launch MSRP. The W600's predecessor is FirePro Terascale and its successor is Radeon Pro Polaris. The R7 M445's predecessor is Solar System and its successor is Polaris Mobile.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records exactly one head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. The FirePro W600 scores 6223, and the Radeon R7 M445 scores 5358. That gives the W600 a 16.1% victory, and it is the only benchmark where both parts have recorded scores.

The W600's 6223 score places it at the 36th percentile of all GPUs, which means it outperforms roughly a third of the database's tracked graphics cards. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 6950 at 6210 (0.2% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AD102 at 6270 (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SUPER at 6270 (0.7% ahead), and the NVIDIA Quadro K620 at 6282 (0.9% ahead). The W600 is effectively in a dead heat with these cards in OpenCL compute, despite being a 2012 workstation part.

The R7 M445's 5358 score places it at the 31st percentile. Its nearest rivals are the Intel UHD Graphics P630 at 5370 (0.2% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce 840M at 5322 (0.7% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce 930A at 5317 (0.8% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M at 5308 (0.9% behind). The R7 M445 is also in a tight cluster, but at a much lower performance level than the W600.

The gap between the two is substantial in relative terms. A 16.1% delta is enough to shift a GPU from the 31st percentile to the 36th percentile, and it reflects the difference between a desktop card with 512 cores and a 128-bit bus versus a mobile part with 320 cores and a 64-bit bus. The W600's higher pixel rate (12.00 vs 7.360 GPixel/s) and texture rate (24.00 vs 18.40 GTexel/s) reinforce the same conclusion: in every measured metric, the W600 is the faster card.

For users comparing these two, the benchmark data leaves no ambiguity. The FirePro W600 wins the only recorded test, wins the percentile comparison, and offers superior memory bandwidth, core counts, and output flexibility. The Radeon R7 M445 is a lighter-weight mobile solution that cannot match the W600's compute performance, and the database records zero wins for it in any comparison.