AMD FirePro W600 vs AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile and the AMD FirePro W600 are both end-of-life graphics solutions, but they target entirely different segments: one is an integrated processor for laptops, and the other is a professional workstation card from a different era. The benchmark data shows a narrow victory for the Vega 10 Mobile, but the FirePro W600 brings dedicated memory and multi-display capabilities that the IGP cannot match. This analysis uses only the provided data to compare their performance, specifications, and ideal use cases.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the provided OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile scores 6476 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD FirePro W600 scores 6223. The Vega 10 Mobile wins by a margin of 4.1%.

Q: How does the Vega 10 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals in performance?

A: The data shows it is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M5000M (6481) and 0.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M (6493). It is 0.6% behind the GeForce GTX 670M (6513) and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 72 GB Blackwell (6407).

Q: What is the performance context for the FirePro W600 relative to other cards?

A: The FirePro W600 trails the Vega 10 Mobile, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 6950 (6210), which it beats by 0.2%. It is 0.7% behind both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AD102 and the RTX 5070 Ti SUPER (both 6270), and 0.9% behind the NVIDIA Quadro K620 (6282).

Q: What are the key memory differences between the two cards?

A: The Vega 10 Mobile uses System Shared memory, meaning its size, bus width, and bandwidth are all dependent on the host system. The FirePro W600 has a dedicated 2 GB GDDR5 memory with a 128-bit bus and a bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor count and what does that indicate?

A: The Vega 10 Mobile has 4,940 million transistors on a 14 nm process, while the FirePro W600 has 1,500 million transistors on a 28 nm process. This reflects the newer, denser architecture of the Vega part, with a transistor density of 23.5M per mm² compared to 12.2M per mm².

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the FirePro W600?

A: The launch MSRP for the AMD FirePro W600 is 599 USD.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear, if modest, performance win for the AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile. Its 6476 OpenCL score is 4.1% higher than the FirePro W600’s 6223, and it also holds a better percentile rank, sitting at the 37th percentile versus the FirePro’s 36th. For raw compute in this single benchmark, the Vega 10 Mobile is the better choice.

However, the FirePro W600 is a distinct product with different strengths. It offers 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory with 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical advantage for workloads that cannot rely on shared system memory. It also provides six mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, making it a practical option for multi-monitor professional setups. The Vega 10 Mobile, being an IGP, is portable device dependent and has no dedicated display outputs of its own.

Choose the Vega 10 Mobile if you need the higher compute score and are building a low-power system where the 10 W TDP is an asset. Choose the FirePro W600 if you require dedicated video memory, multiple display outputs, or a single-slot PCIe card with a 250 W suggested PSU. The FirePro W600 is a workstation card from 2012, while the Vega 10 Mobile is a newer IGP from 2019, so generational differences are expected.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only head-to-head benchmark provided is the Geekbench OpenCL test. In this test, the AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile achieves a score of 6476, while the AMD FirePro W600 scores 6223. This gives the Vega 10 Mobile a victory with a delta of 4.1%. This is a substantial lead in compute performance, indicating that the Vega 10 Mobile’s architecture and higher clock speeds deliver better raw throughput in this OpenCL workload.

The FirePro W600’s score of 6223 places it close to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 6950, which scores 6210. The FirePro is 0.2% faster than that card. In contrast, the Vega 10 Mobile’s score of 6476 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro M5000M’s 6481, with the Vega part trailing by just 0.1%. This proximity to high-end mobile and desktop parts from the same era underscores the Vega 10 Mobile’s competitive compute performance despite its integrated nature.

The single benchmark result means the win count is 1 for the Vega 10 Mobile and 0 for the FirePro W600. The data does not include any gaming, rendering, or other workload tests, so this analysis is limited to OpenCL compute performance. In this specific test, the Vega 10 Mobile is unequivocally the faster GPU.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every core specification. The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile has 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 8 raster output units (ROPs). The AMD FirePro W600 has fewer shading units (512) and TMUs (32), but double the ROPs at 16. This suggests the FirePro W600 is designed for fill-rate-heavy tasks, while the Vega 10 Mobile focuses on shader compute.

Clock speeds are another major divergence. The Vega 10 Mobile operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 1301 MHz. The FirePro W600 has no listed base or boost clock, but its memory runs at 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective). The Vega 10 Mobile’s memory is system dependent, with no fixed speed. The pixel rate for the Vega 10 Mobile is 10.41 GPixel/s, while the FirePro W600 achieves 12.00 GPixel/s. Conversely, the Vega 10 Mobile has a significantly higher texture rate at 52.04 GTexel/s versus the FirePro’s 24.00 GTexel/s.

The power profiles are starkly different. The Vega 10 Mobile has a TDP of 10 W and is an IGP with no power connectors. The FirePro W600 has a TDP of 75 W, is a single-slot card, and also has no power connectors, but it requires a 250 W suggested PSU. The bus interface also differs: the Vega 10 Mobile uses an IGP connection, while the FirePro W600 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Physical dimensions are only listed for the FirePro W600: 168 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 20 mm in width.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is significant and reflects their release dates. The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile is based on the GCN 5.0 architecture, using the Raven-M chip, and is part of the Vega IGP generation (Raven Ridge-M). It is manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The AMD FirePro W600 uses the older GCN 1.0 architecture, with the Cape Verde chip, and belongs to the FirePro GCN (Wx000) generation. It is built on a 28 nm process at TSMC.

This process difference explains the transistor counts: the Vega 10 Mobile packs 4,940 million transistors into a 210 mm² die, while the FirePro W600 has 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die. The newer 14 nm node allows for a much higher transistor density (23.5M per mm² vs 12.2M per mm²) and likely better power efficiency, as evidenced by the 10 W TDP versus the 75 W TDP. The Vega 10 Mobile’s FP32 performance is 1.665 TFLOPS, while the FirePro W600 is rated at 768.0 GFLOPS. The Vega 10 Mobile also supports FP16 at 3.331 TFLOPS (2:1), a feature the FirePro W600 lacks entirely.

API support differs as well. The Vega 10 Mobile supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The FirePro W600 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Vega 10 Mobile’s successor is the Navi II IGP, while the FirePro W600’s successor is the Radeon Pro Polaris. The Vega 10 Mobile’s predecessor is GCN 3.0 IGP, and the FirePro W600’s predecessor is FirePro Terascale.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile wins in the only direct benchmark provided, the Geekbench OpenCL test, with a 4.1% higher score. This indicates a clear advantage in general-purpose compute workloads that leverage OpenCL. Its higher shading unit count (640 vs 512) and significantly higher texture rate (52.04 GTexel/s vs 24.00 GTexel/s) make it the stronger choice for tasks that are shader-bound or texture-heavy. Its lower TDP of 10 W also makes it the clear winner for power-constrained mobile applications or ultra-compact builds where heat and energy draw are paramount. The Vega 10 Mobile is an IGP, so it wins in any scenario requiring an integrated solution with no separate card.

The AMD FirePro W600 wins in areas not covered by the benchmark but evident from the specification data. It has 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory with 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a decisive advantage over the Vega 10 Mobile’s system-shared memory, especially for workloads with large working sets that would otherwise saturate a system bus. Its 16 ROPs contribute to a higher pixel rate of 12.00 GPixel/s, making it better suited for rasterization-heavy tasks that depend on fill rate. The FirePro W600 also wins in multi-display scenarios, offering six mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, whereas the Vega 10 Mobile’s display outputs are portable device dependent. For a professional workstation requiring multiple monitors or a dedicated memory pool, the FirePro W600 is the more practical option despite its lower compute score.