AMD Radeon HD 6770 vs NVIDIA Quadro K2000D Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro K2000D and AMD Radeon HD 6770 are two end-of-life graphics cards from different eras and market segments, yet they land surprisingly close in overall compute performance. The data places the Quadro K2000D at the 23rd percentile of all GPUs, with the Radeon HD 6770 just one point behind at the 22nd percentile. Both cards are firmly in entry-level territory by modern standards, but their architectural philosophies and target workloads diverge sharply. This analysis breaks down their benchmark results, specifications, and feature sets using the provided data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it shows a narrow but clear victory for the NVIDIA Quadro K2000D. The Quadro scores 3,919 points, while the Radeon HD 6770 manages 3,649 points. That is a 7.4% advantage for the NVIDIA card, a meaningful gap in a single benchmark but not a dominant one. In practical terms, the Quadro K2000D completes the same OpenCL workload roughly 7% faster, which could translate to slightly quicker compute tasks in professional applications that leverage OpenCL.

Looking at the nearest rivals provides additional context for each card. The Quadro K2000D's closest competitor is the NVIDIA Quadro 2000D, which scores 3,930 — a negligible 0.3% difference that puts the K2000D essentially at parity with its predecessor. The Quadro K2000D also edges out the Quadro 2000 (3,898, +0.5%) and the AMD Radeon R5 Graphics (3,883, +0.9%). Its only loss in the nearest-rival group is to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M (3,953, -0.9%), which beats it by less than one percent. These margins are so tight that they fall within typical run-to-run benchmark variance.

The Radeon HD 6770 sits in a similar position relative to its nearest rivals. It outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (3,629, +0.6%) and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 735M (3,616, +0.9%) by margins under one percent. Its most substantial win is against the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Mobile Ada Generation (3,596, +1.5%), a modern professional laptop GPU that scores lower in this particular OpenCL test. The only rival that beats it is the NVIDIA GeForce 825M (3,694, -1.2%), again by a sub-2% margin. The Radeon HD 6770's score of 3,649 places it in a cluster of GPUs where performance differences are almost indistinguishable.

When comparing the two cards directly, the 7.4% delta between them is actually larger than any of the differences seen in their respective nearest-rival groups. This suggests that while both cards are in the same performance tier, the Quadro K2000D has a more consistent edge over the Radeon HD 6770 than either card has over its own closest competitors. The win count reflects this: the Quadro K2000D takes 1 win in head-to-head benchmarks, while the Radeon HD 6770 takes 0.

The Verdict

From the data, the NVIDIA Quadro K2000D is the clear winner in raw compute performance. Its 7.4% lead in the Geekbench OpenCL test is the headline number, and it also holds a higher percentile ranking (23 vs 22). For any workload that is heavily dependent on OpenCL compute, the Quadro K2000D is the safer choice. The benchmark results indicate that NVIDIA's professional-grade card, despite being older and built on a smaller process node, delivers measurably better performance in this specific test.

However, the verdict is not one-sided in favor of the Quadro K2000D. The Radeon HD 6770 offers a different set of strengths that the benchmark scores do not capture. Its raw shading power is substantially higher — 800 shading units versus 384 on the Quadro — and its FP32 throughput is nearly double at 1,360 GFLOPS versus 732.7 GFLOPS. Yet the OpenCL benchmark shows the Quadro winning anyway, which suggests that the NVIDIA architecture is more efficient at translating theoretical compute into real-world results, or that the benchmark favors NVIDIA's driver optimizations.

For users who prioritize peak OpenCL compute performance, the Quadro K2000D is the obvious pick. For those who need higher theoretical fill rates or who are working in an AMD-centric ecosystem, the Radeon HD 6770 has its merits, but the data shows it loses the only direct comparison. The Quadro K2000D also offers a more modern API stack, including Vulkan 1.2.175 support, which the Radeon HD 6770 lacks entirely. The verdict is straightforward: the NVIDIA Quadro K2000D wins on measured performance and modern feature support, while the Radeon HD 6770 remains a viable fallback for users who cannot use NVIDIA products.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The NVIDIA Quadro K2000D uses the Kepler architecture with the GK107 chip, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon HD 6770 uses the TeraScale 2 architecture with the Juniper chip, also built by TSMC but on a larger 40 nm process. This process difference is significant: the Quadro K2000D packs 1,270 million transistors into a 118 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 10.8 million per square millimeter. The Radeon HD 6770 contains 1,040 million transistors on a larger 166 mm² die, giving it a density of just 6.3 million per square millimeter. The Kepler chip is denser and more modern in its manufacturing.

The compute architectures are also philosophically different. Kepler is a unified design that uses 384 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output pipelines. TeraScale 2, by contrast, uses a VLIW-based design with 800 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Radeon HD 6770 has more than double the shading units and more TMUs, which explains its higher theoretical pixel rate (13.60 GPixel/s vs 7.632 GPixel/s) and texture rate (34.00 GTexel/s vs 30.53 GTexel/s). But the Quadro K2000D still wins the OpenCL test, indicating that raw unit counts do not tell the full story.

The memory subsystems differ as well. Both cards use GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, but the Radeon HD 6770 has a higher effective memory speed of 4.8 Gbps versus 4 Gbps on the Quadro. This gives the AMD card a bandwidth advantage of 76.80 GB/s versus 64.00 GB/s. The Quadro K2000D counters with double the capacity at 2 GB versus 1 GB on the Radeon. In terms of API support, the Quadro K2000D supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175, while the Radeon HD 6770 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0), OpenGL 4.4, and no Vulkan. The NVIDIA card is clearly more forward-compatible.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal several key differences between the two cards. Memory capacity is a major differentiator: the Quadro K2000D has 2 GB of GDDR5, while the Radeon HD 6770 has 1024 MB. Both use a 128-bit bus, but the Radeon HD 6770 achieves higher bandwidth at 76.80 GB/s compared to 64.00 GB/s on the Quadro. The memory clock also differs, with the Radeon running at 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) versus 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) on the Quadro.

The shading and texturing hardware is significantly different, as noted above. The Radeon HD 6770 has 800 shading units and 40 TMUs, while the Quadro K2000D has 384 shading units and 32 TMUs. Both have 16 ROPs. The pixel rate and texture rate favor the AMD card, with 13.60 GPixel/s and 34.00 GTexel/s versus 7.632 GPixel/s and 30.53 GTexel/s on the NVIDIA card. The FP32 performance is also lopsided: the Radeon HD 6770 delivers 1,360.0 GFLOPS, nearly double the 732.7 GFLOPS of the Quadro K2000D.

Power consumption and physical design are starkly different. The Quadro K2000D has a TDP of 51 W, requires no power connectors, and is single-slot with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The Radeon HD 6770 has a TDP of 108 W, needs a 6-pin power connector, and is dual-slot with a suggested PSU of 300 W. The Quadro is also slightly longer at 202 mm versus 198 mm, but the Radeon's dual-slot design makes it bulkier. Display outputs differ too: the Quadro offers 2x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.2, while the Radeon offers 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.1. The Quadro K2000D was released on 2013-02-28 with a launch MSRP of 599 USD, while the Radeon HD 6770 came out on 2011-01-20 with a launch MSRP of 129 USD.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K2000D wins with a score of 3,919 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 6770's 3,649, a 7.4% advantage.

Q: How do the two cards compare in transistor count and die size?

A: The Quadro K2000D has 1,270 million transistors on a 118 mm² die, while the Radeon HD 6770 has 1,040 million transistors on a 166 mm² die.

Q: Does the Radeon HD 6770 have more shading units than the Quadro K2000D?

A: Yes, the Radeon HD 6770 has 800 shading units, while the Quadro K2000D has 384.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between the two cards?

A: The Quadro K2000D has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, while the Radeon HD 6770 has 1024 MB (1 GB).

Q: Which card supports Vulkan?

A: Only the NVIDIA Quadro K2000D supports Vulkan, with version 1.2.175. The AMD Radeon HD 6770 has no Vulkan support listed.

Q: What are the TDP ratings for both cards?

A: The Quadro K2000D has a TDP of 51 W, while the Radeon HD 6770 has a TDP of 108 W.