AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 vs NVIDIA Quadro 2000 Comparison

The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 and NVIDIA Quadro 2000 represent two very different philosophies for graphics hardware from the same era, with the former built as a dual-GPU enthusiast part and the latter as a professional workstation card. In the single benchmark available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD card scores 3977 against the Quadro’s 3898, a 2% delta that puts the Radeon ahead. Both cards sit in the lower quartile of all GPUs, with the HD 6850 X2 at the 24th percentile and the Quadro 2000 at the 23rd, indicating that neither is a performance leader by modern standards. The data shows a narrow but consistent edge for the AMD product, yet the two cards were engineered for entirely different workloads and physical constraints.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 wins the only head-to-head benchmark available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, with a score of 3977 against the Quadro 2000’s 3898. That 2% advantage is modest, but it is a win nonetheless, and it reflects the AMD card’s much larger compute resource pool. With 960 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, the HD 6850 X2 is fundamentally a higher-throughput part. Its 1.536 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 134.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth give it a clear theoretical edge in any parallel compute task that can utilize those resources. The Radeon also offers 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, which is double the capacity and more than triple the bandwidth of the Quadro’s 1 GB configuration.

The NVIDIA Quadro 2000, by contrast, wins in the physical and power efficiency categories, though no benchmark directly measures those traits. Its 62 W TDP is drastically lower than the Radeon’s 254 W, and it requires no auxiliary power connectors, drawing everything from the PCIe slot. The Quadro is a single-slot card measuring 178 mm in length and 111 mm in height, while the Radeon is a dual-slot design that needs two 8-pin power connectors and a 600 W suggested power supply. For a workstation chassis with limited space or a system with modest power delivery, the Quadro 2000 is the only viable option of the two. The Quadro also offers a longer software support window, with DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 support compared to the Radeon’s DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is substantial, despite both being built on TSMC’s 40 nm process node. The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 uses the Barts chip, which is part of the TeraScale 2 architecture from the Northern Islands generation (HD 6800 series). This chip packs 1,700 million transistors on a 255 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 6.7 million per square millimeter. The 40 nm process was mature by the time of release in September 2011, and AMD used the additional transistor budget to create a wide, high-throughput design with 960 shading units and a 256-bit memory interface.

The NVIDIA Quadro 2000 uses the GF106 chip, based on the Fermi architecture from the Quadro Fermi (x000) generation. Fermi was NVIDIA’s first truly compute-oriented architecture, but the GF106 is a cut-down implementation, featuring only 192 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The chip contains 1,170 million transistors on a 238 mm² die, which translates to a lower transistor density of 4.9 million per square millimeter. The Quadro’s memory subsystem is particularly constrained, with a 128-bit bus and 41.60 GB/s of bandwidth, which is less than a third of what the Radeon HD 6850 X2 can access. The Fermi architecture does bring some advantages, notably support for DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, which are newer API versions than what the TeraScale 2 part offers. The Quadro also launched earlier, in December 2010, while the Radeon followed in September 2011.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 takes it by a 2% margin. The Radeon scores 3977, while the Quadro 2000 manages 3898. This 79-point difference is small enough that it could be considered within run-to-run variance, but the underlying hardware specs support the result. The Radeon’s FP32 throughput of 1.536 TFLOPS is more than three times the Quadro’s 480.0 GFLOPS, and its texture rate of 38.40 GTexel/s nearly doubles the Quadro’s 20.00 GTexel/s. Pixel rate tells a similar story: 25.60 GPixel/s for the Radeon versus 5.000 GPixel/s for the Quadro.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card provides additional context. The Radeon HD 6850 X2’s closest competitor is the NVIDIA Quadro K2000, which scores 3964, just 0.3% behind. The AMD card also edges out the GeForce 830M (3957), Radeon R5 M420 (3956), and GeForce GT 745M (3953) by margins of 0.5% to 0.6%. The Quadro 2000’s nearest rivals include the Quadro K2000D at 3919 (0.5% ahead of the Quadro 2000), the Quadro 2000D at 3930 (0.8% ahead), and the GeForce GT 745M at 3953 (1.4% ahead). Notably, the GeForce GT 745M appears in both lists, and the Radeon HD 6850 X2 beats it by 0.6% while the Quadro 2000 trails it by 1.4%. This suggests that the Radeon’s 2% head-to-head win is consistent with its position relative to shared competitors.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 has significantly higher raw compute performance, with 1.536 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput compared to the NVIDIA Quadro 2000’s 480.0 GFLOPS, and it wins the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark 3977 to 3898.

Q: Are these cards suitable for a compact workstation build?

A: Only the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 fits that profile. It is a single-slot card measuring 178 mm by 111 mm with a 62 W TDP and no power connectors, whereas the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 is a dual-slot card requiring two 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested power supply.

Q: How do these cards compare in memory capacity and bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 offers 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 134.4 GB/s bandwidth, while the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 41.60 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro 2000 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, while the AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 supports DirectX 11.2 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.4. Neither supports Vulkan.

Q: What is the launch price of the NVIDIA Quadro 2000?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro 2000 had a launch MSRP of 599 USD. The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 has no listed launch MSRP in the data.

Q: How does the AMD card perform relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 beats its closest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K2000, by 0.3% (3977 vs 3964), and also outperforms the GeForce 830M, Radeon R5 M420, and GeForce GT 745M by 0.5% to 0.6%.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every major specification except for the process node, foundry, and bus interface. Both use a 40 nm TSMC process and PCIe 2.0 x16, but that is where the similarities end.

| Specification | AMD Radeon HD 6850 X2 | NVIDIA Quadro 2000 |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | Barts | GF106 |

| Architecture | TeraScale 2 | Fermi |

| Generation | Northern Islands (HD 6800) | Quadro Fermi (x000) |

| Transistors | 1,700 million | 1,170 million |

| Die Size | 255 mm² | 238 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 6.7M / mm² | 4.9M / mm² |

| Memory Clock | 1050 MHz (4.2 Gbps effective) | 650 MHz (2.6 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 1024 MB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 256 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 134.4 GB/s | 41.60 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 960 | 192 |

| TMUs | 48 | 32 |

| ROPs | 32 | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 25.60 GPixel/s | 5.000 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 38.40 GTexel/s | 20.00 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 1.536 TFLOPS | 480.0 GFLOPS |

| TDP | 254 W | 62 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 250 W |

| Display Outputs | 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, 1x DisplayPort 1.1 | 1x DVI, 2x DisplayPort |

| DirectX Support | 11.2 (11_0) | 12 (11_0) |

| OpenGL Support | 4.4 | 4.6 |

| Dimensions | Not listed | 178 mm (7 inches) x 111 mm (4.4 inches) |

| Release Date | 2011-09-18 | 2010-12-23 |

| Predecessor | Evergreen | Quadro FX Tesla |

| Successor | Southern Islands | Quadro Kepler |

| Launch MSRP | Not listed | 599 USD |

The AMD card is a larger, hotter, and more power-hungry part that uses its extra transistors and wider memory bus to deliver roughly three times the FP32 compute of the Quadro. The NVIDIA card is a compact, efficient workstation part with newer API support and a longer physical footprint, but it trades away raw throughput for that efficiency. The benchmark data confirms the AMD card’s compute advantage, but the Quadro 2000 remains the only one of the two that could be described as a low-profile, low-power solution.