AMD Radeon HD 7790 vs AMD Radeon Pro 5600M Comparison

AMD Radeon HD 7790 and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M occupy very different ends of the GPU spectrum, separated by seven years of architectural evolution and targeting entirely distinct use cases. The data shows a single head-to-head benchmark, but the specification sheets reveal a chasm in design philosophy, memory architecture, and compute capability that goes far beyond the raw score differential.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark results are unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M wins the only direct comparison available, the Geekbench Metal test, with a score of 55030 against the HD 7790’s 17666. That is a 67.9% advantage for the Pro 5600M, a margin that places it in a completely different performance tier. The HD 7790 has zero wins in the head-to-head data, while the Pro 5600M claims one.

However, context matters. The Pro 5600M is a mobile workstation part designed for Apple’s Mac ecosystem, as its “Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Mobile)” generation label indicates. Its benchmark suite includes OpenCL, Vulkan, and multiple DirectX versions, reflecting a broader testing profile. The HD 7790, by contrast, is a 2013 desktop part with only a Metal score in the pack, suggesting its legacy testing focused on older APIs.

In terms of percentile ranking, the HD 7790 actually sits higher at 61st percentile versus the Pro 5600M’s 59th percentile among all GPUs. This counterintuitive result stems from the fact that the HD 7790’s single Metal score of 17666 places it near the median of modern GPUs, while the Pro 5600M’s average benchmark score of 16351 is dragged down by its weak Passmark DirectX scores — 62 in DX10, 59 in DX11, 39 in DX12, and 118 in DX9. These ancient-API scores indicate the Pro 5600M’s driver stack is optimized for Metal and compute workloads, not legacy rasterization paths.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf is stark. The HD 7790 uses the Bonaire chip built on GCN 2.0 architecture, belonging to the Southern Islands generation (HD 7700 family). It is fabricated on TSMC’s 28 nm process with 2,080 million transistors packed into a 160 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.0M per mm². The Pro 5600M uses the Navi 12 chip on RDNA 1.0 architecture, from the Radeon Pro Mac generation, built on TSMC’s 7 nm process. The pack does not list its transistor count or die size, but the process node difference alone — 28 nm versus 7 nm — signals a massive efficiency and density leap.

The compute pipelines diverge completely. The HD 7790 has 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units. The Pro 5600M has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs — roughly 2.9x, 2.9x, and 4.0x more, respectively. This translates to a theoretical peak performance of 1.792 TFLOPS FP32 for the HD 7790 versus 5.857 TFLOPS for the Pro 5600M, a 3.3x advantage. The Pro 5600M also supports FP16 at 11.71 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, a capability the HD 7790 lacks entirely (the pack lists no FP16 figure for it).

Memory architecture is where the two are most philosophically opposed. The HD 7790 uses 1 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The Pro 5600M uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 394.2 GB/s — a 4.1x bandwidth advantage and 8x capacity. The Pro 5600M’s memory clocks are lower (770 MHz, 1540 Mbps effective) than the HD 7790’s (1500 MHz, 6 Gbps effective), but the vastly wider bus more than compensates.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head result in Geekbench Metal tells a clear story. The Pro 5600M scores 55030 versus the HD 7790’s 17666, a delta of -67.9% from the HD 7790’s perspective. This is not a marginal win but a decisive 3.1x advantage in the Pro 5600M’s favor.

Looking at the nearest rivals provides additional calibration. The HD 7790’s 17666 Metal score sits within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551), 0.4% of the AMD Radeon 780M (17588), and 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (17639). It trails the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 (17789) by 0.7%. This clustering suggests the HD 7790, despite its age, delivers Metal performance on par with modern mid-range parts — a signal of GCN’s longevity in Apple’s ecosystem.

The Pro 5600M’s average benchmark score of 16351 places it within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16361), 0.3% of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16408), 0.4% of the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16415), and 0.9% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16504). Its individual scores vary wildly, however: the Metal score of 55030 is exceptional, while its Passmark G3D score of 9279 and GPU compute score of 4031 are modest. The OpenCL score of 47783 and Vulkan score of 46425 are strong, indicating the Pro 5600M excels at compute and modern graphics APIs but struggles with legacy DirectX paths.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The HD 7790 has a base clock listed as null but a memory clock of 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective), while the Pro 5600M has a base clock of 822 MHz and boost clock of 1144 MHz, with memory at 770 MHz (1540 Mbps effective). The HD 7790’s thermal design power is 85 W with a dual-slot cooler and a 1x 6-pin power connector, requiring a suggested 250 W PSU. The Pro 5600M is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 50 W TDP, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU — it draws power from the host system.

The HD 7790 is a 183 mm (7.2-inch) card with display outputs of 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2. The Pro 5600M’s display outputs are listed as “Portable Device Dependent,” meaning it has no fixed output configuration — it relies on the laptop’s built-in panel and external ports. The HD 7790 uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the Pro 5600M uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The HD 7790 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Pro 5600M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, giving it a higher DirectX feature level and newer Vulkan version.

The HD 7790 has a launch MSRP of 149 USD, released on 2013-03-21, and is end-of-life. The Pro 5600M has no launch MSRP listed, was released on 2020-06-14, and is also end-of-life. The HD 7790’s predecessor is Northern Islands and successor is Sea Islands; the Pro 5600M has neither listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M has a higher average benchmark score of 16,351 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 7790’s 17,666, but this is misleading because the HD 7790 only has one benchmark (Metal) while the Pro 5600M has ten benchmarks including several low DirectX scores that drag its average down.

Q: How much faster is the Pro 5600M in the Geekbench Metal test?

A: The Pro 5600M scores 55,030 versus the HD 7790’s 17,666, a 67.9% advantage for the Pro 5600M. This is the only head-to-head benchmark available in the data.

Q: What are the memory capacity and bandwidth differences?

A: The HD 7790 has 1 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The Pro 5600M has 8 GB of HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus with 394.2 GB/s bandwidth, giving it 8x the capacity and a 4.1x bandwidth advantage.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The Pro 5600M has a pixel rate of 73.22 GPixel/s versus the HD 7790’s 16.00 GPixel/s, a 4.6x advantage. Its texture rate is also substantially higher at 183.0 GTexel/s versus 56.00 GTexel/s.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The HD 7790 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), while the Pro 5600M supports DirectX 12 (12_1), which is a higher feature level. Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the Pro 5600M has Vulkan 1.3 while the HD 7790 has Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: What is the TDP of each GPU?

A: The HD 7790 has a TDP of 85 W and requires a 1x 6-pin power connector with a suggested 250 W PSU. The Pro 5600M has a TDP of 50 W, is an integrated graphics processor (IGP), and requires no power connectors.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split: the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M is the superior performer in absolute terms, winning the only direct benchmark by 67.9% and offering 3.3x the FP32 compute, 4.1x the memory bandwidth, and 8x the memory capacity of the HD 7790. Its 5.857 TFLOPS and 394.2 GB/s bandwidth make it a capable compute and modern-graphics part, as evidenced by its strong OpenCL (47783) and Vulkan (46425) scores.

The AMD Radeon HD 7790, however, holds its own in a narrow context. Its single Metal score of 17666 places it within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon Pro 560, within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon 780M, and within 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 — modern parts that cost far more. Its percentile rank of 61 versus the Pro 5600M’s 59 suggests that in the specific workload of Metal rendering, the old GCN architecture remains surprisingly competitive.

Who should pick which? Users running Metal-based workloads on macOS with a need for high compute throughput and large memory pools should choose the Pro 5600M — its 8 GB HBM2 and 5.857 TFLOPS FP32 are decisive advantages. Users on older platforms or those specifically targeting the HD 7790’s legacy feature set — 1 GB GDDR5, 1.792 TFLOPS, dual-slot desktop form factor with DVI and mini-DisplayPort outputs — may find it adequate for basic tasks but will face severe limitations in memory capacity and bandwidth. The Pro 5600M is the objectively stronger card across nearly every metric, with the HD 7790’s only redeeming quality being its competitive Metal score relative to modern mid-range GPUs. For any workload involving large datasets, modern APIs, or compute-heavy tasks, the data unequivocally favors the Pro 5600M.