AMD Radeon HD 7790 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Comparison

The AMD Radeon HD 7790 and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell represent two extreme poles of GPU design, separated by over a decade of architectural evolution. The HD 7790, a 28 nm Southern Islands part from 2013, scores 17,666 in Geekbench Metal, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, built on a 5 nm process with the GB202 chip, scores 16,408 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, landing in the 59th percentile. While these percentile rankings are nearly identical, the two cards achieve them through fundamentally different means, and their benchmark scores are not directly comparable due to different test suites. The data presents a fascinating case study in how GPU design priorities have shifted, rather than a simple generational comparison.

The Verdict

The data indicates that these are not competing products but rather solutions for entirely different workloads. The AMD Radeon HD 7790, with its single Geekbench Metal score of 17,666, is positioned within 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (17,639) and 0.4% of the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588). Its nearest rivals also include the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17,551, 0.7% slower) and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 (17,789, 0.7% faster). This clustering suggests the HD 7790 delivers a level of Metal API performance that remains competitive with much newer mainstream and integrated graphics solutions, despite its 2013 release date. For a user seeking a legacy card for older DirectX 12 (12_0) titles or basic compute tasks, the HD 7790’s benchmark standing shows it is far from obsolete.

Conversely, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 16,408 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16,415, 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16,361, 0.3% slower). It sits 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16,351) and 0.6% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16,504). This indicates that in this specific DX12 workload, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell performs at a level comparable to a mid-range gaming card from the previous generation, which is surprising given its professional positioning and immense specifications. The verdict is clear: the HD 7790 wins for legacy compatibility and Metal performance, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell is the choice for modern, feature-rich workloads requiring massive memory and ray tracing, even if its Steel Nomad score doesn’t reflect its theoretical prowess.

Where Each One Wins

The HD 7790 demonstrates its strength in the Geekbench Metal test, a cross-platform API benchmark. Scoring 17,666, it outperforms its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, by 0.7%. This suggests the card’s GCN 2.0 architecture, despite its age, has robust Metal driver support or that the workload itself favors the HD 7790’s specific compute characteristics. The card’s 896 shading units and 56 texture mapping units, while modest by modern standards, are sufficient to achieve a score that rivals the RTX 4060, a card released a decade later. This win is in the field of API-specific compute performance.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell wins in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, a modern, demanding test that leverages DirectX 12 Ultimate features. Its score of 16,408 puts it ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT by 0.3% and the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M by 0.4%. This victory is less about raw throughput and more about feature support; the card’s 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI features that the Steel Nomad test likely utilizes. The HD 7790 cannot run this test in a comparable manner, as its DirectX 12 support is limited to the 12_0 feature level, lacking the 12_2 features required for modern ray tracing workloads. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell’s win is in the domain of future-proofed, feature-rich rendering.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is immense. The AMD Radeon HD 7790 is built on the GCN 2.0 architecture using a 28 nm process at TSMC, packing 2,080 million transistors onto a 160 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 13.0M per mm². The chip, codenamed Bonaire, is a small, power-efficient design with a TDP of 85 W. It features a 128-bit memory bus connected to 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective), providing 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The card has no dedicated RT cores or tensor cores, relying entirely on its 896 shading units for compute. Its pixel rate is 16.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 56.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance capped at 1.792 TFLOPS.

In contrast, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell is a monolithic powerhouse. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at the same foundry, it contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, achieving a density of 122.9M per mm². The GB202 chip is massive, with a TDP of 600 W. It uses a 512-bit memory bus with 96 GB of GDDR7 memory at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The card is equipped with 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, 192 ROPs, 188 RT cores, and 752 tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 502.5 GPixel/s, texture rate is 1,968.0 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 126.0 TFLOPS, with FP16 performance also at 126.0 TFLOPS (1:1). The architecture shift from GCN 2.0 to Blackwell 2.0 represents a move from a simple scalar design to a highly parallel one with dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7790 scores 17,666 in Geekbench Metal, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16,408 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. These are different tests, so a direct comparison of the numbers is not meaningful.

Q: How does the HD 7790 compare to modern cards in its benchmark?

A: The HD 7790’s Geekbench Metal score is 0.2% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (17,639) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588). It is 0.7% slower than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 (17,789).

Q: Is the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell faster than a gaming GPU like the RTX 5090 D V2?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16,408, which is 0.6% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2’s score of 16,504. The professional card is slightly slower in this specific test.

Q: What are the memory capacities of each card?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7790 has 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell has 96 GB of GDDR7 memory.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The HD 7790 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The latter includes features like ray tracing that the former lacks.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The HD 7790 has 2,080 million transistors, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell has 92,200 million transistors, a factor of over 44 times more.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct comparison is impossible due to the lack of shared benchmark tests, but the nearest rival data provides context. For the AMD Radeon HD 7790, its Geekbench Metal score of 17,666 places it in a tight cluster. The most significant delta is against the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, where the HD 7790 trails by 0.7% (17,789 vs. 17,666). This is a notable result, as the Quadro RTX 4000 is a much newer professional card. Conversely, the HD 7790 leads the AMD Radeon Pro 560 by 0.7% (17,551), showing a slight edge over that mobile workstation part. Its 0.2% lead over the GeForce RTX 4060 (17,639) is within noise, but it demonstrates that the old card is not a slouch in Metal.

For the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 16,408 shows a different competitive landscape. The card is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16,415, 0% delta). Its biggest win is 0.4% over the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16,351). It also edges out the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT by 0.3% (16,361). The only loss is a 0.6% deficit to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16,504). These deltas are all extremely small, indicating that the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell’s performance in this test is not exceptional relative to its peers, suggesting the workload may be bound by something other than raw compute, such as driver optimization or clock stability.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet highlights the chasm between the two products. The process node differs dramatically: the HD 7790 uses a 28 nm process, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell uses a 5 nm process. Transistor count scales from 2,080 million to 92,200 million, and die size grows from 160 mm² to 750 mm². Memory is a major divide: the HD 7790 has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth, whereas the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell has 96 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. Clock speeds also differ, with the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell having a base clock of 1590 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz, while the HD 7790 only lists a memory clock of 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective).

Compute resources are vastly different. The HD 7790 has 896 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell has 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell also has 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores, which the HD 7790 lacks entirely. Pixel rate jumps from 16.00 GPixel/s to 502.5 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 56.00 GTexel/s to 1,968.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance increases from 1.792 TFLOPS to 126.0 TFLOPS. Power requirements scale from an 85 W TDP with a 250 W suggested PSU and 1x 6-pin connector, to a 600 W TDP with a 1000 W suggested PSU and 1x 16-pin connector. The bus interface evolves from PCIe 3.0 x16 to PCIe 5.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the HD 7790 offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell provides 4x DisplayPort 2.1b. The HD 7790 supports Vulkan 1.2.170, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell supports Vulkan 1.4. The HD 7790 is end-of-life and was released on 2013-03-21, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell is active and was released on 2025-03-17. The launch MSRP for the HD 7790 was 149 USD, and for the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell it was 8,565 USD.