AMD Radeon HD 8750M vs NVIDIA Quadro K4000 Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 and AMD Radeon HD 8750M represent two very different approaches to the entry-level professional and mobile graphics markets of their era. The data shows a clear, if narrow, overall advantage for the desktop-oriented NVIDIA card, driven primarily by its raw compute throughput. However, the AMD mobile part holds its own in specific scenarios, making the choice between them heavily dependent on the target workload and form factor.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available in the data is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is a decisive win for the NVIDIA Quadro K4000. In this compute-oriented test, the Quadro K4000 scores 6816, while the Radeon HD 8750M scores 5970. This translates to a 14.2% performance advantage for the NVIDIA card. This is a substantial margin in a synthetic compute test, suggesting that the Quadro K4000 is significantly better suited for general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) tasks and OpenCL-accelerated applications.

This head-to-head result is corroborated by the cards' overall average benchmark scores. The Quadro K4000 achieves an average score of 5982, which is just 0.2% higher than the Radeon HD 8750M's average of 5970. While the average scores are close, the specific OpenCL test reveals the true nature of the performance gap. The Quadro K4000 also has additional benchmark data points, including a Geekbench Vulkan score of 6964 and a Geekbench Metal score of 4166, whereas the Radeon HD 8750M only has the single OpenCL score listed. This indicates that the NVIDIA card is not only faster in the shared test but also has a broader range of API support that is actively benchmarked.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card, the performance landscape is remarkably tight. The Quadro K4000's closest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K4000M, which scores 5986, a mere 0.1% difference. Similarly, the Radeon HD 8750M's closest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K4000, with its 0.2% gap. The data suggests that at this performance tier, all these cards—including the AMD FirePro W4100 and the NVIDIA Quadro K620M—are clustered within a very narrow band of performance. The 14.2% delta in the OpenCL test, however, is the single largest differentiator and shows that the Quadro K4000 has a significant edge in compute-heavy scenarios that is not fully reflected in the aggregate average scores.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 is significantly faster, scoring 6816 compared to the Radeon HD 8750M's 5970 in the Geekbench OpenCL test, a 14.2% advantage.

Q: How do their overall performance scores compare?

A: The average benchmark scores are very close. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 has an average score of 5982, while the AMD Radeon HD 8750M has an average of 5970. This puts the NVIDIA card just 0.2% ahead.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon HD 8750M have any benchmark wins?

A: In the head-to-head data provided, the Radeon HD 8750M has zero wins, while the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 has one win in the Geekbench OpenCL test.

Q: What is the performance percentile for these GPUs?

A: Both the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 and the AMD Radeon HD 8750M are in the 34th percentile against all GPUs, indicating they are positioned in the lower-midrange of overall performance.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 8750M has a higher transistor density at 12.3M / mm², compared to the NVIDIA Quadro K4000's 11.5M / mm².

Q: What is the performance gap between the Quadro K4000 and its closest rival, the K4000M?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4000M has an average score of 5986, which is 0.1% higher than the Quadro K4000's 5982, making them virtually identical in overall performance.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures from their respective manufacturers. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 is based on the Kepler architecture, specifically the GK106 chip, while the AMD Radeon HD 8750M uses the GCN 1.0 architecture with the Mars chip. Both are manufactured by TSMC on the same 28 nm process node, but that is where the similarities end.

The most striking difference is in the physical scale of the chips. The NVIDIA GK106 is a massive die, measuring 221 mm² and housing 2,540 million transistors. In contrast, the AMD Mars chip is remarkably small, at just 77 mm² with 950 million transistors. This means the AMD chip packs its transistors more densely, achieving a density of 12.3M / mm² compared to NVIDIA's 11.5M / mm². The implications are significant: the AMD part is likely much cheaper to produce and consumes less power, but the NVIDIA chip has far more silicon area to dedicate to compute resources.

This difference in die size directly translates to a massive disparity in execution resources. The Quadro K4000 is equipped with 768 shading units, 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 24 raster output units (ROPs). The Radeon HD 8750M, by contrast, has just 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has double the shaders, nearly triple the TMUs, and triple the ROPs. This hardware advantage explains why the Quadro K4000 achieves a pixel rate of 12.96 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 51.84 GTexel/s, dwarfing the Radeon's 6.600 GPixel/s and 19.80 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance also reflects this, with the Quadro K4000 delivering 1,244.2 GFLOPS versus the Radeon's 633.6 GFLOPS.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two cards reveal stark differences in their intended use cases and capabilities. The most obvious is memory. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 comes with 3 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 134.8 GB/s. The AMD Radeon HD 8750M is equipped with just 1 GB of DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, resulting in a much lower bandwidth of 28.80 GB/s. This is a colossal 4.7x difference in memory bandwidth, which will heavily impact performance in texture-heavy and high-resolution workloads.

The clock speeds also differ, though the data is incomplete for the NVIDIA card. The Quadro K4000's memory is clocked at 1404 MHz (5.6 Gbps effective), while the Radeon HD 8750M has a base clock of 775 MHz and a boost clock of 825 MHz for the core, and a memory clock of 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective). The NVIDIA card's core clocks are not listed in the data, but its memory clock is significantly higher.

Other key differences include the bus interface. The Quadro K4000 uses PCIe 2.0 x16, while the Radeon HD 8750M uses the newer PCIe 3.0 x8 interface. The power profile is also distinct, with the Quadro K4000 having a TDP of 80 W, a single-slot form factor, a 1x 6-pin power connector, and a suggested 250 W PSU. The Radeon HD 8750M has no listed TDP, slot width, or power connector requirements, reflecting its status as a mobile part designed for integration into laptops. The NVIDIA card is physically large at 241 mm (9.5 inches) in length, while the AMD card has no listed dimensions. Finally, the NVIDIA card features display outputs (1x DVI and 2x DisplayPort 1.2), while the AMD card has none listed, further suggesting a mobile-only design.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear, though nuanced, verdict. For any workload that leverages OpenCL compute, the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 is the definitive winner, offering a 14.2% performance advantage over the AMD Radeon HD 8750M. Its substantially higher memory bandwidth (134.8 GB/s vs 28.80 GB/s), double the shading units, and higher pixel and texture rates make it the superior choice for professional applications like CAD, 3D modeling, and video editing, where these resources are directly utilized. Its 3 GB VRAM is also triple that of the AMD part, allowing for larger textures and datasets.

However, the Radeon HD 8750M is not without merit. Its much smaller die size (77 mm² vs 221 mm²) and higher transistor density suggest a more power-efficient design, which is critical for its intended mobile market. It also supports the newer PCIe 3.0 interface and a slightly higher DirectX version (12 (11_1) vs 12 (11_0)). For a laptop user needing basic GPU acceleration for light content creation or general compute tasks, the Radeon HD 8750M provides a baseline level of performance, with an average score that is within 0.2% of the Quadro K4000.

Ultimately, the choice depends on the platform. The NVIDIA Quadro K4000 is a desktop workstation card, and the data shows it is the more powerful and capable of the two. Users who need maximum compute performance, high memory bandwidth, and professional display outputs should choose the Quadro K4000. The AMD Radeon HD 8750M is a mobile chip, and its performance is respectable for its class, but it is simply outmatched by the NVIDIA card's superior architecture and resources. The 14.2% delta in the OpenCL benchmark is the defining statistic, marking the Quadro K4000 as the clear performance leader for compute-intensive tasks.