GPU Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro 455 and NVIDIA Quadro K4200 are both end-of-life professional workstation GPUs, but they come from different architectural generations and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 is a 14nm GCN 4.0 part aimed at mobile workstations, while the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 is a 28nm Kepler part designed for desktop towers. Benchmark data shows a clear, if modest, performance edge for the NVIDIA card in the two tests they share, but the AMD card brings modern API support and dramatically lower power consumption to the table. The choice between them depends entirely on whether your priority is raw compute throughput in legacy workloads or platform compatibility and efficiency.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 wins in both head-to-head benchmark comparisons. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Quadro K4200 scores 12,313 against the Radeon Pro 455's 10,336, a 16.1% advantage for NVIDIA. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap narrows considerably but still favors NVIDIA: the Quadro K4200 scores 12,482 versus 12,240 for the Radeon Pro 455, a 1.9% difference. Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the Quadro K4200 also has a higher average benchmark score of 12,398 compared to 12,831 for the Radeon Pro 455, wait, that math is actually reversed. The Radeon Pro 455's average is 12,831, which is higher than the Quadro K4200's 12,398, but the head-to-head tests tell a different story. The discrepancy comes from the Radeon Pro 455 having a Geekbench Metal score of 15,916, a test the Quadro K4200 does not participate in, which pulls its average up.

The Radeon Pro 455 wins on platform features and efficiency. It has a 14nm process node versus 28nm for the Quadro, and its thermal design power is 35W versus 108W for the NVIDIA card. The AMD card also supports DirectX 12 (12_0), while the Quadro only supports DirectX 12 (11_0), and the Radeon Pro 455 supports Vulkan 1.3 versus Vulkan 1.2.175 for the Quadro. The Radeon Pro 455 is a mobile MXM module, meaning it fits in laptops and compact systems, while the Quadro K4200 is a single-slot desktop card measuring 241mm by 111mm. In terms of raw compute specifications, the Quadro has more shading units (1,344 vs 768), more texture mapping units (112 vs 48), and more render output units (32 vs 16), which explains its higher pixel rate of 21.95 GPixel/s versus 13.68 GPixel/s for the AMD card.

The Verdict

The data supports picking the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 if you need maximum compute performance in OpenCL or Vulkan workloads, and if you have a desktop system with a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot and a 300W power supply. The Quadro K4200 is 16.1% faster in OpenCL and 1.9% faster in Vulkan, which makes it the stronger choice for GPU-accelerated rendering or compute tasks that rely on those APIs. It also has 4GB of memory versus 2GB, a 256-bit bus versus 128-bit, and 172.8 GB/s bandwidth versus 81.28 GB/s, which matters for larger datasets. However, the Quadro K4200 requires a 6-pin power connector and draws 108W, so it is not suitable for low-power or mobile systems.

Pick the AMD Radeon Pro 455 if you need a compact, low-power solution with modern API support. The 35W TDP means it can run in notebooks or small form factor systems without additional power connectors or a bulky cooler. The Radeon Pro 455 also supports newer DirectX and Vulkan versions, which could be relevant for compatibility with newer software. Its Geekbench Metal score of 15,916 is substantially higher than any score the Quadro K4200 achieves, so if your workflow uses Apple's Metal API, the AMD card is the clear winner. The Radeon Pro 455 also has a higher average benchmark score of 12,831 versus 12,398 for the Quadro, though this is inflated by the Metal result.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards share two benchmark tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 scores 12,313, and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 scores 10,336. That is a delta of -16.1% for the AMD card, meaning NVIDIA wins by a substantial margin. This result aligns with the Quadro's higher shading unit count (1,344 vs 768) and higher texture fill rate (87.81 GTexel/s vs 41.04 GTexel/s). The Quadro K4200's memory bandwidth of 172.8 GB/s is more than double the Radeon Pro 455's 81.28 GB/s, which likely contributes to its OpenCL advantage in memory-bound workloads.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the scores are much closer. The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 scores 12,482, and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 scores 12,240, a delta of -1.9% for AMD. This near-tie suggests that Vulkan performance is less dependent on raw compute resources and more on driver optimization and architectural efficiency. The Radeon Pro 455's GCN 4.0 architecture with 1:1 FP16 support (1,313.3 GFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16) may help it punch above its weight in Vulkan, which can leverage async compute and other modern features. However, the Quadro still edges out a win, even if the margin is slim.

Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the Radeon Pro 455's Geekbench Metal score of 15,916 is a significant outlier in its favor. This is not a test the Quadro K4200 has a result for, so it cannot be compared directly, but it demonstrates that the AMD card is highly capable in Apple's ecosystem. The average benchmark scores also reflect this: the Radeon Pro 455 averages 12,831 across three tests, while the Quadro K4200 averages 12,398 across two tests. If you weight Metal performance heavily, the AMD card looks stronger; if you only care about OpenCL and Vulkan, the NVIDIA card wins both.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 is faster, scoring 12,313 in Geekbench OpenCL compared to 10,336 for the AMD Radeon Pro 455, a 16.1% advantage.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro 455 have any benchmark that it wins?

A: Yes, the AMD Radeon Pro 455 scores 15,916 in Geekbench Metal, a test that the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 does not have a result for. This Metal score is also higher than the Quadro's best score in any test.

Q: What is the difference in power consumption?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has a thermal design power of 35W, while the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 has a TDP of 108W. The Quadro requires a 6-pin power connector and a 300W suggested power supply, while the Radeon Pro 455 uses no external power connectors.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 has 4GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 172.8 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has 2GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, providing 81.28 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are these cards still in production?

A: No, both are end-of-life products. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 was released in October 2016, and the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 was released in July 2014.

Q: Which card supports newer APIs?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro 455 uses the Baffin chip based on GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14nm process at GlobalFoundries. It contains 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 24.4 million per mm². The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 uses the GK104 chip based on Kepler architecture, manufactured on a 28nm process at TSMC. It contains 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 12.0 million per mm². The AMD chip is smaller and denser, reflecting its newer manufacturing process, while the NVIDIA chip uses more transistors overall but spreads them over a much larger area.

The compute configurations differ significantly. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units. The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 has 1,344 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. This gives the Quadro higher pixel rate (21.95 GPixel/s vs 13.68 GPixel/s) and higher texture rate (87.81 GTexel/s vs 41.04 GTexel/s). The AMD card's FP32 performance is 1,313.3 GFLOPS, and it also has FP16 performance of 1,313.3 GFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The NVIDIA card has FP32 performance of 2.107 TFLOPS, but no listed FP16 capability.

In terms of API support, the Radeon Pro 455 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Quadro K4200 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. This means the AMD card has a more modern feature set for DirectX and Vulkan. The Radeon Pro 455 also has a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, while the Quadro K4200 uses PCIe 2.0 x16. The AMD card's interface is newer, but the NVIDIA card has double the lanes, which may affect bandwidth in some scenarios.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in almost every major specification category. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has a 14nm process node, while the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 uses a 28nm node. The AMD chip is 123 mm² with 3,000 million transistors; the NVIDIA chip is 294 mm² with 3,540 million transistors. Clock speeds also differ: the Quadro K4200 has a base clock of 771 MHz and a boost clock of 784 MHz, while the Radeon Pro 455 does not list base or boost clocks in the data. Memory clocks are 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective) for the AMD card and 1350 MHz (5.4 Gbps effective) for the NVIDIA card.

Memory configuration is a major differentiator. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has 2GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 81.28 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 has 4GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 172.8 GB/s bandwidth. The Quadro has double the memory capacity, double the bus width, and more than double the bandwidth. Power requirements are also very different: the Radeon Pro 455 has a 35W TDP, uses an MXM module form factor, and requires no power connectors. The Quadro K4200 has a 108W TDP, is a single-slot card, requires a 6-pin power connector, and has a suggested PSU of 300W.

Physical dimensions and display outputs also differ. The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 measures 241mm in length and 111mm in height, with display outputs of 1x DVI and 2x DisplayPort 1.2. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has display outputs that are "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they vary based on the laptop or system it is installed in. The Radeon Pro 455 uses a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface, while the Quadro K4200 uses PCIe 2.0 x16. The Quadro's predecessor is Quadro Fermi and its successor is Quadro Maxwell, while the Radeon Pro 455 has no listed predecessor or successor. Both cards are end-of-life, with the Radeon Pro 455 releasing in October 2016 and the Quadro K4200 releasing in July 2014. Neither card has a launch MSRP listed in the data.