AMD Radeon Pro 455 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data for these two GPUs comes from different benchmark suites, which makes a direct apples-to-apples comparison difficult. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has results from Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has a single result from 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The average benchmark scores tell the primary story: the Radeon Pro 455 sits at 12,831, while the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q records 11,088. That is a 15.7% advantage for the AMD part in the database's average score metric, but it is a misleading comparison because the tests are entirely different workloads.

Looking at the Radeon Pro 455's individual results, its Geekbench Metal score of 15,916 is its strongest showing, followed by Vulkan at 12,240 and OpenCL at 10,336. The spread between its best and worst scores is roughly 54%, which indicates the architecture responds very differently depending on the API and workload. For the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, the single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 11,088 places it in a similar percentile range, but the test itself is a modern DirectX 12 rasterization benchmark that stresses geometry and shading in ways the older Geekbench tests do not.

In terms of nearest rivals, the Radeon Pro 455's closest competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 at 12,830, a 0% delta, followed by the AMD FirePro W5100 at 12,847 (-0.1%), the AMD Radeon 740M at 12,870 (-0.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 at 12,773 (+0.5%). This means the Radeon Pro 455 sits in a tight cluster of mid-range GPUs from a decade ago, with all four rivals within 0.8% of its average score. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q, meanwhile, has its closest rival as the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q at 11,088 (0%), then the AMD Radeon RX 550 at 11,075 (+0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER at 11,047 (+0.4%), and the AMD FirePro W4300 at 11,225 (-1.2%). The RTX PRO sits in an equally tight cluster, but against much lower-end hardware, which suggests its single benchmark score underrepresents its true capability relative to the rest of the database.

The data shows no head-to-head benchmark results between these two cards, so the only direct comparison available is the average score. That metric favors the Radeon Pro 455 by 1,743 points, but the nature of the tests means this is not a meaningful performance ranking. The Radeon's scores come from compute and legacy graphics APIs, while the NVIDIA card's score comes from a demanding modern DX12 workload. Any interpretation must account for that mismatch.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 uses the Baffin chip on GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It packs 3,000 million transistors into a 123 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 24.4 million per mm². The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q uses the GB202 chip on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. That chip contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, achieving 122.9 million transistors per mm². The NVIDIA chip has roughly 30.7 times more transistors and a 5x higher transistor density.

The compute resources differ by an order of magnitude. The Radeon Pro 455 has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output pipelines. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has 24,064 shading units, 752 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. That is 31.3x more shaders, 15.7x more TMUs, and 12x more ROPs. The NVIDIA card also includes dedicated hardware the AMD card lacks entirely: 188 ray tracing cores and 752 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro 455 has no RT or tensor core equivalents, meaning it handles ray tracing and AI acceleration through general-purpose shaders if at all.

Clock behavior also differs. The Radeon Pro 455 lists no base or boost clock in the database, only a memory clock of 1270 MHz with 5.1 Gbps effective data rate. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has a base clock of 1035 MHz and a boost clock of 2280 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz and 28 Gbps effective. The NVIDIA card's boost clock is more than double its base, indicating aggressive power management. The memory subsystem is equally divergent: the Radeon uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus for 81.28 GB/s bandwidth, while the NVIDIA card uses 96 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus for 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. That is 22x more capacity and 22x more bandwidth.

The process node difference (14 nm vs 5 nm) explains much of the efficiency and density gap, but the power envelopes tell a different story. The Radeon Pro 455 is rated at 35 W TDP with no power connectors, designed as an MXM module for portable devices. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is rated at 300 W TDP, requires a 1x 16-pin power connector, and recommends a 700 W power supply. It is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 40 mm wide. The Radeon has no listed dimensions because its form factor depends on the host device.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro 455 wins in efficiency and deployment flexibility. Its 35 W TDP means it can run in thin-and-light professional laptops and mobile workstations without external power. The database shows no power connector is required, and its MXM module form factor allows integration into portable systems. For workloads that rely on Metal, OpenCL, or Vulkan compute on macOS or Linux, the Radeon's scores are respectable: 15,916 in Metal, 12,240 in Vulkan, and 10,336 in OpenCL. The Metal score in particular is strong, suggesting the GCN 4.0 architecture performs well under Apple's graphics API.

The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q wins in raw compute and modern feature support. Its 109.7 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance dwarfs the Radeon's 1,313.3 GFLOPS in both, a 83.5x difference. The pixel rate of 437.8 GPixel/s versus 13.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,714.6 GTexel/s versus 41.04 GTexel/s show similar gaps. The RTX card's 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads, which the Radeon cannot do at hardware level. The 96 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth supports massive datasets, while the Radeon's 2 GB GDDR5 is limited to small framebuffers.

The API support also favors the NVIDIA card. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The NVIDIA card also has four DisplayPort 2.1b outputs, while the Radeon's display outputs are listed as portable device dependent, meaning they vary by laptop implementation.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear split by use case. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 is an end-of-life mobile GPU from 2016, designed for low-power professional tasks in portable systems. Its 35 W TDP, MXM module format, and 2 GB GDDR5 memory make it suitable for basic CAD, light 3D modeling, and GPU-accelerated compute in laptops where power and space are constrained. Its Geekbench Metal score of 15,916 indicates competent performance for macOS graphics workloads, and its average benchmark score of 12,831 places it in the 52nd percentile of all GPUs, which is mid-pack for its era.

The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is an active, current-generation workstation card released in 2025. Its 300 W TDP, dual-slot design, and 700 W recommended PSU make it a desktop-only solution. The 96 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are for large-scale rendering, AI training, and scientific computing. The 188 RT cores and 752 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration that the Radeon cannot match. Its single 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 11,088 places it in the 50th percentile, but that score comes from a demanding DX12 workload that would be impossible for the Radeon to run at playable frame rates.

Choose the Radeon Pro 455 if you need a low-power, integrated GPU for an older laptop or Mac Pro module, and your workloads are limited to Metal, OpenCL, or Vulkan compute with small memory footprints. Choose the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q if you need maximum compute throughput, hardware ray tracing, tensor acceleration, and enough memory to hold massive datasets, and you have the power budget and chassis space for a 300 W dual-slot card. The launch MSRP for the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is 8,565 USD, which positions it as a high-end professional tool; the Radeon has no listed launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has an average benchmark score of 12,831, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has 11,088. However, these scores come from different benchmark suites, so they are not directly comparable.

Q: How much memory does each GPU have?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 81.28 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has 96 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth.

Q: What are the TDP ratings?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 is rated at 35 W and requires no power connectors. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q is rated at 300 W, uses a 1x 16-pin power connector, and recommends a 700 W power supply.

Q: Does the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q support ray tracing?

A: Yes, it includes 188 dedicated ray tracing cores. The AMD Radeon Pro 455 has no ray tracing cores listed, so it cannot accelerate ray tracing in hardware.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q has 24,064 shading units, compared to 768 on the AMD Radeon Pro 455. That is a 31.3x difference.

Q: What is the release date for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 455 was released on 2016-10-29 and is end-of-life. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q was released on 2025-03-17 and is still active.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro 455 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q |

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

| Architecture | GCN 4.0 | Blackwell 2.0 |

| Process Node | 14 nm | 5 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 3,000 million | 92,200 million |

| Die Size | 123 mm² | 750 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 24.4M / mm² | 122.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | Not listed | 1035 MHz |

| Boost Clock | Not listed | 2280 MHz |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 96 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR7 |

| Memory Bus | 128 bit | 512 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 81.28 GB/s | 1.79 TB/s |

| Shading Units | 768 | 24064 |

| TMUs | 48 | 752 |

| ROPs | 16 | 192 |

| RT Cores | None | 188 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 752 |

| Pixel Rate | 13.68 GPixel/s | 437.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 41.04 GTexel/s | 1,714.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 1,313.3 GFLOPS | 109.7 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 1,313.3 GFLOPS (1:1) | 109.7 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 35 W | 300 W |

| Slot Width | MXM Module | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 16-pin |

| Suggested PSU | Not listed | 700 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x8 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 4x DisplayPort 2.1b |

| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | Not listed | 267 mm x 111 mm x 40 mm |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2016-10-29 | 2025-03-17 |

| Launch MSRP | Not listed | 8,565 USD |