AMD Radeon Pro 5600M vs AMD Radeon PRO W7500 Comparison

The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M are both 8 GB professional GPUs, but they target entirely different segments: one is a modern desktop workstation card, the other is an older mobile part for Macs. The benchmark data shows a decisive performance gap, with the W7500 winning all nine head-to-head comparisons. However, the 5600M holds its own in aggregate scoring due to its unique memory subsystem and driver optimizations in specific APIs, making the choice between them less about raw speed and more about platform and workload fit.

FAQ

Q: How does the average benchmark score of the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 compare to the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M?

A: The W7500 has an average benchmark score of 16415, while the 5600M scores 16351. This puts the W7500 just 0.4% ahead of the 5600M, making them statistically near-identical in overall performance, despite the W7500 winning every individual test.

Q: Which GPU offers better raw compute performance in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test decisively with a score of 58213, which is 21.8% higher than the 5600M’s score of 47783.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M competitive in any modern graphics API?

A: Yes, in the Vulkan API, the 5600M is competitive but still loses. The W7500 scores 68634 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is 47.8% higher than the 5600M’s 46425. The 5600M’s strongest showing is in DirectX 10, where it scores 62 versus the W7500’s 65, a margin of just 4.8%.

Q: What are the key architectural differences between these two GPUs?

A: The W7500 uses the Navi 33 chip based on RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 6 nm process, while the 5600M uses the Navi 12 chip based on RDNA 1.0 on a 7 nm process. The W7500 also features 28 ray tracing cores, which the 5600M lacks entirely.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth, and why does it matter for the 5600M?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M has significantly higher memory bandwidth at 394.2 GB/s, compared to the W7500’s 256.0 GB/s. This is because the 5600M uses HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, whereas the W7500 uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in terms of production status and release timing?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is currently Active in production, having been released on 2023-08-02. The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M is End-of-life, with a release date of 2020-06-14.

Where Each One Wins

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins every single head-to-head benchmark, totaling 9 wins out of 9 comparisons. Its victories range from narrow margins in legacy APIs to dominant leads in modern compute and graphics workloads. The largest win comes in the Passmark DirectX 11 test, where the W7500 scores 125 versus the 5600M’s 59, a staggering 111.9% advantage. Similarly, in Passmark DirectX 9, the W7500 leads with 200 points against 118, a 69.5% gap. These results indicate that the W7500 is simply a faster GPU across the board for general-purpose and gaming-era workloads.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, despite having no benchmark wins, still has a niche where it is competitive. Its average benchmark score of 16351 is only 0.4% behind the W7500, driven by its exceptional memory bandwidth. In the aggregate, it performs at a level comparable to the W7500, which suggests that in memory-bandwidth-bound scenarios (not captured by the synthetic tests), the 5600M’s 394.2 GB/s HBM2 setup could potentially close the gap or even pull ahead. However, in every measurable test provided, the W7500 is the winner, making the 5600M a viable option only for those specifically needing its unique memory characteristics or working within a Mac ecosystem.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs reflects a generational leap. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, using the Navi 33 chip codenamed "Hotpink Bonefish." It is manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC, packing 13,300 million transistors into a 204 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 65.2M per mm². In contrast, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M uses the older RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 12 chip, built on a 7 nm process. The 5600M’s transistor count and die size are not listed in the data, but the process node difference alone accounts for significant efficiency gains in the W7500.

The W7500 introduces hardware ray tracing with 28 dedicated RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the 5600M. This is a major architectural differentiator for modern rendering workloads. The W7500 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the 5600M is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The memory architectures are also fundamentally different: the W7500 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the 5600M uses 8 GB of HBM2 on a massive 2048-bit bus. This makes the 5600M’s memory subsystem more complex and bandwidth-rich, but the W7500 compensates with higher clock speeds and newer compute units.

Specification Differences

The core specifications reveal a trade-off between raw compute and memory bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 has a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1700 MHz, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M runs at a much lower 822 MHz base and 1144 MHz boost. This clock advantage allows the W7500 to achieve 12.19 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, more than double the 5600M’s 5.857 TFLOPS. The W7500 also has 1792 shading units and 112 TMUs, versus the 5600M’s 2560 shading units and 160 TMUs. Interestingly, the 5600M has more shading units and TMUs, but its lower clocks and older architecture result in lower throughput.

The W7500 has a higher pixel rate at 108.8 GPixel/s compared to the 5600M’s 73.22 GPixel/s, and a higher texture rate at 190.4 GTexel/s versus 183.0 GTexel/s. Both GPUs have 64 ROPs. The W7500’s memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the 5600M’s memory runs at 770 MHz (1540 Mbps effective) but achieves 394.2 GB/s due to its 2048-bit bus. The W7500 has a TDP of 70 W and requires a 250 W suggested PSU, while the 5600M has a lower 50 W TDP and is designed as an integrated graphics processor (IGP). The W7500 is a single-slot card with four DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, while the 5600M has no display outputs of its own and relies on the portable device. The W7500 uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the 5600M uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are uniformly in favor of the AMD Radeon PRO W7500, but the margins vary significantly by workload. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the W7500 scores 58213 against the 5600M’s 47783, a 21.8% lead. This is a strong indicator of general compute performance. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows an even larger gap, with the W7500 at 68634 and the 5600M at 46425, a 47.8% difference. This suggests the W7500’s newer architecture is far more efficient in modern graphics APIs.

The Passmark suite tells a similar story. In DirectX 11, the W7500 achieves 125 points versus the 5600M’s 59, a massive 111.9% advantage. DirectX 9 shows a 69.5% lead (200 vs 118). DirectX 12 results are closer, with the W7500 scoring 46 versus 39, a 17.9% lead. DirectX 10 is the tightest race, with the W7500 at 65 and the 5600M at 62, a slim 4.8% margin. The 2D performance test also favors the W7500, with a score of 1174 against 679, a 72.9% improvement. In the Passmark G3D test, the W7500 scores 13368 versus 9279, a 44.1% lead. Finally, the GPU compute test shows the W7500 at 5910 against 4031, a 46.6% advantage. Across all tests, the W7500 demonstrates a clear performance superiority, with the 5600M only managing to stay within single-digit percentage points in the legacy DirectX 10 test.

The Verdict

From the data, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the superior GPU in every measurable benchmark. It wins all nine head-to-head comparisons, often by double-digit percentages, and offers modern features like ray tracing and newer API support. For any user building a desktop workstation or needing reliable performance across DirectX, Vulkan, and OpenCL workloads, the W7500 is the clear choice. Its active production status and 2023 release date also mean it will receive longer driver support than the end-of-life 5600M.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, while losing every benchmark, is not without merit. Its aggregate score of 16351 is nearly identical to the W7500’s 16415, implying that in real-world scenarios not captured by these synthetic tests—particularly those heavily dependent on memory bandwidth—the 5600M could be competitive. Its 394.2 GB/s bandwidth is 54% higher than the W7500’s, which could benefit certain compute tasks. However, its mobile IGP design, lack of display outputs, and end-of-life status limit its appeal to niche applications, primarily within Apple Mac systems that require its specific form factor. For most users, the W7500 is the safer, faster, and more future-proof option.