AMD Radeon Pro VII vs NVIDIA Quadro P6000 Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon Pro VII and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 are both end-of-life professional workstation cards, but the recorded data places them in different performance tiers. The Radeon Pro VII holds a decisive lead in the two shared compute benchmarks, with an average benchmark score of 97131 against the Quadro P6000's 69986. That is a raw average gap of roughly 38.8 percent. In the head-to-head results, the AMD card wins both tests: Geekbench OpenCL by 35.8 percent (90148 versus 66382) and Geekbench Vulkan by 26.2 percent (92862 versus 73590). The wins tally is 2 for AMD, 0 for NVIDIA.

The percentile rankings reinforce this separation. The Radeon Pro VII sits at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, while the Quadro P6000 is at the 90th. The AMD card's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000, which scores 101872 and is 4.7 percent ahead, and the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60, which is 5 percent behind. The NVIDIA card's closest competition includes the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (0.2 percent behind it) and the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile (0.2 percent ahead), placing it in a much lower performance bracket.

Who should pick which? Based strictly on compute benchmarks, the Radeon Pro VII is the stronger choice for OpenCL and Vulkan workloads. The Quadro P6000's only advantages in the data are its larger 24 GB memory capacity and its higher pixel rate, but those do not offset the substantial compute deficit. For users prioritizing raw throughput in general-purpose compute, the AMD card wins. For users needing more video memory for large datasets or higher fill-rate tasks, the NVIDIA card has a niche, but the benchmark evidence shows it is outclassed in compute.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and manufacturing nodes. The AMD Radeon Pro VII uses the Vega 20 chip built on GCN 5.1 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 uses the GP102 chip on Pascal architecture, also TSMC but on a 16 nm node. The process gap is stark: 7 nm versus 16 nm, which explains part of the efficiency and performance differences.

Transistor counts are close but not identical. The AMD chip packs 13,230 million transistors on a 331 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm². The NVIDIA chip has 11,800 million transistors on a much larger 471 mm² die, giving a density of 25.1 million per mm². The AMD design is denser and smaller, a direct consequence of the newer process node.

Memory subsystems diverge significantly. The Radeon Pro VII uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The Quadro P6000 uses 24 GB of GDDR5X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 432.8 GB/s. The AMD card has more than double the memory bandwidth, while the NVIDIA card has 50 percent more capacity. Clock speeds differ: the AMD card runs at 1400 MHz base and 1700 MHz boost, while the NVIDIA card runs at 1506 MHz base and 1645 MHz boost. The NVIDIA card has a slightly higher base clock, but the AMD card boosts higher.

Shader and texture resources are identical in count: both have 3840 shading units and 240 texture mapping units. The ROP count differs, with the NVIDIA card having 96 versus the AMD card's 64. This gives the NVIDIA card a higher pixel rate of 157.9 GPixel/s compared to 108.8 GPixel/s for AMD. The texture rates are close: 408.0 GTexel/s for AMD versus 394.8 GTexel/s for NVIDIA.

Compute throughput tells the real story. The AMD card delivers 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.11 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The NVIDIA card delivers 12.63 TFLOPS FP32 but only 197.4 GFLOPS FP16 (1:64 ratio). The FP16 gap is enormous, favoring AMD by over 100x. This explains the OpenCL and Vulkan benchmark dominance, as those APIs can leverage FP16 compute.

The power envelopes are identical at 250 W TDP, with both requiring a 600 W suggested PSU. The AMD card uses a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector setup, while the NVIDIA card uses a single 8-pin. Interface differences: the AMD card supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the NVIDIA card is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the AMD card has 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a, while the NVIDIA card has 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. The AMD card is longer at 305 mm versus 267 mm for NVIDIA, but both are dual-slot and 111 mm tall.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains only two shared tests, and the AMD Radeon Pro VII wins both decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card scores 90148 against the NVIDIA card's 66382, a delta of 35.8 percent. This is not a marginal win; it is a substantial gap that reflects the AMD card's superior FP32 and FP16 throughput, as well as its much higher memory bandwidth.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the AMD card scores 92862 against 73590, a delta of 26.2 percent. The Vulkan gap is smaller than OpenCL but still significant. The NVIDIA card's Pascal architecture has weaker Vulkan support compared to the newer GCN 5.1 implementation, and the AMD card benefits from a higher boost clock and better compute scaling.

The average benchmark scores confirm the trend. The AMD card's average is 97131, while the NVIDIA card's is 69986. The difference is 27145 points, or approximately 38.8 percent. The AMD card's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7900M, scores 97487 (0.4 percent ahead), showing that the Radeon Pro VII is competitive with much newer hardware. The NVIDIA card's nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile, scores 70140 (0.2 percent ahead), indicating that the Quadro P6000 is now positioned among mobile and entry-level workstation parts.

There is no benchmark in the data where the NVIDIA card wins. The wins tally is 2 for AMD and 0 for NVIDIA. The only areas where the NVIDIA card shows a numeric advantage are non-compute specifications: memory capacity (24 GB versus 16 GB), pixel rate (157.9 versus 108.8 GPixel/s), and ROP count (96 versus 64). In every compute metric recorded, the AMD card is ahead.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII has 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth from its HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus. The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has 432.8 GB/s from GDDR5X on a 384-bit bus. The AMD card offers more than double the bandwidth.

Q: What is the FP16 compute difference between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII delivers 26.11 TFLOPS FP16, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 delivers only 197.4 GFLOPS FP16. The AMD card has a 2:1 FP16 ratio versus the NVIDIA card's 1:64 ratio, resulting in a massive advantage for AMD in half-precision workloads.

Q: How do the two cards compare in average benchmark scores?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII has an average benchmark score of 97131, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 69986. The AMD card is approximately 38.8 percent higher. The AMD card also ranks at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, versus the 90th percentile for NVIDIA.

Q: Which card has more video memory?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has 24 GB of GDDR5X memory. The AMD Radeon Pro VII has 16 GB of HBM2. The NVIDIA card offers 8 GB more capacity, which can be relevant for very large datasets, but it comes with much lower bandwidth.

Q: What are the process node differences?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII is built on a 7 nm TSMC process, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 uses a 16 nm TSMC process. The AMD chip has a transistor density of 40.0 million per mm² versus 25.1 million per mm² for NVIDIA.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel rate?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 has a pixel rate of 157.9 GPixel/s, which is higher than the AMD Radeon Pro VII's 108.8 GPixel/s. This is due to the NVIDIA card having 96 ROPs versus 64 on the AMD card.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro VII wins in compute-intensive workloads. Its 35.8 percent OpenCL lead and 26.2 percent Vulkan lead make it the clear choice for general-purpose GPU computing, machine learning inference, scientific simulations, and any workload that leverages FP16 or FP32 throughput. The 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth is a massive advantage for memory-bound kernels, and the 7 nm process node with 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 provides a strong foundation for sustained compute. The PCIe 4.0 interface also allows faster data transfer with compatible host systems.

The NVIDIA Quadro P6000 wins in specific non-compute areas. Its 24 GB memory capacity is 50 percent larger than the AMD card's 16 GB, which matters for workloads that need to hold very large models or textures in memory without spilling to system RAM. Its higher pixel rate of 157.9 GPixel/s, driven by 96 ROPs, makes it better suited for fill-rate-bound tasks such as high-resolution display rendering or certain types of compositing. The card also has a DVI output, which the AMD card lacks, and its shorter 267 mm length makes it easier to fit in compact chassis.

For display workloads, the AMD card offers 6 mini-DisplayPort outputs versus NVIDIA's 4 DisplayPort and 1 DVI. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan, though the NVIDIA card lists Vulkan 1.4 versus AMD's 1.3. The NVIDIA card's PCIe 3.0 interface is older, but for many workstation tasks this is not the bottleneck.

The data does not support a scenario where the Quadro P6000 is the better compute card. It is only preferable when memory capacity or pixel throughput is the primary constraint. For everything else, the Radeon Pro VII is measurably ahead.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every core specification. The AMD Radeon Pro VII uses a Vega 20 chip on GCN 5.1 architecture, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 uses GP102 on Pascal. The process node is 7 nm for AMD versus 16 nm for NVIDIA. Transistor counts are 13,230 million for AMD versus 11,800 million for NVIDIA, with die sizes of 331 mm² and 471 mm² respectively. Transistor density is 40.0 million per mm² for AMD versus 25.1 million per mm² for NVIDIA.

Clock speeds differ: AMD base 1400 MHz and boost 1700 MHz, NVIDIA base 1506 MHz and boost 1645 MHz. Memory is 16 GB HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth for AMD, versus 24 GB GDDR5X on a 384-bit bus with 432.8 GB/s bandwidth for NVIDIA. Shading units and TMUs are identical at 3840 and 240 respectively, but ROPs differ: 64 for AMD, 96 for NVIDIA. Pixel rates are 108.8 GPixel/s for AMD versus 157.9 GPixel/s for NVIDIA. Texture rates are 408.0 GTexel/s for AMD versus 394.8 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. FP32 is 13.06 TFLOPS for AMD versus 12.63 TFLOPS for NVIDIA. FP16 is 26.11 TFLOPS for AMD versus 197.4 GFLOPS for NVIDIA.

Both cards have a 250 W TDP and are dual-slot, but power connectors differ: AMD uses 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin, NVIDIA uses 1x 8-pin. Both suggest a 600 W PSU. Bus interfaces differ: AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x16, NVIDIA uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a for AMD versus 1x DVI plus 4x DisplayPort 1.4a for NVIDIA. Dimensions differ: AMD is 305 mm long, NVIDIA is 267 mm long, both 111 mm tall. Release dates are May 2020 for AMD and September 2016 for NVIDIA. The AMD card's launch MSRP was 1,899 USD, while the NVIDIA card's launch MSRP was 5,999 USD.