AMD Radeon Pro W5700 vs AMD Radeon RX 470 Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark database clearly separates these two AMD cards across generations. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700 is the decisive winner in every recorded head-to-head test, taking all three Geekbench comparisons with substantial margins. The AMD Radeon RX 470, while an older and less capable part, remains relevant only in contexts where its lower power draw and smaller physical footprint matter. For any workload that stresses compute, graphics API performance, or memory bandwidth, the W5700 is the clear choice. The data shows a 53.4% lead for the W5700 in Geekbench Metal, a 55% lead in Geekbench OpenCL, and a 43.6% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. These are not marginal differences; they represent a generational leap in architecture and execution efficiency.

The RX 470's average benchmark score of 28,996 places it at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, while the W5700's average of 25,726 sits at the 71st percentile. The RX 470 actually holds a higher percentile ranking, but this reflects the broader distribution of tested GPUs, not its absolute performance. The W5700's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile at 25,740 (a 0.1% difference), the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 25,633 (a 0.4% difference), and two AMD FirePro workstation cards. The RX 470's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6800M at 28,874 (a 0.4% difference), the Intel Arc A370M at 29,175 (a 0.6% difference), and the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH at 29,197 (a 0.7% difference). The W5700 is a workstation-oriented card that trades blows with mobile gaming flagships, while the RX 470 sits in a similar bracket to mobile entry-level parts.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench Metal?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700 scores 89,557 in Geekbench Metal, while the AMD Radeon RX 470 scores 41,690. The W5700 wins by 53.4%, a margin that reflects its newer RDNA 1.0 architecture and higher clock speeds.

Q: Does the RX 470 have any benchmark win over the W5700?

A: No. In the recorded head-to-head benchmarks, the W5700 wins all three tests: Geekbench Metal, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. The RX 470 records zero wins in the comparison set.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RX 470 has an average benchmark score of 28,996 across all tested workloads, while the W5700 averages 25,726. Despite the W5700 winning every direct comparison, its average is lower, which suggests the RX 470 performs relatively better in non-Geekbench tests or that the W5700's direct wins are concentrated in specific APIs.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RX 470 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 211.2 GB/s bandwidth. The W5700 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on the same 256-bit bus but with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than double the RX 470's throughput.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The W5700 has a boost clock of 1880 MHz, compared to the RX 470's 1206 MHz. The W5700 also has a higher base clock at 1400 MHz versus 926 MHz.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are listed as end-of-life in the database. The RX 470 was released on 2016-08-03, and the W5700 was released on 2019-11-18.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural families. The RX 470 uses the Ellesmere chip built on GCN 4.0, part of the Arctic Islands generation (RX 400 series). This architecture was fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, with 5,700 million transistors packed into a 232 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². The W5700 uses the Navi 10 chip on RDNA 1.0, from the Radeon Pro Navi generation. It was fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC, with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 41.0M per mm². The jump from 14 nm to 7 nm allowed AMD to nearly double the transistor count while increasing the die size by only 19 mm².

The shading unit count differs significantly: the RX 470 has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The W5700 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The W5700 doubles the ROP count, which directly contributes to its much higher pixel throughput. The FP32 compute rating for the RX 470 is 4.940 TFLOPS, while the W5700 reaches 8.663 TFLOPS. The FP16 performance is where the architectures diverge sharply: the RX 470 delivers FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (4.940 TFLOPS), while the W5700 delivers FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, reaching 17.33 TFLOPS. This makes the W5700 substantially better suited for workloads that can leverage half-precision math.

Neither card includes dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as both predate or omit those specialized units. The RX 470 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The W5700 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The higher DirectX feature level and newer Vulkan version on the W5700 indicate better API support for modern titles and compute applications.

Specification Differences

The process node is the most fundamental difference: the RX 470 uses 14 nm at GlobalFoundries, while the W5700 uses 7 nm at TSMC. The transistor count scales from 5,700 million to 10,300 million, and the die size grows from 232 mm² to 251 mm². The transistor density improves from 24.6M per mm² to 41.0M per mm².

Clock speeds are substantially higher on the W5700. The RX 470 runs at 926 MHz base and 1206 MHz boost, while the W5700 runs at 1400 MHz base and 1880 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: the RX 470's GDDR5 runs at 1650 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective), while the W5700's GDDR6 runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The effective data rate doubles, and the bandwidth jumps from 211.2 GB/s to 448.0 GB/s.

Memory capacity doubles from 4 GB to 8 GB, with the bus width remaining at 256 bit. The W5700 has more of every compute resource: shading units (2,304 vs 2,048), TMUs (144 vs 128), and ROPs (64 vs 32). The pixel rate rises from 38.59 GPixel/s on the RX 470 to 120.3 GPixel/s on the W5700, and the texture rate rises from 154.4 GTexel/s to 270.7 GTexel/s.

Power requirements differ substantially. The RX 470 has a TDP of 120 W, a single 6-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 300 W. The W5700 has a TDP of 205 W, requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector, and needs a 550 W PSU. The physical dimensions also differ: the RX 470 measures 240 mm in length, 95 mm in height, and 35 mm in width. The W5700 is longer at 267 mm and taller at 111 mm, with no listed width. Both are dual-slot cards.

The bus interface changes from PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RX 470 to PCIe 4.0 x16 on the W5700. Display outputs differ: the RX 470 has one HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports, while the W5700 has five mini-DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one USB Type-C port. The launch MSRP for the RX 470 was 179 USD, and for the W5700 it was 799 USD.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records three direct comparisons between these cards, all in Geekbench tests. The largest margin is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the W5700 scores 74,613 against the RX 470's 33,568, a 55% advantage. This test stresses general-purpose compute, and the W5700's higher shading unit count, doubled ROPs, and much faster memory bandwidth all contribute to the result. The RX 470's 1:1 FP16 ratio does not help here, as OpenCL workloads often use FP32, where the W5700's 8.663 TFLOPS nearly doubles the RX 470's 4.940 TFLOPS.

In Geekbench Metal, the W5700 scores 89,557 versus 41,690, a 53.4% lead. Metal is Apple's graphics API, and the W5700's RDNA architecture handles it more efficiently. The W5700's higher boost clock of 1880 MHz versus 1206 MHz, combined with its 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, explains the wide gap. The RX 470's Metal score is respectable for its era, but the architectural improvements in RDNA 1.0 are clearly visible in this metric.

Geekbench Vulkan shows the narrowest margin of the three, but it is still decisive: the W5700 scores 70,706 against 39,884, a 43.6% lead. Vulkan is a low-level API that can scale well with raw hardware resources. The W5700's 2,304 shading units and 64 ROPs provide more parallel execution capacity, and its PCIe 4.0 interface reduces data transfer bottlenecks compared to the RX 470's PCIe 3.0.

The W5700 also has a broader benchmark suite in the database, including PassMark tests. Its PassMark G3D score is 14,520, its G2D score is 899, and its GPU compute score is 6,495. These are not directly comparable to the RX 470, which lacks PassMark entries, but they show the W5700's strengths in DirectX 9 (225), DirectX 10 (88), DirectX 11 (104), and DirectX 12 (54). The low DirectX 12 score relative to DirectX 11 is notable, as it suggests the W5700's driver optimization may favor legacy APIs.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro W5700 wins in every recorded benchmark category. It is the only choice for compute-heavy workloads such as OpenCL-based rendering, Metal-accelerated applications, or Vulkan-driven game engines. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for large textures, complex scenes, and multi-tasking. The 17.33 TFLOPS FP16 performance makes it particularly strong for AI inference or machine learning tasks that use half precision. The doubled ROP count (64 versus 32) gives it a massive advantage in pixel-heavy workloads, as seen in its 120.3 GPixel/s pixel rate versus the RX 470's 38.59 GPixel/s.

The RX 470 does not win any head-to-head test, but its profile still suits specific use cases. Its 120 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU make it far easier to integrate into smaller or older systems without upgrading the power supply. Its physical dimensions are smaller (240 mm length versus 267 mm, 95 mm height versus 111 mm), which helps in compact cases. The single 6-pin connector is more universally compatible than the W5700's 6-pin plus 8-pin requirement. For a system that only needs basic display output, legacy DirectX 11 gaming, or light OpenCL tasks, the RX 470 remains functional.

The percentile data adds nuance. The RX 470 sits at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, while the W5700 sits at the 71st percentile. This is counterintuitive given the W5700's direct wins, but it reflects the fact that the RX 470's average benchmark score of 28,996 is higher than the W5700's 25,726. The W5700's direct wins are concentrated in the three Geekbench tests, while its PassMark results drag down its average. The RX 470, with a smaller benchmark set, benefits from higher scores in the tests it does have. Users should weigh the direct head-to-head results more heavily when choosing between these two specific cards, as those are the only controlled comparisons available.