AMD Radeon PRO W6600 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D vs AMD Radeon PRO W6600

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 sit at opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, yet both occupy the 94th percentile among all GPUs tracked in the database. The RTX 5090 D posts an average benchmark score of 84,241, while the Radeon PRO W6600 averages 83,209 — a mere 1.2% gap that flatters the smaller, older card. However, that aggregate figure hides a chasm in raw compute and a divergence in workload suitability. The RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 flagship with 32 GB of GDDR7 and a 575 W TDP; the Radeon PRO W6600 is an RDNA 2.0 workstation part with 8 GB of GDDR6 and a 100 W TDP. The data shows these are not direct competitors, but the benchmark results reveal why each exists.

The Verdict

The RTX 5090 D is the clear choice for anyone prioritizing maximum compute throughput, large memory capacity, or modern API feature sets. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 375,966 dwarfs the W6600's 73,151 — a 414% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 5090 D scores 376,915 against the W6600's 78,993, a 377.1% lead. The NVIDIA card also carries 32 GB of GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, compared to the W6600's 8 GB GDDR6 at 224.0 GB/s. For GPU compute, AI workloads, or any task that saturates VRAM, the RTX 5090 D is the only rational pick.

The Radeon PRO W6600 makes sense in a narrower context: constrained power envelopes, single-slot installations, or legacy workstation deployments. Its 100 W TDP and single-slot design contrast sharply with the RTX 5090 D's 575 W TDP and dual-slot footprint. The W6600 also requires only a 300 W suggested PSU versus 950 W for the NVIDIA card. If the workload fits within 8 GB of VRAM and doesn't demand extreme FP32 throughput, the W6600 delivers 94th-percentile performance with far less system impact. Its 9.247 TFLOPS FP32 is modest, but its 18.49 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio) shows competent half-precision capability for its class.

Neither card wins outright across every metric, but the benchmark data strongly favors the RTX 5090 D in raw performance. The W6600's only wins are practical — power, size, and deployment flexibility — none of which appear in benchmark scores.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5090 D wins every head-to-head benchmark recorded. In Geekbench OpenCL, it outperforms the W6600 by 414%, translating to roughly five times the compute score. Geekbench Vulkan shows a 377.1% lead, again a roughly 4.8x advantage. These are not marginal differences; they represent fundamentally different performance tiers. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 of the RTX 5090 D versus 9.247 TFLOPS on the W6600 explains the scale of the gap. The NVIDIA card also has 21,760 shading units against 1,792, 680 TMUs against 112, and 176 ROPs against 64.

The W6600's advantages appear outside synthetic benchmarks. Its 100 W TDP allows deployment in systems where the RTX 5090 D's 575 W draw would be impossible. The single-slot form factor (241 mm length) versus the RTX 5090 D's dual-slot 304 mm length matters in dense workstation builds. The W6600 also uses a single 6-pin power connector, while the RTX 5090 D requires a 16-pin connector. These physical constraints matter in real deployments, even if they don't show up in score deltas.

For FP16 workloads, the W6600's 18.49 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) is proportionally stronger relative to its FP32 than the RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). However, the absolute FP16 number still favors NVIDIA by a factor of 5.7x. The W6600's 28 ray accelerators provide some RT capability, but the RTX 5090 D's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores place it in a different category for ray-traced or AI-accelerated tasks.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 5090 D uses the GB202 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 92,200 million transistors into a 750 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 122.9M per mm². The W6600 uses the Navi 23 chip on TSMC's 7 nm process, with 11,060 million transistors across a 237 mm² die — a density of 46.7M per mm². The process node advantage alone explains much of the performance delta, but the architectural differences run deeper.

Blackwell 2.0 (the RTX 5090 D's architecture) supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, matching the W6600's API support. However, the RTX 5090 D adds features the W6600 lacks: dedicated tensor cores (680 of them) and a 1:1 FP16/FP32 ratio, meaning it doesn't sacrifice half-precision throughput. The W6600's RDNA 2.0 architecture implements FP16 at half rate (2:1), a deliberate tradeoff for workstation efficiency.

Memory subsystems diverge completely. The RTX 5090 D runs 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, achieving 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. The W6600 runs 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, at 224.0 GB/s. That's an 8x difference in capacity and roughly 8x in bandwidth, aligning with the compute gap. The RTX 5090 D's memory clock is 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), while the W6600's is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) — same base clock, double the data rate.

Clock speeds tell a different story. The W6600 boosts to 2580 MHz, higher than the RTX 5090 D's 2407 MHz boost. The W6600's base clock of 2331 MHz also exceeds the RTX 5090 D's 2017 MHz. Yet the RTX 5090 D compensates with far wider execution resources. The bus interface differs too: PCIe 5.0 x16 on NVIDIA versus PCIe 4.0 x8 on AMD, giving the RTX 5090 D more host bandwidth for data transfer.

Display outputs also differentiate them: the RTX 5090 D offers one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1b, while the W6600 provides four DisplayPort 1.4a. The NVIDIA card supports newer display standards, but the W6600's four-port configuration may suit multi-display workstation setups.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090 D averages 84,241 across all recorded benchmarks, while the W6600 averages 83,209. The RTX 5090 D leads by 1.2% in aggregate, but individual compute tests show far larger gaps.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RTX 5090 D scores 375,966 versus the W6600's 73,151, a 414% advantage for NVIDIA. This is the largest recorded delta between the two cards.

Q: What memory configurations do these cards use?

A: The RTX 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. The W6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are both cards in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both rank in the 94th percentile among all GPUs tracked in the database, despite their vastly different specifications and performance levels.

Q: Which card consumes less power?

A: The W6600 has a 100 W TDP and requires a 300 W PSU, while the RTX 5090 D has a 575 W TDP and requires a 950 W PSU. The W6600 also uses a single 6-pin connector versus the RTX 5090 D's 16-pin.

Q: What is the release timing for each card?

A: The RTX 5090 D launched on January 29, 2025, with a launch MSRP of 2,299 USD. The W6600 launched on June 7, 2021, with a launch MSRP of 649 USD. The W6600 is listed as end-of-life, while the RTX 5090 D is active.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains only two shared tests, both of which the RTX 5090 D wins decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5090 D scores 375,966 against the W6600's 73,151. The delta of 414% means the NVIDIA card delivers roughly 5.14x the OpenCL performance. This is consistent with the FP32 throughput gap: 104.8 TFLOPS versus 9.247 TFLOPS is an 11.3x difference, though real-world OpenCL scaling doesn't hit that theoretical maximum.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a similar pattern. The RTX 5090 D scores 376,915, while the W6600 manages 78,993 — a 377.1% delta, or about 4.77x. The slightly smaller margin in Vulkan compared to OpenCL suggests the W6600's RDNA 2.0 architecture handles Vulkan's low-level API relatively better, though it still loses by a wide margin.

The RTX 5090 D also has additional benchmark data the W6600 lacks entirely. In 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12), it scores 14,326. Passmark results show 44,065 in G3D, 28,396 in GPU Compute, and 1,487 in G2D. The W6600 has no corresponding entries, so direct comparisons in those tests are impossible. However, the W6600 does have a Geekbench Metal score of 97,483, which the RTX 5090 D cannot match because Metal is Apple-specific and the NVIDIA card has no such benchmark recorded.

The wins tally stands at 2-0 in favor of the RTX 5090 D across shared tests. The W6600's higher boost clock (2580 MHz versus 2407 MHz) and lower TDP (100 W versus 575 W) suggest it wins on efficiency per watt, but no direct efficiency metric appears in the benchmark data. The RTX 5090 D's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s dwarf the W6600's 165.1 GPixel/s and 289.0 GTexel/s, reinforcing that the NVIDIA card dominates fill-rate-bound workloads as well as compute.

In practical terms, the RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals per the database are the RTX 5090 (0.1% higher average score), the RTX 5050 Mobile (0.1% lower), the W6600 (1.2% lower), and the CMP 40HX (1.6% lower). The W6600's nearest rivals include the Radeon 8060S (0.8% lower), RTX 5050 Mobile (1.1% higher), RTX 5090 D (1.2% higher), and RTX 5090 (1.3% higher). These proximity scores confirm that, despite the RTX 5090 D's massive compute lead, both cards land in similar aggregate performance brackets — a reminder that average scores can obscure extreme per-test variance.