AMD Radeon PRO W6600 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 occupy opposite ends of the professional GPU spectrum. The data shows a massive performance gulf, but the comparison is not without nuance. The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is a current-generation, 98th-percentile behemoth, while the Radeon PRO W6600 is an end-of-life, 92nd-percentile workhorse. This analysis examines what the recorded measurements reveal about their capabilities, architecture, and ideal use cases.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 in OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA card scores 254,116 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the AMD card scores 73,514. That is a delta of 245.7%, meaning the NVIDIA card delivers nearly 3.5 times the OpenCL performance.

Q: Which card has more memory, and how does that affect bandwidth?

A: The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell comes with 48 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.34 TB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon PRO W6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card offers 6 times the capacity and roughly 6 times the bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same modern graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The underlying architectures differ, but API compatibility at the feature-set level is identical.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell achieves 380.3 GPixel/s, while the Radeon PRO W6600 achieves 165.1 GPixel/s. The NVIDIA card is 2.3 times faster in this metric.

Q: Is the AMD card a single-slot solution?

A: Yes, the Radeon PRO W6600 is a single-slot card, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is dual-slot. This makes the AMD card more compact for dense chassis.

Q: What does the average benchmark score say about overall performance?

A: The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has an average benchmark score of 182,109, sitting in the 98th percentile of all GPUs. The Radeon PRO W6600 averages 81,995, placing it in the 92nd percentile.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the recorded head-to-head benchmarks, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell wins every contest. It takes both available tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 wins no direct comparison in the database. However, the AMD card has its own strengths outside raw compute. It is a single-slot design with a 100 W TDP, making it far easier to fit into compact chassis with minimal power requirements. Its 7 nm process and smaller 237 mm² die size suggest lower thermal output, though the database does not provide thermal figures. The NVIDIA wins on performance, memory capacity, bandwidth, and newer display output (DisplayPort 2.1b vs 1.4a). The AMD wins on physical footprint, power consumption, and its 2:1 FP16 ratio, which doubles its half-precision throughput to 18.49 TFLOPS. The data indicates the NVIDIA is the clear performance leader, with the AMD serving a niche for low-power, single-slot installations.

Architecture Differences

The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is built on the GB202 chip using the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 92,200 million transistors onto a 750 mm² die, achieving a density of 122.9 million transistors per mm². The architecture features 110 RT cores and 440 Tensor cores, along with 14,080 shading units. The Radeon PRO W6600 uses the Navi 23 chip with RDNA 2.0 architecture, also at TSMC but on a 7 nm process. It contains 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, with a density of 46.7 million per mm². The AMD has 28 RT cores and no Tensor core equivalent. The NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture is designed for ray tracing and AI workloads, as evidenced by the dedicated RT and Tensor cores. The AMD’s RDNA 2.0 supports ray tracing through its 28 RT cores but relies on more traditional shader work. The NVIDIA also supports a 1:1 FP32 to FP16 ratio, while the AMD offers a 2:1 FP16 ratio, meaning half-precision compute is faster relative to FP32 on the AMD, but absolute FP16 performance is still higher on the NVIDIA (66.94 vs 18.49 TFLOPS).

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every relevant specification. The NVIDIA has 48 GB of GDDR7 memory versus the AMD’s 8 GB of GDDR6. The bus widths are 384-bit versus 128-bit, leading to bandwidths of 1.34 TB/s compared to 224.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA operates at a base clock of 1740 MHz and boost of 2377 MHz, while the AMD has a higher base of 2331 MHz and boost of 2580 MHz. Despite the AMD’s higher clocks, the NVIDIA’s massive shader count wins. The NVIDIA has 14,080 shading units, 440 TMUs, and 160 ROPs, versus the AMD’s 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA’s pixel rate is 380.3 GPixel/s and texture rate is 1,045.9 GTexel/s, against the AMD’s 165.1 GPixel/s and 289.0 GTexel/s. Power consumption is 300 W for the NVIDIA, with a 16-pin connector and 700 W recommended PSU, versus the AMD’s 100 W, a 6-pin connector, and a 300 W PSU. The NVIDIA uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface; the AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs are 4x DisplayPort 2.1b on the NVIDIA and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a on the AMD. The NVIDIA is dual-slot, measuring 267 mm in length; the AMD is single-slot, at 241 mm.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these cards. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell scores 254,116 versus the AMD’s 73,514, a delta of 245.7%. This indicates a massive lead in general compute, which is typical for a card with 14,080 shading units against 1,792. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA scores 282,631 against the AMD’s 78,428, a delta of 260.4%. That is an even larger margin, suggesting the NVIDIA’s architecture scales better with the Vulkan API’s low-level overhead. The NVIDIA wins 2, the AMD wins 0, giving a dominant sweep. For context, the NVIDIA’s average score of 182,109 places it 2.3% ahead of the GeForce RTX 4090 D and 0.9% behind the A100 SXM4 80 GB. The AMD’s average of 81,995 is just 1.3% behind the Pro Vega 64X and 2.7% ahead of the GeForce RTX 5090 (in this database’s metrics). These numbers show that while the AMD is competitive within its own performance tier, it is nowhere close to the NVIDIA’s absolute output.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is the superior performer, winning every recorded benchmark with deltas exceeding 245%. Users who require maximum compute, massive memory capacity, or advanced ray tracing and AI features should choose the NVIDIA. Its 48 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.34 TB/s bandwidth make it suited for large datasets, complex 3D scenes, and AI inferencing. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600, while far behind in raw numbers, is not without a role. Its single-slot design, 100 W TDP, and 300 W PSU recommendation make it suitable for systems where space and power are constrained. The AMD’s 8 GB memory is sufficient for lighter workstation tasks, and its 2:1 FP16 ratio allows efficient half-precision workloads. The verdict is simple: the NVIDIA is the performance king, the AMD is the efficiency specialist. The choice depends on whether the user prioritizes raw power or form factor and power draw. In a direct performance contest, the NVIDIA wins every round.