AMD Radeon Pro W6600X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data for these two cards is not directly comparable through shared benchmark tests. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600X has a single recorded result in Geekbench Metal, scoring 107342, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has results in several different tests, including Geekbench OpenCL (255416) and Geekbench Vulkan (271631). The absence of overlapping benchmarks means the database shows no direct head-to-head wins for either card.

The RTX 4090's Geekbench scores are substantially higher than the W6600X's Metal result, but these tests measure different APIs. In OpenCL, the RTX 4090 scores 255416, which is roughly 138% above the W6600X's single Metal score. In Vulkan, the RTX 4090 reaches 271631, about 153% higher. These are cross-API comparisons, so they indicate the NVIDIA card's raw compute advantage rather than a direct performance relationship.

The W6600X's average benchmark score of 107342 places it at the 94th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, averages 106750, which is 0.6% lower. The Radeon Pro Vega II scores 109617, a 2.1% advantage over the W6600X. The Radeon PRO W7900 leads by 3.1% with a score of 110725, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 trails by 5.4% at 101872.

The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 60347 is heavily influenced by its Passmark results, which are far lower than its Geekbench scores. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, averages 60326, a statistical tie at 0% delta. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% ahead at 60140, the Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% ahead at 61896, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 trails by 2.9% at 58657. The RTX 4090 sits at the 88th percentile, six points below the W6600X.

Among the RTX 4090's individual Passmark results, the G3D score of 38194 is the most substantial, while the DirectX 12 score of 150 and DirectX 10 score of 224 are notably low. The G2D score of 1299 and GPU compute score of 26613 round out its profile. These figures suggest the card's average is dragged down by legacy DirectX tests, which may not reflect its actual compute capabilities.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W6600X has an average benchmark score of 107342, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 averages 60347. The W6600X also ranks at the 94th percentile versus the 88th percentile for the RTX 4090.

Q: How does the W6600X compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The W6600X is 0.6% ahead of the Radeon Pro Vega II Duo (106750), 2.1% behind the Radeon Pro Vega II (109617), 3.1% behind the Radeon PRO W7900 (110725), and 5.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (101872).

Q: What are the RTX 4090's strongest benchmark results?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 271631 in Geekbench Vulkan, 255416 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 38194 in Passmark G3D. Its Passmark GPU compute score is 26613 and its G2D score is 1299.

Q: Why is the RTX 4090's average score lower than its Geekbench scores suggest?

A: The average includes several Passmark results that are much lower, such as DirectX 9 at 397, DirectX 11 at 326, DirectX 10 at 224, and DirectX 12 at 150. These low scores pull the overall average down to 60347.

Q: Do the two cards share any benchmark tests?

A: No. The W6600X has a single Geekbench Metal result, while the RTX 4090 has Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan, and multiple Passmark tests. The database shows no overlapping benchmark entries.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M?

A: The Radeon Pro W6600M averages 61896, which is 2.5% higher than the RTX 4090's 60347. The Intel Arc Pro A60 matches the RTX 4090 exactly at 60326, a 0% difference.

The Verdict

The data paints two distinct pictures. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600X is a specialized Mac-oriented card with a single strong Metal result, placing it in the top 94th percentile. Its average score of 107342 is nearly double the RTX 4090's average, but this is largely a function of the different test suites each card uses. The W6600X's nearest rivals are all professional AMD and NVIDIA workstation cards, and it sits comfortably among them, trading positions with the Vega II family and the W7900 within a narrow 5.4% band.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a much larger, more power-hungry card with a broader benchmark profile. Its Geekbench scores are extremely high, but its Passmark results, particularly the DirectX legacy tests, are surprisingly low. The average of 60347 places it at the 88th percentile, and its nearest rivals are a mix of professional and mobile workstation cards, none of which exceed it by more than 2.9%.

For users selecting between these two, the choice depends on the workload. The W6600X is the better fit for Metal-based macOS environments, where its single recorded score indicates strong performance relative to its professional peers. The RTX 4090 is the better choice for OpenCL or Vulkan compute tasks, where its scores of 255416 and 271631 respectively demonstrate a massive compute advantage. The RTX 4090 also offers 24 GB of GDDR6X memory versus the W6600X's 8 GB of GDDR6, and its 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 throughput dwarfs the W6600X's 10.15 TFLOPS. These are not interchangeable products: the W6600X is an end-of-life Apple MPX card with no display outputs, while the RTX 4090 is a triple-slot PCIe 4.0 card with full display connectivity.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The W6600X uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 4090 uses 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4090 has 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, 176 ROPs, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores, compared to the W6600X's 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 32 RT cores. The RTX 4090 has no tensor core equivalent on the AMD side.

Clock speeds differ as well: the W6600X runs at 2068 MHz base and 2479 MHz boost, while the RTX 4090 runs at 2235 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for the W6600X and 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) for the RTX 4090. Pixel rate is 158.7 GPixel/s for the AMD card versus 443.5 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA card, and texture rate is 317.3 GTexel/s versus 1,290.2 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 10.15 TFLOPS for the W6600X and 82.58 TFLOPS for the RTX 4090, with FP16 also differing: 20.31 TFLOPS (2:1) for AMD and 82.58 TFLOPS (1:1) for NVIDIA.

Power and physical characteristics are equally divergent. The W6600X has a 120 W TDP with a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the RTX 4090 has a 450 W TDP with a suggested PSU of 850 W. The W6600X is dual-slot with no power connector listed and no display outputs, while the RTX 4090 is triple-slot with a 1x 16-pin connector and outputs of 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The W6600X uses an Apple MPX bus interface, while the RTX 4090 uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The RTX 4090 measures 304 mm in length, 137 mm in height, and 61 mm in width. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The W6600X is built on AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. It contains 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 46.7M per mm². It belongs to the Radeon Pro Mac generation (Navi II Series). The RTX 4090 uses NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD102 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process. It contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, yielding a density of 125.3M per mm². It belongs to the GeForce 40 series.

The architectural differences extend to compute features. The RDNA 2.0 card implements 32 ray accelerators and no tensor cores, relying on AMD's shader-based approach. The Ada Lovelace card implements 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, providing dedicated hardware for ray tracing and AI workloads. The RTX 4090's FP16 throughput matches its FP32 at 82.58 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the W6600X halves its FP16 to 20.31 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio.

The transistor density gap reflects the process node difference: 46.7M per mm² for the 7 nm W6600X versus 125.3M per mm² for the 5 nm RTX 4090. The die size difference is also substantial, with the RTX 4090's 609 mm² nearly three times the W6600X's 237 mm². Both cards are end-of-life in production status, with the W6600X released on 2021-08-02 and the RTX 4090 released on 2022-09-19. The RTX 4090 has a predecessor in the GeForce 30 series and a successor in the GeForce 50 series, while the W6600X lists no predecessor or successor. The launch MSRP for the W6600X is 699 USD and for the RTX 4090 is 1,599 USD.