AMD Radeon PRO W7500 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 and AMD Radeon PRO W7500 represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, separated by over a decade of architectural evolution. The GTX 690, a dual-GPU flagship from the Kepler generation, was built for sheer gaming dominance in its time, while the PRO W7500 is a modern, efficient workstation card based on RDNA 3.0. The benchmark data available shows a clear generational gap, with the AMD card winning both head-to-head tests decisively, yet the story is more nuanced than a simple score comparison, as the cards target entirely different workloads and user priorities.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the clear winner in raw compute performance as measured by the available benchmarks. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, it scores 58,213, which is a staggering 70.1% higher than the GTX 690’s 17,399. This dominance extends to the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the PRO W7500 scores 68,634 against the GTX 690’s 16,675, a 75.7% lead. These are not marginal victories; they are outright wins that highlight the massive advancements in compute throughput, memory bandwidth, and architectural efficiency over the past decade. The PRO W7500’s 12.19 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth dwarf the GTX 690’s 3.130 TFLOPS and 192.3 GB/s, explaining the substantial delta in synthetic tests.

Where the GTX 690 might have an edge is in the context of its own era and for legacy applications. Its 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus was ample for 2012-era gaming, and its dual-GPU configuration was designed to deliver high frame rates in titles that supported SLI. However, the data provided does not include any gaming-specific benchmarks, so any claim of a gaming victory would be speculative. The fact that the PRO W7500 has a single-slot design and requires no external power connectors—drawing a mere 70 W TDP versus the GTX 690’s 300 W—makes it the winner in terms of physical integration and power efficiency. The GTX 690, with its dual-slot footprint, 279 mm length, and need for two 8-pin power connectors, is a relic of an era when power draw was a secondary concern.

The PRO W7500 also wins on modern API support. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 690 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. This directly impacts the ability to run contemporary applications and games that require newer feature sets, such as ray tracing. The PRO W7500 has 28 dedicated RT cores, while the GTX 690 has none, a fundamental architectural difference that makes the AMD card the only viable choice for ray-traced workloads.

The Verdict

From the data, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the definitive choice for any modern workload. Its benchmark scores are over 3.3 times higher in OpenCL and over 4.1 times higher in Vulkan compared to the GTX 690. The PRO W7500’s average benchmark score of 16,415 is marginally lower than the GTX 690’s 17,037, but this is skewed by the additional PassMark tests the AMD card was subjected to, which include lower scores in legacy DirectX 10, 11, and 12 tests. In the two directly comparable modern compute tests, the AMD card is overwhelmingly superior. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is four times the capacity and offers 33% more bandwidth than the GTX 690’s 2 GB GDDR5, making it far more suitable for large datasets and modern textures.

The GTX 690 is an end-of-life product with a launch MSRP of 999 USD, while the PRO W7500 is an active product with a launch MSRP of 429 USD. The GTX 690's 60th percentile ranking among all GPUs is nearly identical to the PRO W7500's 59th percentile, but this is a misleading metric given the age of the card and the lack of modern benchmark data for it. The PRO W7500 is the only rational recommendation for a new build, a workstation upgrade, or any task requiring modern API support. The GTX 690 should only be considered by collectors or those needing a period-specific legacy system, and even then, its 300 W power draw and dual-GPU complexity make it a challenging component to integrate.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test is the first and most telling comparison. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 58,213, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17,399. This is a delta of -70.1% from the perspective of the GTX 690, meaning the AMD card is more than three times faster. This massive gap is attributed to the PRO W7500’s superior FP32 throughput (12.19 TFLOPS vs 3.130 TFLOPS), higher texture fill rate (190.4 GTexel/s vs 130.4 GTexel/s), and substantially higher pixel rate (108.8 GPixel/s vs 32.61 GPixel/s). The OpenCL workload is highly parallel and benefits directly from these raw compute metrics.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows an even larger disparity. The PRO W7500 scores 68,634, while the GTX 690 manages 16,675, resulting in a -75.7% delta. The Vulkan API is a low-level, modern interface that leverages the architectural strengths of newer GPUs. The PRO W7500’s support for Vulkan 1.4 and its RDNA 3.0 architecture, which includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing via its 28 RT cores, gives it a significant advantage in this workload. The GTX 690’s older Kepler architecture and lack of RT cores cannot compete, and its Vulkan 1.2.175 support is a generation behind. These two tests alone show that the PRO W7500 is not just faster; it is architecturally equipped for the future, whereas the GTX 690 is firmly rooted in the past.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher average benchmark scores?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 has an average benchmark score of 17,037, which is 3.8% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W7500’s 16,415. This is due to the PRO W7500’s lower scores in legacy PassMark DirectX tests, which are not representative of modern compute performance.

Q: What is the primary reason for the AMD card’s massive lead in OpenCL and Vulkan?

A: The data shows the PRO W7500 has 12.19 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, and 28 RT cores. The GTX 690 has 3.130 TFLOPS, 192.3 GB/s, and no RT cores. This combination of higher compute throughput, faster memory, and modern architecture is the primary driver of its 70-75% lead in modern benchmarks.

Q: Is the GTX 690 suitable for modern gaming?

A: No. The GTX 690 only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175, while the PRO W7500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The lack of RT cores in the GTX 690 also means it cannot handle ray-traced workloads, which are increasingly common in modern titles.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The GTX 690 has a TDP of 300 W and requires two 8-pin power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 700 W. The PRO W7500 has a TDP of only 70 W, requires no power connectors, and suggests a 250 W PSU.

Q: How do their memory configurations compare?

A: The GTX 690 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 192.3 GB/s bandwidth. The PRO W7500 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The PRO W7500 has four times the capacity and 33% more bandwidth.

Q: Which card is more physically compact?

A: The PRO W7500 is a single-slot card measuring 216 mm in length, 115 mm in height, and 20 mm in width. The GTX 690 is a dual-slot card measuring 279 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 38 mm in width, making it significantly larger and requiring more case space.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by more than a decade of silicon evolution. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 uses the GK104 chip, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This chip contains 3,540 million transistors on a die size of 294 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 12.0M / mm². Its Kepler architecture features 1,536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It has no dedicated ray tracing cores. The card operates with base and boost clocks of 915 MHz and 1019 MHz, respectively, and its 2 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 6 Gbps effective.

In contrast, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is built on the Navi 33 chip using a 6 nm process, also at TSMC. This chip packs 13,300 million transistors into a smaller 204 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 65.2M / mm²—over five times higher than the GTX 690. Its RDNA 3.0 architecture (codenamed Hotpink Bonefish) includes 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 28 ray tracing cores. The base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1700 MHz, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 16 Gbps effective. The PRO W7500 has double the FP32 performance per clock, a far higher pixel rate (108.8 GPixel/s vs 32.61 GPixel/s), and a texture rate of 190.4 GTexel/s versus the GTX 690's 130.4 GTexel/s.

The platform interface also differs significantly. The GTX 690 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and provides 3x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. The PRO W7500 uses PCIe 4.0 x8 and offers 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, supporting modern high-resolution displays. The GTX 690’s 300 W TDP and dual-slot design with 2x 8-pin connectors are a stark contrast to the PRO W7500’s 70 W TDP, single-slot profile, and lack of power connectors. The PRO W7500 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the GTX 690 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. These architectural differences explain the benchmark results and make the PRO W7500 the only viable option for modern software and workloads.