AMD Radeon PRO W7700 vs NVIDIA PG506-232 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA PG506-232 compare to the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 in OpenCL performance?

A: The NVIDIA PG506-232 delivers a Geekbench OpenCL score of 225,124, while the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 scores 108,245. This gives the NVIDIA card a 108% advantage in this specific workload, making it the clear winner in the only benchmark where both cards were tested head-to-head.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card, and where do they rank among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA PG506-232 has an average benchmark score of 225,124, placing it in the 99th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 has an average score of 118,976 (calculated from its OpenCL and Vulkan scores), placing it in the 95th percentile.

Q: Which card has more memory, and what type of memory does each use?

A: The NVIDIA PG506-232 has 24 GB of HBM2 memory with a 3072-bit bus and 933.1 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 576.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card offers both higher capacity and significantly greater bandwidth.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card according to the database?

A: For the NVIDIA PG506-232, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon PRO W7900D (2.4% behind), NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80 GB (8.7% behind), NVIDIA L20 (10.4% ahead), and NVIDIA RTX 6000D (14.9% behind). For the AMD Radeon PRO W7700, the closest rivals are the NVIDIA GB10 (1.3% ahead), NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation (1.6% ahead), NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB (4% ahead), and NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile (4.4% ahead).

Q: Which card supports display outputs, and which does not?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 features 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, making it suitable for direct display connectivity. The NVIDIA PG506-232 has no display outputs at all, indicating it is designed strictly for compute or server environments without direct monitor attachment.

Q: What is the release date and production status for each card?

A: The NVIDIA PG506-232 was released on April 11, 2021, and is marked as end-of-life. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 was released on November 12, 2023, and has no production status listed, implying it remains an active product.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA PG506-232 and AMD Radeon PRO W7700 represent fundamentally different architectural approaches. The NVIDIA card is built on the GA100 chip using the Ampere architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. This is a server-class design with a massive 54,200 million transistors spread across an 826 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 65.6 million per mm². The die size and transistor count reflect a compute-first orientation, prioritizing throughput and memory bandwidth over traditional graphics features.

In contrast, the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 uses the Navi 32 chip based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a more advanced 5 nm process at TSMC. The chip contains 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, achieving a higher transistor density of 81.2 million per mm². While the NVIDIA chip is physically larger and has nearly double the transistor count, the AMD design packs transistors more tightly thanks to the newer manufacturing process.

The memory subsystems diverge sharply. The NVIDIA PG506-232 uses HBM2 memory with a 3072-bit interface, delivering 933.1 GB/s of bandwidth from 24 GB of capacity. The AMD card uses GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing 576.0 GB/s from 16 GB. This gives the NVIDIA card a 62% bandwidth advantage and 50% more capacity, which is critical for memory-bound compute workloads.

Compute capabilities also differ. The NVIDIA card features 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, along with 224 tensor cores specifically designed for AI and deep learning acceleration. The AMD card has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, but instead of tensor cores, it includes 48 ray tracing cores. This reflects the AMD card's dual focus on traditional graphics rendering and compute, whereas the NVIDIA card is purely compute-oriented.

Clock speeds favor the AMD card significantly. The Radeon PRO W7700 runs at a 1,900 MHz base clock and 2,600 MHz boost clock, compared to 930 MHz base and 1,440 MHz boost on the NVIDIA card. This clock advantage contributes to the AMD card's higher raw floating-point throughput in some metrics.

The NVIDIA PG506-232 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, with an 8-pin EPS power connector and a 450 W suggested PSU. The AMD card is also dual-slot but shorter at 241 mm, uses a single 8-pin connector, and also lists a 450 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card draws 165 W TDP while the AMD card draws 190 W TDP.

Neither card supports traditional display outputs on the NVIDIA side, while the AMD card provides 4x DisplayPort 2.1. The AMD card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the NVIDIA card lists no API support in the database.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA PG506-232 wins decisively in raw compute throughput as measured by Geekbench OpenCL. Its score of 225,124 is more than double the AMD card's 108,245 in the same test. This suggests the NVIDIA card is better suited for compute-heavy tasks such as scientific simulation, data processing, and machine learning inference where memory bandwidth and capacity are paramount. The 99th percentile ranking among all GPUs reinforces its position as a top-tier compute accelerator.

The NVIDIA card also holds advantages in memory capacity and bandwidth, making it the better choice for workloads with large datasets that must reside in GPU memory. The 24 GB HBM2 pool with 933.1 GB/s bandwidth outclasses the AMD card's 16 GB GDDR6 at 576.0 GB/s by a wide margin.

The AMD Radeon PRO W7700 wins in areas where the NVIDIA card cannot compete: display output and graphics API support. With 4x DisplayPort 2.1, the AMD card can drive multiple high-resolution displays directly, making it suitable for visualization, digital content creation, and professional graphics workflows. Its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 enables modern graphics applications that the NVIDIA card cannot run due to its lack of API support.

The AMD card also has a substantial clock speed advantage, with a 2,600 MHz boost clock versus 1,440 MHz on the NVIDIA card. This contributes to its higher pixel rate of 249.6 GPixel/s versus 138.2 GPixel/s on the NVIDIA card, as well as a texture rate of 499.2 GTexel/s versus 322.6 GTexel/s. These metrics indicate the AMD card is better optimized for rasterization and texture-heavy graphics workloads.

In terms of raw FP32 throughput, the AMD card delivers 31.95 TFLOPS versus 10.32 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card, a 3.1x advantage. The AMD card also offers FP16 performance of 63.90 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card provides 10.32 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio.

The Radeon PRO W7700 is also a more recent product, released in November 2023 versus April 2021 for the NVIDIA card, and remains in active production while the NVIDIA card is end-of-life.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category. The NVIDIA PG506-232 uses the GA100 chip on Ampere architecture with a 7 nm process, while the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 uses Navi 32 on RDNA 3.0 with a 5 nm process. Transistor counts are 54,200 million versus 28,100 million, and die sizes are 826 mm² versus 346 mm² respectively.

Clock speeds show the AMD card at 1,900 MHz base and 2,600 MHz boost, while the NVIDIA card operates at 930 MHz base and 1,440 MHz boost. Memory configurations differ substantially: the NVIDIA card has 24 GB HBM2 with 3072-bit bus and 933.1 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD card has 16 GB GDDR6 with 256-bit bus and 576.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Compute unit counts differ with the NVIDIA card featuring 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, compared to 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs on the AMD card. The NVIDIA card includes 224 tensor cores but no RT cores, while the AMD card includes 48 RT cores but no tensor cores.

Performance metrics favor each card differently. The NVIDIA card achieves 138.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 322.6 GTexel/s texture rate, with 10.32 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.32 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1). The AMD card delivers 249.6 GPixel/s and 499.2 GTexel/s, with 31.95 TFLOPS FP32 and 63.90 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1).

Power specifications show the NVIDIA card at 165 W TDP versus 190 W TDP for the AMD card, both requiring a 450 W suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card uses an 8-pin EPS connector while the AMD card uses a single 8-pin connector. Physical dimensions differ with the NVIDIA card at 267 mm length versus 241 mm for the AMD card, both dual-slot and 112/111 mm height respectively.

Display outputs are exclusive to the AMD card with 4x DisplayPort 2.1, while the NVIDIA card has none. API support exists only on the AMD card with DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA card is end-of-life with a release date of April 2021, while the AMD card was released in November 2023 with no production status change.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one head-to-head benchmark comparison between these two cards: Geekbench OpenCL. In this test, the NVIDIA PG506-232 scores 225,124 while the AMD Radeon PRO W7700 scores 108,245. The NVIDIA card wins with a delta of 108%, meaning it more than doubles the AMD card's score in this workload.

This 108% advantage is substantial and consistent with the NVIDIA card's positioning. The PG506-232 sits in the 99th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all high-end compute accelerators: the AMD Radeon PRO W7900D trails by only 2.4%, the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80 GB is 8.7% behind, and the NVIDIA RTX 6000D is 14.9% behind. Only the NVIDIA L20 surpasses it, by 10.4%.

The AMD Radeon PRO W7700, by contrast, scores 108,245 in OpenCL and 129,706 in Vulkan, giving it an average of 118,976. Its nearest rivals are much lower-tier cards: the NVIDIA GB10 is 1.3% ahead, the NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation is 1.6% ahead, the NVIDIA Tesla V100 SXM2 16 GB is 4% ahead, and the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile is 4.4% ahead. This places the AMD card in the 95th percentile, still strong but clearly below the NVIDIA PG506-232's performance class.

The benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy. The NVIDIA PG506-232's OpenCL score of 225,124 is not only double the AMD card's score, it is also competitive with or superior to several high-end NVIDIA accelerators. The AMD card's Vulkan score of 129,706 demonstrates its graphics capability, but in pure compute terms it does not approach the NVIDIA card's throughput.

Looking at the broader context, the NVIDIA PG506-232's average benchmark score of 225,124 places it far above the AMD card's 118,976 average, a difference of 89%. The NVIDIA card also achieves a higher percentile ranking (99th versus 95th), indicating it outperforms a larger fraction of the GPU landscape.

The only head-to-head result favors NVIDIA decisively, but this does not diminish the AMD card's strengths in graphics-oriented workloads. The AMD Radeon PRO W7700's Vulkan score of 129,706 shows respectable graphics performance, and its 2,600 MHz boost clock and 31.95 TFLOPS FP32 throughput indicate strong rasterization capabilities. The data suggests these cards target different use cases: the NVIDIA PG506-232 for compute density and memory-bound tasks, the AMD card for professional graphics with display output and modern API support.