AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 vs NVIDIA Quadro P2200 Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 and NVIDIA Quadro P2200 are both end-of-life, single-slot professional workstation graphics cards with a 75 W power target, but the benchmark data shows a remarkably one-sided rivalry. Across the nine head-to-head tests recorded, the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 wins every single matchup, with the AMD card trailing by margins ranging from 11.8% to 48.6%. Despite this dominance in direct comparison, both cards occupy the same 44th percentile against all GPUs in the database, and their average benchmark scores are separated by only 177 points (8863 for the AMD, 8686 for the NVIDIA). This contradiction between the head-to-head results and the aggregate scores suggests the AMD card's wins come from tests not included in the direct comparison set.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single victory for the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 comes in Passmark's GPU compute test, where it scores 3921 against the AMD's 2053 — a 47.6% advantage. This is closely followed by the DirectX 9 test, where the NVIDIA card's 167 score dwarfs the AMD's 88, a 47.3% gap. The DirectX 11 result tells a similar story: 70 versus 36, putting the NVIDIA card 48.6% ahead. These three tests — compute, DirectX 9, and DirectX 11 — represent the clearest functional separation between the two cards, with the NVIDIA leading by nearly half in each.

The gap narrows somewhat in more modern API tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA scores 32344 against the AMD's 24217, a 25.1% lead. The Vulkan test shows a 14.2% advantage for NVIDIA (31351 versus 26909), and DirectX 12 sees a 21.2% margin (33 versus 26). The smallest delta in the entire set is in the 2D graphics test, where the NVIDIA's 881 beats the AMD's 777 by just 11.8%. The DirectX 10 result falls in between at 35.6% (45 versus 29). The Passmark G3D score, often treated as a general-purpose gaming proxy, heavily favors the NVIDIA card: 9364 versus 5496, a 41.3% gap.

What is striking is not just that the NVIDIA card wins all nine tests, but that the margins are consistently large. The smallest deficit the AMD card faces is nearly 12%, and in six of the nine tests the gap exceeds 20%. The data shows no test category where the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 comes within striking distance of the Quadro P2200. That said, the average benchmark scores tell a different aggregate story: the AMD's 8863 average actually edges out the NVIDIA's 8686, implying the AMD card has strengths in benchmark workloads not listed in the head-to-head table — possibly workloads where its higher shader count and memory capacity come into play.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different foundries and process nodes. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 uses the Ellesmere chip built on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, packing 5,700 million transistors into a 232 mm² die for a transistor density of 24.6 million per mm². The NVIDIA Quadro P2200 uses the GP106 chip on TSMC's 16 nm process, with 4,400 million transistors on a 200 mm² die — a density of 22.0 million per mm². The AMD chip is therefore both physically larger and denser, with 1,300 million more transistors.

The compute architectures diverge sharply. AMD's GCN 4.0 design relies on a wider array of execution units: 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA Pascal architecture uses fewer, faster units: 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 40 ROPs. This explains the pixel rate discrepancy — the NVIDIA card's 59.72 GPixel/s nearly doubles the AMD's 34.75 GPixel/s — while texture rates are much closer (119.4 GTexel/s for NVIDIA versus 121.6 GTexel/s for AMD). Raw FP32 compute is nearly identical: 3.892 TFLOPS for the AMD and 3.822 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA, a 1.8% difference in AMD's favor.

Clock speeds tell the efficiency story. The AMD card runs at a 713 MHz base and 1086 MHz boost, while the NVIDIA card starts at 1000 MHz and boosts to 1493 MHz. The NVIDIA card achieves comparable FP32 throughput with 512 fewer shading units by running substantially higher clocks. Memory configurations also differ meaningfully. The AMD card has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 5 Gbps effective. The NVIDIA card has 5 GB of GDDR5X on a 160-bit bus, but its 10 Gbps effective speed produces 200.2 GB/s — 25% more bandwidth despite a narrower interface and less capacity.

The FP16 situation is a major architectural divergence. The AMD card offers FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (3.892 TFLOPS), meaning full-rate half-precision compute. The NVIDIA card's FP16 throughput is a mere 59.72 GFLOPS, a 1:64 ratio, making it effectively negligible. For any workload relying on half-precision math, the AMD card is the only viable option between these two. API support also differs: the AMD supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3, while the NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6. Neither card has dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous in the head-to-head tests: the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 is the faster card in every measured category, often by substantial margins. Its greatest strengths lie in compute workloads (47.6% ahead in GPU compute), legacy DirectX APIs (47.3% ahead in DirectX 9, 48.6% in DirectX 11), and overall 3D performance (41.3% ahead in G3D). The NVIDIA card also delivers higher memory bandwidth (200.2 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s), a higher pixel rate (59.72 GPixel/s versus 34.75 GPixel/s), and a more recent API profile with DirectX 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4 support. For any user whose workload falls into these categories, the Quadro P2200 is the clear choice.

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100, however, offers two structural advantages that the head-to-head tests do not capture. First, it has 8 GB of memory versus the NVIDIA's 5 GB — a 60% capacity advantage that matters for large datasets, high-resolution textures, or multi-application workflows. Second, it provides full-rate FP16 compute (3.892 TFLOPS at 1:1), while the NVIDIA card's FP16 is essentially a rounding error at 59.72 GFLOPS. For workloads that leverage half-precision arithmetic, the AMD card is categorically superior. The AMD card also has a slightly higher FP32 peak (3.892 TFLOPS versus 3.822 TFLOPS) and a higher texture rate (121.6 GTexel/s versus 119.4 GTexel/s), though these margins are small enough to be within run-to-run variance.

The aggregate benchmark picture complicates the simple narrative. Despite losing all nine head-to-head tests, the AMD card posts a higher average benchmark score (8863 versus 8686) and sits in the same 44th percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rival by average score is the AMD Radeon 550X at 8918 (-0.6%), while the NVIDIA's nearest rival is the GeForce GTX 460 v2 at 8743 (-0.7%). The data suggests that in workloads outside the head-to-head set — possibly memory-capacity-bound or FP16-heavy tasks — the AMD card performs competitively enough to offset its deficits elsewhere. Users should match the card to the specific benchmark profile of their application.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 has 8 GB of GDDR5, while the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 has 5 GB of GDDR5X. The AMD card offers 60% more memory capacity.

Q: Does either card support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. Neither the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 nor the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 lists any ray tracing cores or tensor cores in their specifications.

Q: Which card has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P2200 has higher memory bandwidth at 200.2 GB/s, compared to 160.0 GB/s for the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100, despite the AMD card having a wider 256-bit bus versus the NVIDIA's 160-bit bus.

Q: What is the FP16 compute capability of each card?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 offers FP16 at 3.892 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio with FP32), while the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 offers only 59.72 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio). The AMD card is dramatically better for half-precision workloads.

Q: Which card has a higher Passmark G3D score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro P2200 scores 9364 in Passmark G3D, which is 41.3% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100's 5496.

Q: Do both cards use the same power connector?

A: Yes, both cards have no external power connectors and are rated at 75 W TDP with a suggested power supply of 250 W. Both are single-slot cards.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Quadro P2200 wins in every head-to-head benchmark category, but the magnitude of its wins varies. The largest advantages come in compute and legacy API workloads: 47.6% in GPU compute, 48.6% in DirectX 11, and 47.3% in DirectX 9. The NVIDIA card also dominates modern API tests with 25.1% in OpenCL and 21.2% in DirectX 12, plus a 14.2% edge in Vulkan. Its 41.3% lead in Passmark G3D indicates a substantial advantage in general 3D rendering tasks. The NVIDIA card's higher pixel rate (59.72 GPixel/s versus 34.75 GPixel/s) and higher memory bandwidth (200.2 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s) support these wins.

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 wins in areas not covered by the direct comparison. Its 8 GB memory capacity is 60% larger than the NVIDIA's 5 GB, making it the better choice for memory-bound workloads such as large model rendering, multi-layer compositing, or datasets that exceed 5 GB. Its FP16 throughput is 3.892 TFLOPS at 1:1, versus the NVIDIA's 59.72 GFLOPS at 1:64 — a difference of over 65x that makes the AMD card the only sensible option for half-precision compute. The AMD card also has a marginally higher FP32 peak (3.892 versus 3.822 TFLOPS), a higher texture rate (121.6 versus 119.4 GTexel/s), and a higher average benchmark score (8863 versus 8686). Its transistor count of 5,700 million versus 4,400 million suggests more computational resources available for parallel workloads.

Specification Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 and NVIDIA Quadro P2200 differ in the following specification fields:

• Chip: AMD uses Ellesmere; NVIDIA uses GP106
• Architecture: AMD uses GCN 4.0; NVIDIA uses Pascal
• Generation: AMD is from Radeon Pro Polaris (WX x100); NVIDIA is from Quadro Pascal (Px200)
• Process node: AMD uses 14 nm (GlobalFoundries); NVIDIA uses 16 nm (TSMC)
• Transistors: AMD has 5,700 million; NVIDIA has 4,400 million
• Die size: AMD is 232 mm²; NVIDIA is 200 mm²
• Transistor density: AMD is 24.6M / mm²; NVIDIA is 22.0M / mm²
• Base clock: AMD is 713 MHz; NVIDIA is 1000 MHz
• Boost clock: AMD is 1086 MHz; NVIDIA is 1493 MHz
• Memory speed: AMD is 5 Gbps effective; NVIDIA is 10 Gbps effective
• Memory size: AMD is 8 GB; NVIDIA is 5 GB
• Memory type: AMD is GDDR5; NVIDIA is GDDR5X
• Memory bus: AMD is 256 bit; NVIDIA is 160 bit
• Memory bandwidth: AMD is 160.0 GB/s; NVIDIA is 200.2 GB/s
• Shading units: AMD has 1792; NVIDIA has 1280
• TMUs: AMD has 112; NVIDIA has 80
• ROPs: AMD has 32; NVIDIA has 40
• Pixel rate: AMD is 34.75 GPixel/s; NVIDIA is 59.72 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: AMD is 121.6 GTexel/s; NVIDIA is 119.4 GTexel/s
• FP32: AMD is 3.892 TFLOPS; NVIDIA is 3.822 TFLOPS
• FP16: AMD is 3.892 TFLOPS (1:1); NVIDIA is 59.72 GFLOPS (1:64)
• DirectX support: AMD is 12 (12_0); NVIDIA is 12 (12_1)
• Vulkan support: AMD is 1.3; NVIDIA is 1.4
• Length: AMD is 173 mm (6.8 inches); NVIDIA is 201 mm (7.9 inches)
• Release date: AMD is November 17, 2016; NVIDIA is June 9, 2019
• Predecessor: AMD is Radeon Pro GCN; NVIDIA is Quadro Maxwell
• Successor: AMD is Radeon Pro Vega; NVIDIA is Quadro Volta
• Launch MSRP: AMD is 499 USD; NVIDIA has no listed launch MSRP