GPU Comparison

The GeForce GTX 1070 is the clear performance victor in this head-to-head comparison, decisively outclassing the Quadro 6000 in the only directly comparable benchmark, despite both cards holding an identical 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The data shows a generational leap that the Quadro’s professional pedigree cannot overcome in raw compute.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single available direct comparison, the Geekbench OpenCL test, is an unqualified win for the GeForce GTX 1070. The GTX 1070 scores 44,700 points, while the Quadro 6000 trails far behind at 9,846 points. This represents a delta of -78% for the Quadro, meaning the GTX 1070 delivers more than four times the OpenCL compute performance. This is not a marginal difference; it is a complete rout.

The significance of this result is amplified when placed in context with their respective nearest rivals. The Quadro 6000’s score of 9,846 places it in a tight cluster with the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9,832, a 0.1% difference) and the AMD FirePro W5000 (9,803, a 0.4% difference). It even trails the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (9,959) by 1.1%. This shows the Quadro 6000 is competitive with mobile and older workstation parts from its era.

Conversely, the GTX 1070’s score of 44,700 is not even close to its listed rivals. It leads the AMD FirePro W5000 (9,803) by a massive margin, the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9,832) by a similar amount, and even the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9,724) and Tesla C2070 (9,716) by over 350%. The benchmark results indicate the GTX 1070 is operating in a completely different performance tier, making the comparison with the Quadro 6000 almost academic in compute terms. The GTX 1070’s victory is absolute, with the data showing no benchmark where the Quadro 6000 manages to pull ahead.

Where Each One Wins

The performance split is stark and heavily favors the newer architecture. Based strictly on the benchmark data, the GeForce GTX 1070 wins in the only category where both were tested: compute performance via OpenCL. Its 44,700 score dwarfs the Quadro 6000’s 9,846, making it the clear choice for any workload that leverages general-purpose GPU compute, such as rendering, simulation, or data processing.

The Quadro 6000’s wins are not found in the benchmark scores but in its legacy feature set and interface. While it loses every performance contest, it offers a display output configuration that includes S-Video, a legacy connection absent from the GTX 1070’s modern output array of HDMI and DisplayPort. For users with very old display hardware, the Quadro 6000 provides a compatibility path, though this is a niche advantage in a performance comparison.

Furthermore, the Quadro 6000’s PCIe 2.0 x16 interface, while slower than the GTX 1070’s PCIe 3.0 x16, may be the only option for very old motherboards lacking PCIe 3.0 support. However, this is a platform compatibility feature, not a performance win. The benchmark results are unambiguous: the GTX 1070 wins every measurable performance metric, while the Quadro 6000 only retains advantages in legacy connectivity.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally dictates who should pick which card. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the superior product for virtually any user. Its OpenCL score of 44,700 is 354% higher than the Quadro 6000’s 9,846, a performance gulf that no amount of professional branding can bridge. Anyone seeking maximum compute performance, modern API support, or higher memory bandwidth should choose the GTX 1070.

The NVIDIA Quadro 6000 should only be considered by users with a specific, narrow requirement for its legacy features. This includes the S-Video output for connecting to older displays or the PCIe 2.0 interface for compatibility with a pre-2011 motherboard. If system compatibility with ancient hardware is the primary concern, the Quadro 6000 is the functional choice. For all other purposes, including any form of modern compute workload, the GTX 1070 is the definitive winner, and the choice is not close.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher OpenCL benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 scores 44,700 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to the NVIDIA Quadro 6000’s 9,846, making the GTX 1070 78% faster in this test.

Q: How does the Quadro 6000 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Quadro 6000’s score of 9,846 is nearly identical to its closest rivals, being 0.1% ahead of the Quadro M2000M and 0.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro W5000, but it is 1.1% behind the GeForce GTX 870M.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth?

A: The GeForce GTX 1070 has a memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s, which is significantly higher than the Quadro 6000’s 143.4 GB/s.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same version of DirectX?

A: No. The GeForce GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the Quadro 6000 only supports DirectX 12 (11_0).

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The GeForce GTX 1070 has 1,920 shading units, while the Quadro 6000 has only 448 shading units.

Q: What is the production status of these two GPUs?

A: Both the NVIDIA Quadro 6000 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 are listed as end-of-life products.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different eras of GPU design. The Quadro 6000 is built on the Fermi architecture using the GF100 chip, fabricated on a 40 nm process at TSMC. This older design houses 3,100 million transistors on a large 529 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of just 5.9M per mm². In contrast, the GeForce GTX 1070 uses the Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, built on a much more advanced 16 nm process. This allows NVIDIA to pack 7,200 million transistors onto a smaller 314 mm² die, achieving a density of 22.9M per mm².

The architectural leap is also evident in the compute core counts. The GTX 1070 features 1,920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The Quadro 6000 is equipped with only 448 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. This massive difference in core count directly explains the GTX 1070’s dominant compute performance. The GTX 1070 also features a boost clock of 1683 MHz and a base clock of 1506 MHz, which are significantly higher than the Quadro 6000’s memory clock of 747 MHz, although the Quadro’s core clocks are not listed in the data.

Further differentiating the architectures are the API support levels. The GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Quadro 6000 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan support listed. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The GTX 1070 also includes support for FP16 compute at a rate of 101.0 GFLOPS (1:64), a feature not listed for the Quadro 6000. The GTX 1070’s modern architecture also enables a higher pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s, compared to the Quadro 6000’s 16.07 GPixel/s and 32.14 GTexel/s.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal a comprehensive generational upgrade for the GeForce GTX 1070 across nearly every category. The most significant differences are in processing power and memory. The GTX 1070 delivers 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, a massive increase over the Quadro 6000’s 1,027.7 GFLOPS. The GTX 1070 also has a larger memory capacity of 8 GB GDDR5, compared to the Quadro 6000’s 6 GB, and a higher bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s versus 143.4 GB/s, despite using a narrower 256-bit bus compared to the Quadro’s 384-bit bus.

Power requirements favor the newer card. The GTX 1070 has a TDP of 150 W and requires a single 8-pin power connector and a 450 W power supply. The Quadro 6000, despite being much slower, has a higher TDP of 204 W, requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector, and needs a 550 W power supply. The GTX 1070 also uses a faster PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the Quadro 6000 is limited to PCIe 2.0 x16.

Display outputs also differ, with the GTX 1070 offering modern connectivity (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) versus the Quadro 6000’s older set (1x DVI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x S-Video). The GTX 1070 is also longer at 267 mm (10.5 inches) and wider at 40 mm (1.6 inches), compared to the Quadro 6000’s 248 mm (9.8 inches) length and 111 mm (4.4 inches) height. The GTX 1070 has a higher memory clock of 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) versus the Quadro’s 747 MHz (3 Gbps effective). The launch MSRP for the GTX 1070 was 379 USD, while the Quadro 6000 launched at 4,399 USD.