GPU Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro GP100 and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 represent two very different eras of professional GPU design. The GP100 is a 2016 flagship built on a massive 610 mm² die with 16 GB of HBM2, while the W6600 is a 2021 mid-range card using a compact 237 mm² chip with 8 GB of GDDR6. Despite the generational gap, benchmark data shows they are surprisingly close in raw compute, with the GP100 edging ahead in the single shared test. The following analysis breaks down their performance, specifications, and architectural differences based solely on the provided data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro GP100 has a higher average benchmark score of 87,445 compared to the AMD Radeon PRO W6600's 81,995. This places the GP100 in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the W6600 sits in the 92nd percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The GP100 scores 87,445 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 19% higher than the W6600's 73,514. The GP100 is the clear winner in this specific test, which is the only benchmark shared between the two cards.

Q: What are the closest rivals to the Quadro GP100 based on average score?

A: The GP100's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon PRO W7600, which scores 87,108 and is just 0.4% behind. Other close competitors include the NVIDIA CMP 40HX (85,637, 2.1% behind) and the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile (91,134, 4% ahead).

Q: What are the closest rivals to the Radeon PRO W6600 based on average score?

A: The W6600's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X, which scores 80,959 and is 1.3% behind. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (79,842, 2.7% behind) and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 3% behind) are also nearby in performance.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two cards?

A: The Quadro GP100 features 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 732.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon PRO W6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock speed?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a significantly higher boost clock of 2580 MHz, while the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 boosts to only 1443 MHz. The W6600 also has a higher base clock at 2331 MHz versus 1304 MHz.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split between compute throughput and modern features. For raw OpenCL performance, the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 is the stronger card, delivering a 19% higher score than the W6600. Its 10.34 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 20.69 TFLOPS of FP16 performance outpace the W6600's 9.247 TFLOPS and 18.49 TFLOPS respectively. The GP100 also offers double the memory capacity (16 GB vs 8 GB) and over three times the memory bandwidth (732.2 GB/s vs 224.0 GB/s), making it the obvious choice for large datasets or memory-intensive workloads.

However, the Radeon PRO W6600 counters with a more modern feature set and efficiency. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the GP100 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The W6600 also includes 28 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Pascal-based GP100. Its 7 nm process node and 100 W TDP make it far more power-efficient than the 16 nm, 235 W GP100. The W6600 also supports PCIe 4.0 x8, doubling the bandwidth of the GP100's PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.

Professionals working with ray-traced rendering or the latest graphics APIs should choose the Radeon PRO W6600. Those prioritizing raw compute performance, massive memory bandwidth, or working with FP16 workloads will find the Quadro GP100 more capable. The W6600's single-slot design and lower power requirements also make it easier to integrate into dense workstation builds, whereas the GP100 requires a dual-slot footprint and a 550 W power supply recommendation.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is Geekbench OpenCL, where the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 decisively wins with a score of 87,445 against the AMD Radeon PRO W6600's 73,514. This represents a 19% advantage for the GP100, a substantial margin that reflects its larger GPU core configuration.

The GP100's victory in OpenCL is driven by its hardware specifications. With 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines, it has exactly double the shading units and TMUs of the W6600, which has 1,792 shading units and 112 TMUs. The GP100's 732.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is more than three times the W6600's 224.0 GB/s, eliminating any memory bottleneck in compute-heavy tasks.

However, the W6600 shows strength in other areas measured by the data. Its pixel rate of 165.1 GPixel/s exceeds the GP100's 138.5 GPixel/s, suggesting better performance in fill-rate-bound scenarios. The W6600 also achieves this with a texture rate of 289.0 GTexel/s, which is 89.5% of the GP100's 323.2 GTexel/s despite having half the TMU count. This efficiency is a direct result of the W6600's much higher clock speeds.

In terms of rival positioning, the GP100's 87,445 average score puts it within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 (87,108), showing it remains competitive with newer mid-range cards. The W6600's 81,995 average score places it 2.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (79,842), an unexpected result given the RTX 5090's modern architecture. The W6600 also edges out the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 3%, a card with similar HBM2 memory characteristics to the GP100.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ dramatically in memory configuration. The NVIDIA Quadro GP100 uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus with 732.2 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W6600 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. This gives the GP100 a 3.3x bandwidth advantage and double the capacity.

Clock speeds also diverge sharply. The W6600 runs at a 2331 MHz base and 2580 MHz boost, while the GP100 operates at 1304 MHz base and 1443 MHz boost. The W6600's clocks are roughly 79% higher, which partially compensates for its smaller core.

Power and physical specifications favor the W6600. It has a 100 W TDP with a single 6-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested PSU, whereas the GP100 draws 235 W, needs a single 8-pin connector, and recommends a 550 W PSU. The W6600 is single-slot and 241 mm long, while the GP100 is dual-slot and 267 mm long.

The bus interface differs as well: the GP100 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the W6600 uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Despite the x8 lane count, PCIe 4.0 offers the same theoretical bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 x16, making them comparable in this regard. Display outputs also vary, with the GP100 offering 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the W6600 provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a without DVI.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Quadro GP100 is built on the Pascal architecture using a 16 nm process at TSMC. It packs 15,300 million transistors into a 610 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.1 million per mm². The W6600 uses AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm process, also from TSMC, with 11,060 million transistors on a much smaller 237 mm² die. This results in a significantly higher transistor density of 46.7 million per mm², nearly double that of the GP100.

The GP100 features 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. It has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The W6600 has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, but it includes 28 ray tracing cores. This makes the W6600 capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature the Pascal architecture lacks entirely.

Memory technology represents a fundamental architectural split. The GP100 uses HBM2 with a 4096-bit interface, a design choice that delivers massive bandwidth but increases complexity. The W6600 uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, which is simpler and cheaper but offers far less bandwidth. The GP100's memory runs at 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective), while the W6600's memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

API support also differs by generation. The GP100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The W6600 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support in the W6600 enables features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading, which are unavailable on the GP100.

Compute capabilities show the GP100's advantage. It delivers 10.34 TFLOPS FP32 and 20.69 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio), while the W6600 delivers 9.247 TFLOPS FP32 and 18.49 TFLOPS FP16 (also 2:1). The GP100's pixel rate is 138.5 GPixel/s versus 165.1 GPixel/s for the W6600, and its texture rate is 323.2 GTexel/s versus 289.0 GTexel/s. The GP100 was released on September 30, 2016, while the W6600 launched on June 7, 2021. The GP100's predecessor was Quadro Maxwell and its successor was Quadro Volta; the W6600's predecessor was Radeon Pro Vega with no successor listed.