AMD Radeon Pro WX 4170 Mobile

Benchmark Performance

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 4170 Mobile occupies the exact median of the GPU performance distribution, sitting at the 50th percentile among all GPUs cataloged in this database. This is a telling position: it is neither a performance outlier nor a laggard, but rather a squarely mid-pack mobile workstation part. The benchmark data shows no synthetic average score for this unit, which means its positioning must be inferred from its architectural specifications and percentile ranking rather than from direct competitive testing.

With a peak FP32 throughput of 2.460 TFLOPS, this GPU delivers compute performance that is modest by modern standards but was entirely reasonable for its 2017 release window. The FP16 rate matches FP32 at a 1:1 ratio, indicating no specialized half-precision acceleration — a design choice consistent with its GCN 4.0 architecture, which prioritized general-purpose compute over machine learning workloads. The pixel fill rate of 19.22 GPixel/s and texture rate of 76.86 GTexel/s are directly derived from its 16 ROPs and 64 TMUs operating at a 1201 MHz boost clock. These figures suggest that the card is balanced toward texture-heavy workloads rather than resolution-pushing rasterization.

The absence of nearestRivals data in the benchmark results means there are no direct deltaPct comparisons available for this entry. However, the 50th percentile ranking provides context: half of all GPUs in the database outperform it, and half underperform it. This places the WX 4170 Mobile in the same performance tier as mainstream desktop GPUs from its era, though its 50W TDP and MXM form factor indicate it was engineered for thermal efficiency within mobile chassis constraints. The 14nm GlobalFoundries process node, housing 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, yields a transistor density of 24.4M per mm² — a figure that reflects the mid-2010s manufacturing maturity rather than cutting-edge density.

How It Compares

Since the nearestRivals array is empty for this GPU, direct head-to-head comparisons cannot be made from the provided data. What the facts do allow is a positional analysis relative to the broader GPU landscape. The 50th percentile ranking means the WX 4170 Mobile slots between entry-level integrated graphics and high-end discrete workstation GPUs. Its 4 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus place it firmly in the "professional entry" segment, where its primary competition would logically come from other mobile workstation parts with similar power envelopes. The predecessor, FirePro Mobile, indicates lineage but no performance data is provided for direct comparison. Without rival scores or deltaPct values, the analysis must rely on the architectural facts: the Baffin chip, GCN 4.0 architecture, and the 1:1 FP16/FP32 ratio are all consistent with a GPU designed for CAD, engineering simulation, and professional visualization at moderate resolutions and settings.

Benchmark results from the database indicate this GPU's performance is sufficient for 1080p-class workloads in professional applications, but the lack of a benchmark score suggests it was not widely tested or that the testing data was not retained. The 50th percentile ranking is the single most informative metric here — it tells a builder that this GPU will handle mainstream tasks without complaint but will not excel in compute-heavy ray tracing or AI workloads. It is a bread-and-butter mobile workstation part, not a halo product.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The WX 4170 Mobile has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores — the rtCores and tensorCores fields are both null. This is a critical specification for any modern workload assessment. The GCN 4.0 architecture predates AMD's ray tracing hardware, so any ray-traced content would rely on compute shaders, which would be seriously handicapped given the 2.460 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. This GPU is not suitable for hardware-accelerated ray tracing in any capacity; the architecture simply has no dedicated pathways for BVH traversal or ray intersection testing.

The API support is more forward-looking. DirectX 12 (12_0) support ensures compatibility with modern Windows-based professional applications, while OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.3 provide broad cross-platform coverage. The Vulkan 1.3 support is particularly notable — it is a recent API revision that enables modern rendering techniques, though the underlying hardware will still constrain performance. For professional software suites that leverage OpenGL for CAD visualization, the 4.6 compliance is adequate. The feature set is fundamentally compute-oriented: 1024 shading units and 64 TMUs provide solid throughput for general-purpose shader work, but the absence of specialized AI or RT hardware means this GPU is best suited for traditional rasterization workloads in professional DCC (digital content creation) applications.

Who Should Consider It

The WX 4170 Mobile is appropriate for users whose professional workloads are bound by power constraints and chassis size rather than absolute performance. The 50W TDP makes it suitable for thin-and-light mobile workstations where thermal headroom is at a premium. For CAD software, 1080p resolution, and moderate model complexity, the 2.460 TFLOPS compute throughput and 76.86 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient. Users running SolidWorks, AutoCAD, or similar applications at 1080p with medium-quality settings will find the performance adequate, provided they are not working with massively complex assemblies or high-polygon scenes.

The 4 GB VRAM is the primary limitation. At 1440p or higher resolutions, memory capacity becomes a bottleneck for texture-heavy professional workloads. Users should target 1080p for best results. The GPU is not suited for GPU-accelerated rendering with ray tracing, and it is equally unsuited for machine learning tasks given the absence of tensor cores and the 1:1 FP16 rate, which offers no half-precision advantage. For video encoding, the lack of dedicated encoder hardware (not listed in the fact pack) means reliance on CPU or basic GPU encoding paths. The 50th percentile ranking confirms this is a mid-tier part: expect it to handle mainstream professional tasks competently, but do not expect flagship-level performance in any single dimension.

FAQ

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro WX 4170 Mobile support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The GPU has no ray tracing cores (rtCores is null). Any ray-traced content would have to be processed via compute shaders, which would be severely limited by the 2.460 TFLOPS FP32 throughput.

Q: What is the memory configuration of this GPU?

A: It has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The memory operates at 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective).

Q: Which API versions does the WX 4170 Mobile support?

A: It supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: Is this GPU suitable for machine learning workloads?

A: No. It has no tensor cores, and its FP16 performance is identical to FP32 at 2.460 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), providing no half-precision acceleration for AI inference or training.

Q: What is the power consumption of this mobile GPU?

A: The TDP is 50W, and it uses an MXM Module slot width with no external power connectors required.

Q: What is the production status of the WX 4170 Mobile?

A: The production status is end-of-life, with a release date of February 28, 2017. It is the successor to the FirePro Mobile series.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem is a defining characteristic of this GPU. It pairs 4 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 128-bit bus, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s. The memory clock is 1500 MHz, which translates to 6 Gbps effective data rate. This configuration yields a bandwidth-per-bit ratio of 0.75 GB/s per bit, which is modest by modern standards but was typical for mid-range mobile GPUs in 2017.

The 4 GB capacity is the most immediate constraint for high-resolution work. Professional applications that load large textures, complex geometry, or multiple viewports will exhaust this memory quickly. At 1080p, 4 GB is sufficient for most CAD and DCC tasks, but at 1440p or 4K, the capacity becomes a hard limit. The 96.00 GB/s bandwidth compounds this issue: even if the capacity were sufficient, the bandwidth would throttle texture streaming during rapid scene navigation or large dataset manipulation. The 19.22 GPixel/s pixel rate and 76.86 GTexel/s texture rate are consistent with a 128-bit memory interface — they are sufficient for 1080p with reasonable settings but will not sustain high frame rates at higher resolutions.

For a mobile workstation GPU, the memory subsystem is balanced for 15W-50W thermal envelopes and 1080p-class displays. The 128-bit bus is a deliberate cost and power optimization, and the 4 GB capacity reflects the 2017 era's standard for professional entry-level parts. Users who require larger memory capacities or higher bandwidth for 4K texture-heavy workloads should look to higher-tier GPUs; the WX 4170 Mobile is engineered for mainstream professional tasks at standard resolutions. The PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface is sufficient for this memory configuration, though it does halve the bandwidth available for system memory transfers compared to a x16 link — a minor concern for workloads that stream data from host memory.