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AMD FirePro M5950

The AMD FirePro M5950 is an upper middle-class mobile workstation graphics card with DirectX 11 support. It is based on the Whistler architecture found in the Radeon HD 6600M/6700M series. The clock rates and GDDR5 memory are identical to that of the Radeon HD 6770M.

Compared to the Radeon consumer line, the FirePro offers certified drivers for professional 3D applications. Due to optimizations and some unlocked features, the performance when using professional applications is more efficient with the FirePro M5950.

The integrated 480 Stream processors of the FirePro M5950 are based on the "old" 5D architecture similar to that of the Radeon 5000 series. Due to the different architecture, the core count is not directly comparable to the 1D cores found in current Nvidia GPUs. General tessellation performance of the M5950 should be similar to the desktop 6800 series.

The Stream processors can be used with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL. The latter two frameworks allow the M5950 to process general computations.

The theoretical performance is similar to its consumer counterpart, the Radeon HD 6770M. However, due to the professional drivers, games may generally run a bit slower.  The 6770M is able to run modern games in medium-high settings and resolutions fluently (see benchmarks on the HD 6770M page or below).

The professional performance in SPECviewperf 11 positions the M5950 between the Quadro 1000M (10% slower) and the Nvidia Quadro 2000M (about 20% faster).

The UVD3 video decoder supports the decoding of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos on the graphics card.

Furthermore, the FirePro M5950 integrates a HD audio controller to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g. für Blu-Ray videos).

The AMD HD3D Technology offers support for Blu-Ray 3D and 3D displays, both integrated and external. The solution, however, is not as mature as Nvidia's 3D Vision with regards to drivers and general software support.

Thanks to Eyefinity, the M5950 graphics chip is able to theoretically drive up to 5 monitors simultaneously. Note that this will only work if the laptop features enough DisplayPort outputs to begin with.

The power consumption of the M5950 chip should be similar to the Radeon HD 6770M (~30 Watts). As a result, the graphics card can usually be found in 15" or larger laptops with adequate cooling solutions.

FirePro M Series

FirePro M6100 compare 768 @ 1.1 GHz128 Bit @ 6000 MHz
FirePro M8900 compare 960 @ 0.68 GHz256 Bit @ 900 MHz
FirePro M6000 compare 640 @ 0.75 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
FirePro M5100 compare 640 @ 0.73 - 0.78 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
FirePro M4000 compare 512 @ 0.6 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
FirePro M4100 compare 384 @ 0.67 GHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
FirePro M5950 480 @ 0.73 GHz128 Bit @ 900 MHz
FirePro M2000 compare 480 @ 0.5 GHz64 Bit @ 3200 MHz
CodenameWhistler-XT
ArchitectureTerascale 2
Pipelines480 - unified
Core Speed725 MHz
Memory Speed900 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory1024 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.1
Transistor Count715 Million
technology40 nm
FeaturesOpenCL 1.1, Type A MXM
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement13.04.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.amd.com

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Score Unknown Settings +
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
specvp11 sw-02 +
specvp11 proe-05 +
specvp11 maya-03 +
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
specvp11 ensight-04 +
specvp11 catia-03 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Anno 2070

Anno 2070

2011
med. 1366x768
45.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
29.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
15  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
med. 1366x768
43.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
30.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
16  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
med. 1366x768
29.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
23.1  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Fifa 12

Fifa 12

2011
med. 1024x768
167  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
104.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
64.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
F1 2011

F1 2011

2011
med. 1024x768
65  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
55  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
20  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
high 1366x768
48.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
med. 1024x768
82.4  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
56.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
18.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis 2

Crysis 2

2011
med. 1024x768
64.9  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
48.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
16  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
med. 1024x768
75.7  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
63.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
43.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
med. 1024x768
55.3  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
46.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
28.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
med. 1360x768
67.4  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
47.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
29.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
med. 1360x768
45.7  fps    + Compare
high 1600x900
24.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
8.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
World in Conflict - Benchmark

World in Conflict - Benchmark

2007
med. 1024x768
96  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
lowmed.highultraQHD4K
Anno 207045.129.215
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim43.530.916
Battlefield 329.523.1
Fifa 12167104.264.3
F1 2011655520
Deus Ex Human Revolution48.421.6
Dirt 382.456.118.2
Crysis 264.948.316
Call of Duty: Black Ops75.763.243.8
Mafia 255.346.828.9
StarCraft 267.447.229.7
Metro 203345.724.28.7
World in Conflict - Benchmark96
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps



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