AMD FirePro W2100 and FirePro W4100 Review

Our test system

• ASRock B85M Pro 4
• Intel Core i5-4430 (Haswell, 4 Kernel, 3.0-3.2 GHz)
• 4x 4 GB Crucial Ballistix Sport PC3-12800 1600 MHz CL9
• Intel SSD 320
• 1 TB Seagate Momentus HDD 2,5", 5400 RPM
• ViewSonic VP2780-4k

• AMD FirePro W2100 2 GB DDR3, about 140 Euros (~$152)
• AMD FirePro W4100 2 GB GDDR5, about 180 Euros (~$196)

We will only discuss the pros and cons of desktop PCs versus notebooks in passing. How these are weighted and evaluated depend heavily on your personal requirements, demands, and tasks. In our scenario we deliberately omit the mobility of a notebook and use the easy upgradeability of an existing desktop system for creating an entry level workstation without too much effort and costs.

The two graphics cards, AMD FirePro W2100 and W4100, are entry-level models for professional use. Their special features include modified BIOS, special drivers, expandable support and a significant price difference to similar consumer graphics cards. The (street) price difference is about 80 to 100 Euros (~$87 to ~$109). In terms of hardware and depending on the configuration, the AMD FirePro W2100 is comparable with an AMD Radeon R7 240 with 2 GB DDR3. The W4100 is roughly equivalent to a Radeon R7 250 with 2 GB GDDR5. While the FirePro graphics card includes a 3-years warranty by default, many consumer models come with only 2 years of warranty.

The performance tests of the graphics card can be classified in OpenGL, DirectX and OpenCL tests. Depending on the used software, the performance can be significantly different in the various fields. This is another reason why you should be well informed before buying.

OpenGL is a 3D programming interface, which can be considered a competing model to Microsoft's DirectX. It is platform independent and renders complex 3D scenes in real time. Both graphics cards in our test support OpenGL 4.4. In order to evaluate the OpenGL capabilities, we use the SPECviewperf. benchmarks, which mainly take special OpenGL optimizations from the CAD range into account. Moreover, we used Unigine Heaven 3.0 and Cinebench R15 in order to assess the general OpenGL performance.

Based on our test results, both graphic chips provide a solid (basic) performance for professional software. Depending on the program, there are more or less reserves. However, as soon as you have to work on assembly projects or constructions with especially high resolutions, many details or uncountable components, more powerful components will be required. Nevertheless, the performance is sufficient for replacing an AMD FirePro M5100 or Nvidia Quadro K2100M.

Mainly we test the DirectX capabilities with various 3DMark tests. In addition, comparisons to the OpendGL performance are possible with Unigine Heaven 3.0. In order to evaluate the gaming performance in practice, we have run several games from our large gaming benchmark list. The performance is about on par with similarly equipped, mobile consumer chips. We have added Nvidia's GeForce 940M and AMD's Radeon R9 M265X in this comparison.

OpenCL is an open standard for running computational tasks on a graphics processor. Both graphics cards support OpenCL 2.0. Apart from conversion tasks, OpenCL is used, for example, in GPU accelerated filters in image and video editing. In order to evaluate the OpenCL capabilities, we have used Luxmark 2.0 and various GPGPU tools from SiSoft Sandra 16. We will add the test results in cryptography, finance analysis, and image editing later, since we do not have templates for these in our benchmark database yet.

Basically, the AMD FirePro chips bring notable advantages compared to the mobile Nvidia Quadro K1100M and Quadro K2100M throughout all OpenCL tests. The performance difference can be several 100% in the Raytracing test of Luxmark 2.0. As first tests have shown, the new Maxwell Quadros will no longer have this Nvidia typical weakness. Already Nvidia's Quadro K620 (Maxwell) performs significantly better, but it is currently only available in Lenovo's ThinkPad W550s.