The AMD FirePro M5100 is a middle-class graphics card for mobile workstations, which has been presented in mid-2013. Similar to the Nvidia Quadro series, the FirePro cards offer certified drivers for professional 3D-software like CAD. Due to optimizations and some unlocked features, the performance in these applications is much better compared to a consumer Radeon GPU. Except for the certified drivers, the M5100 is more or less identical to the Radeon HD 8870M.
Architecture
The FirePro M5100 integrates 10 Compute Units based on the GCN architecture. Overall, the chip has 640 stream processors, 40 TMUs and 16 ROPs. The memory of up to 2 GB GDDR5 is connected via an 128-bit interface. Just like the Radeon series, the FirePro M5100 offers features like Eyefinity, Enduro or PCIe 3.0. Presumably, AMD uses the Cape Verde graphics chip, but this has not yet been officially confirmed.
Performance
According to the clock rates of up to 775 MHz for the chip and 1125 MHz for the memory (4500 MHz effective, 72 GB/s), the 3D gaming performance will be slightly above the Nvidia Quadro K2100M or GeForce GT 750M with GDDR5 memory. Recent Games of 2014/2015 can thus be played fluently in medium to high details and a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.
Power Consumption
The FirePro M5100 features different energy saving techniques to reduce power consumption and prolong battery life. These include PowerPlay and PowerTune (for clocking the GPU), Zero Core (deactivates parts of the GPU when the display is off) and Enduro (dynamic GPU switching between the processor graphics and the dedicated Radeon GPU). The maximum power consumption under full load should be about 50 watts (estimate), making the card suitable for laptops 15 inches in size or greater.
The AMD FirePro M4000 is a middle-class mobile workstation graphics card with DirectX 11 support. It is based on the same Cape-Verde-chip found in the Radeon HD 7700M series.
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 M4000.
The integrated 512 Stream processors of the FirePro M4000 are based on the new GCN-architecture.
The gaming performance should be slightly faster than the Radeon HD 7750M. Overall, the card is able to run modern games (2012) in medium details and HD resolution fluently.
The FirePro M4000 also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the card can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.
Other features of the series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP range. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.
The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.
The power consumption of the M4000 should be best suited for notebooks 15 inches or greater.
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.
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
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.
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- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
