AMD FirePro M4100 vs AMD FirePro M5100 vs AMD FirePro M6000

AMD FirePro M4100

The AMD FirePro M4100 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.

Architecture

The FirePro M4100 integrates 6 Compute Units based on the GCN architecture. Overall, the Mars chip has 384 stream processors, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs. The memory of up to 2 GB GDDR5 is connected via an 128-bit interface. Just like the Radeon series, the FirePro M4100 offers features like Enduro or PCIe 3.0, but no Eyefinity.

Performance

According to the clock rates of up to 670 MHz for the chip and 1000 MHz for the memory (4000 MHz effective, 64 GB/s), the 3D gaming performance is slightly below the older FirePro M4000 or the Nvidia Quadro K1100M. Recent Games of 2013 can thus be played fluently in medium details and a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.

Power Consumption

The FirePro M4100 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 around 30 watts (estimate), making the card suitable for laptops 15 inches in size or greater.

AMD FirePro M5100

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.

AMD FirePro M6000

The AMD FirePro M6000 is an upper 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 / 7800M 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 M6000.

The integrated 640 Stream processors of the FirePro M6000 are based on the new GCN-architecture. 

The gaming performance is somewhere between the Radeon HD 7850M and 7870M. Therefore, the card is able to run modern games (2013) in medium or high details and HD resolution fluently.

The FirePro M6000 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 M6000 is best suited for notebooks 15 inches or greater.