So what’s a D300, D500 and D700 anyway? We have answers
Home > News > Apple, Hardware, Mac 3D, Mac CAD – Oct 24, 2013 5:07 pm
by
Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, NCARB, LEED APWe have more details on the new Mac Pro AMD Firepro D300, D500, and D700, including their architecture class, related AMD Firepro GPUs and characteristics.
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[Edit. note: We discovered a typo in our in-line sub-title in “Southern Islands” below. It was originally “Southeast” which is incorrect. 4 Nov 2013.]
In Schiller’s presentation, he remarks that “if you know what D300′s cost and high-speed flash you are actually super impressed with this pricing…”
With the D300 — an AMD FirePro GPU series including D300, D500, and D700 — he was referring to the new dual FirePro GPUs in the new Mac Pro. But the funny thing was…he was referencing a product name that is unknown because it was created only for the new Mac Pros themselves. So how could anyone know what a D300 cost? You would need to know what it is based on.
MORE: A Day Away from New Macs—One Reader’s View (And Design) of A New Pro Desktop
Well, we think we have that pretty well figured out.
Southern Islands
We have done some homework and correlated the available information out on the Net. Here’s what we know and why you should care.
01 – Apple’s Mac Pro features D300, D500, and D700 dual FirePro GPUs that roughly equal W7000, W8000 and W9000 existent graphics cards. They are Pitcairn and Tahiti-based GCN Architecture units in customized configuration offering stunning power and range.
AMD’s current latest fastest FirePro workstation-class graphics units are based on the Tahiti and Pitcairn architecture, the 28-nanometer Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture that, from our AMD information given to us in a recent AMD GPU review, is highly tuned for OpenCL performance. So which of the latest FirePro GPUs correspond to the D300, D500, and D700? That’s the 64,000 dollar question.
D700
So here’s the easiest part.
The D700 has exact spec matches to the FirePro W9000, AMD’s highest performing workstation-class GPU. Notable specs for both the D700 & W9000 include:
- 2048 Stream Processors (texture mapping units/unified shaders)
- 384-bit memory bus width
- 264 GB/s memory bandwidth
- 6 GB VRAM GDDR5
The W9000 specs at 4 teraflops single precision while Apple has the D700 at 3.5 teraflops. This could be because of a frequency delta for the core clock. On the W9000 it specs at 975 MHz core clock speed. Perhaps on the D700, it runs at 900? D700 is a Tahiti-based GPU.
Amazon has the FirePro W9000 at 3,158.USD. Apple is providing two D700’s in all Mac Pro configurations as options. That’s over six grand in GPU costs alone.
D500
The D500 is a bit harder. What we know for certain is it too is Tahiti-based. Although it has a 384-bit bus and more memory bandwidth than AMD’s W8000–the next best-ranked FirePro available–it has 2.
2 teraflops of performance compared to the W8000’s 3.2 teraflops.
Because this is also a Tahiti-based unit it could be based on the W8000 or the W9000, though its memory bus is matched to the W9000. We just don’t know? Here are the key specs:
- 1525 Stream Processors (texture mapping units/unified shaders)
- 384-bit memory bus width
- 240 GB/s memory bandwidth
- 3 GB VRAM GDDR5
The D500 on a teraflop rank basis is just slightly more powerful than the Pitcairn-based W7000, the third-best ranked FirePro card. But as we said above it is a Tahiti-based GPU. And in terms of streaming processors, it ranks closer to the W8000 than the W7000.
The D500’s memory bus is not 256-bit like the W8000 but it ships with 1 GB less VRAM. Apple seems to have cleverly balanced various performance metrics to create an upper-mid level workstation-class option while decreasing streaming processors (1792 down to 1525), decreasing VRAM (4 GB down to 3 GB), and possibly frequency on the core clock to result in a slightly less teraflop-performing mid-level option.
The result is a reasonable price increase over the D300 for this Tahiti-based D500.
Amazon has the W8000 retailing at 1,308.USD. Apple is providing roughly two of these or just about 2,500.USD of GPU value. But because of the strategic decreases as noted above the “real value” Apple is providing may be much closer to just under 2 grand. (see below or next page)
D300
The D300 is a Pitcairn-based GPU, just like the AMD FirePro W7000. Of the three GPU options on the new Mac Pro, only the D300 features a narrower 256-bit memory bus with a 160 GB/s memory bandwidth.
We feel that the D300 is in essence the W7000 but with half the VRAM. The actual W7000 comes with 4 GB not 2 GB like the D300. Essential key specs include:
- 1280 Stream Processors (texture mapping units/unified shaders)
- 256-bit memory bus width
- 160 GB/s memory bandwidth
- 2 GB VRAM GDDR5
The D300 provides 2 teraflops of single-precision compared to 2.
4 for the W7000. Could this again be because of core clock differences? Has AMD provided D-series FirePro GPUs with slightly dialed down clocks for thermal temperature reasons?
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Amazon has FirePro W7000 cards retailing at 649.USD. Apple is providing essentially two of these or approximately 1,200.USD in GPU value in the baseline Mac Pro.
MORE: Is the new Retina iMac the ‘iMac Pro’ the market seems to be screaming for?
Importantly, although the D300 is Pitcairn-based while the other two are Tahiti based, both are apart of the 28-nm architecture series and both are Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture.
next page: The Value Discussion
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Filed under: Apple, Editor’s Pick, Hardware, Mac 3D, Mac CAD, News
Story tags: AMD, Apple, FirePro D300, FirePro D500, FirePro D700, GPU, graphics, Mac Pro, workstation
FirePro D300 [in 2 benchmarks]
FirePro D300
Buy
- Interface PCIe 3.
0 x16 - Core clock speed 850 MHz
- Max video memory 2 GB
- Memory type GDDR5
- Memory clock speed 5080 MHz
- Maximum resolution
Summary
AMD started FirePro D300 sales 18 January 2014. This is GCN 1.0 architecture desktop card based on 28 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at designers. 2 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 5.08 GHz are supplied, and together with 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 162.6 GB/s.
Compatibility-wise, this is single-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 242 mm. No additional power connector is required, and power consumption is at 150 Watt.
We have no data on FirePro D300 benchmark results.
General info
Of FirePro D300’s architecture, market segment and release date.
| Place in performance rating | not rated | |
| Architecture | GCN 1. 0 (2012−2020) |
|
| GPU code name | Pitcairn | |
| Market segment | Workstation | |
| Release date | 18 January 2014 (8 years ago) | |
| Current price | $1462 | of 49999 (A100 SXM4) |
Technical specs
FirePro D300’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of FirePro D300’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 1280 | of 18432 (AD102) |
| Core clock speed | 850 MHz | of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT) |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million | of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile) |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080 Ti) |
| Thermal design power (TDP) | 150 Watt | of 900 (Tesla S2050) |
| Texture fill rate | 68. 00 |
of 939.8 (h200 SXM5) |
| Floating-point performance | 2,176 gflops | of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo) |
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Information on FirePro D300’s compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it’s interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | |
| Length | 242 mm | |
| Width | 1-slot |
Memory
Parameters of memory installed on FirePro D300: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.
| Memory type | GDDR5 | |
| Maximum RAM amount | 2 GB | of 128 (Radeon Instinct MI250X) |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X) |
| Memory clock speed | 5080 MHz | of 21000 (GeForce RTX 3090 Ti) |
| Memory bandwidth | 162.6 GB/s | of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260) |
Video outputs and ports
Types and number of video connectors present on FirePro D300. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.
| Display Connectors | 4x DisplayPort |
API support
APIs supported by FirePro D300, sometimes including their particular versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 |
Benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance of FirePro D300. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.
- GeekBench 5 OpenCL
- GeekBench 5 Vulkan
GeekBench 5 OpenCL
Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU’s processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.
Benchmark coverage: 9%
FirePro D300
19273
GeekBench 5 Vulkan
Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios.
All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU’s processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.
Benchmark coverage: 5%
FirePro D300
18308
Mining hashrates
Cryptocurrency mining performance of FirePro D300. Usually measured in megahashes per second.
| Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) | 242 Mh/s |
NVIDIA equivalent
We believe that the nearest equivalent to FirePro D300 from NVIDIA is Quadro K5000.
Quadro
K5000
Compare
Similar GPUs
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Quadro
K5000
Compare
GRID M6
8Q
Compare
Quadro
K4200
Compare
GRID
K240Q
Compare
FirePro
W7000
Compare
Quadro
M2000
Compare
Recommended processors
These processors are most commonly used with FirePro D300 according to our statistics.
Xeon E5
1620 v2
41.7%
Xeon E5
2697 v2
16.7%
Xeon E5
1680 v2
8.3%
Xeon E5
2420
8.3%
Ryzen 5
5500U
8.3%
Pentium
E5700
8.3%
Xeon E5
2678 v3
8.3%
User rating
Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.
Questions and comments
Here you can ask a question about FirePro D300, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
performance overview and gaming performance tests
The FirePro D300 video card was released by AMD, release date: 18 January 2014. The video card is designed for workstation computers and is based on the GCN 1.0 architecture, codenamed Pitcairn.
Core frequency — 850 MHz. Texturing speed — 68 GTexel / s. Number of shader processors — 1280. Floating point performance — 2,176 gflops. Technological process — 28 nm. The number of transistors is 2,800 million. Power consumption (TDP) — 150 Watt.
Memory type: GDDR5. The maximum memory size is 2 GB. Memory bus width — 256 Bit. Memory frequency — 5080 MHz. The memory bandwidth is 162.6 GB / s.
Benchmarks
| Geekbench OpenCL |
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CompuBench 1. 5 Desktop Face Detection |
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| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop Ocean Surface Simulation |
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| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop T-Rex |
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| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop Video Composition |
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| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop Bitcoin Mining |
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| GFXBench 4.0 Car Chase Offscreen |
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| GFXBench 4.0 Manhattan |
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GFXBench 4. 0 T-Rex |
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| GFXBench 4.0 Car Chase Offscreen |
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| GFXBench 4.0 Manhattan |
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| GFXBench 4.0 T-Rex |
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268 Frames/s 
179 mHash/s 
000 Fps | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Geekbench — OpenCL | 21631 |
| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop — Face Detection | 51.183 mPixels/s |
CompuBench 1. 5 Desktop — Ocean Surface Simulation |
1192.547 Frames/s |
| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop — T-Rex | 5.209 Frames/s |
| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop — Video Composition | 78.541 Frames/s |
| CompuBench 1.5 Desktop — Bitcoin Mining | 242.179 mHash/s |
| GFXBench 4.0 — Car Chase Offscreen | 6054 Frames |
| GFXBench 4.0 — Manhattan | 3397 Frames |
| GFXBench 4.0 — T-Rex | 3351 Frames |
| GFXBench 4.0 — Car Chase Offscreen | 6054.000 Fps |
GFXBench 4. 0 — Manhattan |
3397.000 Fps |
| GFXBench 4.0 — T-Rex | 3351.000 Fps |
Features
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 |
| Codename | Pitcairn |
| Production date | 18 January 2014 |
| Place in the ranking | 560 |
| Type | Workstation |
| Core frequency | 850MHz |
| Floating point performance | 2.176 gflops |
| Process | 28 nm |
| Number of shaders | 1280 |
| Texturing speed | 68 GTexel/s |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 150 Watt |
| Number of transistors | 2,800 million |
| Video connectors | 4x DisplayPort |
| Interface | PCIe 3. 0 x16 |
| Length | 242 mm |
| DirectX | 12.0 (11_1) |
| OpenGL | 4.5 |
| Maximum memory size | 2GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 162.6 GB/s |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit |
| Memory frequency | 5080 MHz |
| Memory type | GDDR5 |
Navigation
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FirePro D300 video card [in 2 benchmarks]
FirePro D300
- PCIe 3.
0 x16 interface - Core clock 850 MHz
- Video memory 2 GB
- Memory type GDDR5
- Memory frequency 5080 MHz
- Maximum resolution
Description
AMD started FirePro D300 sales 18 January 2014. This is GCN 1.0 architecture desktop card based on 28 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at designers. It has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory at 5.08 GHz, and coupled with a 256-bit interface, this creates a bandwidth of 162.6 Gb / s.
In terms of compatibility, this is a single-slot PCIe 3.0 x16 card. The length of the reference version is 242 mm. An additional power cable is not required for connection, and the power consumption is 150 W.
We don’t have test results for the FirePro D300.
General information
Information about the type (desktop or laptop) and architecture of the FirePro D300, as well as when sales started and cost at that time.
of 499999 (A100 SXM4)
characteristics
FirePro D300’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed.
They indirectly speak of FirePro D300’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
| memory capacity | 162.6 GB/s | of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260) |
video outputs
9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000
Types and number of video connectors present on the FirePro D300. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference video cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model.
| Video connectors | 1.2 | |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 |
Tests in Balchmarki
These are the results of the FirePro D300 rendering performance tests in non-gaming benchmarks. The overall score is set from 0 to 100, where 100 corresponds to the fastest video card at the moment.
- GeekBench 5 OpenCL
- GeekBench 5 Vulcan
GeekBench 5 OpenCL
Geekbench 5 is a widely used benchmark for graphics cards that combines 11 different test scenarios. All of these scenarios are based on the direct use of the processing power of the GPU, without the use of 3D rendering. This option uses the Khronos Group’s OpenCL API.
Benchmark coverage: 9%
FirePro D300
19273
GeekBench 5 Vulkan
Geekbench 5 is a widely used benchmark for graphics cards that combines 11 different test scenarios.
All of these scenarios are based on the direct use of the processing power of the GPU, without the use of 3D rendering. This option uses the Vulkan API from AMD and the Khronos Group.
Benchmark coverage: 5%
FirePro D300
18308
Mining hashrates
FirePro D300 performance in cryptocurrency mining. Usually the result is measured in mhash / s — the number of millions of solutions generated by the video card in one second.
| Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) | 242 Mh/s |
Competitor from NVIDIA
We believe Quadro K5000 is the closest competitor of NVIDIA FirePro D300.
Quadro
K5000
Compare
Other video cards
Here we recommend a few video cards that are more or less similar in performance to the reviewed one.
Quadro
K5000
Compare
GRID M6
8Q
Compare
firepro
W7000
Compare
Radeon Pro
WX4100
Compare
Quadro
M4000
Compare
Quadro
M5000
Compare
Recommended Processors
According to our statistics, these processors are most commonly used with the FirePro D300.
Xeon E5
1620v2
41.