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AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100

AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100: A Compact Professional Card for Work Tasks

April 2025

Introduction

In the world of professional graphics cards, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 holds a unique position. Despite its modest specifications, this model remains in demand among users who value stability, energy efficiency, and support for professional applications. This article will explore who the WX 2100 is suitable for in 2025, how well it handles various tasks, and what to consider before purchasing.

Architecture and Key Features

Polaris Architecture and 14-nm Process Technology

The Radeon Pro WX 2100 is based on the Polaris architecture, which debuted back in 2016. The card is manufactured using GlobalFoundries' 14-nm process technology, contributing to its modest thermal output. Although Polaris has been succeeded by modern RDNA solutions, its optimization for professional workloads remains relevant.

Professional Features Over Gaming "Extras"

The WX 2100 is geared towards CAD applications and 3D modeling, lacking support for ray tracing or AI technologies like DLSS. However, AMD has implemented proprietary features:

- FidelityFX: Enhances image detail in supported applications.

- Frame Rate Target Control: Limits FPS to reduce power consumption.

- Pro Profiles: Driver optimization for Maya, SolidWorks, and Blender.

Memory: Minimum for Basic Tasks

GDDR5 with 4 GB Capacity

The graphics card is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and a 128-bit bus. The bandwidth is 96 GB/s. This is sufficient for working with 2D graphics and simple 3D models, but it may fall short for rendering complex scenes or 4K video.

Why Not GDDR6 or HBM?

The use of GDDR5 rather than modern standards is linked to the card's budget positioning. HBM is too expensive for this segment, and transitioning to GDDR6 would have required significant architectural redesign.

Gaming Performance: Not the Main Focus

Average FPS Figures

The WX 2100 is not a gaming card, but it can manage light projects:

- CS2 (1080p, low settings): 60-70 FPS.

- Fortnite (1080p, Performance Mode): 45-55 FPS.

- The Sims 4 (1440p, ultra): stable 60 FPS.

In AAA games from 2024–2025 (such as Starfield or GTA VI), even at low settings, frame drops to 20–30 FPS are possible.

Resolutions and Settings

The card is designed for 1080p. For 1440p or 4K, lowering graphics quality to a minimum is necessary, which is not always justifiable.

Professional Tasks: Main Specialization

3D Modeling and Rendering

The WX 2100 is certified for Autodesk Maya, SolidWorks, and Blender. In tests with a medium-complexity model (up to 1 million polygons), rendering takes 10–15 minutes, which is acceptable for novice designers.

Video Editing

In Adobe Premiere Pro, the card handles 1080p video editing, but 4K material will require proxy files. Encoding acceleration via AMD VCE significantly reduces export times.

Scientific Calculations

Support for OpenCL allows the WX 2100 to be used for machine learning on basic models, but its 640 stream processors fall short compared to NVIDIA's CUDA solutions.

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

TDP 50 W: Savings on Power Supply

The card features low power consumption — it only needs a PCIe x8 slot. This allows it to be used even in compact PCs and workstations.

Cooling and Cases

The model utilizes a passive cooling system (without fans), ensuring quiet operation. However, in poorly ventilated cases, overheating may occur. Recommendations:

- At least one case fan for exhaust.

- Avoid installation in narrow SFF cases without airflow clearance.

Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA Quadro P620

The main competitor is the Quadro P620 (4 GB GDDR5, 512 CUDA cores). In SolidWorks tests, the P620 outperforms by 15% due to CUDA optimization. However, the WX 2100 has the advantage in pricing: $150 versus $220.

AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200

A more modern model with 4 GB GDDR5 and Polaris architecture. Performance is 20–25% higher, but the price starts at $250.

Practical Tips

Power Supply

A 300 W power supply is sufficient. For systems with TDP processors up to 65 W, budget models like the be quiet! System Power 10 will suffice.

Compatibility

- Platforms: Supports Windows 10/11, Linux (with open AMDGPU drivers).

- Ports: 4x mini-DisplayPort 1.4.

Drivers

Only use the Pro edition of drivers (Adrenalin is not suitable). Frequent updates for the WX 2100 are no longer released; the last version came out in January 2024.

Pros and Cons

Strengths:

- Silent passive cooling.

- Low power consumption.

- Optimization for professional applications.

- Affordable price ($150–170).

Weaknesses:

- Outdated Polaris architecture.

- Only 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.

- No ray tracing support.

- Weak performance in gaming.

Final Conclusion: Who is the WX 2100 Suitable For?

This graphics card is ideal for those who need a reliable tool for basic professional tasks without the extra costs associated with gaming features. It is perfect for:

- Office Workstations: Video editing, 2D design.

- Students and Freelancers: Learning 3D modeling, rendering small projects.

- Compact PCs: Thanks to passive cooling and low TDP.

If, however, you work with 4K video, complex 3D scenes, or plan to game, consider more modern solutions like the Radeon Pro W6600 or NVIDIA RTX A2000. Nevertheless, for its price, the WX 2100 remains a worthy option as a "workhorse."

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

June 2017

Model Name

Radeon Pro WX 2100

Generation

Radeon Pro Polaris

Base Clock

925MHz

Boost Clock

1219MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x8

Transistors

2,200 million

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

GlobalFoundries

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

GCN 4.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

64bit

Memory Clock

1500MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

48.00 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

19.50 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

39.01 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

1248 GFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

78.02 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

1.223 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

512

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

256KB

TDP

35W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

2.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.7

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

200W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

1.223 TFLOPS

Vulkan

Score

10891

OpenCL

Score

10176

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon HD 8760 OEM

1.254 +2.5%

Radeon RX 550X

1.235 +1%

Radeon Pro WX 2100

1.223

GeForce GTX 490

1.189 -2.8%

Radeon 540 Mobile

1.174 -4%

Vulkan

Radeon Pro Vega II Duo

98446 +803.9%

Radeon RX 6700S

69708 +540.1%

Radeon RX 580 2048SP

40716 +273.8%

P106 090

18660 +71.3%

Radeon Pro WX 2100

10891

OpenCL

Radeon RX 6700S

62821 +517.3%

Radeon Pro 5300

38843 +281.7%

Radeon R9 M290X

21442 +110.7%

Radeon Pro 455

11291 +11%

Radeon Pro WX 2100

10176