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AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100

AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100: A Professional Tool for Creative Work and Computation

Current as of April 2025

Introduction

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 remains a popular solution for professionals, despite the release of more modern models. Designed for workstations, it combines stability, optimization for professional applications, and a moderate price ($350–$400 for new devices). In this article, we will explore who the WX 5100 is suitable for in 2025 and what tasks it can handle.

Architecture and Key Features

GCN 4.0 Architecture and 14nm Process

At the core of the WX 5100 is the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 4.0 architecture, also known as Polaris. The card is manufactured using 14nm technology, which seems dated in 2025 compared to 5nm and 6nm GPUs. However, for professional tasks where stability is more important than novelty, this is not critical.

Unique Features

- FidelityFX: AMD's toolkit for enhancing graphics (contrast sharpening, upscaling). Unlike NVIDIA DLSS, there’s no AI upscaling, but this technology reduces the load on the GPU.

- FreeSync: Support for adaptive synchronization for comfortable use in applications with animation.

- No RT Cores: Ray tracing is not supported — this is strictly a rasterization GPU.

Memory: A Balance Between Capacity and Speed

GDDR5 and 8GB Capacity

The WX 5100 uses 8GB of GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth is 224GB/s, which is half that of modern cards with GDDR6. For professional tasks (rendering, texture work), this volume is adequate, but in games or applications with heavy scenes, limitations may arise.

Impact on Performance

- Pros: The large memory capacity allows for 4K video work and complex 3D models.

- Cons: The low memory speed by 2025 standards means rendering may take longer than on GPUs with HBM2 or GDDR6X.

Gaming Performance: Not the Main Focus

Average FPS in Popular Titles

The WX 5100 is not a gaming card, but it can be used for less demanding projects:

- 1080p/Medium Settings: CS:2 — 90–100 FPS, Fortnite — 60–70 FPS, Apex Legends — 50–55 FPS.

- 1440p: Drops to 30–40 FPS in most modern games.

- 4K: Only for older titles like Skyrim or GTA V (up to 30 FPS).

Ray Tracing

The lack of hardware support for RT cores makes the card unsuitable for ray-traced games. Even with FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), achieving smooth FPS is impossible.

Professional Tasks: Strength in Optimization

Video Editing

- DaVinci Resolve: Renders a 4K clip in 8–10 minutes (depends on effects).

- Premiere Pro: Smooth timeline playback with color correction overlay thanks to OpenCL support.

3D Modeling and Rendering

- Blender (Cycles): Renders a medium-level scene in 15–20 minutes. For comparison, the NVIDIA RTX A2000 (12GB) handles it in 10–12 minutes due to CUDA.

- SolidWorks: Stable operation with assemblies of up to 500 parts.

Scientific Computations

- OpenCL: Good performance in molecular modeling tasks or data analysis.

- Machine Learning: Not recommended — lacking Tensor cores and low FP32 speed (3.9 TFLOPs).

Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP 75W: Savings on PSU

The card does not require additional power — a PCIe slot is sufficient. This simplifies integration into compact workstations.

Cooling Recommendations

- Case: At least 2 fans (inlet + exhaust).

- Passive Cooling: In models with a heatsink (e.g., from Sapphire), the card is silent but requires good airflow in the case.

Comparison with Competitors

NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (5GB GDDR5X)

- Pros of P2200: Better optimization for CUDA applications (e.g., Maya).

- Pros of WX 5100: More memory (8GB), FreeSync support.

- Price: P2200 is more expensive ($450–$500) but not always faster.

AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (8GB GDDR6)

- More modern RDNA 1.0 architecture (7nm) but less stable drivers for professional tasks.

- Price: $500–$600.

Practical Tips

Power Supply

A 400W PSU (e.g., Corsair CX450) is sufficient. Ensure it has a 6-pin PCIe connector if the selected WX 5100 model requires one.

Compatibility

- Platforms: Works with Windows 10/11, Linux (support for AMDGPU).

- Motherboards: PCIe 3.0 x16 (backward compatible with PCIe 4.0).

Drivers

Use AMD Pro Edition — optimized for stability in professional applications but updated less frequently than gaming drivers.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Reliability and long lifespan.

- Support for multi-monitor configurations (up to 4 displays).

- Low power consumption.

Cons

- Weak gaming performance.

- No hardware acceleration for ray tracing.

- Outdated architecture.

Final Conclusion: Who is the WX 5100 for?

This graphics card is a choice for professionals on a budget who:

1. Work with 3D modeling, video editing, or CAD software.

2. Value stability and prolonged driver support.

3. Do not plan to run modern games or utilize RTX features.

In 2025, the WX 5100 remains a niche solution, but for small businesses, educational institutions, or enthusiasts assembling budget workstations, it is a reliable option. If versatility (gaming + work) is needed, it is better to consider the Radeon Pro W7000 or NVIDIA RTX A4000.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

November 2016

Model Name

Radeon Pro WX 5100

Generation

Radeon Pro

Base Clock

713MHz

Boost Clock

1086MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

5,700 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.

112

Foundry

GlobalFoundries

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

GCN 4.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

8GB

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.

256bit

Memory Clock

1250MHz

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.

160.0 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.

34.75 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.

121.6 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.

3.892 TFLOPS

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.

243.3 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.

3.814 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.

1792

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

2MB

TDP

75W

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.

1.2

OpenCL Version

2.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.4

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

250W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

3.814 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

GeForce GTX 780 Rev. 2

4.073 +6.8%

GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 6 GB

3.974 +4.2%

Radeon Pro WX 5100

3.814

Arc A550M

3.612 -5.3%

Radeon R9 280

3.411 -10.6%