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AMD FirePro S9150

AMD FirePro S9150 in 2025: Professional Classic or Obsolete Solution?

Analysis of Architecture, Performance, and Practical Value in Contemporary Conditions

Introduction

The AMD FirePro S9150 graphics card, released in 2014, was initially positioned as a flagship for workstations. However, even a decade later, it continues to attract interest due to its unique architecture and specialized capabilities. In this article, we will examine how relevant the S9150 is in 2025 and who might find it useful.

Architecture and Key Features

Foundation: GCN and 28nm Process Technology

The FirePro S9150 is built on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 architecture with a Hawaii chip. The manufacturing technology is 28nm, which is significantly behind the modern 5–7nm processes. The card features 2816 stream processors and supports DirectX 12 (Feature Level 11_2), OpenGL 4.6, and OpenCL 2.0.

Unique Features: Professional Focus

The S9150 is made for computation, not gaming. It supports:

- AMD FirePro SRX — technology for remote visualization;

- ECC Memory — error correction for critical tasks;

- Multi-GPU — scalability up to 4 cards.

RTX, DLSS, and FidelityFX are absent — this is not a gaming model. Nonetheless, its capabilities remain in demand for engineering calculations and rendering.

Memory: Volume vs. Speed

Technical Specifications

- Memory Type: GDDR5 (not GDDR6X or HBM);

- Volume: 16GB;

- Bus: 512-bit;

- Bandwidth: 320GB/s.

Impact on Performance

The memory volume is sufficient for working with heavy 3D models and 8K video, but the low speed of GDDR5 (compared to GDDR6X or HBM2e) limits performance in tasks that require fast data access. For instance, rendering a complex scene may take 20–30% longer than on modern cards with HBM2.

Gaming Performance: Conditional Usability

Average FPS in Popular Titles

The S9150 is not optimized for gaming, but in 2025, its capabilities appear as follows (Medium settings):

- Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p): ~25 FPS;

- Horizon Forbidden West (1440p): ~18 FPS;

- Counter-Strike 2 (4K): ~40 FPS.

Resolutions and RTX

The card does not support ray tracing and struggles with 4K even in older games. For comfortable gaming in 2025, it is unsuitable — RDNA 3/4 or Ada Lovelace would be needed.

Professional Tasks: Strength in Specialization

Video Editing and 3D Rendering

Thanks to its 16GB of memory, the S9150 handles:

- Rendering in Blender (Cycles) and Autodesk Maya;

- Video encoding in DaVinci Resolve (up to 8K at 30fps).

Scientific Calculations

The card shows good results in OpenCL tasks:

- Physical modeling (COMSOL);

- Machine learning (but only for small models).

NVIDIA's CUDA is unmatched here — for serious AI projects, it’s better to choose the RTX A6000.

Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP and System Requirements

- TDP: 275W;

- Recommended PSU: At least 700W (considering overhead);

- Cooling: Good case ventilation is necessary (minimum 3 fans).

The card heats up under load (up to 85°C), so it is not advisable to use it in compact cases. The ideal option is workstations with a server layout.

Comparison with Competitors

AMD vs NVIDIA

- AMD Radeon Pro W6800 (2021): 32GB GDDR6, 250W TDP, price from $2200. 2–3 times faster in rendering;

- NVIDIA RTX A5000 (2021): 24GB GDDR6, RTX support, price from $2500. Leader in machine learning.

Conclusion: The S9150 falls short against modern alternatives but can be useful as a budget solution for specific tasks (for example, when ECC memory is needed).

Practical Tips

Choosing a Power Supply and Compatibility

- PSU: 700–800W with 80+ Gold certification;

- Platform: Compatible with PCIe 3.0 but works on PCIe 4.0/5.0 (with speed limitations);

- Drivers: Official support ended in 2022. Use the last version from 2021 (21.Q4).

Nuances

- Not suitable for gaming PCs;

- Check for power connectors (8+8 pin).

Pros and Cons

Strengths

- High memory volume with ECC;

- Reliability in prolonged computations;

- Multi-GPU support.

Weaknesses

- Outdated architecture;

- High power consumption;

- Lacks support for modern APIs and technologies (DirectX 12 Ultimate, RTX).

Final Conclusion: Who is the FirePro S9150 Suitable For?

This card is an option for those who need:

- An inexpensive solution for rendering or scientific calculations (new units start at $500, but they are rarely available);

- ECC memory for mission-critical tasks;

- Scalability through Multi-GPU.

For gaming, AI, or working with RTX, it is unsuitable. If the budget is limited and the requirements are specific, the S9150 could serve as a temporary solution. However, in 2025, it is wiser to invest in more modern Radeon Pro or NVIDIA RTX A-series cards.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

August 2014

Model Name

FirePro S9150

Generation

FirePro

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

6,200 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.

176

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 2.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

16GB

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.

512bit

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.

320.0 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.

57.60 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.

158.4 GTexel/s

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.

2.534 TFLOPS

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.

4.968 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.

2816

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

1024KB

TDP

235W

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

2.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

Shader Model

6.3

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

550W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

4.968 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon RX 580 2048SP

5.154 +3.7%

Radeon RX 5500 XT

5.092 +2.5%

FirePro S9150

4.968

Arc Pro A50

4.909 -1.2%

GeForce GTX 980 Mobile

4.762 -4.1%