FirePro W5000 DVI vs Quadro NVS 420

VS

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking1320not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.01no data
Power efficiency0.54no data
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameG98Pitcairn
Market segmentWorkstationWorkstation
Release date20 January 2009 (15 years ago)25 February 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$131.43 $599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores8768
Core clock speed550 MHz825 MHz
Number of transistors210 million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology65 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)40 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate4.40039.60
Floating-point processing power0.0224 TFLOPS1.267 TFLOPS
ROPs432
TMUs848

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportno dataPCIe 3.0
InterfacePCIe 1.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Lengthno data191 mm
Width1-slot1-slot
Form factorno datafull height / half length
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount256 MB2 GB
Memory bus width64 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed700 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidth11.2 GB/s102.4 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputs2x DVI
Dual-link DVI support-+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12 (11_1)
Shader Model4.05.1
OpenGL3.34.6
OpenCL1.11.2
VulkanN/A1.2.131
CUDA1.1-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 20 January 2009 25 February 2013
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 2 GB
Chip lithography 65 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 40 Watt 75 Watt

NVS 420 has 87.5% lower power consumption.

W5000 DVI, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 132.1% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Quadro NVS 420 and FirePro W5000 DVI. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA Quadro NVS 420
Quadro NVS 420
AMD FirePro W5000 DVI
FirePro W5000 DVI

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.1 9 votes

Rate Quadro NVS 420 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.4 7 votes

Rate FirePro W5000 DVI on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.