AMD Radeon Pro W6400 Review: Low Power RDNA 2 For Budget Workstations
AMD Radeon Pro W6400: Power Consumption, Acoustics And The Verdict
Before bringing our Radeon Pro W6400 evaluation to a close, we'd like to cover a couple of final data points -- namely, power consumption and noise. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored acoustics and tracked how much power our test system was consuming using a power meter. Our goal was to give you an idea of how much power each graphics configuration used while idling and also while under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not the power being drawn by the graphics cards alone.
The Radeon Pro W6400 was the most power friendly card of the bunch by far. Under all conditions it consumed the least amount of power. Considering the card outran the Radeon Pro WX 5100 and sometimes traded blows with the W5500, the Radeon Pro W6400 is clearly more power efficient than previous gen cards.
Radeon Pro W6400 Hardware Health Metrics
The Radeon Pro W6400's power efficiency translated to relatively cool and quiet operation as well. Under sustained load the hottest part of the GPU (the junction temperature), typically hovered in the high-80°C range. The slim cooler, with its straight-blade axial-type fan also remained what we would consider quiet overall, but with a single fan spinning at nearly 3,000 RPM under load, the card was audible in our test setup. It is not particularly high-pitched or irritating, but under load you will probably hear the fan spinning in a typical mid-tower system. At idle or under less strenuous conditions though, the W6400 remains very quiet.
That said, like the gaming-focused Radeon RX 6500 XT we looked at a couple of weeks ago, save for its technical support for ray tracing, the Radeon Pro W6400 doesn’t really represent an upgrade over the immediate, previous-gen. Versus the older Radeon Pro WX series, the Radeon Pro W6400 is a big upgrade, but you wouldn’t want to install this card in a system with one of those previous-gen GPUs, because it’s most likely riding on PCIe Gen 3. The lack of hardware accelerated video encoding is also a potential detriment for creative professionals to consider.
For a modern, low-power, small form factor desktop, in a professional environment where pro-vis ISV certifications matter though, the $229 Radeon Pro W6400 represents the lowest priced entry-point for a workstation GPU. There’s much more performance available with a larger investment in a higher-end GPU, but for light-duty workloads the Radeon Pro W6400 may fit the bill if its shortcomings won’t affect your workflow.
Power Consumption Testing
The Radeon Pro W6400 was the most power friendly card of the bunch by far. Under all conditions it consumed the least amount of power. Considering the card outran the Radeon Pro WX 5100 and sometimes traded blows with the W5500, the Radeon Pro W6400 is clearly more power efficient than previous gen cards.
Radeon Pro W6400 Hardware Health Metrics
The Radeon Pro W6400's power efficiency translated to relatively cool and quiet operation as well. Under sustained load the hottest part of the GPU (the junction temperature), typically hovered in the high-80°C range. The slim cooler, with its straight-blade axial-type fan also remained what we would consider quiet overall, but with a single fan spinning at nearly 3,000 RPM under load, the card was audible in our test setup. It is not particularly high-pitched or irritating, but under load you will probably hear the fan spinning in a typical mid-tower system. At idle or under less strenuous conditions though, the W6400 remains very quiet.
AMD Radeon Pro W6400: The Verdict
AMD is positioning the Radeon Pro W6400 as an affordable, power-efficient workstation GPU, with ray tracing support, that’s adept at office productivity, light 3D design, and image editing workloads. Considering the fact that the Radeon Pro W6400 is certified for many of the same pro-vis ISV applications as its higher-end counterparts and its MSRP is $229, AMD’s messaging is on the mark. The Radeon Pro W6400 is a power-friendly, affordably-priced professional workstation GPU…assuming street prices are anywhere near MSRP, which is obviously not a given with current market conditions.
That said, like the gaming-focused Radeon RX 6500 XT we looked at a couple of weeks ago, save for its technical support for ray tracing, the Radeon Pro W6400 doesn’t really represent an upgrade over the immediate, previous-gen. Versus the older Radeon Pro WX series, the Radeon Pro W6400 is a big upgrade, but you wouldn’t want to install this card in a system with one of those previous-gen GPUs, because it’s most likely riding on PCIe Gen 3. The lack of hardware accelerated video encoding is also a potential detriment for creative professionals to consider.
For a modern, low-power, small form factor desktop, in a professional environment where pro-vis ISV certifications matter though, the $229 Radeon Pro W6400 represents the lowest priced entry-point for a workstation GPU. There’s much more performance available with a larger investment in a higher-end GPU, but for light-duty workloads the Radeon Pro W6400 may fit the bill if its shortcomings won’t affect your workflow.
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