AMD FirePro D500 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla K80 and AMD FirePro D500 are both end-of-life workstation accelerators from the 28 nm era, but they target very different segments of the market. The Tesla K80 is a dual-GPU compute monster with 12 GB of memory, while the FirePro D500 is a single-GPU card with a hefty 3 GB frame buffer and six display outputs. The benchmark data shows a clear, albeit narrow, overall winner, but the real story is in how each card's architecture and specifications dictate its suitability for specific tasks.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench Vulkan test. In this single benchmark, the NVIDIA Tesla K80 scores 19,111 points, while the AMD FirePro D500 scores 18,533 points. This gives the Tesla K80 a 3.1% lead in performance. While this is a definitive win for NVIDIA, it is not a landslide. The delta is small enough that real-world application performance could vary, but the data consistently points to the Tesla K80 being the faster card in this synthetic test.

Looking at the broader context, the Tesla K80's average benchmark score is 18,866, which places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (average score 18,954, -0.5% delta) and the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (average score 19,030, -0.9% delta). This means the K80 is essentially on par with much newer professional cards, despite its older architecture. The FirePro D500, on the other hand, has an average score of 18,533, placing it in the 62nd percentile. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT (average score 18,685, -0.8% delta). The 1% difference in percentile ranking between the two cards is minimal, but the K80 consistently edges ahead in the raw numbers.

The most significant gap in the data is not in the single benchmark result, but in the theoretical compute capabilities. The Tesla K80 offers an FP32 performance of 4.113 TFLOPS, which is nearly double the FirePro D500's 2.227 TFLOPS. This is a massive computational advantage for the NVIDIA card, suggesting that in compute-heavy workloads like floating-point math or scientific simulations, the K80 would be far ahead of the D500. Similarly, the texture rate of the K80 is 171.4 GTexel/s versus the D500's 69.60 GTexel/s, and the pixel rate is 42.85 GPixel/s versus 23.20 GPixel/s. These numbers paint a clear picture of a card that is fundamentally more powerful in raw throughput.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the data, the NVIDIA Tesla K80 is the superior performer. It wins the head-to-head benchmark, has a higher average score, a higher percentile ranking, and significantly higher theoretical compute rates. If the decision is based solely on raw compute performance and benchmark scores, the Tesla K80 is the clear choice.

However, the choice is not that simple. The AMD FirePro D500 has a major advantage in one key area: display outputs. The D500 features 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 and 1x SDI outputs, while the Tesla K80 has no display outputs at all. This makes the FirePro D500 the only viable option for any workload that requires driving multiple monitors or outputting to a display. The Tesla K80 is purely a compute accelerator; it cannot be used as a typical graphics card.

Therefore, the verdict is situational. For a headless compute node, a render farm, or a dedicated machine learning server where display output is irrelevant, the Tesla K80 is the better card due to its superior compute power and benchmark scores. For a workstation that needs to drive multiple high-resolution displays while also providing GPU acceleration, the FirePro D500 is the only choice between these two. The data does not support calling the D500 a better performer; it merely supports it being a better fit for display-centric tasks.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on the same 28 nm TSMC process node, but they use very different architectures. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is based on the GK210 chip and the Kepler 2.0 architecture. The AMD FirePro D500 uses the Tahiti chip and the GCN 1.0 architecture. This is a fundamental difference in design philosophy. Kepler was NVIDIA's second-generation unified architecture, while GCN was AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, which was designed with a strong focus on compute workloads.

The transistor counts reflect this difference. The GK210 chip packs 7,100 million transistors on a 561 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 12.7M / mm². The Tahiti chip has 4,313 million transistors on a smaller 352 mm² die, with a density of 12.3M / mm². The K80's larger die and higher transistor count are directly responsible for its higher compute throughput. The K80 also has significantly more execution resources: 2496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, compared to the D500's 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

Both cards support the same DirectX version (12 (11_1)) and OpenGL 4.6. They also both support Vulkan, though the K80 has a slightly newer version (1.2.175) compared to the D500 (1.2.170). This generational difference in API support is minor. The K80's architecture is older, being from the Kepler generation, but it was built for heavy compute. The D500's GCN architecture was also compute-capable, but the data shows that the Tesla K80's implementation was more effective at extracting performance.

Specification Differences

The most glaring difference is memory. The Tesla K80 has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory, while the FirePro D500 has only 3 GB. Both use a 384-bit memory bus, but the K80's memory operates at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective), yielding a bandwidth of 240.6 GB/s. The D500's memory runs at 1270 MHz (5.1 Gbps effective), providing a slightly higher bandwidth of 243.8 GB/s. Despite having a smaller capacity, the D500 has a marginal 1.3% bandwidth advantage. This is a unique situation where the smaller card has a slight edge in memory speed but is severely lacking in capacity.

Clock speeds are another area of difference. The Tesla K80 has a base clock of 562 MHz and a boost clock of 824 MHz. The FirePro D500 does not have listed base or boost clocks in the data. The K80's boost clock is crucial for its performance, as it allows the card to exceed its base speed under load.

Power consumption and physical requirements also differ. The Tesla K80 has a TDP of 300 W and requires a 700 W power supply, along with a single 8-pin power connector. The FirePro D500 has a lower TDP of 274 W and a suggested 600 W power supply, and its power connector details are not specified. Both are dual-slot cards, but the K80 is slightly shorter at 267 mm (10.5 inches) compared to the D500's 279 mm (11 inches). The K80 is also a completely closed unit with no display outputs, while the D500 is an open card with six mini-DisplayPort outputs.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in the Geekbench Vulkan test?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is faster, scoring 19,111 compared to the AMD FirePro D500's 18,533, a 3.1% difference.

Q: Can I connect a monitor to the NVIDIA Tesla K80?

A: No. The Tesla K80 has no display outputs. The AMD FirePro D500, however, has 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 and 1x SDI outputs.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory. The AMD FirePro D500 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 has a much higher FP32 performance of 4.113 TFLOPS, compared to the AMD FirePro D500's 2.227 TFLOPS.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of each card?

A: The Tesla K80 has a bandwidth of 240.6 GB/s. The FirePro D500 has a slightly higher bandwidth of 243.8 GB/s, despite having less memory.

Q: How do these cards rank against all other GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD FirePro D500 is in the 62nd percentile.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Tesla K80 wins in every performance benchmark recorded. It is the clear winner for raw compute tasks, such as scientific simulations, deep learning inference, or any workload that can leverage its massive 4.113 TFLOPS of FP32 power and 12 GB of memory. The K80's 3.1% lead in Vulkan and its higher percentile ranking make it the superior choice for headless compute servers. Its nearest rivals include modern cards like the RTX 2000 Ada Generation, indicating that its compute power is still relevant, even at end-of-life.

The AMD FirePro D500 wins in the domain of display connectivity. It is the only card of the two that can output to a screen, with its 6x mini-DisplayPort and 1x SDI outputs. This makes it the winner for any workstation scenario that requires multiple monitors, such as video wall control, financial trading desks, or digital signage. The D500 also has a slightly higher memory bandwidth (243.8 GB/s vs 240.6 GB/s) and a lower TDP (274 W vs 300 W), which could make it slightly easier to integrate into an existing system from a power perspective. But these are minor advantages. The D500's win is exclusively about its ability to drive displays, while the K80 wins on every metric of raw performance.