AMD Radeon 880M vs NVIDIA Tesla C2070 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 has an average benchmark score of 9716, while the AMD Radeon 880M has an average benchmark score of 8436. The Tesla C2070 sits at the 47th percentile of all GPUs, whereas the Radeon 880M is at the 43rd percentile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in the shared Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M scores 31285 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 68.9% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla C2070's 9716. This is the only benchmark where both GPUs have recorded results, and the Radeon 880M wins that head-to-head matchup.

Q: What are the nearest rivals to each GPU based on average score?

A: For the Tesla C2070, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla M10 at 9724 (a 0.1% difference), followed by the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 at 9665 (0.5% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 at 9653 (0.7% ahead), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 at 9780 (0.7% behind). For the Radeon 880M, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX at 8427 (0.1% ahead), followed by NVIDIA GeForce MX330 at 8458 (0.3% behind), AMD Radeon HD 8870M at 8462 (0.3% behind), and AMD Radeon R9 M375X at 8325 (1.3% ahead).

Q: Which GPU has the higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M has a transistor density of 145.9M per mm², which is dramatically higher than the Tesla C2070's 5.9M per mm². This reflects the much newer 4 nm process node versus the older 40 nm node.

Q: What is the power draw difference between the two?

A: The Tesla C2070 has a TDP of 238 W and requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector with a suggested 550 W PSU. The Radeon 880M has a TDP of 15 W, uses no power connectors, and is an integrated graphics processor.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the AMD Radeon 880M supports ray tracing, featuring 12 dedicated RT cores. The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 has no RT cores listed in the database.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 is built on the Fermi architecture with the GF100 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 40 nm process. It contains 3,100 million transistors on a 529 mm² die. The AMD Radeon 880M uses the RDNA 3.5 architecture with the Strix Point chip, also fabricated by TSMC but on a far more advanced 4 nm node. The Radeon 880M packs 34,000 million transistors into a 233 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 145.9M per mm² compared to the Tesla's 5.9M per mm². This represents a generational leap in manufacturing efficiency, with the newer chip fitting over ten times more transistors per square millimeter.

The Tesla C2070 belongs to the Tesla Fermi generation (x20xx series) and was released in July 2011, while the Radeon 880M is part of the Navi III IGP (Strix Point Mobile) generation and was released in July 2024. The production status differs as well: the Tesla is end-of-life, while the Radeon 880M is active. The Tesla's predecessor is the Tesla series and its successor is Tesla Kepler, whereas the Radeon 880M's predecessor is the Navi II IGP and it has no listed successor.

Shader architecture differs substantially. The Tesla C2070 has 448 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The Radeon 880M has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and only 16 ROPs. The Radeon also adds 12 RT cores for ray tracing, a feature entirely absent from the Fermi-based Tesla. Neither GPU has tensor cores listed.

Memory architecture is fundamentally different. The Tesla C2070 uses 6 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 143.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon 880M uses system shared memory, with its bandwidth described as system dependent. The Tesla's memory clock is listed at 747 MHz (3 Gbps effective), while the Radeon's memory clock is simply "System Shared."

The Radeon 880M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The Tesla C2070 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 but has no Vulkan support listed. This means the Radeon supports the latest DirectX feature set including ray tracing and mesh shaders, while the Tesla only reaches the 11_0 feature level.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains only one common benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. In that test, the AMD Radeon 880M scores 31285, while the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scores 9716. The Radeon leads by 68.9%, a massive margin that reflects both architectural age differences and the fundamentally different compute capabilities of the two designs.

The Radeon 880M's additional benchmark results show a mixed profile. In Passmark G3D it scores 7615, in Passmark GPU Compute it scores 3719, and in Passmark G2D it scores 969. Its DirectX-specific Passmark results are 97 for DirectX 9, 73 for DirectX 11, 32 for DirectX 12, and 31 for DirectX 10. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 it scores 535, and in Geekbench Vulkan it scores 40006.

The Tesla C2070 has only the Geekbench OpenCL score recorded, so the database cannot provide additional head-to-head comparisons across other workloads. However, the available data shows a clear pattern: the Radeon 880M is substantially faster in compute-oriented OpenCL tasks. The 68.9% delta is consistent with the Radeon's higher shading unit count (768 vs. 448) and its significantly higher FP32 throughput of 4.454 TFLOPS versus the Tesla's 1,027.7 GFLOPS.

Texture and pixel rates also favor the Radeon. The Radeon 880M achieves 139.2 GTexel/s and 46.40 GPixel/s, while the Tesla C2070 manages 32.14 GTexel/s and 16.07 GPixel/s. The Radeon's clock speeds, with a 400 MHz base and 2900 MHz boost, far exceed the Tesla's lack of recorded base or boost clocks.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla C2070 | AMD Radeon 880M |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Fermi | RDNA 3.5 |

| Process node | 40 nm | 4 nm |

| Transistors | 3,100 million | 34,000 million |

| Die size | 529 mm² | 233 mm² |

| Transistor density | 5.9M / mm² | 145.9M / mm² |

| Shading units | 448 | 768 |

| TMUs | 56 | 48 |

| ROPs | 48 | 16 |

| RT cores | None | 12 |

| FP32 | 1,027.7 GFLOPS | 4.454 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not listed | 4.454 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| Pixel rate | 16.07 GPixel/s | 46.40 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 32.14 GTexel/s | 139.2 GTexel/s |

| Memory size | 6 GB GDDR5 | System Shared |

| Memory bus | 384 bit | System Shared |

| Memory bandwidth | 143.4 GB/s | System Dependent |

| TDP | 238 W | 15 W |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | Not listed |

| Bus interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |

| Display outputs | 1x DVI | Portable Device Dependent |

| DirectX support | 12 (11_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan support | Not listed | 1.4 |

| Release date | July 2011 | July 2024 |

| Production status | End-of-life | Active |

The Tesla C2070 uses a larger, older chip with more ROPs but significantly fewer shading units. The Radeon 880M compensates with a much higher clock speed and a smaller, denser die. The Tesla's dedicated GDDR5 memory with a 384-bit bus provides fixed bandwidth, while the Radeon relies on shared system memory, making its bandwidth dependent on the host system.

The Verdict

The benchmark data clearly favors the AMD Radeon 880M in raw compute performance. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 31285 is 68.9% higher than the Tesla C2070's 9716, and its average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 8436, though this average is pulled down by low scores in Passmark DirectX tests. The Radeon's 4.454 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, 139.2 GTexel/s texture rate, and 46.40 GPixel/s pixel rate all dwarf the Tesla's corresponding figures.

The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 does have advantages in specific areas. Its 6 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus provides predictable 143.4 GB/s bandwidth, whereas the Radeon's bandwidth is system dependent. The Tesla also has more ROPs (48 vs. 16) and more TMUs (56 vs. 48), which could benefit certain rasterization-heavy workloads. Its average score of 9716 places it at the 47th percentile of all GPUs, slightly above the Radeon's 43rd percentile, but this is driven by the Radeon's inclusion of additional benchmark results with lower scores.

For users seeking a discrete GPU with dedicated memory and a proven legacy driver ecosystem, the Tesla C2070 remains a functional option, though it is end-of-life and requires substantial power (238 W TDP, dual-slot cooler, 550 W PSU recommendation). For users prioritizing compute performance, modern API support including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, and dramatically lower power consumption (15 W TDP), the Radeon 880M is the superior choice based on recorded data.

The Radeon 880M's nearest rivals, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and MX330, sit within 0.3% of its average score, indicating it competes in the mobile discrete GPU class despite being an integrated processor. The Tesla C2070's nearest rivals, including the Quadro P4000 and GeForce GTX 1070, all score within 0.7% of its average, suggesting it remains competitive with mid-range discrete GPUs from later generations in OpenCL compute workloads.

The verdict from the data is straightforward: the AMD Radeon 880M wins the only direct head-to-head benchmark by a wide margin and offers modern features, while the Tesla C2070 offers dedicated memory and higher ROP counts but lags in compute performance and lacks ray tracing and Vulkan support. Users who need a legacy Fermi compute card with 6 GB of dedicated GDDR5 may still find the Tesla relevant, but the Radeon 880M's performance and efficiency make it the stronger choice for current workloads.