AMD Radeon 880M vs NVIDIA Tesla M10 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M10 records an average benchmark score of 9724, while the AMD Radeon 880M scores 8436. The Tesla M10 sits at the 47th percentile of all GPUs, and the Radeon 880M at the 43rd percentile.

Q: Which GPU wins the head-to-head benchmark matchups?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M wins both recorded head-to-head tests. In Geekbench OpenCL it scores 31285 against the Tesla M10's 10318, a delta of -67% from the Tesla's perspective. In Geekbench Vulkan it scores 40006 versus 9130, a delta of -77.2%.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each GPU in the database?

A: The Tesla M10's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (0.1% ahead), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (-0.6%), NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (0.6%), and AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 (0.7%). The Radeon 880M's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX (0.1% ahead), NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (-0.3%), AMD Radeon HD 8870M (-0.3%), and AMD Radeon R9 M375X (1.3%).

Q: What process nodes do the two GPUs use?

A: The Tesla M10 uses a 28 nm process at TSMC with 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die. The Radeon 880M uses a 4 nm process at TSMC with 34,000 million transistors on a 233 mm² die.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Tesla M10 has a TDP of 225 W, requires a dual-slot cooler, one 8-pin power connector, and a suggested 550 W power supply. The Radeon 880M has a TDP of 15 W, is an IGP, and uses no power connectors.

Q: What API levels does each GPU support?

A: The Tesla M10 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon 880M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon 880M dominates the recorded benchmark suite entirely. It wins both head-to-head tests: Geekbench OpenCL (31285 versus 10318) and Geekbench Vulkan (40006 versus 9130). The margin in Vulkan is particularly large, with the Radeon 880M delivering more than four times the score of the Tesla M10. The OpenCL result shows a similar trend, with the Radeon 880M scoring roughly three times higher.

The Tesla M10's strengths lie elsewhere. Its average benchmark score of 9724 is higher than the Radeon 880M's 8436, and its percentile rank (47th) exceeds the Radeon's (43rd). The Tesla M10 also has a higher transistor density relative to its die size (12.6M per mm² versus 145.9M per mm² is not a direct comparison, but the Tesla's 1,870 million transistors on 148 mm² versus the Radeon's 34,000 million on 233 mm² shows the Radeon packs far more transistors per area). However, the Tesla's advantage in average score comes from a narrower benchmark set: it only has two recorded tests, both of which it loses decisively.

For compute workloads, the Radeon 880M is the clear winner. Its FP32 throughput of 4.454 TFLOPS is 2.66 times the Tesla M10's 1.672 TFLOPS. The Radeon also delivers higher pixel rate (46.40 GPixel/s versus 20.90 GPixel/s) and texture rate (139.2 GTexel/s versus 52.24 GTexel/s). The Radeon 880M even supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio (4.454 TFLOPS), while the Tesla M10 has no recorded FP16 capability.

The Tesla M10 has its own advantages: 8 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory with 83.20 GB/s bandwidth, versus the Radeon 880M's system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The Tesla also uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the Radeon uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The Tesla's dedicated memory may be preferable in scenarios where memory isolation matters, but the Radeon's much higher compute throughput and modern architecture make it the stronger overall performer in the recorded data.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different eras and design philosophies. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 uses the GM107 chip on the Maxwell architecture, part of the Tesla Maxwell generation. It is built on a 28 nm process at TSMC with 1,870 million transistors and a 148 mm² die size. The AMD Radeon 880M uses the Strix Point chip on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, part of the Navi III IGP generation. It is built on a 4 nm process at TSMC with 34,000 million transistors and a 233 mm² die size.

The transistor density figures highlight the process gap: the Tesla M10 has 12.6M transistors per mm², while the Radeon 880M has 145.9M per mm². This is a direct consequence of the 28 nm versus 4 nm process nodes.

The Tesla M10 has 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. The Radeon 880M has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Radeon also includes 12 ray tracing cores, while the Tesla M10 has none. Neither GPU has tensor cores.

Memory architecture differs completely. The Tesla M10 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 83.20 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon 880M uses system-shared memory, with the memory type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as system-dependent. This means the Radeon's memory performance varies with the host system, while the Tesla has fixed, dedicated memory resources.

The Tesla M10 has no display outputs, making it a pure compute card. The Radeon 880M's display outputs are portable-device dependent, reflecting its IGP status. The Tesla is a dual-slot card requiring a 1x 8-pin power connector and a 550 W suggested power supply. The Radeon is an IGP with no power connectors and a 15 W TDP.

The Tesla M10 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon 880M uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The Tesla supports DirectX 12 (11_0), while the Radeon supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification category. The process node is 28 nm for the Tesla M10 versus 4 nm for the Radeon 880M. Transistor count is 1,870 million versus 34,000 million. Die size is 148 mm² versus 233 mm². Transistor density is 12.6M per mm² versus 145.9M per mm².

Clock speeds differ substantially. The Tesla M10 has a base clock of 1033 MHz and a boost clock of 1306 MHz. The Radeon 880M has a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz. Memory clocks are 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective) for the Tesla, while the Radeon's memory clock is system-shared.

Memory capacity is 8 GB GDDR5 for the Tesla versus system-shared for the Radeon. Bus width is 128-bit versus system-shared. Bandwidth is 83.20 GB/s versus system-dependent.

Shading units are 640 versus 768. TMUs are 40 versus 48. ROPs are 16 for both. The Radeon has 12 RT cores, while the Tesla has none. FP32 throughput is 1.672 TFLOPS versus 4.454 TFLOPS. The Radeon also has FP16 at 4.454 TFLOPS (1:1), while the Tesla has no FP16 figure.

Power draw is 225 W versus 15 W. Slot width is dual-slot versus IGP. Power connectors are 1x 8-pin versus none. The suggested PSU is 550 W versus not applicable. Bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x8.

Display outputs are none for the Tesla versus portable-device dependent for the Radeon. DirectX support is 12 (11_0) versus 12 Ultimate (12_2). Production status is end-of-life versus active. Release dates are May 2016 versus July 2024.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two head-to-head benchmark comparisons between the NVIDIA Tesla M10 and the AMD Radeon 880M. Both favor the Radeon 880M decisively.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon 880M scores 31285 against the Tesla M10's 10318. The delta is -67% from the Tesla's perspective, meaning the Tesla scores roughly one-third of the Radeon's result. This is the smaller of the two gaps but still represents a massive performance difference. The OpenCL test measures general compute throughput, and the Radeon's higher FP32 capability (4.454 TFLOPS versus 1.672 TFLOPS) aligns with this outcome.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens further. The Radeon 880M scores 40006 against the Tesla M10's 9130, a delta of -77.2% from the Tesla's side. The Radeon's Vulkan score is more than four times the Tesla's. This suggests the Radeon 880M's modern RDNA 3.5 architecture handles Vulkan workloads far more efficiently than the Maxwell-based Tesla M10.

The Tesla M10's nearest rivals provide context for its performance level. It sits within 1% of the NVIDIA Tesla C2070, GeForce GTX 1070, Quadro P4000, and Radeon Pro WX 2100. The Radeon 880M sits within 1.3% of the GeForce GTX 675MX, GeForce MX330, Radeon HD 8870M, and Radeon R9 M375X. These rival groupings show that the Tesla M10 competes with desktop-class GPUs from its era, while the Radeon 880M aligns with older mobile GPUs despite scoring higher in the head-to-head tests.

The average benchmark scores tell a different story than the head-to-head results. The Tesla M10's average is 9724, which is 15.3% higher than the Radeon 880M's 8436. This discrepancy exists because the Tesla only has two recorded benchmarks, both of which are Geekbench tests, while the Radeon has ten recorded benchmarks across multiple suites including 3DMark and PassMark. The Radeon's PassMark results (7615 in G3D, 3719 in GPU compute, 969 in G2D) drag its average down relative to its Geekbench scores.

The Radeon 880M also records a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 535, which is a modern DirectX 12 workload. The Tesla M10 has no equivalent 3DMark result. The Radeon's PassMark DirectX scores (97 in DX9, 73 in DX11, 32 in DX12, 31 in DX10) are varied, with the DX9 score being the highest. This pattern is typical for an IGP that handles legacy APIs well but struggles with the most demanding modern workloads.

Overall, the head-to-head data shows the Radeon 880M delivering roughly 3 to 4 times the performance of the Tesla M10 in compute-oriented benchmarks. The Tesla M10's higher average score is a function of its limited benchmark set, not a reflection of superior performance. The Radeon 880M's architectural advantages, including a newer process node, higher transistor count, more shading units, ray tracing support, and significantly higher clock speeds, translate directly into benchmark dominance.