AMD Radeon 890M vs NVIDIA Tesla C2070 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 and AMD Radeon 890M represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, and the benchmark data reflects a clear generational shift. The Tesla C2070, a Fermi-era compute card from 2011, posts a Geekbench OpenCL score of 9,716, while the Radeon 890M, a 2024 integrated graphics processor, achieves 37,254 in the same test—a 73.9% advantage for the AMD part. This single head-to-head benchmark result defines the entire comparison, but the story is more nuanced when examining their respective positions within the broader GPU landscape. The Tesla C2070 sits at the 47th percentile among all GPUs, while the Radeon 890M is at the 45th percentile, indicating that despite the massive raw score difference, both occupy similar mid-tier positions relative to their contemporary peers.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon 890M is the unequivocal winner in the only head-to-head benchmark available, delivering a Geekbench OpenCL score of 37,254 compared to the Tesla C2070's 9,716. This represents a 73.9% performance advantage, a margin so substantial that it fundamentally redefines the comparison. The Radeon 890M's OpenCL result places it well ahead of its nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9,221 average score, 0.1% behind) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9,273 average, 0.7% behind). In contrast, the Tesla C2070's OpenCL score of 9,716 puts it in a tight cluster with the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9,724 average, 0.1% ahead) and the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (9,665 average, 0.5% behind), showing that the older card remains competitive with mid-range professional GPUs from a later generation.

The Radeon 890M also demonstrates versatility across multiple benchmark suites, with strong showings in PassMark tests including 8,076 in G3D, 4,157 in GPU Compute, and 979 in G2D. Its Vulkan score of 40,808 and DirectX 12 Steel Nomad score of 590 further illustrate its modern API support and computational breadth. The Tesla C2070, by contrast, has only a single benchmark entry, making it difficult to assess its performance beyond the OpenCL test. The data suggests the AMD part wins decisively in raw compute throughput, while the NVIDIA card's relevance is confined to legacy compute workloads where its 6 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory and 384-bit bus might offer advantages unavailable to a shared-memory IGP.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is vast, reflecting 13 years of semiconductor evolution. The Tesla C2070 is built on NVIDIA's Fermi architecture using a GF100 chip manufactured on TSMC's 40 nm process, housing 3,100 million transistors on a 529 mm² die with a transistor density of 5.9 million transistors per square millimeter. The Radeon 890M employs AMD's RDNA 3.5 architecture with a Strix Point chip on TSMC's 4 nm process, packing 34,000 million transistors onto a 233 mm² die—a density of 145.9 million per square millimeter. This represents a 24.7 times improvement in transistor density, enabling the AMD part to fit more than 10 times the transistor count into less than half the die area.

The compute configurations differ dramatically as well. The Tesla C2070 features 448 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, while the Radeon 890M has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The AMD part also includes 16 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Fermi-based NVIDIA card. The Radeon 890M's clock speeds reach 2,900 MHz boost, compared to the Tesla C2070's memory clock of 747 MHz (3 Gbps effective), though the NVIDIA card's memory architecture is fundamentally different—6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus delivering 143.4 GB/s bandwidth, versus the AMD's system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The Tesla C2070 draws 238 W and requires dual-slot cooling with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors, while the Radeon 890M is a 15 W IGP with no power connectors and no dedicated slot width.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are starkly one-sided. The AMD Radeon 890M scores 37,254 against the NVIDIA Tesla C2070's 9,716, yielding a delta of -73.9% when measured from the AMD perspective. This means the Radeon 890M delivers approximately 3.8 times the OpenCL performance of the Tesla C2070. To contextualize this within their respective peer groups, the Tesla C2070's score places it just 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9,724) and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (9,665), while the Radeon 890M's score sits 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9,221) and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9,273). The raw score delta between the two cards is 27,538 points, a chasm that reflects not just architectural improvements but also the AMD part's higher shading unit count and significantly higher clock speeds.

The Radeon 890M's additional benchmark results provide a fuller picture of its capabilities. Its Vulkan score of 40,808 and PassMark G3D score of 8,076 indicate strong real-world gaming and compute potential, while its PassMark DirectX 9 score of 97 and DirectX 11 score of 73 show solid legacy API performance. The Tesla C2070's single benchmark entry limits deeper comparative analysis, but its OpenCL result demonstrates that even a decade-old compute card can hold its own against entry-level modern GPUs when measured solely on this metric.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two GPUs diverge on nearly every measurable parameter. Process node: 40 nm for the Tesla C2070 versus 4 nm for the Radeon 890M. Transistor count: 3,100 million versus 34,000 million. Die size: 529 mm² versus 233 mm². Transistor density: 5.9M/mm² versus 145.9M/mm². Shading units: 448 versus 1,024. TMUs: 56 versus 64. ROPs: 48 versus 32. Ray tracing cores: none versus 16. Pixel rate: 16.07 GPixel/s versus 92.80 GPixel/s. Texture rate: 32.14 GTexel/s versus 185.6 GTexel/s. FP32 performance: 1,027.7 GFLOPS versus 5.939 TFLOPS. FP16: not listed versus 5.939 TFLOPS (1:1). TDP: 238 W versus 15 W. Slot width: dual-slot versus IGP. Power connectors: 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin versus none. Suggested PSU: 550 W versus not listed. Bus interface: PCIe 2.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs: 1x DVI versus portable device dependent. DirectX support: 12 (11_0) versus 12 Ultimate (12_2). Vulkan support: not listed versus 1.4. OpenGL: 4.6 for both.

Production status and release timing also differ: the Tesla C2070 is end-of-life, released on July 24, 2011, with the Tesla as predecessor and Tesla Kepler as successor, while the Radeon 890M is active, released on July 14, 2024, with Navi II IGP as predecessor and no successor listed. The NVIDIA card measures 248 mm (9.8 inches) in length, while the AMD part has no listed dimensions due to its integrated nature. Memory configurations are fundamentally incompatible: 6 GB GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 143.4 GB/s bandwidth versus system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon 890M delivers 5.939 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the NVIDIA Tesla C2070's 1,027.7 GFLOPS, making the AMD part roughly 5.8 times faster in theoretical peak compute.

Q: How do their Geekbench OpenCL scores compare?

A: The Radeon 890M scores 37,254 compared to the Tesla C2070's 9,716, a 73.9% advantage for the AMD part in the only head-to-head benchmark available.

Q: What are the memory configurations of each GPU?

A: The Tesla C2070 has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 143.4 GB/s bandwidth, while the Radeon 890M uses system-shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth and no dedicated VRAM.

Q: Which GPU supports ray tracing?

A: Only the AMD Radeon 890M includes ray tracing capability, featuring 16 dedicated ray tracing cores; the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 has no ray tracing hardware.

Q: How do their power requirements differ?

A: The Tesla C2070 has a 238 W TDP, requires dual-slot cooling, 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors, and a suggested 550 W PSU, while the Radeon 890M is a 15 W IGP with no power connectors or PSU requirement.

Q: What is the production status of each GPU?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 is end-of-life with a release date of July 24, 2011, while the AMD Radeon 890M is active with a release date of July 14, 2024.