AMD Radeon HD 7770M vs NVIDIA Tesla K10 Comparison

NVIDIA Tesla K10 and AMD Radeon HD 7770M occupy opposite extremes of the GPU spectrum, yet their benchmark scores place them in a surprisingly narrow band. The Tesla K10 delivers a Geekbench OpenCL score of 14,029, while the Radeon HD 7770M posts a Geekbench Metal score of 13,536, a difference of only 493 points. This slim margin, however, masks fundamental differences in design philosophy, power envelope, and intended use case that the raw numbers alone cannot convey.

Where Each One Wins

The Tesla K10 is clearly built for raw compute throughput in a stationary workstation context. Its 2.289 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 160.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth dwarf the Radeon's 691.2 GFLOPS and 64.00 GB/s. The data shows a 3.3x advantage in raw floating-point throughput and a 2.5x advantage in memory bandwidth, making the Tesla the obvious choice for any workload that scales with parallel math operations. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, double the Radeon's 1024 MB, also provides more headroom for large datasets.

The Radeon HD 7770M wins decisively in the mobility and efficiency domain. Its 32 W TDP is a fraction of the Tesla's 225 W, representing a 7x reduction in power draw. This makes the Radeon the only viable option for portable devices, as its "Portable Device Dependent" display outputs confirm. The Tesla has "No outputs" at all, meaning it cannot drive a display on its own. For any use case requiring an integrated graphics solution in a laptop or compact system, the Radeon is the sole contender.

Benchmark percentiles tell a similar story. The Tesla K10 sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon HD 7770M sits just one point lower at the 54th percentile. This near-identical percentile ranking suggests that for the specific benchmark each card took—OpenCL for the Tesla and Metal for the Radeon—they perform at essentially the same level relative to the broader GPU landscape. The Radeon's Metal score being only 3.5% lower than the Tesla's OpenCL score, despite having less than one-third the compute resources, indicates that AMD's architecture achieves better real-world efficiency per unit of raw silicon.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial. The Tesla K10 is built on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture using the GK104 chip, while the Radeon HD 7770M employs AMD's GCN 1.0 architecture with the Chelsea chip. Both are fabricated on TSMC's 28 nm process node, but the similarities end there.

The Tesla K10 packs 3,540 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.0M per mm². The Radeon HD 7770M contains 1,500 million transistors on a much smaller 123 mm² die, achieving a nearly identical density of 12.2M per mm². This density parity is remarkable given the scale difference—NVIDIA chose to double down on compute resources, while AMD opted for a more conservative design.

The compute configuration reflects this divergence. The Tesla K10 features 1,536 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The Radeon HD 7770M has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The Tesla's 3x advantage in shading units and 4x advantage in TMUs directly translate to its higher pixel rate of 23.84 GPixel/s versus the Radeon's 10.80 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 95.36 GTexel/s versus 21.60 GTexel/s.

API support shows subtle differences. Both support DirectX 12, but the Tesla lists "12 (11_0)" while the Radeon lists "12 (11_1)", indicating the Radeon has slightly better feature-level support. Both support OpenGL 4.6, with Vulkan versions close at 1.2.175 for the Tesla and 1.2.170 for the Radeon. The Radeon's slightly higher DirectX feature level and its ability to output to displays suggest it was designed with more consumer-oriented flexibility, despite its lower raw power.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has better raw compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K10 delivers 2.289 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 3.3x higher than the AMD Radeon HD 7770M's 691.2 GFLOPS. The Tesla also provides 160.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus the Radeon's 64.00 GB/s.

Q: Can either GPU be used in a laptop?

A: Only the AMD Radeon HD 7770M is suitable for portable use, with a 32 W TDP and "Portable Device Dependent" display outputs. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 has a 225 W TDP, requires dual-slot cooling, and has no display outputs, making it a desktop-only workstation component.

Q: How do their benchmark scores compare?

A: The Tesla K10 scores 14,029 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon HD 7770M scores 13,536 in Geekbench Metal. The Tesla leads by 3.5%, and both cards sit within one percentile point of each other globally (55th vs 54th percentile).

Q: What are the memory specifications of each card?

A: The Tesla K10 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, while the Radeon HD 7770M has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. The Tesla's memory runs at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) versus the Radeon's 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective).

Q: Which GPU has a larger die and more transistors?

A: The Tesla K10 uses a 294 mm² die with 3,540 million transistors, compared to the Radeon HD 7770M's 123 mm² die with 1,500 million transistors. Despite this, both achieve nearly identical transistor densities of 12.0M and 12.2M per mm² respectively.

Q: What are the power supply requirements?

A: The Tesla K10 requires a 550 W suggested PSU and uses 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors. The Radeon HD 7770M has no listed power connector or PSU requirement, consistent with its low 32 W TDP for mobile use.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every measurable specification. The Tesla K10 uses a GK104 chip with Kepler architecture, while the Radeon HD 7770M uses a Chelsea chip with GCN 1.0 architecture. The Tesla's die measures 294 mm² versus the Radeon's 123 mm², with transistor counts of 3,540 million and 1,500 million respectively.

Memory configurations diverge sharply: the Tesla offers 4 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Radeon provides 1024 MB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 64.00 GB/s. The Tesla's memory clock runs at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) versus the Radeon's 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective).

Compute resources differ by multiples: the Tesla has 1,536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, while the Radeon has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Pixel rate stands at 23.84 GPixel/s for the Tesla versus 10.80 GPixel/s for the Radeon. Texture rate is 95.36 GTexel/s versus 21.60 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 2.289 TFLOPS versus 691.2 GFLOPS.

Power and physical specifications could not be more different. The Tesla consumes 225 W, requires dual-slot spacing, uses 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors, and needs a 550 W PSU. The Radeon draws only 32 W, has no listed slot width, power connectors, or PSU requirement. The Tesla measures 272 mm (10.7 inches) in length, while the Radeon has no listed dimensions. The Tesla uses PCIe 3.0 x16, the Radeon PCIe 2.0 x16. The Tesla has no display outputs; the Radeon's outputs are portable device dependent. DirectX support differs slightly at 12 (11_0) for the Tesla and 12 (11_1) for the Radeon.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct head-to-head benchmark data is unavailable, but the individual benchmark scores provide a clear comparison. The Tesla K10's Geekbench OpenCL score of 14,029 places it 0.9% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (14,150) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13,871). The Radeon HD 7770M's Geekbench Metal score of 13,536 sits 0.1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (13,543) and 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13,515).

The cross-architecture comparison is striking. The Tesla K10's OpenCL score exceeds the Radeon's Metal score by 493 points, or 3.5%. Yet when placed against their respective nearest rivals, both cards perform within 1.6% of their closest competitors. The Tesla's nearest rivals span from the GTX 680 at -0.9% to the AMD Radeon 660M at +1.6%. The Radeon's rivals range from the RX 9070 XT at -0.1% to the AMD Radeon Pro 555 at +1.0%.

This data suggests that while the Tesla has a raw compute advantage, the Radeon achieves comparable benchmark standing with dramatically fewer resources. The Radeon HD 7770M's Metal score of 13,536 comes from a GPU with one-third the shading units, one-quarter the memory bandwidth, and one-third the FP32 throughput of the Tesla K10. The efficiency gap is enormous: the Radeon produces 92.4% of the Tesla's benchmark score while consuming only 14.2% of the power.

The Tesla's 55th percentile ranking versus the Radeon's 54th percentile shows that these cards are practically equivalent in their overall standing among all GPUs. The data implies that for the specific workloads measured—OpenCL for the Tesla and Metal for the Radeon—the architectural efficiency of GCN 1.0 compensates significantly for the massive resource disparity.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear separation of use cases. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 is the choice for compute-dense workloads where raw FP32 throughput, memory bandwidth, and capacity matter above all else. Its 2.289 TFLOPS, 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, and 4 GB memory make it suitable for tasks like scientific simulation or rendering that demand maximum parallel math. The 225 W power draw and dual-slot form factor are acceptable tradeoffs in a workstation environment where the card's 272 mm length and 550 W PSU requirement can be accommodated.

The AMD Radeon HD 7770M is the pick for any scenario requiring graphics output in a portable device. Its 32 W TDP, PCIe 2.0 x16 interface, and portable-device-dependent display outputs make it the only viable option for laptop integration. The 1024 MB memory capacity and 64.00 GB/s bandwidth are modest, but the card's 13,536 Metal score proves it can still deliver competitive performance relative to its class.

The benchmark percentiles tell the final story: these are evenly matched GPUs in overall terms, differing by just one percentile point. The Tesla K10's higher raw specifications do not translate into a commanding benchmark lead, while the Radeon's efficiency makes it a remarkably capable performer for its power envelope. Users needing maximum compute density should choose the Tesla K10; users needing a balanced mobile GPU should choose the Radeon HD 7770M. The data does not support choosing either card for the other's use case.