AMD Radeon HD 7950 vs NVIDIA Tesla M40 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data places the NVIDIA Tesla M40 and the AMD Radeon HD 7950 in very different performance tiers. The Tesla M40 has an average benchmark score of 41,897, while the Radeon HD 7950 sits at 33,951. That is a gap of roughly 23% in favor of the Tesla M40, a substantial margin that reflects the generational and architectural distance between the two cards.

Looking at the individual benchmark results, the Tesla M40 posts a Geekbench OpenCL score of 39,192 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 44,602. The Radeon HD 7950 has only a single recorded benchmark, a Geekbench Metal score of 33,951. Because the two cards share no common benchmark test in the database, direct same-test comparison is not possible. However, the average scores serve as the baseline for comparison, and the Tesla M40's average is 7,946 points higher than the Radeon HD 7950's average.

The Tesla M40's position among its nearest rivals reinforces its standing. It sits 0.5% ahead of the Tesla M40 24 GB, 1.7% ahead of the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300. The only rival in its immediate cluster that beats it is the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, which is 1.9% higher. These are tight margins, meaning the Tesla M40 is performing in line with much newer hardware, an impressive result for a card from the Maxwell generation.

The Radeon HD 7950, by contrast, sits in a cluster of older and mid-range cards. It is 0.1% behind the Radeon RX 480, 0.3% ahead of the Radeon RX 7700S, 0.5% behind the Radeon RX 560 XT, and 0.6% behind the NVIDIA RTX A2000 12 GB. These are all very close scores, indicating the HD 7950 is still competitive with a range of cards from later generations, but it is clearly not in the same league as the Tesla M40.

The percentile rankings tell a similar story. The Tesla M40 is in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Radeon HD 7950 is in the 78th percentile. That five-point gap in percentile placement is consistent with the average score difference and shows that the Tesla M40 sits noticeably higher in the overall performance distribution.

Where Each One Wins

The Tesla M40 wins on raw compute performance in every measurable category in the database. Its FP32 throughput is 6.832 TFLOPS compared to 2.867 TFLOPS for the Radeon HD 7950, more than double. The pixel rate is 106.8 GPixel/s versus 25.60 GPixel/s, a factor of over four. The texture rate is 213.5 GTexel/s versus 89.60 GTexel/s, more than double again. These are not marginal advantages; the Tesla M40 is in a different performance class across all shading, texturing, and rasterization metrics.

Memory capacity and bandwidth also favor the Tesla M40. It has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory versus 3 GB, and memory bandwidth of 288.4 GB/s versus 240.0 GB/s. The 384-bit bus width is shared by both cards, but the Tesla M40 achieves higher bandwidth through a higher memory clock of 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) on the Radeon HD 7950. For workloads that are memory-bound, such as large dataset processing or high-resolution rendering, the Tesla M40 has a clear advantage.

The Radeon HD 7950 does have one notable advantage: it has display outputs. The card includes 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2. The Tesla M40 has no display outputs at all, which makes it unsuitable for any use case that requires driving a monitor directly. This is a fundamental difference in purpose. The Tesla M40 is a compute-focused accelerator, while the Radeon HD 7950 is a traditional graphics card that can also handle compute workloads.

Power consumption is another area where the Radeon HD 7950 is more modest. It has a TDP of 200 W and uses 2x 6-pin power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 550 W. The Tesla M40 has a TDP of 250 W, uses an 8-pin EPS connector, and suggests a 600 W PSU. The Radeon HD 7950 is the lighter power draw of the two, but the difference is not dramatic.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear verdict for compute performance: the NVIDIA Tesla M40 is the stronger card. Its average benchmark score is 23% higher than the Radeon HD 7950, its FP32 throughput is more than double, and its memory capacity is four times larger. For any workload that depends on raw shader throughput, memory bandwidth, or large frame buffers, the Tesla M40 is the obvious choice.

The Radeon HD 7950 is not without merit, but its advantages are limited to practical considerations rather than raw performance. It has display outputs, so it can be used as a regular graphics card. It draws 50 W less power. It is shorter in length at 278 mm versus 267 mm, actually the Tesla M40 is shorter, so that point goes to the Tesla M40. The Radeon HD 7950 is taller and wider, with a height of 111 mm and width of 38 mm, while the Tesla M40's height and width are not recorded in the database.

Who should pick which depends entirely on the use case. The Tesla M40 is for compute-focused environments where display output is not needed, such as server racks, headless rendering nodes, or machine learning inference. The Radeon HD 7950 is for users who need a working graphics card with display connectivity and are willing to accept lower compute performance. The launch MSRP of the Radeon HD 7950 was 449 USD, but pricing considerations are not part of this analysis.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M40 has an average benchmark score of 41,897, while the AMD Radeon HD 7950 has an average of 33,951. The Tesla M40 is approximately 23% higher.

Q: Does the Tesla M40 support display output?

A: No. The Tesla M40 has no display outputs. The Radeon HD 7950, in contrast, has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 connections.

Q: How does the memory configuration compare?

A: The Tesla M40 has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 384-bit bus and 288.4 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon HD 7950 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory with the same 384-bit bus width but lower bandwidth at 240.0 GB/s.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The Tesla M40 delivers 6.832 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, more than double the Radeon HD 7950's 2.867 TFLOPS.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Tesla M40 has a TDP of 250 W and uses an 8-pin EPS connector, with a suggested PSU of 600 W. The Radeon HD 7950 has a TDP of 200 W and uses 2x 6-pin connectors, with a suggested PSU of 550 W.

Q: How do the two cards rank relative to all GPUs in the database?

A: The Tesla M40 is in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon HD 7950 is in the 78th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural eras. The NVIDIA Tesla M40 is built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, specifically the GM200 chip, and belongs to the Tesla Maxwell generation. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture with the Tahiti chip, part of the Southern Islands generation. Both are fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, but that is where the manufacturing similarities end.

The transistor counts differ significantly. The Tesla M40 packs 8,000 million transistors on a die size of 601 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 13.3M per mm². The Radeon HD 7950 has 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die, giving a density of 12.3M per mm². The Tesla M40 is not only a larger chip, it is also slightly denser, indicating a more efficient use of the same process node.

The compute resources are heavily skewed toward the Tesla M40. It has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The Radeon HD 7950 has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and only 32 ROPs. The ROP count difference is particularly stark, which explains the massive gap in pixel rate (106.8 GPixel/s versus 25.60 GPixel/s). The Tesla M40 has three times the ROPs of the Radeon HD 7950.

API support also differs. The Tesla M40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Radeon HD 7950 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The DirectX feature level is higher on the Tesla M40, and the Vulkan version is newer.

The release timelines are far apart. The Radeon HD 7950 was released in January 2012, while the Tesla M40 arrived in November 2015. The predecessor and successor lines reflect this: the Radeon HD 7950 follows Northern Islands and leads to Sea Islands, while the Tesla M40 follows Tesla Kepler and leads to Tesla Pascal.

Specification Differences

The specifications that differ between the two cards are extensive. The Tesla M40 has a base clock of 948 MHz and a boost clock of 1112 MHz, while the Radeon HD 7950 has no recorded base or boost clocks in the database. The memory clock is 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) on the Tesla M40 versus 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) on the Radeon HD 7950.

Memory capacity is 12 GB on the Tesla M40 versus 3 GB on the Radeon HD 7950. Both use GDDR5 and a 384-bit bus, but bandwidth is 288.4 GB/s versus 240.0 GB/s. Shading units are 3,072 versus 1,792, TMUs are 192 versus 112, and ROPs are 96 versus 32.

Pixel rate is 106.8 GPixel/s versus 25.60 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 213.5 GTexel/s versus 89.60 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 6.832 TFLOPS versus 2.867 TFLOPS. TDP is 250 W versus 200 W. Power connectors are 8-pin EPS versus 2x 6-pin. Suggested PSU is 600 W versus 550 W.

Display outputs: the Tesla M40 has none, while the Radeon HD 7950 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2. Dimensions differ: the Tesla M40 is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long with no recorded height or width, while the Radeon HD 7950 is 278 mm (10.9 inches) long, 111 mm (4.4 inches) tall, and 38 mm (1.5 inches) wide.

DirectX support is 12 (12_1) on the Tesla M40 versus 12 (11_1) on the Radeon HD 7950. Vulkan support is 1.4 versus 1.2.170. OpenGL support is 4.6 on both. The Tesla M40 has no launch MSRP recorded, while the Radeon HD 7950 has a launch MSRP of 449 USD.