AMD Radeon HD 7970 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

# The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA Tesla P4 is the stronger GPU in this matchup, winning the only shared benchmark by 1.2% and ranking in the 81st percentile of all GPUs versus the Radeon HD 7970's 79th percentile. That said, the two cards are far closer in raw compute than their release dates suggest. The Tesla P4 edges out the HD 7970 in Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 34,947 against 34,541, a margin of just 406 points. This is not a generational blowout; it is a narrow victory for the newer architecture.

For a buyer choosing between these two end-of-life cards, the Tesla P4 is the default pick for compute workloads. It delivers higher average benchmark scores (37,628 vs 34,541), consumes 175 W less power (75 W vs 250 W), and packs 8 GB of GDDR5 memory versus 3 GB. The HD 7970 does retain one meaningful advantage: memory bandwidth. Its 384-bit bus pushes 264.0 GB/s, substantially ahead of the Tesla P4's 192.3 GB/s. Yet bandwidth alone does not translate into a benchmark win here.

The HD 7970's only real argument is raw memory throughput and pixel fill rate, but those advantages do not show up in the data where it matters. The Tesla P4 wins the OpenCL test outright, and its Vulkan score of 40,309 gives it a second data point the HD 7970 simply lacks. If the workload is memory-bandwidth-bound, the HD 7970 might be worth considering—but the evidence says the Tesla P4 is the better all-rounder.

Pick the Tesla P4 for efficiency, compute density, and modern API support. Pick the HD 7970 only if you specifically need that 264.0 GB/s bandwidth and can tolerate a 250 W power draw with a 600 W suggested PSU. The verdict is not close: 1 win to 0, with the Tesla P4 holding a 1.2% lead in the only head-to-head test available.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 scores 34,947, beating the AMD Radeon HD 7970's 34,541 by 1.2%. This is the only benchmark where both cards have recorded scores.

Q: How does the Tesla P4 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Tesla P4's average benchmark score of 37,628 puts it 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648), 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507), and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37,157).

Q: What is the HD 7970's closest competitor in this data?

A: The Radeon HD 7970's average score of 34,541 places it 0.1% behind the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34,561) and 0.4% behind the NVIDIA A2 (34,690). It sits 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN V (34,355).

Q: Which card has more memory and what are the bandwidth implications?

A: The Tesla P4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus delivering 192.3 GB/s. The HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus delivering 264.0 GB/s. The HD 7970 has 37.3% more memory bandwidth.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Tesla P4 has a TDP of 75 W with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The HD 7970 has a TDP of 250 W, requires 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors, and needs a 600 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The Tesla P4 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The HD 7970 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Tesla P4 has the more recent API versions.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 come from fundamentally different design eras. The Tesla P4 uses the GP104 chip built on TSMC's 16 nm process, packing 7,200 million transistors into a 314 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 22.9M per mm². The HD 7970, by contrast, uses the Tahiti chip on a 28 nm process from the same foundry, with 4,313 million transistors spread across a larger 352 mm² die—a density of just 12.3M per mm².

The architectural gap reflects their generations. The Tesla P4 belongs to the Pascal architecture, part of the Tesla Pascal (Pxx) generation, succeeding Tesla Maxwell and preceding Tesla Volta. The HD 7970 is built on GCN 1.0, from the Southern Islands (HD 7900) generation, succeeding Northern Islands and preceding Sea Islands. The Tesla P4 launched in September 2016; the HD 7970 launched in January 2012—a gap of over four and a half years.

Shader configuration differs markedly. The Tesla P4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The HD 7970 counters with 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and just 32 ROPs. That 2:1 ROP advantage for the Tesla P4 is a major architectural divergence, not a minor spec tweak. Pixel rate tells the story: 71.30 GPixel/s for the Tesla P4 versus 29.60 GPixel/s for the HD 7970.

The Tesla P4 also has a dedicated FP16 path rated at 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), while the HD 7970 has no listed FP16 capability. The Tesla P4 supports Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 (12_1); the HD 7970 tops out at Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1). The newer card is also a single-slot design with no display outputs, while the HD 7970 is dual-slot with full display connectivity (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2).

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. Clock speeds: the Tesla P4 runs at 886 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost, while the HD 7970 has no base or boost clock listed in the data. Memory clocks are 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for the Tesla P4 and 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective) for the HD 7970.

Memory capacity: 8 GB versus 3 GB of GDDR5. Bus width: 256-bit versus 384-bit. Bandwidth: 192.3 GB/s versus 264.0 GB/s—a clear win for the older card. Compute throughput: the Tesla P4 delivers 5.704 TFLOPS FP32 versus 3.789 TFLOPS for the HD 7970, a 50.5% advantage for the newer GPU.

Texture rate: 178.2 GTexel/s versus 118.4 GTexel/s. Pixel rate: 71.30 GPixel/s versus 29.60 GPixel/s. Power: 75 W versus 250 W TDP. Physical dimensions: the Tesla P4 is 168 mm (6.6 inches) long, single-slot, with no power connectors. The HD 7970 is 275 mm (10.8 inches) long, 111 mm (4.4 inches) tall, 38 mm (1.5 inches) wide, dual-slot, and requires two power connectors.

The HD 7970 has a launch MSRP of 549 USD; the Tesla P4 has no listed launch MSRP. Both cards are end-of-life. The Tesla P4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the HD 7970 also uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The Tesla P4's suggested PSU is 250 W; the HD 7970's is 600 W.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Only one benchmark has scores for both cards: Geekbench OpenCL. The Tesla P4 scores 34,947, and the HD 7970 scores 34,541. The Tesla P4 wins by 1.2%, a margin of 406 points. This is the sole head-to-head data point, and it gives the Tesla P4 a 1-0 win record.

To contextualize that 1.2% margin, look at the rival sets. The Tesla P4's average benchmark score of 37,628 sits within 0.1% of the GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648) and 0.3% of the Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507). The HD 7970's average of 34,541 is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34,561) and 0.4% behind the NVIDIA A2 (34,690). The two cards occupy adjacent performance tiers but the Tesla P4 sits slightly above in the percentile ranking: 81st versus 79th.

The Tesla P4 also has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 40,309, which is 15.3% higher than its own OpenCL score. The HD 7970 has no Vulkan benchmark listed. This suggests the Tesla P4 has additional performance headroom in newer APIs that the HD 7970 cannot match.

The biggest wins for the Tesla P4 are in pixel rate (71.30 vs 29.60 GPixel/s, a 140.9% advantage), texture rate (178.2 vs 118.4 GTexel/s, a 50.5% advantage), FP32 throughput (5.704 vs 3.789 TFLOPS, a 50.5% advantage), and power efficiency (75 W vs 250 W TDP). The HD 7970's biggest win is memory bandwidth: 264.0 GB/s versus 192.3 GB/s, a 37.3% advantage.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins in compute-bound scenarios. Its FP32 throughput of 5.704 TFLOPS is 50.5% higher than the HD 7970's 3.789 TFLOPS. Its texture rate of 178.2 GTexel/s beats 118.4 GTexel/s by the same margin. For workloads that hammer shader units or texture units—neural network inference, image processing, scientific compute—the Tesla P4 is the clear choice. Its 8 GB frame buffer also gives it a 5 GB capacity advantage for larger datasets.

The Tesla P4 wins on efficiency by a wide margin. At 75 W TDP with no power connectors and a 250 W suggested PSU, it can fit into systems where the HD 7970's 250 W TDP and 600 W PSU requirement are non-starters. The Tesla P4 is single-slot and 168 mm long, versus the HD 7970's dual-slot, 275 mm length. For dense server deployments or compact workstations, the Tesla P4 is the only viable option.

The Tesla P4 also wins on modern API support. Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 (12_1) are newer than the HD 7970's Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1). The Tesla P4's Vulkan score of 40,309 demonstrates that its newer architecture extracts more performance from modern APIs.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 wins on memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate—but only on paper. Its 264.0 GB/s bandwidth is 37.3% higher than the Tesla P4's, and its 384-bit bus moves data more efficiently for memory-heavy workloads. The HD 7970's 29.60 GPixel/s pixel rate, while lower than the Tesla P4's, is still substantial for a 2012 card. If a workload is purely bandwidth-bound—certain video processing or large matrix operations—the HD 7970 could theoretically perform better.

However, the benchmark data does not support that theory. The HD 7970 loses the only head-to-head test despite its bandwidth advantage. The HD 7970 also has display outputs (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2), making it the only one of the two that can drive monitors. For legacy systems needing a display-capable GPU with high bandwidth, the HD 7970 has a niche role. For everything else, the Tesla P4's combination of higher compute, lower power, more memory, and newer APIs makes it the definitive winner.