GPU Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and NVIDIA Tesla P4 are both end-of-life, output-less professional accelerators, but they are separated by two GPU generations and a stark design philosophy. The benchmark data shows a clear split: the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 wins the OpenCL compute test by a solid margin, while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 takes the Vulkan test decisively. The average benchmark scores place the Radeon Pro 5300 slightly ahead overall, but the Tesla P4 counters with double the memory capacity and a wider memory bus.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head comparison consists of two direct benchmark matchups, with each card claiming one victory. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 scores 38,747 points against the NVIDIA Tesla P4's 34,947 points, a 10.9% advantage for the AMD part. This is a substantial win that reflects the architectural efficiency of the newer RDNA 1.0 design in general-purpose compute workloads. The Radeon Pro 5300's lead in OpenCL is its single most important performance advantage in this comparison.

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 responds in the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 40,309 points versus the AMD Radeon Pro 5300's 35,793 points. That is an 11.2% swing in NVIDIA's favor, making the Vulkan result the largest performance gap of the two tests. The Tesla P4's victory here is notable because it suggests that NVIDIA's older Pascal architecture still has strong graphics-API-level performance, likely due to its higher raw shading unit count and texture fillrate. The Vulkan delta is nearly identical in magnitude to the OpenCL delta, meaning the two cards trade blows with almost perfect symmetry.

Looking at the overall average benchmark score, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 leads with 40,870 points against the Tesla P4's 37,628 points. This puts the AMD card roughly 8.6% ahead on average, but that average is skewed by the fact that the Tesla P4 lacks a Geekbench Metal result while the AMD card has one. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300's nearest rival by average score is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti at 41,187 points, just 0.8% higher, indicating the AMD part sits in strong company. The Tesla P4's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 at 37,648 points, a 0.1% difference that shows the Pascal card is still competitive against much newer hardware in aggregate.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different eras and process technologies. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 uses the Navi 14 chip built on RDNA 1.0 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 uses the GP104 chip on the older Pascal architecture, fabricated on a 16 nm process, also by TSMC. This process gap is significant: the AMD chip packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 40.5M per mm², while the NVIDIA chip holds 7,200 million transistors in a much larger 314 mm² die, with a density of only 22.9M per mm². The Radeon Pro 5300 is therefore a far denser, more modern design.

Clock speeds also reflect the architectural divergence. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 runs at a 1000 MHz base clock and boosts to 1650 MHz, while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 operates at an 886 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost. The AMD card's higher clocks are a direct consequence of the 7 nm process and RDNA 1.0's design priorities. Memory technology differs as well: the AMD card uses 4 GB of GDDR6 at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the NVIDIA card uses 8 GB of GDDR5 at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) on a 256-bit bus, providing 192.3 GB/s. Despite the older memory type, the Tesla P4's wider bus keeps bandwidth competitive, but it still trails the AMD card by 31.7 GB/s.

Compute resources are heavily skewed toward the NVIDIA part. The Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, versus the Radeon Pro 5300's 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has exactly double the shading units, TMUs, and ROPs. This explains its higher theoretical pixel rate of 71.30 GPixel/s and texture rate of 178.2 GTexel/s, compared to the AMD card's 52.80 GPixel/s and 132.0 GTexel/s. However, the AMD card's higher clocks and newer architecture allow it to achieve 4.224 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is not far behind the Tesla P4's 5.704 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is lopsided in the other direction: the AMD card delivers 8.448 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) while the NVIDIA card manages only 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), making the Radeon Pro 5300 vastly superior for half-precision compute.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is the clear winner for OpenCL-based compute workloads. Its 10.9% lead in that specific test, combined with its 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs (versus the Tesla P4's 81st percentile), signals that it is the better general-purpose compute card. Furthermore, the AMD card has a Geekbench Metal score of 48,070, which is its strongest benchmark result and indicates strong performance in Apple-centric graphics APIs. The Radeon Pro 5300's FP16 capability at 8.448 TFLOPS makes it particularly suited for workloads that leverage half-precision arithmetic, where the Tesla P4 is effectively crippled at 89.12 GFLOPS.

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins the Vulkan test by 11.2%, which points to its strength in graphics-oriented API workloads. Its double the shading units, TMUs, and ROPs give it a raw throughput advantage that shows up in rasterization-heavy tasks. The Tesla P4 also has double the memory capacity at 8 GB versus 4 GB, which is critical for larger datasets or models that exceed the AMD card's frame buffer. The wider 256-bit memory bus, while slower in aggregate bandwidth, may offer better latency characteristics in certain access patterns. The Tesla P4's predecessor is Tesla Maxwell and its successor is Tesla Volta, indicating NVIDIA positioned it as a compute-focused accelerator, yet its Vulkan showing suggests it remains capable in graphics-adjacent tasks.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every fundamental specification. The process node is 7 nm for AMD versus 16 nm for NVIDIA. Transistor count is 6,400 million for AMD versus 7,200 million for NVIDIA. Die size is 158 mm² for AMD versus 314 mm² for NVIDIA. Base clock is 1000 MHz for AMD versus 886 MHz for NVIDIA, and boost clock is 1650 MHz versus 1114 MHz. Memory size is 4 GB GDDR6 for AMD versus 8 GB GDDR5 for NVIDIA. Memory bus width is 128-bit for AMD versus 256-bit for NVIDIA. Memory bandwidth is 224.0 GB/s for AMD versus 192.3 GB/s for NVIDIA. Shading units are 1280 versus 2560, TMUs are 80 versus 160, and ROPs are 32 versus 64. Pixel rate is 52.80 GPixel/s versus 71.30 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 132.0 GTexel/s versus 178.2 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 4.224 TFLOPS versus 5.704 TFLOPS, while FP16 is 8.448 TFLOPS versus 89.12 GFLOPS. TDP is 85 W for AMD versus 75 W for NVIDIA. Slot width is IGP for AMD versus Single-slot for NVIDIA. Bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 for AMD versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for NVIDIA. The AMD card has no length specified, while the NVIDIA card is 168 mm (6.6 inches). Release dates are 2020-08-03 for AMD versus 2016-09-12 for NVIDIA. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and neither has display outputs or power connectors, with both recommending a 250 W PSU.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 has an average benchmark score of 40,870, which is higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4's 37,628 average.

Q: How do they compare in the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with 40,309 points, which is 11.2% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 5300's 35,793 points.

Q: Which GPU has more memory?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is double the 4 GB of GDDR6 found on the AMD Radeon Pro 5300.

Q: What is the FP16 performance difference?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 delivers 8.448 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (2:1 ratio), while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 provides only 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), making the AMD card vastly superior for half-precision compute.

Q: Do both cards have display outputs?

A: No, both the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and the NVIDIA Tesla P4 have no display outputs.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 has a transistor density of 40.5M per mm², which is much higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4's 22.9M per mm², due to the AMD card's smaller 7 nm process.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear split decision. For compute workloads, particularly OpenCL and FP16-heavy tasks, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is the superior choice. Its 10.9% OpenCL lead, 8.448 TFLOPS FP16 capability, and higher average benchmark score of 40,870 make it the more capable general-purpose compute accelerator. The AMD card's 82nd percentile ranking also edges out the Tesla P4's 81st percentile.

For graphics-API workloads, especially Vulkan, and for applications requiring more than 4 GB of memory, the NVIDIA Tesla P4 is the better option. Its 11.2% Vulkan win, double the shading units (2560 versus 1280), and 8 GB frame buffer give it clear advantages in rasterization and memory-capacity-bound scenarios. The Tesla P4's higher FP32 throughput of 5.704 TFLOPS also favors it for single-precision tasks.

The choice ultimately depends on the workload. If the priority is modern compute efficiency and half-precision performance, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is the data-backed winner. If the priority is graphics API performance, memory capacity, or raw shading throughput, the NVIDIA Tesla P4 is justified. The Tesla P4's older release date (2016 versus 2020) and larger die suggest it is a product of a less efficient era, but its spec sheet still delivers competitive results where its resources are applicable.