AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct benchmark confrontations between the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT and the NVIDIA Tesla P4, and the results split cleanly down the middle. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card posts a score of 41772 against 34947 for the Tesla P4, a decisive 19.5% advantage. That is not a marginal gap; it suggests the Radeon's compute pipeline sustains a significantly higher throughput in this workload, likely reflecting its newer architecture and faster memory subsystem.

The Vulkan test tells the opposite story, though with a much smaller margin. The Tesla P4 scores 40309, edging out the AMD Radeon 5500 XT's 39601 by just 1.8%. This is a narrow victory, small enough that run-to-run variance on different driver versions could plausibly flip the order. Still, the recorded data gives this one to NVIDIA, and the consistency of the two results matters: the Tesla's 1.8% lead in Vulkan is far less emphatic than AMD's 19.5% lead in OpenCL.

Looking at the broader average benchmark scores, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT holds an average score of 45384 across all recorded tests, while the Tesla P4 averages 37628. That difference works out to roughly 20.6% in favor of the AMD card, which aligns with the OpenCL result and reinforces the idea that the AMD card's overall compute lead is driven primarily by OpenCL-style workloads. The Tesla's Vulkan win is real but isolated, and it does not compensate for the larger OpenCL shortfall.

For context, the AMD card sits at the 84th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with closest rivals clustered around the 45384 average: Intel Arc A730M at 45592 (-0.5%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile at 45152 (0.5%), NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation at 45972 (-1.3%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at 44795 (1.3%). The Tesla P4 sits at the 81st percentile, with its nearest rivals at similar scores: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 at 37648 (-0.1%), AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 at 37507 (0.3%), AMD Radeon PRO W6400 at 37157 (1.3%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile at 38135 (-1.3%). The percentile gap of only three points, 84 versus 81, is surprisingly small given the 20.6% average score gap, which suggests the Tesla's score still places it among a dense pack of capable cards.

Architecture Differences

The two accelerators come from different architectural generations, and the design choices reflect their divergent purposes. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is built on the Navi 14 chip using RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process from TSMC. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 uses the GP104 die based on Pascal architecture, manufactured on a 16 nm process, also by TSMC. The transistor counts tell part of the story: the AMD chip holds 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, yielding a density of 40.5 million transistors per square millimeter. The NVIDIA chip packs 7,200 million transistors onto a 314 mm² die, a density of 22.9 million per square millimeter. The Tesla actually has more raw transistor count, but the AMD implementation is far denser per area. The AMD card also has a much smaller die at 158 mm² versus 314 mm² for the Tesla.

Clock behavior differs substantially. The AMD card runs a base clock of 1187 MHz and boosts to 1757 MHz, while the Tesla P4 starts at 886 MHz and boosts to 1114 MHz. The AMD part is clocked far higher, which is typical of a newer process node. Memory clocks also diverge: AMD uses 1750 MHz memory with 14 Gbps effective data rate, while the Tesla runs 1502 MHz with 6 Gbps effective. The Radeon's memory is GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla P4 uses GDDR5 on a wider 256-bit bus, but delivers only 192.3 GB/s. The AMD card achieves higher bandwidth with a narrower bus, a direct benefit of the newer memory type.

Compute resources are arranged differently too. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, so the NVIDIA chip has more of every resource class on paper. Yet the recorded pixel rates show AMD holding its own in texture fill rate: the Radeon reaches 168.7 GTexel/s versus 178.2 GTexel/s for the Tesla, a small 5.6% gap in NVIDIA's favor. Pixel fill rate reverses this somewhat, with AMD at 56.2 GPixel/s and NVIDIA at 71.3 GPixel/s, a 26.9% NVIDIA lead. The FP32 output is nearly identical: AMD posts 5.398 TFLOPS versus 5.704 TFLOPS for the Tesla, a 5.7% NVIDIA lead. The FP16 comparison is stark: AMD delivers 10.80 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the Tesla manages only 89.12 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio. That is a massive difference in half-precision throughput, reflecting the RDNA architecture's ability to handle FP16 far more efficiently.

Power and physical design also differ. The AMD card draws 125 W with a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the Tesla P4 draws only 75 W with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The Tesla is single-slot and measures 168 mm (6.6 inches) in length, whereas the AMD card is listed as IGP (integrated graphics package) with no dimensions recorded. Both are end-of-life and have no display outputs. The AMD card uses PCIe 4.0 x8 interface; the Tesla uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The Tesla P4 has no power connectors; the AMD card also has none. The API support is identical: both DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.1, and Vulkan 1.3. Neither has ray tracing cores or tensor cores recorded. Both are from TSMC. The AMD card released on 2020-08-03, the Tesla P4 earlier, on 2016-09-12. The Tesla P4 lists a predecessor of Tesla Maxwell and successor Tesla Volta; the AMD card has neither recorded.

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data points to distinct strengths. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT wins the OpenCL benchmark outright with a 19.5% lead over the Tesla P4, and its average benchmark score of 45384 is far higher than the Tesla's 37628. The AMD card also excels in FP16 throughput, offering 10.80 TFLOPS versus the Tesla's 89.12 GFLOPS, which makes it better suited for workloads that leverage half-precision compute. The higher memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s versus 192.3 GB/s) and the faster boost clock (1757 MHz versus 1114 MHz) contribute to the AMD card's advantage in memory and latency-sensitive tasks.

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins the Vulkan benchmark by 1.8% (40309 versus 39601), and it also leads in raw geometry capabilities: more shading units (2560 versus 1536), more TMUs (160 versus 96), more ROPs (64 versus 32), and higher pixel rate (71.3 GPixel/s versus 128.2 GPixel/s). The Tesla's higher texture rate (178.2 GTexel/s versus 168.7 GTexel/s) also favors the NVIDIA card, as does its FP32 output (5.704 TFLOPS versus 5.398 TFLOPS). The Tesla P4 uses a wider 256-bit memory bus, which helps it maintain solid fill rates despite a lower clock speed. Its 75 W power draw is lower than the AMD's 125 W, and its single-slot length of 168 mm makes it a physically compact option, though the AMD card is listed as IGP. The Tesla P4 also has a higher transistor count of 7,200 million versus 6,400 million, though on an older, less dense process node.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 41772 versus the NVIDIA Tesla P4's 34947, a 19.5% advantage.

Q: Which GPU wins the Vulkan benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins Geekbench Vulkan with a score of 40309, edging out the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 39601 by 1.8%.

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT has an average benchmark score of 45384, while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 averages 37628, roughly 20.6% higher for AMD.

Q: Does the Tesla P4 have more shading units than the Radeon?

A: Yes, the Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units compared to 1536 on the Radeon Pro 5500 XT, yet the AMD card still wins the OpenCL benchmark by a wide margin.

Q: What is the difference in FP16 performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT delivers 10.80 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, while the Tesla P4 manages only 89.12 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio, making the AMD card vastly superior for half-precision work.

Q: Which GPU has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD card has 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth from its GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, versus the Tesla P4's 192.3 GB/s from GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT | NVIDIA Tesla P4 |

|:---|:---|:---|

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Pascal |

| Process node | 7 nm | 16 nm |

| Transistors | 6,400 million | 7,200 million |

| Die size | 158 mm² | 314 mm² |

| Transistor density | 40.5M / mm² | 22.9M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1187 MHz | 886 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1757 MHz | 1114 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective | 1502 MHz, 6 Gbps effective |

| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory bus width | 128 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 224.0 GB/s | 192.3 GB/s |

| Shading units | 1536 | 2560 |

| TMUs | 96 | 160 |

| ROPs | 32 | 64 |

| Pixel rate | 56.22 GPixel/s | 71.30 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 168.7 GTexel/s | 178.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 5.398 TFLOPS | 5.704 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) | 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) |

| TDP | 125 W | 75 W |

| Suggested PSU | 300 W | 250 W |

| Slot width | IGP | Single-slot |

| Dimensions | Not recorded | 168 mm (6.6 inches) |

| Bus interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Release date | 2020-08-03 | 2016-09-12 |

The Verdict

The benchmark data points to the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT as the stronger overall compute card. Its average benchmark score of 45384 versus 37628 for the Tesla P4 is a substantial margin, and its 19.5% OpenCL win shows a clear advantage in that workload. The FP16 capability is in a different league entirely: 10.80 TFLOPS versus 89.12 GFLOPS, which makes the AMD card the obvious pick for any workload that can use half-precision arithmetic. The higher memory bandwidth and much higher boost clock further favor the AMD card in modern, memory-hungry applications. Its 84th percentile standing versus the Tesla's 81st percentile confirms that the AMD card is the stronger performer overall.

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 is not without merit. It wins the Vulkan benchmark by 1.8%, and it has more shading units, TMUs, and ROPs, plus a wider memory bus and higher pixel and texture rates. Its lower power draw of 75 W versus 125 W and its compact single-slot, 168 mm length make it an easier fit for constrained chassis and low-power deployments. Its 16 nm Pascal architecture is older, but it still holds its own in raw FP32 (5.704 TFLOPS versus 5.398 TFLOPS) and in the Vulkan test, which shows that for certain graphics-oriented workloads, the Tesla remains competitive.

For users who prioritize compute throughput, especially in OpenCL and FP16-heavy tasks, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT is the better choice based on the data. For users who need a low-power, single-slot accelerator with solid Vulkan performance and a compact physical footprint, the Tesla P4 remains a viable option, particularly given its end-of-life status and the fact that it still outpaces the AMD card in that one benchmark test. The data does not support picking the Tesla for general compute, though. Its 19.5% deficit in OpenCL and its drastically lower FP16 throughput mean it is only the right pick for workloads that specifically favor Vulkan or that benefit from its lower power envelope and narrower physical profile.