AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data splits cleanly along workload type, with the NVIDIA Tesla P40 dominating both of the shared compute tests. The Tesla P40 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 62017 against the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT's 41772, a margin of 48.5%. In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the Tesla P40 extends its lead further, scoring 68172 versus 39601, a delta of 72.1%. This is not a close contest in either metric; the Tesla P40 holds a commanding advantage across the board.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT does not win any of the head-to-head tests recorded in the database. Its only benchmark win is in a test the Tesla P40 does not participate in: Geekbench Metal, where it scores 54779. This Metal result is actually its strongest showing among its three recorded scores, surpassing its OpenCL score of 41772 and Vulkan score of 39601. However, since the Tesla P40 has no Metal benchmark entry, this cannot be counted as a direct victory between the two.

When considering the average benchmark score, the Tesla P40 sits at 65095, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT averages 45384. The Tesla P40 also holds a higher percentile rank among all GPUs, at 89, compared to 84 for the AMD card. The use-case split is therefore clear: for OpenCL and Vulkan compute workloads, the Tesla P40 is the decisive choice, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT offers a Metal-specific capability that the NVIDIA card simply does not provide in the database's measurements.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and process nodes. The NVIDIA Tesla P40 is built on the Pascal architecture using the GP102 chip, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses the RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 14 chip, also from TSMC but on a much smaller 7 nm node. This process difference is significant: the AMD chip packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 40.5 million per mm². The NVIDIA chip, by contrast, contains 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, giving a density of just 25.1 million per mm². The Pascal design is older and physically larger, while RDNA 1.0 is denser and more modern in its manufacturing.

The core configurations differ substantially. The Tesla P40 has 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. In every count, the NVIDIA card has more than double the resources. Neither card supports ray tracing cores or tensor cores, so both are limited to traditional raster and compute pipelines.

Memory architecture also diverges sharply. The Tesla P40 ships with 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384 bit bus, delivering 347.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128 bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card offers triple the capacity and over 50% more bandwidth, though the AMD card uses faster memory technology. Clock speeds tell a different story: the Tesla P40 has a base clock of 1303 MHz and boost of 1531 MHz, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a lower base of 1187 MHz but a higher boost of 1757 MHz. The AMD card's boost clock is 226 MHz higher, but its raw compute throughput is still far lower due to fewer cores.

Power and physical design are also fundamentally different. The Tesla P40 draws 250 W TDP, requires an 8-pin EPS connector, and needs a 600 W suggested PSU. It is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 125 W TDP, no power connectors, and a 300 W suggested PSU. It has no listed dimensions because it is not a discrete card. Both have no display outputs, making them compute-only products. The Tesla P40 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8, though the practical impact of this difference is not measured in the database's benchmarks.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P40 has an average benchmark score of 65095, which is 43.4% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT's average of 45384.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT win any shared benchmark tests?

A: No. In the two head-to-head tests recorded (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 wins both with margins of 48.5% and 72.1% respectively. The AMD card only has a unique win in Geekbench Metal, a test the Tesla P40 does not have a score for.

Q: What memory configuration does each card use?

A: The Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384 bit bus with 347.1 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128 bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are these cards suitable for display output?

A: No. Both cards have no display outputs. They are designed for compute workloads only.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Tesla P40 has a TDP of 250 W and requires a 600 W suggested PSU with an 8-pin EPS connector. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a TDP of 125 W, needs no power connectors, and has a 300 W suggested PSU.

Q: How do the two cards compare in shading units?

A: The Tesla P40 has 3840 shading units, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 1536. This is a 2.5x advantage for the NVIDIA card.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every relevant specification category. The Tesla P40 uses the Pascal architecture on a 16 nm TSMC process, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT uses RDNA 1.0 on a 7 nm TSMC process. Transistor count is 11,800 million versus 6,400 million, and die size is 471 mm² versus 158 mm². The NVIDIA card has a higher base clock (1303 MHz vs 1187 MHz) but a lower boost clock (1531 MHz vs 1757 MHz).

Memory specifications diverge completely. The Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5 at 7.2 Gbps effective, with a 384 bit bus and 347.1 GB/s bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 at 14 Gbps effective, with a 128 bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card's memory clock is listed as 1808 MHz, while the AMD card runs at 1750 MHz.

Compute resources favor the Tesla P40 in every count: 3840 vs 1536 shading units, 240 vs 96 TMUs, and 96 vs 32 ROPs. Pixel rate is 147.0 GPixel/s versus 56.22 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 367.4 GTexel/s versus 168.7 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 11.76 TFLOPS versus 5.398 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is striking: the Tesla P40 manages only 183.7 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT achieves 10.80 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, making the AMD card far superior in half-precision compute.

Power and physical specifications also differ. The Tesla P40 has a 250 W TDP, is dual-slot, uses an 8-pin EPS connector, and requires a 600 W PSU. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT has a 125 W TDP, is an IGP, has no power connectors, and requires a 300 W PSU. The Tesla P40 is 267 mm long and 111 mm tall, while the AMD card has no listed dimensions. The Tesla P40 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, the AMD card uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and both lack display outputs.

Release dates differ by nearly four years: the Tesla P40 launched on 2016-09-12, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT launched on 2020-08-03. The Tesla P40 has a launch MSRP of 5,699 USD, while the AMD card has no recorded MSRP. The Tesla P40 has a predecessor (Tesla Maxwell) and successor (Tesla Volta), while the AMD card has neither recorded.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these cards, and both are decisive wins for the NVIDIA Tesla P40.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla P40 scores 62017 against 41772 for the Radeon Pro 5500 XT. This is a 48.5% advantage for the NVIDIA card. To put this in context, the Tesla P40's nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (64212, 1.4% higher) and the AMD Radeon VII (66004, 1.4% lower). The Radeon Pro 5500 XT sits far below this cluster, closer to the Intel Arc A730M (45592) and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45972). The OpenCL result shows that the Tesla P40's larger core count and memory bandwidth translate directly into compute throughput, while the AMD card's smaller configuration cannot close the gap despite its faster boost clock.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the margin grows even larger. The Tesla P40 scores 68172, while the Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 39601, a 72.1% delta. This is the single biggest performance gap between the two cards in any shared test. The Vulkan result is particularly telling because the AMD card's Vulkan score of 39601 is actually lower than its Metal score of 54779, suggesting that RDNA 1.0's Vulkan performance is not its strongest suit. The Tesla P40's Vulkan score of 68172 is also higher than its own OpenCL score, indicating that Pascal's Vulkan implementation is more efficient than its OpenCL path.

The average benchmark scores reinforce the gap. The Tesla P40 averages 65095, placing it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT averages 45384, sitting in the 84th percentile. The 43.4% difference in average scores is driven entirely by the two shared tests, since the AMD card's Metal result is not counted in the head-to-head comparison.

It is notably the Tesla P40's OpenCL score of 62017 is within 1.4% of its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (64212), and within 1.4% of the AMD Radeon VII (66004). This places the Tesla P40 in a competitive tier with high-end AMD workstation cards from the same era. The Radeon Pro 5500 XT, by contrast, is bracketed by the Intel Arc A730M (45592) and NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45972), a much lower performance tier. The data shows that the Tesla P40 is not merely faster; it is in a different performance class entirely for shared compute workloads.