AMD Radeon Pro 5500M vs NVIDIA Tesla M10 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M compare to the NVIDIA Tesla M10 in average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M records an average benchmark score of 11528, while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 averages 9724. This places the AMD part at the 51st percentile of all GPUs, versus the 47th percentile for the NVIDIA part.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between these two cards in the head-to-head tests?

A: The largest gap is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 35134 versus 9130 for the NVIDIA Tesla M10, a difference of 284.8%. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD part leads by 201.3% (31088 versus 10318).

Q: Are there any benchmark tests where the NVIDIA Tesla M10 wins?

A: No. In the recorded head-to-head benchmark data, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M wins both tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan). The win tally is 2 for AMD and 0 for NVIDIA.

Q: What are the architecture and process node differences?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M uses the Navi 14 chip on RDNA 1.0 architecture with a 7 nm process. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 uses the GM107 chip on Maxwell architecture with a 28 nm process. Both are fabricated by TSMC.

Q: How do memory bandwidth specifications differ?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M has 192.0 GB/s bandwidth from 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 also has 8 GB and a 128-bit bus, but it uses GDDR5 and achieves only 83.20 GB/s.

Q: What is the transistor density comparison?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M packs 6,400 million transistors into a 158 mm² die, yielding a density of 40.5 million transistors per mm². The NVIDIA Tesla M10 has 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, for a density of 12.6 million per mm².

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M and NVIDIA Tesla M10 represent two very different eras of GPU design. The AMD part is built on RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 14 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm TSMC process. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 uses the older Maxwell architecture with the GM107 chip, on a 28 nm TSMC process. This process gap alone explains much of the efficiency and density difference: the AMD die is 158 mm² with 6,400 million transistors, while the NVIDIA die is 148 mm² with only 1,870 million transistors.

The transistor density numbers are stark. AMD achieves 40.5 million transistors per mm², nearly 3.2 times the density of NVIDIA's 12.6 million per mm². This allows the Radeon Pro 5500M to pack far more compute resources into a similar physical footprint. The AMD GPU has 1,536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. That is less than half the shading units and TMUs, and exactly half the ROPs.

Clock speeds tell a mixed story. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 has a higher base clock at 1033 MHz versus 1000 MHz for AMD, but the AMD part boosts higher at 1450 MHz versus 1306 MHz. The memory clocks differ dramatically: AMD runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), while NVIDIA runs at 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective). The effective memory speed advantage for AMD is more than double.

The bus interface also differs. AMD uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while NVIDIA uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The AMD card has no power connectors and is listed as portable device dependent for display outputs. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 is a dual-slot card with a 267 mm length, requires a 1x 8-pin power connector, and has no display outputs at all. This reflects their intended use cases: the Radeon Pro 5500M targets mobile Mac workstations, while the Tesla M10 is a server accelerator.

API support shows a subtle difference. Both support DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the AMD part implements DirectX 12 at feature level 12_1, while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 is at feature level 11_0. The AMD part also lists FP16 at 8.909 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the NVIDIA card has no FP16 data recorded.

The Verdict

The benchmark data points to a decisive conclusion: the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the stronger GPU in every recorded head-to-head test. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD part scores 31088 against 10318 for NVIDIA, a 201.3% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens to 284.8% (35134 versus 9130). The average benchmark score reinforces this: 11528 for AMD versus 9724 for NVIDIA, a difference of roughly 18.5%.

Who should pick the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M? Anyone needing general compute performance, especially in OpenCL or Vulkan workloads. The data shows it also has superior memory bandwidth (192.0 GB/s versus 83.20 GB/s), higher pixel and texture rates (46.40 GPixel/s versus 20.90 GPixel/s; 139.2 GTexel/s versus 52.24 GTexel/s), and more than double the FP32 throughput (4.454 TFLOPS versus 1.672 TFLOPS). It is also far more power-efficient on paper, with a 85 W TDP versus 225 W for the Tesla M10, and it requires no external power connector.

Who should pick the NVIDIA Tesla M10? The data offers little support. It loses every benchmark where both are measured. It has a higher base clock (1033 MHz versus 1000 MHz), but that does not translate into any recorded performance win. Its only advantages are a longer physical length (267 mm versus unspecified for AMD) and a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, which is wider but older than AMD's PCIe 4.0 x8. The Tesla M10 sits at the 47th percentile, below the AMD part's 51st percentile. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Quadro P4000, score close to it (9665, just 0.6% behind), confirming it is a mid-range performer at best.

The data implies that the Tesla M10 is a legacy product. It was released in 2016, predates its successor Tesla Pascal, and has been end-of-life. The Radeon Pro 5500M, released in 2019, also is end-of-life, but its architecture is newer and its measured performance is far superior. For any compute task where OpenCL or Vulkan matters, the AMD part is the clear choice.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro 5500M | NVIDIA Tesla M10 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | RDNA 1.0 | Maxwell |

| Chip | Navi 14 | GM107 |

| Process Node | 7 nm | 28 nm |

| Transistors | 6,400 million | 1,870 million |

| Die Size | 158 mm² | 148 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 40.5M / mm² | 12.6M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1000 MHz | 1033 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1450 MHz | 1306 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) | 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 192.0 GB/s | 83.20 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1536 | 640 |

| TMUs | 96 | 40 |

| ROPs | 32 | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 46.40 GPixel/s | 20.90 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 139.2 GTexel/s | 52.24 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 4.454 TFLOPS | 1.672 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 8.909 TFLOPS (2:1) | Not recorded |

| TDP | 85 W | 225 W |

| Slot Width | Not recorded | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | Not recorded | 550 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | No outputs |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 (11_0) |

| Release Date | 2019-11-12 | 2016-05-17 |

| Predecessor | Not recorded | Tesla Kepler |

| Successor | Not recorded | Tesla Pascal |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data includes only two tests, and both are decisive wins for the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD part scores 31088, while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 10318. The delta is 201.3%, meaning AMD more than triples the NVIDIA score. This is a massive gap, not a marginal edge. It suggests the AMD architecture's higher shading unit count (1536 versus 640) and doubled memory bandwidth (192.0 GB/s versus 83.20 GB/s) combine to deliver roughly three times the OpenCL throughput.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the result is even more lopsided. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 35134, versus 9130 for the Tesla M10, a delta of 284.8%. The AMD part nearly quadruples the NVIDIA score. The fact that the AMD part improves from OpenCL to Vulkan (31088 to 35134) while the NVIDIA part drops (10318 to 9130) indicates that the Maxwell architecture is particularly weak in Vulkan workloads. The RDNA 1.0 architecture appears to scale better with modern APIs.

Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the AMD part has ten recorded benchmark scores, including PassMark tests for DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute. Its PassMark G3D score is 6732, and its GPU compute score is 3240. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 has only two recorded benchmarks, both Geekbench tests, which limits direct comparisons. However, the average benchmark score of 11528 for AMD versus 9724 for NVIDIA confirms that the AMD part is consistently ahead across a wider range of workloads.

The nearest rivals for each card provide context. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M sits close to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11680, 1.3% behind) and the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (11627, 0.8% behind). The NVIDIA Tesla M10 sits near the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (9665, 0.6% ahead) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 (9653, 0.7% ahead). This means the AMD part competes with mainstream desktop GPUs, while the Tesla M10 barely matches entry-level workstation cards.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M wins in every recorded category. Its 201.3% OpenCL advantage and 284.8% Vulkan advantage are not narrow wins; they are generational leaps. The data shows AMD wins in compute throughput, memory bandwidth, pixel fill rate, texture fill rate, and FP32 performance. It also wins on efficiency, with an 85 W TDP versus 225 W, and no power connector requirement.

The NVIDIA Tesla M10 wins nowhere in the recorded benchmarks. Its only nominal advantages are a higher base clock (1033 MHz versus 1000 MHz), a wider bus interface (PCIe 3.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x8 in terms of lane count), and a physical design suited for server mounting (dual-slot, 267 mm length, no display outputs). If a workload relies on raw OpenCL or Vulkan compute, the data shows no reason to choose the Tesla M10 over the Radeon Pro 5500M.

However, context matters. The Tesla M10 was released in 2016, and its successor is Tesla Pascal, so it belongs to an older generation. The Radeon Pro 5500M was released in 2019, and its production status is also end-of-life. For legacy server deployments that require a Maxwell-era GPU with no display outputs and a specific power connector layout, the Tesla M10 might still serve a niche. But from a pure performance standpoint, the AMD part is the superior choice in every measured dimension.

For users who need maximum OpenCL compute, the Radeon Pro 5500M is the obvious pick. For users who need Vulkan performance, the Radeon Pro 5500M is even more dominant. For users who need a card with no display outputs for headless server operation, the Tesla M10 has that specific feature, but its performance is so far behind that any workload would likely run better on the AMD part if display output is not a constraint. The data implies that the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M is the better GPU in almost every scenario, with the Tesla M10 only relevant for legacy compatibility or specific power/slot requirements.