AMD Radeon Pro 5600M vs NVIDIA Tesla K40c Comparison

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a decisive picture: in the only directly comparable test, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M outperforms the NVIDIA Tesla K40c by a wide margin. On Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla K40c scores 17,468, while the Radeon Pro 5600M scores 47,783. That is a 63.4% deficit for the NVIDIA card — meaning the AMD part delivers roughly 2.7 times the raw compute throughput in this workload. This is not a narrow victory; it is a generational gap made visible in a single number.

Looking at the broader context, the Tesla K40c’s OpenCL result places it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,468. Its nearest rivals are all within a hair of its score: the AMD Radeon Pro 460 trails by just 0.2%, the Radeon Pro 560 by 0.5%, the Radeon 780M by 0.7%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 by 1%. In other words, the K40c is effectively clustered with a group of mid-range modern parts — it is not dramatically slower than them, but it is also not competitive with the Radeon Pro 5600M.

The Radeon Pro 5600M, by contrast, sits at the 59th percentile overall, with an average benchmark score of 16,351. That average is pulled down by its many other benchmark results, which include a range of older DirectX and compute tests. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 47,783 is its strongest single result, but it also posts 55,030 in Geekbench Metal and 46,425 in Geekbench Vulkan. These are not directly comparable to the K40c, since the Tesla card has no Metal or Vulkan scores in the data, but they indicate a versatile part that performs strongly across multiple APIs.

The PassMark results for the Radeon Pro 5600M tell a different story. Its DirectX 9 score is 118, DirectX 10 is 62, DirectX 11 is 59, and DirectX 12 is 39. The G3D score is 9,279, and G2D is 679. These are modest numbers, and they explain why its average benchmark score is lower than its OpenCL peak. The K40c has no PassMark scores in the data, so no direct comparison is possible there. The only head-to-head result is the OpenCL test, and the AMD card wins it outright.

It is importantly the Radeon Pro 5600M’s nearest rivals in the overall database are the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (0.1% slower), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (0.3% slower), the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (0.4% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (0.9% slower). This suggests that despite its mobile origins, the 5600M performs in the same league as desktop workstation and enthusiast cards. The Tesla K40c, meanwhile, is bracketed by integrated graphics and lower-tier discrete parts.

# Where Each One Wins

The data shows a clear split: the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M wins the only head-to-head benchmark, but the two cards are built for entirely different environments. The Tesla K40c is a dual-slot, 245 W add-in card with no display outputs. It requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector, and the suggested power supply is 550 W. This is a compute-oriented accelerator designed for a server or workstation chassis where the host machine handles all display duties. Its 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus delivers 288.4 GB/s of bandwidth — respectable for its era, but far below the AMD part’s memory throughput.

The Radeon Pro 5600M, by contrast, is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 50 W power envelope. It has no power connectors and no dedicated slot width — it is soldered to a logic board. Its display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent," meaning it relies on the host laptop’s embedded panel and external ports. This is a mobile part through and through, and its performance is achieved within a fraction of the power budget of the Tesla card.

In terms of benchmark wins, the Radeon Pro 5600M wins the OpenCL test decisively. But the Tesla K40c’s strengths lie elsewhere. It has a higher texture fill rate: 210.2 GTexel/s versus the AMD part’s 183.0 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA card also has more shading units (2,880 vs. 2,560) and more texture mapping units (240 vs. 160). However, the AMD card has more ROPs (64 vs. 48) and a higher pixel rate (73.22 GPixel/s vs. 52.56 GPixel/s). These are raw specification differences, but they point to different workloads: the Tesla card may excel at texture-heavy compute, while the Radeon part is better suited to fill-rate-bound tasks.

The Radeon Pro 5600M also has a major advantage in floating-point performance. Its FP32 throughput is 5.857 TFLOPS, and it offers FP16 at 11.71 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The Tesla K40c has no listed FP16 capability, and its FP32 is 5.046 TFLOPS. For any workload that can use half-precision arithmetic, the AMD card is in a different class. The NVIDIA card’s API support is also more limited: DirectX 12 (11_0) versus the AMD card’s DirectX 12 (12_1), and Vulkan 1.2.175 versus Vulkan 1.3.

# Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations, and the process node alone tells most of the story. The Tesla K40c uses NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The chip, named GK180, contains 7,080 million transistors on a 561 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. This was a large, power-hungry chip for its time, and it shows in the 245 W TDP.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M uses the RDNA 1.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process. The chip is called Navi 12, but the data does not list its transistor count, die size, or density. What is clear is that the process shrink allows for dramatically better efficiency: the Radeon part consumes just 50 W, which is one-fifth of the Tesla card’s power draw, while delivering higher FP32 performance. The AMD card also uses HBM2 memory, which is a fundamentally different technology from the Tesla card’s GDDR5. The Radeon part has a 2048-bit memory bus and 8 GB of HBM2, achieving 394.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla card has a 384-bit bus and 12 GB of GDDR5, achieving 288.4 GB/s.

The memory configuration is a notable difference. The Tesla K40c has more capacity (12 GB vs. 8 GB), which can matter for certain large datasets. But the AMD card has higher bandwidth, which matters for memory-bound workloads. The Radeon part also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla card is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. This is a significant advantage for data transfer to and from the host system, especially in systems that support PCIe 4.0.

Clock speeds differ as well. The Tesla K40c has a base clock of 745 MHz and a boost clock of 876 MHz, with memory running at 1,502 MHz (6 Gbps effective). The Radeon Pro 5600M has a base clock of 822 MHz and a boost clock of 1,144 MHz, with memory at 770 MHz (1,540 Mbps effective). The higher boost clock on the AMD card contributes to its performance advantage, though the memory clock is lower in raw MHz — the HBM2 architecture compensates with the much wider bus.

Both cards are end-of-life products, and neither has ray tracing or tensor cores listed. The Tesla card supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The Radeon card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The AMD card also has a higher feature level in DirectX, which may matter for compatibility with newer games or applications.

# FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M is dramatically faster, scoring 47,783 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 17,468 for the NVIDIA Tesla K40c. That is a 63.4% difference in favor of the AMD card.

Q: Does the Tesla K40c have any benchmark where it wins?

A: In the head-to-head data, the Tesla K40c has zero wins. The only directly comparable test is Geekbench OpenCL, which the Radeon Pro 5600M wins. The Tesla card does have a higher texture fill rate (210.2 GTexel/s vs. 183.0 GTexel/s), but no benchmark score is provided for that metric.

Q: What is the power draw of each card?

A: The Tesla K40c has a TDP of 245 W and requires a 550 W power supply. The Radeon Pro 5600M has a TDP of just 50 W and uses no power connectors, as it is an integrated part.

Q: Can the Tesla K40c output video?

A: No. The Tesla K40c has no display outputs. The Radeon Pro 5600M’s display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning it relies on the host laptop’s integrated display.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The Tesla K40c has 12 GB of GDDR5, while the Radeon Pro 5600M has 8 GB of HBM2. However, the AMD card has higher memory bandwidth: 394.2 GB/s versus 288.4 GB/s.

Q: How does the Tesla K40c compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Tesla K40c’s nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon Pro 460 (0.2% slower), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (0.5% slower), AMD Radeon 780M (0.7% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (1% slower). All are within 1% of the Tesla card’s OpenCL score.

# The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion: if you need raw compute performance and can work within a mobile or integrated form factor, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M is the superior choice. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark by a landslide, offers higher FP32 and FP16 throughput, supports newer APIs, and consumes one-fifth the power. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, which puts it in respectable desktop-class company.

The NVIDIA Tesla K40c, however, still has a role. It offers more memory (12 GB vs. 8 GB), which is valuable for workloads that need large working sets. It also has a higher texture fill rate and more shading units, which may benefit certain types of compute kernels. But its age is showing: it is a 28 nm part from the Kepler era, with no FP16 support and a lower FP32 peak. Its nearest rivals are integrated graphics and lower-tier discrete cards, which tells you where it stands in the modern landscape.

For a workstation or server with an available PCIe slot and a 550 W power supply, the Tesla K40c can still be pressed into service for memory-hungry tasks. But for anyone building a new system or upgrading an existing one, the Radeon Pro 5600M is the better performer in every measurable way. The only caveat is that the AMD part is an IGP — you cannot install it in a desktop. If you need a discrete card, the Tesla K40c is the only one of the two that fits that form factor, but you would be doing so despite its performance disadvantage.

# Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla K40c | AMD Radeon Pro 5600M |

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

| Architecture | Kepler | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 7 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | TSMC |

| Transistors | 7,080 million | Not listed |

| Die Size | 561 mm² | Not listed |

| Base Clock | 745 MHz | 822 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 876 MHz | 1,144 MHz |

| Memory Size | 12 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 2048 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 288.4 GB/s | 394.2 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2,880 | 2,560 |

| TMUs | 240 | 160 |

| ROPs | 48 | 64 |

| Pixel Rate | 52.56 GPixel/s | 73.22 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 210.2 GTexel/s | 183.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 5.046 TFLOPS | 5.857 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not listed | 11.71 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 245 W | 50 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | Not listed |

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

| Display Outputs | No outputs | Portable Device Dependent |

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

| Vulkan | 1.2.175 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2013-10-07 | 2020-06-14 |

| Launch MSRP | 7,699 USD | Not listed |