AMD Radeon Pro 5700 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a decisive picture: the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 outperforms the NVIDIA Tesla K80 in every shared test, with margins that are nothing short of dominant. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon Pro 5700 scores 52,787 against the Tesla K80's 18,620, a difference of 64.7 percent in AMD's favor. That is not a marginal victory; it is a generational gap made visible through raw compute throughput.

The Vulkan results tell a similar story, though with slightly less extreme separation. Here, the AMD card posts 51,289 versus NVIDIA's 19,111, a 62.7 percent advantage. Both tests are compute-oriented, and both show the Radeon Pro 5700 delivering roughly 2.7 times the performance of the Tesla K80. The consistency across two different API frameworks suggests the gap is structural rather than workload-specific—the AMD architecture simply executes these workloads more efficiently at every level.

It is worth contextualizing these numbers against the broader GPU landscape. The Tesla K80's average benchmark score of 18,866 places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (average score 18,789, delta 0.4 percent), the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, delta -0.5 percent), and the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, delta -0.9 percent). In other words, the Tesla K80 sits in a tight cluster of mid-range performers from different eras, none of which approach the Radeon Pro 5700's output.

The Radeon Pro 5700, meanwhile, achieves an average score of 18,189—which seems paradoxical given its head-to-head dominance. The explanation lies in benchmark coverage: the AMD card was tested across a much wider range of workloads, including Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests, plus G2D, G3D, and GPU compute. Those additional tests drag down the average because they include legacy and 2D workloads where the Radeon Pro 5700 scores modestly (e.g., 143 in DirectX 9, 805 in G2D). The NVIDIA card's average is based solely on its two Geekbench results, which are its strong suits. This is a reminder that average scores must be interpreted with knowledge of the underlying test suite composition.

In the head-to-head comparison, the Radeon Pro 5700 wins 2 out of 2 tests. There are no benchmark categories where the Tesla K80 comes out ahead. Even in Vulkan—where the Tesla K80's score of 19,111 is its better result—the AMD card still leads by a wide margin. The data does not show a single scenario in these shared workloads where the older NVIDIA architecture can compete.

# FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 scores 52,787 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA Tesla K80 scores 18,620. This represents a 64.7 percent advantage for the AMD card.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in Vulkan performance?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon Pro 5700 achieves 51,289 versus the Tesla K80's 19,111, a 62.7 percent lead for AMD. This is the smaller of the two head-to-head margins, but still a commanding victory.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU, and what does it indicate?

A: The Tesla K80 has an average benchmark score of 18,866, while the Radeon Pro 5700 averages 18,189. The Tesla K80's higher average reflects its limited benchmark coverage (only two Geekbench tests), whereas the Radeon Pro 5700's average includes ten tests spanning DirectX generations, 2D, and compute workloads, many of which are not favorable to modern architectures.

Q: How does the Radeon Pro 5700 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon Pro 5700's average score of 18,189 places it within 0.2 percent of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18,159) and 0.5 percent of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (18,093). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 460 by 1 percent and the Intel Arc A770M by 1.1 percent.

Q: In what benchmark does the Tesla K80 come closest to matching the Radeon Pro 5700?

A: The Tesla K80's best relative showing is in Geekbench Vulkan, where its 19,111 score is 62.7 percent behind the Radeon Pro 5700's 51,289. In OpenCL, the gap widens to 64.7 percent. Neither test shows the Tesla K80 within striking distance.

Q: Which GPU has the higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The Tesla K80 ranks in the 63rd percentile, while the Radeon Pro 5700 ranks in the 62nd percentile. Despite the Tesla K80's higher percentile, the head-to-head benchmark data shows the Radeon Pro 5700 winning decisively in both shared tests.

# Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro 5700 wins in every workload represented by the shared benchmarks. Its OpenCL score of 52,787 and Vulkan score of 51,289 both dwarf the Tesla K80's corresponding results of 18,620 and 19,111. For compute-heavy applications that leverage OpenCL or Vulkan—such as scientific simulation, machine learning inference, or rendering pipelines built on these APIs—the Radeon Pro 5700 is the clear choice based on this data.

The Radeon Pro 5700 also demonstrates versatility across a broader benchmark suite. Its Passmark results show a GPU that handles DirectX 9 (143 points), DirectX 10 (71 points), DirectX 11 (78 points), and DirectX 12 (48 points) workloads, alongside G2D (805 points), G3D (11,583 points), and GPU compute (4,961 points). This suggests it can serve in legacy compatibility scenarios and modern graphics workloads alike, though the DirectX scores are modest in absolute terms.

The Tesla K80, by contrast, only has benchmark data for OpenCL and Vulkan. There are no Passmark results in the fact pack, meaning its performance profile outside compute APIs is undocumented in this dataset. Within its two tested workloads, it does not win a single comparison. Its percentile ranking of 63rd (versus the Radeon Pro 5700's 62nd) is the only metric where it edges ahead, and that is an artifact of the different test suites rather than a performance advantage.

For users whose workloads are exclusively OpenCL or Vulkan compute, the Radeon Pro 5700 offers roughly 2.7 times the throughput. For any scenario involving the broader Passmark suite, only the Radeon Pro 5700 has data. The Tesla K80's use case is therefore limited to environments where its specific compute capabilities are required and where the Radeon Pro 5700's superior performance is not available or not compatible.

# Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ substantially across nearly every specification category. The Tesla K80 uses 28 nm process technology from TSMC, while the Radeon Pro 5700 uses TSMC's 7 nm node—a significant reduction in feature size that contributes to the latter's efficiency and performance.

Transistor counts and die sizes diverge sharply. The Tesla K80 contains 7,100 million transistors on a 561 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.7 million per square millimeter. The Radeon Pro 5700 packs 10,300 million transistors into a much smaller 251 mm² die, achieving 41.0 million transistors per square millimeter—over three times the density.

Memory configurations also differ. The Tesla K80 offers 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 240.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 5700 provides 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with higher bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s despite the narrower interface. Clock speeds favor the AMD card: its base clock of 1243 MHz and boost clock of 1350 MHz compare to the Tesla K80's 562 MHz base and 824 MHz boost. Memory clocks follow suit, with the Radeon Pro 5700 running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) versus the Tesla K80's 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective).

Shader resources are more balanced than the performance data might suggest. The Tesla K80 has 2,496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The Radeon Pro 5700 has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has more shading units and TMUs, but the AMD card has more ROPs. Pixel rate favors AMD at 86.40 GPixel/s versus 42.85 GPixel/s, while texture rate is also higher on the AMD card at 194.4 GTexel/s versus 171.4 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance shows a clear AMD advantage: 6.221 TFLOPS FP32 versus 4.113 TFLOPS, and the Radeon Pro 5700 additionally supports FP16 at 12.44 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability the Tesla K80 lacks entirely.

Power and physical specifications differ dramatically. The Tesla K80 has a 300 W TDP, requires a dual-slot form factor, uses a single 8-pin power connector, and suggests a 700 W power supply. The Radeon Pro 5700 has a 130 W TDP, is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors, and recommends a 300 W PSU. The Tesla K80 measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length; the Radeon Pro 5700 has no listed dimensions. Both use PCIe x16 interfaces, but the Radeon Pro 5700 supports PCIe 4.0 while the Tesla K80 is limited to PCIe 3.0. Neither card has display outputs. API support also differs: the Tesla K80 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the Radeon Pro 5700 supports DirectX 12 (12_1); both support OpenGL 4.6, but Vulkan versions differ (1.2.175 versus 1.4).

# Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is fundamental. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is built on the Kepler 2.0 architecture, using the GK210 chip, and belongs to the Tesla Kepler generation (Kxx). It was released in 2014 and is now end-of-life, with its predecessor being Tesla Fermi and its successor Tesla Maxwell. The Kepler architecture was designed for compute density in data center environments, which explains its large die size and high TDP.

The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 uses the RDNA 1.0 architecture, built around the Navi 10 chip, and is part of the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series) generation. Released in 2020, it is also end-of-life but represents a much more modern design philosophy. RDNA 1.0 was AMD's first-generation gaming-oriented architecture after the Graphics Core Next (GCN) era, and it emphasizes higher clock speeds, improved instruction efficiency, and better power efficiency per watt.

The transistor density difference—41.0M per square millimeter on the Radeon Pro 5700 versus 12.7M on the Tesla K80—illustrates the manufacturing and design advances between 2014 and 2020. The 7 nm process allows AMD to fit 10,300 million transistors into less than half the die area of the Tesla K80's 7,100 million transistors on 28 nm.

Feature-level differences are equally telling. The Radeon Pro 5700 supports FP16 compute with a 2:1 ratio (12.44 TFLOPS), enabling accelerated half-precision workloads. The Tesla K80 has no FP16 capability listed. The Radeon Pro 5700 also supports a newer DirectX feature level (12_1 versus 11_1) and a newer Vulkan version (1.4 versus 1.2.175). Neither card has ray tracing cores or tensor cores, so those features are absent from both.

The power efficiency gap mirrors the architectural evolution. The Radeon Pro 5700 delivers 6.221 TFLOPS FP32 within a 130 W TDP, while the Tesla K80 delivers 4.113 TFLOPS within a 300 W TDP. That is roughly 47.9 GFLOPS per watt for AMD versus 13.7 GFLOPS per watt for NVIDIA—over three times the efficiency, though these derived figures are not explicitly in the fact pack and should be treated as illustrative of the trend rather than definitive metrics.

The Tesla K80's dual-slot, 267 mm board with an 8-pin connector is typical of data center accelerators from its era. The Radeon Pro 5700's IGP form factor with no power connectors and a 300 W suggested PSU reflects its intended integration into Apple Mac systems, where space and power are constrained. These are not just different architectures; they are different product philosophies separated by six years of GPU design progress.