AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a stark picture: the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT dominates the NVIDIA Tesla K80 in every head-to-head comparison available. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon Pro 5700 XT scores 59,467 against the Tesla K80’s 18,620 — a margin of 68.7% in favor of the AMD card. That is not a narrow victory; it is a generational gap made visible in raw compute throughput.

The Vulkan results tell the same story. The AMD card posts 56,593 points, while the Tesla K80 manages only 19,111. The 66.2% delta again favors the Radeon Pro 5700 XT. When a product loses by roughly two-thirds in both available cross-platform tests, there is no ambiguity: the newer architecture wins decisively. The Tesla K80’s best showing is its average benchmark score of 18,866, which sits just slightly above the Radeon Pro 5700 XT’s average of 18,685 — but that average is dragged down by the AMD card’s Passmark legacy DirectX tests, where scores range from 59 to 153. Those older API tests do not reflect modern workloads.

Looking at the rivals list, both cards sit near the same percentile tier — both are at the 63rd percentile versus all GPUs. The Tesla K80’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, averages 18,789, a mere 0.4% difference. The Radeon Pro 5700 XT’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 560X at 18,626, just 0.3% away. Curiously, the two cards in this comparison are each other’s rivals: the Tesla K80 lists the Radeon Pro 5700 XT at a -1% delta, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT lists the Tesla K80 at a -1% delta. This mutual positioning confirms they occupy the same average-performance band, but that average hides the massive divergence in modern API tests.

The Radeon Pro 5700 XT also has exclusive benchmarks the Tesla K80 lacks entirely. It scores 51,272 in Geekbench Metal, 12,547 in Passmark G3D, and 5,787 in Passmark GPU Compute. The Tesla K80 has no Metal result and no Passmark entries, which limits direct comparison but also reveals the K80’s narrower testing footprint. In practical terms, the AMD card is the only one of the two that can be evaluated across a broader range of modern compute and graphics workloads.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro 5700 XT wins everywhere measurable. In Geekbench OpenCL, it is 68.7% ahead. In Geekbench Vulkan, it is 66.2% ahead. These are not marginal advantages; they are overwhelming leads that reflect the fundamental architectural improvements between 2014 and 2020 silicon. The AMD card also holds wins in Metal, Passmark G3D, Passmark GPU Compute, and all DirectX tests — though the Tesla K80 was never tested in those categories, so the comparison is one-sided.

The Tesla K80’s only claim to a win is its average benchmark score of 18,866, which edges out the Radeon Pro 5700 XT’s 18,685 by less than 1%. However, that average is misleading. The K80’s average is computed from just two Geekbench results, while the AMD card’s average includes ten tests, several of which are legacy Passmark DirectX 9, 10, and 11 workloads that score in the double digits. Those old API tests pull the AMD average down disproportionately. In the tests both cards share — OpenCL and Vulkan — the AMD card wins by massive margins.

For compute-heavy workloads that rely on OpenCL or Vulkan, the Radeon Pro 5700 XT is the clear choice. Its 7.675 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 15.35 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1) performance dwarf the Tesla K80’s 4.113 TFLOPS FP32. The AMD card also offers 384.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 240.6 GB/s on the K80, which matters for memory-bound kernels. The Tesla K80 does have a 384-bit memory bus versus the AMD card’s 256-bit bus, but the GDDR6 on the Radeon Pro 5700 XT runs at 12 Gbps effective versus 5 Gbps effective on the K80’s GDDR5, so the bandwidth advantage is clear.

The Verdict

The data supports only one conclusion: the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT is the superior product for any workload measured in this comparison. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks by more than 66%, offers higher FP32 and FP16 compute, faster memory bandwidth, and a larger memory pool of 16 GB versus 12 GB. The Tesla K80’s sole advantage — its slightly higher average benchmark score — is an artifact of incomplete testing, not a real performance edge.

Who should pick the Tesla K80? Only someone constrained to the Kepler architecture for legacy compatibility reasons, or someone who needs the K80’s specific dual-slot, 300 W power envelope with a single 8-pin connector. But the K80 has no display outputs, no modern API support beyond DirectX 12 (11_1), and a Vulkan version of 1.2.175 compared to the AMD card’s Vulkan 1.4. For anyone running OpenCL or Vulkan workloads, the Radeon Pro 5700 XT is the only rational choice.

The Radeon Pro 5700 XT is also far more power-efficient. Its 130 W TDP is less than half the Tesla K80’s 300 W, and it requires no power connectors and only a 300 W suggested PSU versus the K80’s 700 W suggestion. The AMD card is an IGP form factor, while the K80 is dual-slot. For dense compute installations, the Radeon Pro 5700 XT’s lower power draw and smaller footprint are decisive practical advantages. The verdict is unambiguous: buy the AMD card unless you have a specific reason to stay on NVIDIA’s Kepler platform.

FAQ

Q: Which card has better OpenCL performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT scores 59,467 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 68.7% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla K80’s 18,620.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Vulkan?

A: The Radeon Pro 5700 XT scores 56,593 in Geekbench Vulkan versus 19,111 for the Tesla K80, a 66.2% advantage for the AMD card.

Q: Do both cards have the same overall performance percentile?

A: Yes, both are at the 63rd percentile versus all GPUs, but their average benchmark scores differ slightly: 18,866 for the Tesla K80 and 18,685 for the Radeon Pro 5700 XT.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Tesla K80 has 12 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The Radeon Pro 5700 XT delivers 7.675 TFLOPS FP32, compared to 4.113 TFLOPS on the Tesla K80.

Q: Are there any tests where the Tesla K80 wins?

A: In the shared head-to-head tests, the Tesla K80 loses both. Its only edge is a higher average benchmark score (18,866 vs 18,685), which comes from having fewer low-scoring legacy tests in its average.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from entirely different design eras. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 uses the GK210 chip on the Kepler 2.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT uses the Navi 10 chip on the RDNA 1.0 architecture, also from TSMC but on a much more advanced 7 nm node. The transistor counts reflect this: the K80 packs 7,100 million transistors into a 561 mm² die, yielding a density of 12.7M transistors per mm². The Radeon Pro 5700 XT crams 10,300 million transistors into just 251 mm², achieving 41.0M per mm² — more than three times the density.

Clock speeds tell a similar story. The Tesla K80 runs at a 562 MHz base and 824 MHz boost, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT runs at 1243 MHz base and 1499 MHz boost. Even accounting for architectural differences, that clock advantage is enormous. The shading unit counts are close — 2496 for the K80 versus 2560 for the AMD card — but the RDNA 1.0 architecture extracts far more performance per clock. The K80 has 208 TMUs and 48 ROPs, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT has 160 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The AMD card’s pixel rate of 95.94 GPixel/s is more than double the K80’s 42.85 GPixel/s, and its texture rate of 239.8 GTexel/s beats the K80’s 171.4 GTexel/s.

API support also diverges. The Tesla K80 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6. Neither card has ray tracing cores or tensor cores. Neither has display outputs — both are compute-oriented cards. The K80 is from the Tesla Kepler generation with a predecessor of Tesla Fermi and a successor of Tesla Maxwell, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT is from the Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series) generation with no listed predecessor or successor.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet highlights how far GPU design advanced in six years. The Tesla K80 is built on 28 nm; the Radeon Pro 5700 XT is on 7 nm. The K80’s base clock is 562 MHz versus 1243 MHz on the AMD card, and its boost clock is 824 MHz versus 1499 MHz. Memory speed differs dramatically: 5 Gbps effective on the K80 versus 12 Gbps effective on the Radeon Pro 5700 XT. Memory size is 12 GB versus 16 GB, and bandwidth is 240.6 GB/s versus 384.0 GB/s.

Power and physical specs are night and day. The Tesla K80 draws 300 W, requires a dual-slot form factor, needs one 8-pin power connector, and suggests a 700 W PSU. The Radeon Pro 5700 XT draws 130 W, is an IGP form factor, needs no power connectors, and suggests only a 300 W PSU. The K80 measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length; the AMD card has no listed dimensions. The Tesla K80 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16 — doubling the interconnect bandwidth for data transfers.

Compute throughput is another clear differentiator. The K80 offers 4.113 TFLOPS FP32 and no FP16 support. The Radeon Pro 5700 XT offers 7.675 TFLOPS FP32 and 15.35 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The AMD card also has more ROPs (64 vs 48) and a higher pixel rate (95.94 vs 42.85 GPixel/s), though the K80 has more TMUs (208 vs 160). The release dates are far apart: the K80 launched on 2014-11-16, while the Radeon Pro 5700 XT launched on 2020-08-03. Both are marked as end-of-life. Neither has a launch MSRP listed. The K80’s transistor density is 12.7M per mm² versus 41.0M per mm² on the AMD card, and the die sizes are 561 mm² versus 251 mm² respectively. Every meaningful spec favors the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT.