AMD Radeon Pro 575X vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

# AMD Radeon Pro 575X vs NVIDIA Tesla P4

The AMD Radeon Pro 575X and NVIDIA Tesla P4 represent two distinct philosophies in the GPU market: one designed as an integrated graphics processor for Apple's portable Mac lineup, and the other as a low-profile accelerator for datacenter inference workloads. Despite their different origins, benchmark data places them remarkably close in overall compute performance, with the Tesla P4 holding a 2.9% advantage in average benchmark score (37,628 vs 39,116 for the Radeon Pro 575X). Yet the underlying architectures, memory configurations, and feature sets tell a story of two chips optimized for entirely different environments.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 575X scores 39,116 on average, while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 averages 37,628. The Radeon Pro 575X sits at the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, compared to the Tesla P4's 81st percentile.

Q: How do the two compare in the Geekbench Vulkan test?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins decisively with a score of 40,309 versus the Radeon Pro 575X's 37,919, a 5.9% margin. This is the largest performance gap between the two in any shared benchmark.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Tesla P4 offers 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, double the Radeon Pro 575X's 4 GB. However, the Radeon Pro 575X has a higher memory bandwidth at 217.0 GB/s compared to the Tesla P4's 192.3 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU has a higher FP32 (single-precision) compute rating?

A: The Tesla P4 delivers 5.704 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, exceeding the Radeon Pro 575X's 4.489 TFLOPS by roughly 27%. The Tesla P4 also leads in pixel rate (71.30 GPixel/s vs 35.07 GPixel/s) and texture rate (178.2 GTexel/s vs 140.3 GTexel/s).

Q: How do their transistor counts and die sizes compare?

A: The Tesla P4's GP104 chip contains 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, while the Radeon Pro 575X's Ellesmere packs 5,700 million transistors into 232 mm². Interestingly, the Radeon Pro 575X achieves a higher transistor density at 24.6M per mm² versus 22.9M per mm² for the Tesla P4.

Q: What are the power consumption specifications?

A: The Tesla P4 has a 75 W TDP and is a single-slot card with no power connectors, requiring a 250 W suggested PSU. The Radeon Pro 575X is rated at 150 W TDP and is integrated (IGP) with no power connectors, since it relies on the host device for power delivery.

Architecture Differences

The Radeon Pro 575X is built on AMD's GCN 4.0 architecture using a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, while the Tesla P4 employs NVIDIA's Pascal architecture on a 16 nm process at TSMC. This process node difference partially explains why the Radeon Pro 575X achieves higher transistor density (24.6M / mm²) despite packing fewer total transistors — 5,700 million versus the Tesla P4's 7,200 million.

The compute resource allocation diverges significantly. The Tesla P4 fields 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, whereas the Radeon Pro 575X offers 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This 25% advantage in shader count and 50% advantage in ROPs gives the Tesla P4 a structural edge in raw throughput, which shows up in its higher FP32 rating of 5.704 TFLOPS.

Memory architecture reveals another key divergence. Both use GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, but the Radeon Pro 575X runs its memory at 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective) delivering 217.0 GB/s, while the Tesla P4 operates at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for 192.3 GB/s. The Tesla P4 compensates with double the capacity at 8 GB. This creates an interesting trade-off: the Radeon Pro 575X moves data faster per clock, but the Tesla P4 can hold far more data locally.

FP16 compute presents a stark philosophical difference. The Radeon Pro 575X supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (4.489 TFLOPS), while the Tesla P4's FP16 is severely limited at 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio). This suggests the Radeon Pro 575X could handle mixed-precision workloads more gracefully, whereas the Tesla P4 is clearly optimized for FP32-centric datacenter tasks.

API support also differs: the Radeon Pro 575X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3, while the Tesla P4 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4. Both offer OpenGL 4.6. The Tesla P4's higher DirectX feature level and newer Vulkan version indicate broader contemporary API coverage.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two shared benchmark results paint a consistent picture: the Tesla P4 leads in both tests, but the margins tell different stories. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla P4 scores 34,947 against the Radeon Pro 575X's 34,773 — a razor-thin 0.5% edge. This near-parity suggests that in compute-heavy OpenCL workloads, the architectural differences largely cancel out, with the Radeon Pro 575X's higher memory bandwidth offsetting the Tesla P4's greater shader count.

The Geekbench Vulkan result is more decisive. Here the Tesla P4 scores 40,309 versus 37,919 for the Radeon Pro 575X, a 5.9% advantage. Vulkan's lower-level API appears to favor the Tesla P4's architecture more substantially, possibly due to its newer Vulkan 1.4 support versus the Radeon Pro 575X's Vulkan 1.3. This is the single largest performance gap in the head-to-head data.

Notably, the Radeon Pro 575X has a third benchmark result — Geekbench Metal at 44,655 — which the Tesla P4 cannot participate in, as the Tesla line has no display outputs and is not designed for Apple's Metal API. This absence is itself informative: the Tesla P4's "No outputs" display configuration makes it unsuitable for any graphics-oriented workload requiring visual output, while the Radeon Pro 575X's "Portable Device Dependent" outputs tie it directly to Mac laptop displays.

The overall win count stands at 0 for the Radeon Pro 575X and 2 for the Tesla P4 in shared tests. However, the average benchmark scores — which include the Metal result for the Radeon Pro 575X — show the AMD part ahead at 39,116 versus 37,628. This apparent contradiction resolves when noting that the Metal benchmark likely boosts the Radeon Pro 575X's average, and the Tesla P4 has no comparable test.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro 575X | NVIDIA Tesla P4 |

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

| Architecture | GCN 4.0 | Pascal |

| Process Node | 14 nm | 16 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 5,700 million | 7,200 million |

| Die Size | 232 mm² | 314 mm² |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Clock | 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective) | 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Bandwidth | 217.0 GB/s | 192.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2048 | 2560 |

| TMUs | 128 | 160 |

| ROPs | 32 | 64 |

| Pixel Rate | 35.07 GPixel/s | 71.30 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 140.3 GTexel/s | 178.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 4.489 TFLOPS | 5.704 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 4.489 TFLOPS (1:1) | 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) |

| TDP | 150 W | 75 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Single-slot |

| Suggested PSU | None listed | 250 W |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | No outputs |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_0) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Release Date | 2019-03-17 | 2016-09-12 |

| Predecessor | None listed | Tesla Maxwell |

| Successor | None listed | Tesla Volta |

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins in raw compute throughput. Its FP32 rating of 5.704 TFLOPS, pixel rate of 71.30 GPixel/s, and texture rate of 178.2 GTexel/s all substantially exceed the Radeon Pro 575X's corresponding figures. The Tesla P4's 8 GB memory capacity doubles the Radeon Pro 575X's 4 GB, making it better suited for larger datasets that cannot fit in a smaller frame buffer. Its 75 W TDP is half the Radeon Pro 575X's 150 W, which is a significant advantage in dense server environments where power density matters. The Tesla P4's single-slot form factor and lack of display outputs signal its purpose as a compute accelerator, and its newer Vulkan 1.4 support provides broader API compatibility.

The AMD Radeon Pro 575X wins in memory bandwidth (217.0 GB/s vs 192.3 GB/s), which can benefit memory-bound workloads that repeatedly access the same data. Its FP16 performance at 4.489 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) dwarfs the Tesla P4's 89.12 GFLOPS, making it dramatically more capable for any workload leveraging half-precision arithmetic. The Radeon Pro 575X also holds a higher average benchmark score (39,116 vs 37,628) and a slightly better percentile ranking (82nd vs 81st). Its Metal benchmark support and portable-device-dependent display outputs make it functional in Apple's ecosystem, which the Tesla P4 cannot access at all.

The Verdict

The data suggests two different buyers for these two GPUs. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 is the clear choice for datacenter or server deployments where raw FP32 throughput (5.704 TFLOPS), larger memory capacity (8 GB), and minimal power draw (75 W) are paramount. Its 5.9% Vulkan advantage and 0.5% OpenCL edge in head-to-head tests confirm it as the stronger compute performer in shared workloads. The lack of display outputs is irrelevant in a server context, and the single-slot design with no power connectors simplifies installation.

The AMD Radeon Pro 575X, meanwhile, is the only option for users needing GPU acceleration within Apple's portable Mac ecosystem, given its integrated design and Metal benchmark support. Its higher memory bandwidth and superior FP16 capability (4.489 TFLOPS at 1:1) make it more flexible for mixed-precision or memory-sensitive workloads. The 150 W TDP and IGP form factor indicate it draws power from the host system rather than a dedicated PSU, which is expected for a built-in solution.

For pure compute performance in shared benchmarks, select the Tesla P4 — it wins both head-to-head tests and offers nearly 27% higher FP32 throughput. For Apple ecosystem compatibility, FP16 capability, or memory bandwidth sensitivity, the Radeon Pro 575X is the data-backed pick. The 2.9% average score difference (39,116 vs 37,628) is minor, but the architectural philosophies could not be more different: one is a low-power accelerator designed for rack servers, the other a mobile integrated GPU for creative professionals. Choose based on your environment, not just the numbers.