AMD Radeon Pro 580 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

# AMD Radeon Pro 580 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 and NVIDIA Tesla P4 represent two very different approaches to professional GPU design from the same era. The Pro 580, built on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process with GCN 4.0 architecture, targets integrated Mac workstation environments, while the Tesla P4, fabricated by TSMC on 16 nm with Pascal architecture, is a low-power single-slot server inference card. Benchmark data shows the Pro 580 leads in both shared tests, with an average benchmark score of 40318 compared to the Tesla P4's 37628, yet the Tesla P4 counters with dramatically lower power consumption and a distinct feature set.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon Pro 580 wins outright in every benchmark where both cards were tested. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Pro 580 scores 38457 against the Tesla P4's 34947, a 10% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Pro 580 posts 43285 versus 40309, a 7.4% lead. The Pro 580 also holds a higher overall percentile rank at 82 versus the Tesla P4's 81, and its average benchmark score of 40318 sits 6.7% above the Tesla P4's 37628.

The Tesla P4's territory is not raw compute throughput but efficiency and form factor. Its 75 W TDP is less than half the Pro 580's 185 W, and it draws power from the PCIe slot with no external power connectors. The Tesla P4 is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm (6.6 inches) in length, while the Pro 580 is listed as an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with portable-device-dependent display outputs. The Tesla P4 has no display outputs at all, reflecting its server-focused design where rendering to screen is unnecessary.

For use cases, the data points to the Pro 580 for general-purpose compute with display capability in a Mac context, while the Tesla P4 serves headless server workloads where the 75 W power envelope and compact single-slot footprint are paramount. The Pro 580's higher FP16 throughput of 5.530 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) versus the Tesla P4's 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio) makes it dramatically better suited for workloads leveraging half-precision arithmetic, though the Tesla P4's 5.704 TFLOPS FP32 slightly edges the Pro 580's 5.530 TFLOPS.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide is fundamental. AMD's Ellesmere chip uses GCN 4.0 architecture on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, packing 5,700 million transistors into a 232 mm² die for a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². NVIDIA's GP104 uses Pascal architecture on TSMC's 16 nm process, with 7,200 million transistors across a larger 314 mm² die, yielding 22.9M transistors per mm². The Tesla P4's larger die and higher transistor count do not translate into a compute advantage in the tested workloads.

Shader configuration differs meaningfully. The Pro 580 carries 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs — more of every execution resource. Clock speeds tell a different story: the Pro 580 runs at a 1100 MHz base and 1200 MHz boost, while the Tesla P4 sits at 886 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost. The Pro 580's higher clocks help it overcome the Tesla P4's raw shader count in OpenCL and Vulkan tests.

Memory subsystems are similar in capacity but differ in throughput. Both cards have 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. The Pro 580's memory runs at 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective), yielding 217.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla P4's memory clocks at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for 192.3 GB/s — a 12.8% bandwidth deficit that likely contributes to the Pro 580's benchmark wins. Pixel and texture rates also diverge: the Tesla P4 achieves 71.30 GPixel/s versus 38.40 GPixel/s for the Pro 580, while texture rates are closer at 178.2 GTexel/s versus 172.8 GTexel/s.

API support shows a split. The Pro 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Tesla P4 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla P4's higher DirectX feature level and newer Vulkan version reflect NVIDIA's API maturity, though neither card has ray tracing or tensor cores. The Pro 580's FP16 performance is a major architectural differentiator — full-rate at 5.530 TFLOPS versus the Tesla P4's heavily crippled 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), making the Pro 580 vastly more capable for half-precision compute.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the Pro 580's largest victory. Scoring 38457 against the Tesla P4's 34947, the Pro 580 leads by exactly 10%. This margin likely stems from the combination of higher memory bandwidth (217.0 GB/s versus 192.3 GB/s) and the Pro 580's full-rate FP16 capability, which can accelerate certain OpenCL workloads that detect and use half-precision paths. The Tesla P4's 64:1 FP16 ratio means any FP16 code runs at a fraction of its FP32 speed, a severe penalty in mixed-precision compute.

The Geekbench Vulkan test shows a narrower but still decisive gap. The Pro 580 scores 43285 against 40309 for the Tesla P4, a 7.4% advantage. Interestingly, both cards score higher in Vulkan than OpenCL — the Pro 580 improves from 38457 to 43285, while the Tesla P4 goes from 34947 to 40309. The Pro 580's Vulkan score of 43285 is its strongest benchmark result, exceeding even its Geekbench Metal score of 39213. The Tesla P4's Vulkan score of 40309 is also its best, though it still trails the Pro 580 by more than 2,900 points.

Contextualizing these scores against the nearest rivals clarifies performance tiers. The Pro 580's average score of 40318 places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40377) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870) by 1.4% but beats the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568) by 1.9%. The Tesla P4's average of 37628 sits 0.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37648) and 0.3% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507), while leading the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37157) by 1.3% and trailing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135) by 1.3%. The 6.7% average score gap between the Pro 580 and Tesla P4 is substantial, placing them in adjacent but distinct performance tiers.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 580 is faster, scoring 38457 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 34947 for the NVIDIA Tesla P4, a 10% advantage.

Q: How do the cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The Pro 580 leads again with a Geekbench Vulkan score of 43285 against the Tesla P4's 40309, a 7.4% margin. Both cards score higher in Vulkan than OpenCL.

Q: What are the power consumption differences?

A: The Tesla P4 has a 75 W TDP requiring no external power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The Pro 580 has a 185 W TDP, also with no external power connectors, and is an integrated graphics processor.

Q: Do these cards support half-precision (FP16) compute?

A: Yes, but very differently. The Pro 580 offers 5.530 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32. The Tesla P4 offers only 89.12 GFLOPS FP16 at a 1:64 ratio, making it 62 times slower in FP16 relative to FP32.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The Pro 580 has 217.0 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR5 at 6.8 Gbps effective on a 256-bit bus. The Tesla P4 has 192.3 GB/s from 8 GB of GDDR5 at 6 Gbps effective, also on a 256-bit bus.

Q: What are the form factor differences?

A: The Tesla P4 is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm (6.6 inches) with no display outputs. The Pro 580 is an integrated GPU with portable-device-dependent display outputs, meaning its physical integration depends on the host system.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon Pro 580 outperforms the NVIDIA Tesla P4 in every shared test. A 10% OpenCL lead and a 7.4% Vulkan lead establish the Pro 580 as the stronger compute card, with its 82nd percentile ranking and 40318 average score reinforcing this position. The Pro 580's full-rate FP16 throughput of 5.530 TFLOPS is a decisive advantage for any workload touching half-precision arithmetic, and its higher memory bandwidth of 217.0 GB/s provides a further edge in memory-bound tasks.

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins on efficiency and deployment flexibility. At 75 W with no auxiliary power connectors, it can be slotted into systems with minimal power headroom, and its single-slot 168 mm length fits dense server configurations where space is at a premium. Its PCIe 3.0 x16 interface with no display outputs makes it a pure compute accelerator for headless environments. The Pascal architecture's 1.4 Vulkan support and DirectX 12 (12_1) feature level also edge out the Pro 580's API versions.

For a Mac-centric professional workstation, the Pro 580 is the clear choice — it delivers superior compute performance, supports display output through the host device, and its GCN 4.0 architecture handles FP16 efficiently. For a power-constrained server inference node where display output is irrelevant and the 75 W power budget is critical, the Tesla P4's lower consumption and compact form factor justify accepting its lower benchmark scores. Both cards are end-of-life products, but the data shows they served fundamentally different roles: the Pro 580 as a capable integrated workstation GPU, the Tesla P4 as a low-power headless accelerator.