AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 and NVIDIA Tesla T4 are two very different 16 GB cards aimed at different corners of the professional market, and the benchmark data reflects that split. The AMD card wins both available head-to-head tests, but the margin tells a more nuanced story than a simple sweep. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon Pro Vega 64 scores 71,094 against the Tesla T4’s 61,276, a 16% lead. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap narrows drastically: 74,174 versus 72,190, a 2.7% edge for AMD. The Tesla T4’s average benchmark score is 66,733, putting it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon Pro Vega 64 averages 72,379 and sits in the 91st percentile. Those percentile ranks are close, but the underlying workloads favor the AMD card’s raw throughput.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The OpenCL result is the clearest statement of intent. AMD’s 16% advantage in Geekbench OpenCL is a substantial margin, suggesting the Radeon Pro Vega 64’s architecture is better suited to general compute tasks that scale with shading unit count and memory bandwidth. The Tesla T4’s 61,276 score is not embarrassing—it still beats the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (65,095 avg) by comparison—but it is firmly behind in this test. The Vulkan result is tighter, with AMD winning 74,174 to 72,190. A 2.7% gap is within the range of run-to-run variance on many systems, but it still counts as a win for the Radeon. Notably, the Radeon’s Vulkan score (74,174) is its highest of the three benchmark runs, while the Tesla’s Vulkan score (72,190) is significantly better than its OpenCL result. This suggests the Tesla T4 benefits from Vulkan’s lower overhead, whereas the Radeon’s advantage is more consistent across APIs.

Looking at the nearest rivals for context, the Radeon Pro Vega 64’s average score of 72,379 places it 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal (72,098) and 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M (71,768). It trails the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (73,370) by 1.4% and leads the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE (70,829) by 2.2%. The Tesla T4’s 66,733 average puts it 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon VII (66,004) and 2.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (65,095), but it falls 2.7% short of the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 (68,562) and 3% short of the Intel Arc A770 (68,809). In both cases, the cards sit in a crowded mid-to-high tier where a few percentage points separate many products.

Architecture Differences

The Radeon Pro Vega 64 is built on AMD’s GCN 5.0 architecture, using the Vega 10 chip fabricated on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The Tesla T4 uses NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, with the TU104 chip built on a 12 nm process at TSMC. These are different design philosophies. GCN 5.0 emphasizes wide vector units and high memory bandwidth, while Turing introduces dedicated hardware for ray tracing and tensor operations that GCN lacks entirely. The Radeon has 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The Tesla T4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD’s shading unit count is 60% higher, which explains its OpenCL advantage. However, the Tesla T4 includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores—features the Radeon Pro Vega 64 does not have at all.

The memory subsystems also diverge sharply. The Radeon uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit bus, delivering 402.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s. That is a 25.75% bandwidth deficit for the Tesla, which directly impacts compute-heavy workloads that stream large datasets. Clock speeds tell another story: the Radeon runs at a 1250 MHz base and 1350 MHz boost, while the Tesla has a much lower 585 MHz base but boosts to 1590 MHz. The Tesla’s boost clock is 17.8% higher than the Radeon’s, but its base clock is less than half. This suggests the Tesla relies on aggressive boosting to reach its performance, while the Radeon maintains a steadier pace. Transistor counts are similar (12,500 million for AMD, 13,600 million for NVIDIA), but the die sizes differ: 495 mm² for Vega 10 versus 545 mm² for TU104. Transistor density is nearly identical at 25.3M per mm² for AMD and 25.0M per mm² for NVIDIA.

The API support also differs. The Radeon supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Tesla supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 are newer revisions, reflecting its later release. The Radeon’s pixel rate is 86.40 GPixel/s, while the Tesla’s is 101.8 GPixel/s—a 17.8% advantage for NVIDIA. The texture rates are closer: 345.6 GTexel/s for AMD versus 254.4 GTexel/s for NVIDIA, a 35.8% lead for the Radeon. FP32 performance favors AMD at 11.06 TFLOPS versus 8.141 TFLOPS, a 35.9% margin. FP16 performance is 22.12 TFLOPS for AMD and 16.28 TFLOPS for NVIDIA, again a 35.9% lead for the Radeon. Power consumption is a stark contrast: the Radeon is rated at 250 W TDP, while the Tesla is rated at just 70 W. The Tesla also lists a suggested PSU of 250 W, whereas the Radeon has no such recommendation.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in raw compute benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 wins both head-to-head tests. It leads by 16% in Geekbench OpenCL (71,094 vs 61,276) and by 2.7% in Geekbench Vulkan (74,174 vs 72,190).

Q: Does the Tesla T4 have any hardware features the Radeon lacks?

A: Yes. The Tesla T4 includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 has no equivalent hardware for either ray tracing or tensor operations.

Q: Which card has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 64. It uses HBM2 memory on a 2048-bit bus, achieving 402.4 GB/s. The Tesla T4 uses GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, achieving 320.0 GB/s.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 64 is rated at 250 W TDP, while the Tesla T4 is rated at 70 W TDP. The Tesla also has a suggested PSU rating of 250 W, which is the same as the Radeon’s entire TDP.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The Radeon Pro Vega 64 averages 72,379 across its benchmark runs, compared to the Tesla T4’s 66,733. The Radeon sits in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, while the Tesla sits in the 90th.

Q: Are these cards still in production?

A: No. Both are listed as end-of-life products. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 was released in June 2017, and the Tesla T4 was released in September 2018.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every major specification category. The Radeon Pro Vega 64 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, while the Tesla T4 uses a 12 nm process from TSMC. The Radeon’s chip is Vega 10 with GCN 5.0 architecture; the Tesla’s is TU104 with Turing architecture. Transistor counts are 12,500 million for AMD and 13,600 million for NVIDIA, with die sizes of 495 mm² and 545 mm² respectively. Clock speeds differ significantly: the Radeon has a 1250 MHz base and 1350 MHz boost, while the Tesla has a 585 MHz base and 1590 MHz boost. Memory types are different: HBM2 for AMD, GDDR6 for NVIDIA. Bus widths are 2048-bit versus 256-bit, and bandwidth is 402.4 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s. The Radeon has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Tesla has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Tesla adds 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores; the Radeon has none. Pixel rates favor NVIDIA at 101.8 GPixel/s versus 86.40 GPixel/s. Texture rates favor AMD at 345.6 GTexel/s versus 254.4 GTexel/s. FP32 and FP16 throughput both favor AMD by about 36%. TDP is 250 W for the Radeon and 70 W for the Tesla. The Radeon is listed as an IGP with no power connectors and portable device dependent outputs. The Tesla is single-slot with no display outputs. The Radeon supports PCIe 3.0 x16, as does the Tesla. API support differs: DirectX 12 (12_1) for AMD versus DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) for NVIDIA, with Vulkan 1.3 versus 1.4. The Tesla has a length of 168 mm (6.6 inches); the Radeon’s dimensions are not listed.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon Pro Vega 64 wins in raw compute throughput. It is 35.9% ahead in FP32 and FP16 performance, 35.8% ahead in texture rate, and 25.75% ahead in memory bandwidth. These advantages translate directly into its 16% OpenCL win and 2.7% Vulkan win. For workloads that are bandwidth-bound or shader-bound—such as scientific simulation, rendering, or large matrix operations—the Radeon’s higher shading unit count and wider memory bus give it a clear edge. The data also shows it is competitive with much newer cards: it sits within 1.4% of the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition and 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal.

The Tesla T4 wins in efficiency and specialized features. Its 70 W TDP is less than a third of the Radeon’s 250 W, making it suitable for dense server deployments where power and cooling are constrained. It has a higher pixel rate (101.8 GPixel/s vs 86.40 GPixel/s), which benefits display output tasks. More importantly, the 320 tensor cores and 40 RT cores are absent on the Radeon. For AI inference workloads that use tensor operations, or ray tracing pipelines, the Tesla T4 has hardware that the Radeon simply cannot emulate. Its boost clock of 1590 MHz is 17.8% higher than the Radeon’s, and its Vulkan score of 72,190 is within 2.7% of the Radeon’s—a much smaller gap than the OpenCL result. The Tesla also has a successor lineage (predecessor Tesla Volta, successor Server Ampere) that indicates a defined product lifecycle, whereas the Radeon’s generation is listed as Radeon Pro Mac (Vega Series) with no direct successor named.

The Verdict

The benchmark data clearly favors the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 in raw performance. It wins both head-to-head tests, has a higher average score (72,379 vs 66,733), and holds a 16% OpenCL advantage that is difficult to ignore. If your workload is purely compute-heavy and you have the power budget, the Radeon is the stronger choice. It also matches or beats several newer GPUs in its nearest rival list, including the TITAN X Pascal and RX 6650M.

The Tesla T4 is the better pick when power efficiency or specialized hardware matters more than raw FP32 throughput. Its 70 W TDP allows for far denser installations, and the 320 tensor cores make it the only option here for tensor-based AI workloads. The 40 RT cores provide ray tracing functionality that the Radeon lacks entirely. The Tesla’s Vulkan performance is close enough to the Radeon (within 2.7%) that API-optimized applications may not notice a significant difference. For a server environment where you need 16 GB of memory, low power draw, and tensor acceleration, the Tesla T4 is the logical choice. For a workstation where maximum compute throughput is the priority, the Radeon Pro Vega 64 wins on the data.