AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits these two accelerators along clear architectural and workload lines. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo dominates both recorded compute tests, winning the OpenCL and Vulkan comparisons outright. Its average benchmark score of 106,750 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 averages 66,733, falling into the 90th percentile. The gap between them is substantial, but the nature of that gap matters more than its size.

The AMD card wins where raw throughput and memory bandwidth are the deciding factors. Its OpenCL score of 98,432 and Vulkan score of 99,296 show consistent strength across both general-purpose compute and graphics-level workloads. The Vega II Duo is a dual-GPU solution, which explains why its scores sit so far above single-chip parts. The recorded data shows it outperforms its closest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600X, by a narrow 0.6 percent margin, and it leads the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 by 4.8 percent. These are tight margins against high-end workstation parts, suggesting the Vega II Duo sits at the top of its class.

The Tesla T4 wins nowhere in the head-to-head comparison, but its profile tells a different story. It has no display outputs, no power connectors, a 70 W power draw, and a single-slot cooler. The Vega II Duo, by contrast, is a quad-slot board with a 475 W power draw and a suggested 850 W power supply. The T4 is built for density and deployment flexibility, not peak performance. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon VII, which beats it by 1.1 percent, and the NVIDIA Tesla P40, which trails by 2.5 percent. These are close figures for a card with a fraction of the Vega II Duo's memory bandwidth. The T4's wins, such as they are, come from efficiency and form factor, not from benchmark scores.

Architecture Differences

The two cards share a foundry, TSMC, but little else. The Vega II Duo uses the Vega 20 chip on a 7 nm process, packing 13,230 million transistors into a 331 mm² die. This produces a transistor density of 40.0 million per square millimeter. The Tesla T4 uses the TU104 chip on a 12 nm process, with 13,600 million transistors spread across a 545 mm² die, for a density of 25.0 million per square millimeter. The process advantage is clear: AMD crams nearly the same transistor count into roughly 60 percent of the silicon area.

The memory subsystems diverge sharply. The Vega II Duo carries 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla T4 has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 320.0 GB/s. That is a 3.2x bandwidth advantage for AMD, which explains the massive OpenCL and Vulkan deltas. The Vega II Duo's memory clock runs at 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective), while the T4 runs at 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective). The T4 uses a narrower bus but faster memory, yet the bus width difference overwhelms the clock speed advantage.

Compute resources follow the same pattern. The Vega II Duo has 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations units. The Tesla T4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD's pixel rate is 110.1 GPixel/s versus 101.8 GPixel/s for NVIDIA, and the texture rate is 440.3 GTexel/s versus 254.4 GTexel/s. The Vega II Duo's FP32 throughput is 14.09 TFLOPS, and its FP16 throughput is 28.18 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. The T4 manages 8.141 TFLOPS FP32 and 16.28 TFLOPS FP16, also at 2:1.

The T4 does bring features the Vega II Duo lacks: 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores. The Vega II Duo has no RT or tensor core counts recorded. The T4 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Vega II Duo tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The interface differs as well: the Vega II Duo uses Apple MPX, while the T4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the largest gap. The Vega II Duo scores 98,432, while the Tesla T4 scores 61,276. That is a 60.6 percent advantage for AMD. The margin reflects the memory bandwidth and shader count disparity more than any architectural efficiency difference. A 1.02 TB/s memory path feeding 4,096 shaders will outrun a 320.0 GB/s path feeding 2,560 shaders in most compute-heavy workloads, and the data confirms it.

The Vulkan test narrows the gap but still favors AMD decisively. The Vega II Duo scores 99,296 against the T4's 72,190, a 37.5 percent delta. Vulkan tends to reward driver efficiency and geometry throughput, and the T4's Turing architecture with its RT and tensor cores narrows the deficit somewhat. Still, the Vega II Duo's raw rasterization power, 110.1 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 440.3 GTexel/s texture rate, keep it well ahead.

Context from the nearest rivals helps interpret these numbers. The Vega II Duo's average score of 106,750 is only 0.6 percent below the Radeon Pro W6600X and 2.6 percent below the Radeon Pro Vega II. It beats the Quadro RTX 6000 by 4.8 percent. The Tesla T4's average of 66,733 sits 1.1 percent above the Radeon VII, 2.5 percent above the Tesla P40, but 2.7 percent below the Radeon Instinct MI25 and 3.0 percent below the Intel Arc A770. These are different performance tiers, and the head-to-head data places them roughly 60 percent apart in OpenCL and 37.5 percent apart in Vulkan.

The Verdict

The data points to two distinct use cases. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo is for workloads where absolute compute throughput and memory bandwidth are non-negotiable. Its 32 GB HBM2 pool, 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, and 14.09 TFLOPS FP32 make it suited for large dataset processing, high-resolution rendering, and compute-heavy simulations. Its 94th percentile ranking and top-tier scores against workstation rivals like the Quadro RTX 6000 confirm its position at the high end. The quad-slot form factor and 475 W power draw are the costs of that performance, and they are substantial.

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is for dense, power-constrained deployments. Its 70 W power draw, single-slot design, and lack of power connectors make it easy to install in servers with limited space and cooling. The 16 GB GDDR6 and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest by comparison, but the T4's 320 tensor cores and 40 RT cores provide acceleration for AI inference and ray tracing workloads that the Vega II Duo cannot match, at least not with hardware dedicated to those tasks. Its 90th percentile ranking shows it is still a capable part, but its benchmark scores place it firmly below the Vega II Duo.

The choice is clear from the recorded measurements. If the priority is raw compute and the power and space budget allows it, the Vega II Duo wins on every benchmark in the comparison. If the priority is density, efficiency, and specialized tensor or RT acceleration, the T4 is the rational pick despite its lower scores. Neither card is wrong, but they serve different masters.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo. Its FP32 throughput is 14.09 TFLOPS versus 8.141 TFLOPS for the Tesla T4, and its FP16 throughput is 28.18 TFLOPS versus 16.28 TFLOPS.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The Vega II Duo delivers 1.02 TB/s over a 4096-bit HBM2 bus, while the Tesla T4 provides 320.0 GB/s over a 256-bit GDDR6 bus. The Vega II Duo has a 3.2x bandwidth advantage.

Q: Does the Tesla T4 have any features the Vega II Duo lacks?

A: Yes. The T4 has 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, while the Vega II Duo has no recorded RT or tensor core counts. The T4 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, versus DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3 for the Vega II Duo.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The Vega II Duo has a 475 W TDP and a suggested 850 W power supply. The Tesla T4 has a 70 W TDP and a suggested 250 W power supply, with no power connectors required.

Q: Which card is better for OpenCL workloads?

A: The Vega II Duo scores 98,432 in Geekbench OpenCL, a 60.6 percent advantage over the T4's 61,276. The margin reflects the Vega II Duo's larger shader count and memory bandwidth.

Q: What do their percentile rankings say?

A: The Vega II Duo ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs with an average score of 106,750. The Tesla T4 ranks in the 90th percentile with an average score of 66,733. Both are above average, but the Vega II Duo sits in a higher performance tier.