AMD Radeon Pro VII vs NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro VII and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB are both end-of-life professional workstation accelerators with 16 GB of HBM2 memory, but they represent vastly different design philosophies and generations. The data shows a clear performance hierarchy in the available benchmark, with the AMD part holding a decisive lead in compute workloads, though the NVIDIA card retains advantages in other architectural aspects. This analysis draws exclusively from the provided fact pack to compare their compute capabilities, architectural traits, and positioning within their respective product stacks.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII achieves an average benchmark score of 97,131, which is notably higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB’s average of 79,605. This places the AMD card in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA card sits in the 92nd percentile.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon Pro VII compare to the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000?

A: The Radeon Pro VII’s average score of 97,131 is 4.7% higher than the Quadro RTX 6000’s average score of 101,872. This indicates that the AMD card outperforms a high-end professional NVIDIA offering from a similar era.

Q: What is the performance delta between the two cards in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: In the head-to-head Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, the AMD Radeon Pro VII scores 90,148, which is 13.2% higher than the Tesla P100’s score of 79,605. The AMD card is the clear winner in this specific compute test.

Q: Are both cards based on the same manufacturing process?

A: No, they are not. The AMD Radeon Pro VII uses a 7 nm process node, while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB uses a 16 nm process node. Both are fabricated by TSMC.

Q: Do both cards support the same graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. However, the AMD card features a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, whereas the NVIDIA card uses the older PCIe 3.0 x16 standard.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor count?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P100 has 15,300 million transistors, which is higher than the AMD Radeon Pro VII’s 13,230 million. Despite this, the AMD card achieves higher benchmark scores, likely due to its more advanced process node and clock speeds.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon Pro VII is built on the GCN 5.1 architecture (codenamed Vega 20), while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB uses the Pascal architecture (chip GP100). This is a fundamental generational split: AMD’s part is a 7 nm design, whereas NVIDIA’s is a 16 nm design, both from TSMC. The process advantage allows AMD to pack 40.0 million transistors per square millimeter on a 331 mm² die, resulting in 13,230 million transistors. In contrast, the NVIDIA chip has a much larger 610 mm² die with a lower density of 25.1 million transistors per square millimeter, totaling 15,300 million transistors. This means the Tesla P100 physically has more transistors, but they are spread over a significantly larger area.

The memory subsystems are similar in capacity and type—both use 16 GB of HBM2 with a 4096-bit bus—but they differ in bandwidth. The AMD card delivers 1.02 TB/s of memory bandwidth, while the NVIDIA card provides 732.2 GB/s. This difference is partly due to clock speeds: the AMD memory runs at 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA memory runs at 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective). The AMD card’s higher memory bandwidth is a critical factor for compute-heavy workloads.

In terms of compute units, the AMD Radeon Pro VII has 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 64 render output units (ROPs). The NVIDIA Tesla P100 has 3584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. While the AMD card has more shading units and TMUs, the NVIDIA card has significantly more ROPs. This suggests different optimizations: AMD leans toward raw shader throughput, while NVIDIA allocates more resources to pixel processing.

Clock speeds also differ substantially. The AMD card has a base clock of 1400 MHz and a boost clock of 1700 MHz, while the NVIDIA card has a base of 1190 MHz and a boost of 1329 MHz. The higher clocks, combined with more shading units, give the AMD card a significant theoretical peak in floating-point performance: 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 versus 9.526 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card. Both support FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, with AMD at 26.11 TFLOPS and NVIDIA at 19.05 TFLOPS.

Power and physical design are comparable in some respects: both have a 250 W TDP and a dual-slot form factor. The AMD card is longer at 305 mm (12 inches) versus the NVIDIA’s 267 mm (10.5 inches). Power connectors differ, with the AMD card using a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin setup, while the NVIDIA card uses only a single 8-pin connector. Both recommend a 600 W power supply.

A major feature divergence is display output. The AMD Radeon Pro VII includes 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, making it suitable for visualization and multi-monitor setups. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 has no display outputs at all, indicating it is strictly a compute accelerator designed for servers and datacenter environments where rendering to a screen is unnecessary.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only head-to-head benchmark available in the fact pack is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are unambiguous. The AMD Radeon Pro VII scores 90,148, while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79,605. This yields a delta of 13.2% in favor of the AMD card. For context, this OpenCL score is a strong proxy for general-purpose compute performance, which is the primary use case for both cards.

Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the AMD card’s average score of 97,131 is supported by additional results in Geekbench Metal (108,383) and Geekbench Vulkan (92,862). The NVIDIA card has no comparable Metal or Vulkan scores listed, which limits direct comparison beyond the OpenCL test. However, the average score difference is stark: the AMD card leads by approximately 22% over the NVIDIA card’s 79,605 average.

The nearest rivals for the AMD card include the AMD Radeon RX 7900M (average 97,487, delta -0.4%), the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 (average 92,466, delta 5%), the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 (average 101,872, delta -4.7%), and the NVIDIA RTX A4500 (average 91,671, delta 6%). These figures show that the Radeon Pro VII sits in a competitive band, slightly behind the Quadro RTX 6000 but ahead of the Instinct MI60 and RTX A4500. For the Tesla P100, its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (average 79,396, delta 0.3%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 (average 79,842, delta -0.3%), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (average 78,940, delta 0.8%), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (average 80,959, delta -1.7%). This indicates that the P100 is closely matched with a range of modern and older GPUs, but it is not a top-tier performer.

The data suggests that the AMD card’s wins are not marginal. A 13.2% lead in the direct OpenCL comparison is meaningful for professional workloads that rely on sustained compute throughput. The NVIDIA card’s higher ROP count and transistor count do not translate into a benchmark advantage in this test, underscoring that architectural efficiency and clock speed matter more than raw transistor budget.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the available data, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the superior choice for compute-oriented tasks. It holds a 13.2% lead over the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB in the Geekbench OpenCL test, and its average benchmark score is roughly 22% higher. The AMD card also offers a more advanced 7 nm process, higher memory bandwidth (1.02 TB/s versus 732.2 GB/s), and faster clock speeds. For users who need display outputs, the AMD card is the only viable option, as the NVIDIA card has none.

However, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 has its own merits. It uses more transistors (15,300 million versus 13,230 million) and features more ROPs (96 versus 64), which could benefit pixel-heavy workloads if such benchmarks were available. Its 16 nm process is older, but it still delivers solid FP32 performance at 9.526 TFLOPS. The P100’s single 8-pin power connector and shorter length (267 mm versus 305 mm) may make it easier to integrate into certain chassis.

The choice comes down to workload priority. For general compute, AI training, or scientific simulation, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is clearly favored by the numbers. For users constrained by physical space or power connector availability, or those who specifically need NVIDIA’s architecture for software compatibility, the Tesla P100 remains a capable accelerator. Yet, the benchmark evidence is one-sided: the AMD card wins the only direct comparison, and its average score is far higher, placing it in a higher performance percentile.

Specification Differences

The following specifications differ between the AMD Radeon Pro VII and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB:

• Architecture: GCN 5.1 (Vega 20) versus Pascal (GP100)
• Process Node: 7 nm versus 16 nm
• Transistors: 13,230 million versus 15,300 million
• Die Size: 331 mm² versus 610 mm²
• Transistor Density: 40.0M / mm² versus 25.1M / mm²
• Base Clock: 1400 MHz versus 1190 MHz
• Boost Clock: 1700 MHz versus 1329 MHz
• Memory Clock: 1000 MHz (2 Gbps effective) versus 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective)
• Memory Bandwidth: 1.02 TB/s versus 732.2 GB/s
• Shading Units: 3840 versus 3584
• TMUs: 240 versus 224
• ROPs: 64 versus 96
• Pixel Rate: 108.8 GPixel/s versus 127.6 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 408.0 GTexel/s versus 297.7 GTexel/s
• FP32 Performance: 13.06 TFLOPS versus 9.526 TFLOPS
• FP16 Performance: 26.11 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 19.05 TFLOPS (2:1)
• Power Connectors: 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin versus 1x 8-pin
• Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16
• Display Outputs: 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a versus No outputs
• Length: 305 mm (12 inches) versus 267 mm (10.5 inches)
• Height: 111 mm (4.4 inches) versus not specified
• Launch MSRP: 1,899 USD versus 5,699 USD
• Release Date: 2020-05-12 versus 2016-06-19