AMD Radeon Pro VII vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

# AMD Radeon Pro VII vs NVIDIA Tesla T4

The benchmark data places the AMD Radeon Pro VII ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla T4 in both recorded head-to-head tests, and the margins are substantial. In the geekbench_opencl test, the AMD card scores 90,148 against 61,276 for the Tesla, a 47.1% advantage. The geekbench_vulkan test shows a similar outcome: 92,862 versus 72,190, a 28.6% edge for AMD. Across all measured workloads, the Radeon Pro VII wins both comparisons, making it the stronger performer in this pairing based strictly on the recorded database results.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database includes two head-to-head benchmark runs between these cards. In geekbench_opencl, the AMD Radeon Pro VII delivers 90,148 points, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 manages 61,276. That is a lead of 47.1% for the AMD part. The second test, geekbench_vulkan, shows 92,862 against 72,190. Here the AMD card is 28.6% faster. The AMD Radeon Pro VII also holds a higher average benchmark score across all recorded runs: 97,131 versus 66,733 for the Tesla T4. The percentile ranking reinforces this: the AMD card sits at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, while the NVIDIA card is at the 90th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The AMD Radeon Pro VII uses the GCN 5.1 architecture on TSMC's 7 nm process, packing 13,230 million transistors into a 331 mm² die. That results in a transistor density of 40.0 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 uses the Turing architecture, also on TSMC, but at a larger 12 nm node. It integrates 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, for a density of 25.0 million per square millimeter. The AMD chip runs at a base clock of 1400 MHz and a boost of 1700 MHz. Its memory operates at 1000 MHz. The Tesla T4 has a base of 585 MHz and a boost of 1590 MHz, with its memory at 1250 MHz.

The Radeon Pro VII is equipped with 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 4096 bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla T4 also has 16 GB, but it is GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus, and bandwidth is 320.0 GB/s. The AMD card has 3840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The AMD part also has no ray tracing or tensor cores. The NVIDIA card, by contrast, ships 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. Pixel and texture fill rates follow: the Radeon Pro VII reaches 108.8 GPixel/s and 408.0 GTexel/s, while the Tesla T4 reaches 101.8 GPixel/s and 254.4 GTexel/s.

The AMD card computes 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.11 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The NVIDIA card computes 8.141 TFLOPS FP32 and 16.28 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1). The board power differs greatly: the Radeon Pro VII requires 250 W and a dual-slot bracket with one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector. The Tesla T4 draws 70 W, is single-slot and requires no auxiliary power connector. The Radeon has six mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, whereas the Tesla T4 has no display outputs. The AMD board uses PCIe 4.0 x16, NVIDIA uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in raw compute, the AMD Radeon Pro VII or the NVIDIA Tesla T4?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro VII. It scores 90,148 and 92,862 in the geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan tests, respectively. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 scores 61,276 and 72,190 in those same tests. The AMD card leads by 47.1% in the OpenCL test and 28.6% in the Vulkan test.

Q: How does the memory configuration differ between the two?

A: Both cards have 16 GB of memory. The AMD uses HBM2 on a 4096 bit bus, yielding 1.02 TB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA uses GDDR6 on a 256 bit bus, but the bandwidth is 320.0 GB/s, which is lower than the AMD.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: AMD Radeon Pro VII has 3840 shading units. NVIDIA Tesla T4 has 2560 shading units.

Q: Are display outputs available on both cards?

A: No. The AMD Radeon Pro VII has 6 mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 has no display outputs.

Q: What is the power connector layout?

A: AMD Radeon Pro VII uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 does not require any power connectors.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon Pro VII | NVIDIA Tesla T4 |

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

| Architecture | GCN 5.1 | Turing |

| Process node | 7 nm | 12 nm |

| Transistors | 13,230 million | 13,600 million |

| Die size | 331 mm² | 545 mm² |

| Transistor density | 40.0M / mm² | 25.0M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1400 MHz | 585 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1700 MHz | 1590 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1000 MHz | 1250 MHz |

| Memory size | 16 GB HBM2 | 16 GB GDDR6 |

| Memory bus | 4096 bit | 256 bit |

| Bandwidth | 1.02 TB/s | 320.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 3840 | 2560 |

| TMUs | 240 | 160 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| RT cores | None | 40 |

| Tensor cores | None | 320 |

| FP32 | 13.06 TFLOPS | 8.9 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 26.11 TFLOPS (2:1) | 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| Board power | 250 W | 70 W |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | None |

| PSU recommendation | 600 W | 250 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 6x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a | None |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| | AMD Radeon Pro VII | NVIDIA Tesla T4 |

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

| Length | 305 mm (12 inches) | 168 mm (6.6 inches) |

| Height | 111 mm (4.4 inches) | Not specified |

| Release date | 2020-05-12 | 2018-09-12 |

| Production status | End-of-life | End-of-life |

| Predecessor | Radeon Pro Polaris | Tesla Volta |

| Successor | Radeon Pro Navi | Server Ampere |

The Verdict

From the recorded data, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the stronger card for compute-heavy workloads. It wins both head-to-head tests with leads of 47.1% and 28.6%, and its average benchmark is 97,131 versus 66,733. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is the better choice for tasks that do not require maximum compute throughput and where power or space is limited. The Tesla T4 sips 70 W, single-slot, no external power, while the AMD Radeon Pro VII needs 250 W, dual-slot plus 6-pin and 8-pin connectors. The NVIDIA also has RT and tensor cores, which are simply absent on the AMD.

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon Pro VII: These are the best for maximum raw compute throughput. It wins in both head-to-head tests, with 47.1% and 28.6% leads. Its 13.06 TFLOPS FP32 is far above the Tesla's 8.9 TFLOPS. If the workload is primarily general compute in OpenCL or Vulkan and power limits are not an issue, the Radeon Pro VII is the better pick.

NVIDIA Tesla T4: This is the card for power-sensitive, space-constrained deployments. Its 70W board power, single-slot design, and no external power connectors make it a much easier integration. The 320 tensor cores and 40 RT cores provide dedicated acceleration for AI inference and ray tracing, which the AMD card does not have. If the software stack relies on CUDA, TensorRT, or RTX features, the Tesla T4 is the only viable choice here.