AMD Radeon PRO W7500 vs NVIDIA Tesla K10 Comparison

# AMD Radeon PRO W7500 vs NVIDIA Tesla K10: A Benchmark Database Analysis

The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 and NVIDIA Tesla K10 occupy distinctly different positions in the GPU landscape. The database records the AMD part as a modern workstation card built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, while the NVIDIA part is a Kepler-generation compute accelerator that has reached end-of-life status. The benchmark data shows a decisive performance advantage for the AMD card in the single head-to-head test recorded, with a 314.9% lead over the Tesla K10 in the Geekbench OpenCL workload. However, the two cards are separated by more than a decade of architectural evolution, so this result reflects generational progress as much as product positioning.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains one direct head-to-head comparison between these two parts, and the result is unambiguous. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scored 58,213 points, while the NVIDIA Tesla K10 managed 14,029 points. That produces a 314.9% advantage for the AMD part, a massive margin that places the W7500 in a different performance tier entirely.

Looking at the aggregate benchmark picture, the AMD card maintains a 0.3% lead over the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, which posts an average score of 16,361. It sits 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16,351 average) and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16,504 average). The only rival that edges ahead of the PRO W7500 in the database is the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, which scores 0.1% higher with an average of 16,408. This places the AMD part in the 59th percentile of all GPUs in the database, meaning the majority of recorded cards score lower.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark results indicate a distinct split in intended workloads. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins in raw compute throughput against the Tesla K10, and the margin is substantial. The 314.9% advantage in OpenCL processing means that the AMD card completes the same GPU compute tasks at a fraction of the time the Tesla would require. This makes it applicable to tasks where the GPU is used as a general-purpose processor, such as rendering, simulation, and compute offload. The W7500's data rate of 108.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 190.4 GTexel/s, along with 12.19 TFLOPS FP32 performance, indicate a card designed for interactive graphics and modern content creation workloads.

The NVIDIA Tesla K10, however, was a compute-oriented accelerator in its day. Its raw specification list shows 2.289 TFLOPS FP32, a 23.84 GPixel/s pixel rate, and no display outputs, which highlights its role as a dedicated compute board rather than a graphics card. The K10's 1,536 shader units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs suggest it was built for massively parallel floating-point work, not real-time graphics. The AMD card wins the only head-to-head benchmark in the database, but the two parts answer different design questions. The W7500 is a modern workstation card for interactive use; the Tesla K10 is an older compute-centric accelerator with a different target market.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between the two cards is the root cause of the benchmark result. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 uses the Navi 33 chip with the RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Hotpink Fishbone. This is a 6 nm process from TSMC with 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, creating a density of 65.2 million transistors per mm². This modern chip has 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. It also carries 28 ray tracing cores, a feature the NVIDIA part does not have. The memory subsystem is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2000 MHz, which gives an effective data rate of 16 Gbps.

The NVIDIA Tesla K10 is built around the GK104 chip with the Kepler architecture. It's a 28 nm TSMC process with 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, or 12.0 million per mm². It has 1,536 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Memory is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit interface, giving 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with memory clock at 1250 MHz and 5 Gbps effective. The K10 has no RT cores and no tensor cores, and no display outputs, as it is a pure compute part.

The clock speed difference reinforces the architectural split. The AMD has a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost of 1700 MHz. The Tesla part is listed without a base clock, boost clock, or game clock, but the memory clock is listed as 1250 MHz. The AMD's clock behavior is typical of a modern workstation card; the Tesla's missing clocks reflect its compute-only orientation and older design.

Specification Differences

Both cards have a dual-slot cooler and no external power connectors, but the similarity ends there. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 uses a single PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the NVIDIA Tesla K10 uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. The AMD part outputs 4x DisplayPort 2.1, the NVIDIA part has no display outputs. The AMD card has a 70 W TDP and a suggested power supply of 250 W. The NVIDIA part has a 225 W TDP and a suggested power supply of 550 W. The AMD requires no additional power connector, while the NVIDIA needs one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector.

In terms of software support, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The AMD card offers more modern API support, especially the newer Vulkan version.

The physical dimensions are also different. The AMD card is 216 mm long, 115 mm high, and 20 mm wide (8.5 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches). The NVIDIA board is 272 mm long and 10.7 inches long, with no height or width listed. The AMD has a production status of "Active" and a release date of 2023-08-02. The NVIDIA has a production status of "End-of-life", released 2012-04-30. The AMD's predecessor is the Radeon Pro, the NVIDIA's is the Tesla Fermi and successor is the Tesla Maxwell.

The two products also differ in price positioning. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 has a launch MSRP of 429 USD. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 has a launch MSRP of 5,099 USD. These numbers are listed as launch MSRP, not current price, but they show the different market positioning of a workstation graphics card versus a computing accelerator.

The AMD has no tensor cores; the NVIDIA has no tensor cores. The AMD has no FP16 acceleration, the NVIDIA has no FP16 listed. The AMD has no game clock; the NVIDIA has no game clock. The AMD has 28 ray tracing cores, the NVIDIA has none, which is a significant feature difference for any workflow that uses ray tracing. The AMD has 1,792 shading units, the NVIDIA has 1,536. The AMD has 112 texture mapping units, the NVIDIA has 128. The AMD has 64 ROPs, the NVIDIA has 32. The AMD has no tensor cores and no RT cores, the NVIDIA has no tensor cores and no RT cores either.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in the recorded head-to-head benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 58,213 against 24,029 for the NVIDIA Tesla K10, a 314.9% difference.

Q: How do I compare the average benchmark scores of the two parts?

A: The database average benchmark score for the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is 16,415. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 has an average of 24,029. The AMD part sits at the 59th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA part sits at the 55th percentile.

Q: Does the AMD part have display outputs?

A: Yes, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 has 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 has no display outputs, it is a computer accelerator card.

Q: What are the power connector requirements?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 requires no external power connectors. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector.

Q: What is the process node and transistor count?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is built on a 6 nm process at TSMC with 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, a density of 65.2 million transistors per mm². The NVIDIA Tesla K10 is built on a 28 nm process at TSMC with 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, a density of 12.0 million per mm².

Q: What are the modern APIs supported?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA Tesla K10 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175.