AMD Radeon PRO W7500 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 has an average benchmark score of 18,866, while the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 averages 16,415. Despite this, the AMD card wins both head-to-head tests by wide margins.

Q: What are the head-to-head benchmark results between these two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins both recorded comparisons. In Geekbench OpenCL it scores 58,213 versus 18,620 for the Tesla K80, a 68% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan it scores 68,634 versus 19,111, a 72.2% lead.

Q: How do these GPUs compare in transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 packs 13,300 million transistors into a 204 mm² die, yielding 65.2M transistors per mm². The Tesla K80 has 7,100 million transistors on a 561 mm² die, yielding just 12.7M per mm².

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Tesla K80 has a TDP of 300 W and requires a 700 W suggested power supply. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 has a TDP of 70 W with a 250 W suggested PSU, and it draws power entirely from the PCIe slot with no power connectors.

Q: Which card supports modern display outputs?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 features 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 has no display outputs at all, making it unsuitable for direct monitor connection.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is end-of-life, released on 2014-11-16, with its successor being Tesla Maxwell. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is active, released on 2023-08-02, with no successor listed.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent vastly different eras and design philosophies. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 uses the GK210 chip built on Kepler 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. Its die measures 561 mm² and contains 7,100 million transistors, giving a transistor density of 12.7M per mm². This is a dual-GPU compute card from the Tesla Kepler generation, designed for high-performance computing workloads with no display outputs.

The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 uses the Navi 33 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Hotpink Bonefish. It is built on a 6 nm process, also at TSMC, with a much smaller die of 204 mm². Despite the smaller size, it packs 13,300 million transistors, resulting in a dramatically higher density of 65.2M per mm². This is a modern workstation GPU from the Radeon Pro Navi generation, featuring 28 ray tracing cores and 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs.

Clock speeds differ substantially. The Tesla K80 runs at a base of 562 MHz with a boost of 824 MHz, while the W7500 operates at 1500 MHz base and 1700 MHz boost. Memory configurations also diverge: the Tesla uses 12 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 240.6 GB/s bandwidth, while the AMD card uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with slightly higher bandwidth at 256.0 GB/s.

The shading unit counts tell a story of efficiency versus raw scale. The Tesla K80 has 2,496 shading units, 208 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The W7500 has fewer shading units at 1,792, fewer TMUs at 112, but more ROPs at 64. The AMD card also features 28 ray tracing cores, a capability the Tesla lacks entirely.

API support reflects their respective generations. The Tesla K80 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The W7500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The bus interfaces also differ: PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Tesla versus PCIe 4.0 x8 for the AMD card.

Physical characteristics diverge sharply. The Tesla K80 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm (10.5 inches) with a single 8-pin power connector. The W7500 is a single-slot card at 216 mm (8.5 inches) with a height of 115 mm (4.5 inches) and width of 20 mm (0.8 inches), requiring no external power connectors.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear generational shift. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 dominates in raw compute performance, delivering 12.19 TFLOPS FP32 versus 4.113 TFLOPS for the Tesla K80, a near threefold advantage. In the recorded head-to-head benchmarks, the W7500 wins both tests with margins of 68% and 72.2% respectively. The AMD card also offers modern features like ray tracing, DisplayPort 2.1 outputs, and a 6 nm process with far superior transistor density.

However, the NVIDIA Tesla K80 retains relevance in specific contexts. Its average benchmark score of 18,866 sits near rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (18,789, delta 0.4%) and the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, delta -0.5%). This suggests the older card remains competitive in certain legacy workloads that favor its 12 GB memory capacity and 384-bit bus.

For most modern workstation tasks, the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the clear choice. Its 70 W TDP versus 300 W for the Tesla means dramatically lower power requirements, and its single-slot design with no power connectors simplifies installation. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth proves sufficient for many professional applications, while the 28 ray tracing cores prepare it for future workloads.

The Tesla K80 might be considered for compute-heavy tasks where its 12 GB memory and dual-GPU architecture provide an advantage, and where its end-of-life status is not a concern. Its Vulkan score of 19,111 places it near rivals such as the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (19,036, delta -0.9%), indicating it still holds ground in some scenarios. Yet the W7500's Vulkan score of 68,634 is over 3.5 times higher.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla K80 | AMD Radeon PRO W7500 |

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

| Chip | GK210 | Navi 33 |

| Architecture | Kepler 2.0 | RDNA 3.0 |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 6 nm |

| Transistors | 7,100 million | 13,300 million |

| Die Size | 561 mm² | 204 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 12.7M / mm² | 65.2M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 562 MHz | 1500 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 824 MHz | 1700 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1253 MHz, 5 Gbps effective | 2000 MHz, 16 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 12 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 384 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 240.6 GB/s | 256.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2496 | 1792 |

| TMUs | 208 | 112 |

| ROPs | 48 | 64 |

| RT Cores | None | 28 |

| Pixel Rate | 42.85 GPixel/s | 108.8 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 171.4 GTexel/s | 190.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 4.113 TFLOPS | 12.19 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | Not listed | 24.37 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 300 W | 70 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 700 W | 250 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 4x DisplayPort 2.1 |

| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan | 1.2.175 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | 267 mm (10.5 inches) | 216 mm (8.5 inches), 115 mm (4.5 inches), 20 mm (0.8 inches) |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2014-11-16 | 2023-08-02 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data shows a decisive victory for the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 in both tested scenarios. In Geekbench OpenCL, the W7500 scores 58,213 against the Tesla K80's 18,620, resulting in a 68% delta. This aligns with the FP32 compute gap, where the AMD card delivers 12.19 TFLOPS versus 4.113 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card.

The Vulkan test shows an even larger disparity. The W7500 achieves 68,634 while the Tesla K80 manages 19,111, a 72.2% difference. This reflects not only raw compute capability but also modern API support, as the W7500 supports Vulkan 1.4 compared to Vulkan 1.2.175 for the Tesla.

Looking at absolute performance context, the Tesla K80's average score of 18,866 places it at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, while the W7500 sits at the 59th percentile with an average of 16,415. This apparent contradiction stems from the benchmark mix: the W7500's PassMark results (DirectX 10: 65, DirectX 11: 125, DirectX 12: 46, DirectX 9: 200, G2D: 1174, G3D: 13368, GPU Compute: 5910) pull down its average, while its Geekbench scores are far superior.

The Tesla K80's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (18,789, delta 0.4%), NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, delta -0.5%), and NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, delta -0.9%). These margins are tight, showing the Tesla K80 remains within 1% of several contemporary cards in average performance.

The W7500 sits near the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16,408, delta 0%), AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16,361, delta 0.3%), and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16,351, delta 0.4%). Its benchmark profile suggests strong compute performance with more modest DirectX legacy results, making it a specialized tool for modern workloads rather than a general gaming card.

The pixel and texture rates reinforce the AMD card's advantage: 108.8 GPixel/s versus 42.85 GPixel/s, and 190.4 GTexel/s versus 171.4 GTexel/s. The W7500 also supports FP16 at 24.37 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability absent from the Tesla K80's listed specifications. These figures, combined with the head-to-head results, indicate that the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the superior choice for virtually all modern compute and graphics workloads.