AMD Radeon PRO W7500 vs NVIDIA Tesla M4 Comparison

NVIDIA Tesla M4 and AMD Radeon PRO W7500 are two very different workstation cards separated by eight years of GPU architecture evolution. While the Tesla M4 is an end-of-life Maxwell-era compute accelerator with no display outputs, the Radeon PRO W7500 is an active, modern RDNA 3.0 professional GPU. Benchmark results indicate a decisive performance gap, with the AMD card delivering roughly 3.4x the OpenCL score of the NVIDIA card, though the Tesla M4 holds a marginal edge in overall benchmark percentile ranking.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 wins the only head-to-head comparison available, taking the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 58,213 against the Tesla M4's 16,932, a delta of -70.9% for the NVIDIA card. This is not a close contest; the W7500's OpenCL result is nearly 3.5 times higher, indicating a massive advantage in general-purpose compute workloads that rely on OpenCL acceleration.

The Tesla M4's single benchmark score of 16,932 places it in the 60th percentile of all GPUs, which is slightly above the W7500's 59th percentile. This counterintuitive result stems from the averaging methodology used in the database—the W7500's average benchmark score of 16,415 is dragged down by its low Passmark scores across several legacy DirectX tests, including a 46 in DirectX 12, 65 in DirectX 10, and 125 in DirectX 11. The Tesla M4, having only one benchmark entry, does not suffer from this averaging effect.

For pure compute throughput, the W7500 wins decisively. For legacy rasterization compatibility in older DirectX titles, the Passmark data shows the W7500 scores 200 in DirectX 9 and 1,174 in the G2D test, while the Tesla M4 has no corresponding scores in the FACT PACK. The W7500 also has a Passmark G3D score of 13,368 and a GPU compute score of 5,910, offering a more complete performance profile across multiple API generations.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The Tesla M4 uses the GM206 chip built on TSMC's 28 nm process, featuring Maxwell 2.0 architecture from the Tesla Maxwell generation. It packs 2,940 million transistors on a 228 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.9M per mm². The W7500, in contrast, uses the Navi 33 chip on a 6 nm TSMC process with RDNA 3.0 architecture (codename "Hotpink Bonefish"), containing 13,300 million transistors on a slightly smaller 204 mm² die, achieving a density of 65.2M per mm²—over five times denser than the Maxwell chip.

Memory configurations differ substantially. The Tesla M4 offers 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 88.00 GB/s of bandwidth with memory clocked at 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective). The W7500 doubles capacity to 8 GB of GDDR6 on the same 128-bit bus width, but with 2000 MHz memory (16 Gbps effective), achieving 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth—roughly 2.9 times the Tesla's bandwidth.

Shader resources favor the AMD card heavily. The W7500 features 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, plus 28 ray tracing cores. The Tesla M4 has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no ray tracing support. This translates to peak rates of 108.8 GPixel/s and 190.4 GTexel/s for the W7500 versus 34.30 GPixel/s and 68.61 GTexel/s for the Tesla M4. Compute throughput shows a similar gap: the W7500 delivers 12.19 TFLOPS FP32 and 24.37 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio), while the Tesla M4 manages just 2.195 TFLOPS FP32 with no FP16 figure listed.

Clock speeds also differ, with the W7500 running at 1500 MHz base and 1700 MHz boost versus the Tesla M4's 872 MHz base and 1072 MHz boost. Power envelopes remain low for both—50 W for the Tesla M4 and 70 W for the W7500—with both recommending a 250 W PSU. The W7500 draws power through the PCIe slot with no external connectors, while the Tesla M4's connector info is not listed. The W7500 supports PCIe 4.0 x8 and provides 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs; the Tesla M4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and has no display outputs, reflecting its server-accelerator design.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single head-to-head benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, tells a stark story. The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 58,213 versus the NVIDIA Tesla M4's 16,932, giving the AMD card a 70.9% advantage. This is the only direct comparison available in the FACT PACK, and it aligns with the architectural differences: the W7500 has 75% more shading units, 2.9x the memory bandwidth, and 5.5x the FP32 compute throughput.

Looking at the rival comparisons provides additional context. The Tesla M4's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (average score 17,019, delta -0.5%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037, -0.6%), NVIDIA T400 4 GB (16,792, +0.8%), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083, -0.9%). These deltas show the Tesla M4 sitting within 1% of a broad range of GPUs, indicating its performance is roughly mid-pack for its era.

The W7500's nearest rivals present a different picture. Its average score of 16,415 is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16,408), AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (16,361, +0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16,351, +0.4%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16,504, -0.5%). The fact that a modern professional card and a flagship Blackwell GPU cluster within 1% of each other in average score highlights how the averaging methodology compresses results, making the W7500's OpenCL dominance over the Tesla M4 all the more significant.

The W7500's Passmark results add depth: it scores 13,368 in G3D, 5,910 in GPU compute, 1,174 in G2D, 200 in DirectX 9, 125 in DirectX 11, 65 in DirectX 10, and 46 in DirectX 12. These scores show strong legacy compatibility for a modern card, though the DirectX 12 score appears anomalously low relative to the G3D result. The Tesla M4 has no Passmark entries, so no comparison is possible on that front.

The Verdict

The data directs a clear split. For any workload leveraging OpenCL compute—including scientific simulation, rendering, or data processing—the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 is the superior choice by a 70.9% margin in the only direct benchmark available. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, 256 GB/s bandwidth, and 12.19 TFLOPS FP32 performance provide a modern foundation for professional applications, and its 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs make it a functional workstation card for multi-display setups.

The NVIDIA Tesla M4, despite its 50 W power draw and single-slot form factor, is a legacy part with severe limitations. Its 4 GB GDDR5 memory and 88 GB/s bandwidth cap its utility, and the absence of display outputs restricts it to headless compute roles. However, its 60th percentile ranking versus the W7500's 59th suggests that in the database's overall scoring, the Tesla M4 is not categorically obsolete—it just wins no head-to-head comparisons against the W7500.

The choice depends entirely on workload. Users requiring modern API support, ray tracing, higher memory capacity, and display connectivity should select the W7500. Users constrained to a 50 W power budget or needing a passively suitable accelerator for server environments might consider the Tesla M4, but they must accept dramatically lower compute performance and zero display capability. The W7500's active production status and newer architecture make it the rational default for any new deployment.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 58,213 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to the NVIDIA Tesla M4's 16,932, giving the AMD card a 70.9% advantage in that benchmark.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The Tesla M4 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 88.00 GB/s bandwidth. The W7500 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The Tesla M4 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the W7500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What is the power consumption of each card?

A: The Tesla M4 has a TDP of 50 W, and the W7500 has a TDP of 70 W. Both recommend a 250 W PSU.

Q: Can the Tesla M4 output video to displays?

A: No. The Tesla M4 lists "No outputs" for display connections. The W7500 provides 4x DisplayPort 2.1 outputs.

Q: What is the release date and production status for each?

A: The Tesla M4 was released on November 9, 2015, and is end-of-life. The W7500 was released on August 2, 2023, and is currently active in production.