AMD Radeon PRO W7900 vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded benchmark data shows a decisive advantage for the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 in both available tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD card scores 84,379 against the NVIDIA Tesla T4's 61,276, a lead of 37.7%. This is a substantial margin, indicating that the W7900 delivers significantly higher raw compute throughput in this workload. The gap widens considerably in Geekbench Vulkan, where the W7900 posts 137,070 versus the T4's 72,190, resulting in an 89.9% advantage. This near-double performance in Vulkan suggests the AMD architecture scales much better in graphics-adjacent compute tasks.

The average benchmark score tells the same story. The W7900 averages 110,725 across its recorded tests, while the T4 averages 66,733. That places the W7900 in the 94th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the T4 sits in the 90th percentile. The percentile gap is smaller than the raw score gap, reflecting that both cards are above average, but the W7900 is clearly in a higher performance tier. The nearest rivals for the W7900 include the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II (average 109,617, 1% lower) and the NVIDIA RTX A5500 Mobile (average 113,944, 2.8% higher). The T4's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon VII (average 66,004, 1.1% higher) and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (average 65,095, 2.5% higher). These comparisons show that the W7900 competes with much faster workstation GPUs, while the T4 sits among older or lower-end accelerators.

The head-to-head results are unambiguous: the W7900 wins both tests, with a combined win count of 2 against 0 for the T4. The Vulkan delta of 89.9% is particularly striking, as it indicates that the W7900's architecture is far more efficient at handling Vulkan's execution model. For users running workloads that leverage Vulkan, this is a massive differentiator. In OpenCL, the 37.7% lead is still significant, confirming that the W7900's advantage is not limited to one API.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7900 averages 110,725 across its recorded tests, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 averages 66,733. The W7900 is 65.9% higher by this measure.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Vulkan performance?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the W7900 scores 137,070, which is 89.9% higher than the T4's 72,190. This is the largest performance gap between the two in any recorded test.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W7900 has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The W7900's memory bandwidth is 864.0 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s for the T4.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The W7900, built on a 5 nm process, has a transistor density of 109.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The T4, on a 12 nm process, has 25.0 million per square millimeter.

Q: Are both cards currently in production?

A: No. The AMD Radeon PRO W7900 has an active production status, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 is listed as end-of-life.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel rate?

A: The W7900 achieves 479.0 GPixel/s, while the T4 achieves 101.8 GPixel/s. The W7900 is 4.7 times faster in this metric.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon PRO W7900 is built on the Navi 31 chip using RDNA 3.0 architecture, with the codename Plum Bonito. It belongs to the Radeon Pro Navi generation. The process node is 5 nm at TSMC, housing 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 uses the TU104 chip with Turing architecture, from the Tesla Turing generation. It is fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC, with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die. The W7900 has a transistor density of 109.1 million per square millimeter, while the T4 has 25.0 million.

The compute configurations differ fundamentally. The W7900 has 6,144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 raster operations pipelines. It also includes 96 ray tracing cores. The T4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 40 ray tracing cores. The T4 additionally includes 320 tensor cores, a feature not present in the W7900's specifications. The FP32 throughput is 61.32 TFLOPS for the W7900 versus 8.141 TFLOPS for the T4. For FP16, the W7900 also delivers 61.32 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the T4 achieves 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio).

The memory subsystems are equally divergent. The W7900 uses 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, yielding 864.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The T4 uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 320.0 GB/s. The W7900's memory clock is 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective), while the T4's is 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective). These architectural differences explain the performance gaps seen in the benchmarks.

Specification Differences

The following specification fields differ between the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 and the NVIDIA Tesla T4:

• Process Node: 5 nm (W7900) vs 12 nm (T4)
• Transistors: 57,700 million vs 13,600 million
• Die Size: 529 mm² vs 545 mm²
• Transistor Density: 109.1M / mm² vs 25.0M / mm²
• Base Clock: 1760 MHz vs 585 MHz
• Boost Clock: 2495 MHz vs 1590 MHz
• Memory Clock: 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) vs 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective)
• Memory Size: 48 GB vs 16 GB
• Memory Bus Width: 384 bit vs 256 bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 864.0 GB/s vs 320.0 GB/s
• Shading Units: 6144 vs 2560
• TMUs: 384 vs 160
• ROPs: 192 vs 64
• RT Cores: 96 vs 40
• Tensor Cores: none vs 320
• Pixel Rate: 479.0 GPixel/s vs 101.8 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 958.1 GTexel/s vs 254.4 GTexel/s
• FP32: 61.32 TFLOPS vs 8.141 TFLOPS
• FP16: 61.32 TFLOPS (1:1) vs 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1)
• TDP: 295 W vs 70 W
• Slot Width: Triple-slot vs Single-slot
• Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin vs None
• Suggested PSU: 600 W vs 250 W
• Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 vs PCIe 3.0 x16
• Display Outputs: 3x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x mini-DisplayPort 2.1 vs No outputs
• Dimensions: 280 mm length, 110 mm height, 51 mm width vs 168 mm length only
• Production Status: Active vs End-of-life
• Release Date: 2023-05-25 vs 2018-09-12
• Predecessor: Radeon Pro Vega vs Tesla Volta
• Successor: none vs Server Ampere
• Launch MSRP: 3,999 USD vs not provided

The Verdict

The data clearly shows that the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 is the superior performer in raw compute and graphics workloads. It wins both recorded benchmarks, with leads of 37.7% in OpenCL and 89.9% in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 110,725 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, while the T4's 66,733 puts it in the 90th percentile. The W7900 offers 3 times the memory capacity, 2.7 times the memory bandwidth, and 7.5 times the FP32 throughput. Its 5 nm process and higher transistor density indicate a much more modern design.

However, the T4 has distinct advantages for specific use cases. Its 70 W TDP and single-slot design, with no power connectors, make it suitable for dense server deployments where power and space are constrained. The T4 also includes 320 tensor cores, which the W7900 lacks entirely, suggesting an advantage in workloads that rely on tensor operations. The T4's 16 GB of memory, while smaller, may be sufficient for inference tasks. Its end-of-life status, though, means it is no longer in active production.

For users prioritizing maximum compute performance, workstation graphics, or large memory footprints, the W7900 is the clear choice based on the recorded data. For users with strict power budgets, limited physical space, or specific tensor-core requirements, the T4 may still serve a purpose, but its performance ceiling is far lower. The benchmark results do not favor the T4 in any recorded test, so the decision hinges on non-performance factors such as power, size, and tensor support.