AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison
AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
Tesla P4
PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
Analysis: AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4
# NVIDIA Tesla P4 vs AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
The NVIDIA Tesla P4 and AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 are two professional workstation GPUs from the Pascal and GCN 4.0 generations, respectively, that land within 0.6% of each other in average benchmark scores. The data shows the Tesla P4 edges ahead in the available head-to-head tests, winning both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan benchmarks, while the WX 7100 counters with a higher raw FP32 throughput, a faster memory bus, and display outputs that the Tesla P4 lacks entirely. Both cards occupy the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, making them statistically equivalent performers in synthetic workloads, but their architectural and feature differences point to very different deployment scenarios. The Tesla P4 is a compute-focused accelerator with no display outputs and a 75 W power envelope, while the WX 7100 is a full-featured workstation card with four DisplayPort outputs and a 130 W TDP.
FAQ
Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?
A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 averages 39186 across its benchmark results, while the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 averages 38949. The Tesla P4 leads by 0.6%, a margin well within typical run-to-run variance.
Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench OpenCL performance?
A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Tesla P4 scores 37896 against the WX 7100's 36807. That gives the Tesla P4 a 3% advantage in this specific workload.
Q: Which card wins in Geekbench Vulkan, and by how much?
A: The Tesla P4 again takes the win in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 40476 versus 39683 for the WX 7100, a 2% lead.
Q: Does the AMD card have any compute advantage despite losing the benchmarks?
A: Yes. The WX 7100 posts 5.728 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, slightly above the Tesla P4's 5.704 TFLOPS. It also offers 224.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 192.3 GB/s for the Tesla P4.
Q: What are the power requirements for each card?
A: The Tesla P4 has a 75 W TDP and requires no power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The WX 7100 has a 130 W TDP, needs a single 6-pin power connector, and calls for a 300 W suggested PSU.
Q: Can either card drive displays directly?
A: Only the WX 7100 has display outputs, offering four DisplayPort 1.4a connections. The Tesla P4 has no display outputs at all, making it strictly a compute or render accelerator.
Architecture Differences
The two GPUs come from fundamentally different architectures. The Tesla P4 uses NVIDIA's Pascal architecture, built on TSMC's 16 nm process, while the WX 7100 is based on AMD's GCN 4.0 (Polaris) architecture, fabricated by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm node. Despite the Tesla P4's smaller process node, the WX 7100 achieves a higher transistor density at 24.6M transistors per mm² versus 22.9M for the Tesla P4, thanks to a smaller die. The Tesla P4 packs 7,200 million transistors into a 314 mm² die, while the WX 7100 fits 5,700 million transistors into 232 mm².
The compute resources differ in configuration. The Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The WX 7100 counters with 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and only 32 ROPs. This ROP disparity explains the significant pixel fillrate gap: the Tesla P4 delivers 71.30 GPixel/s against the WX 7100's 39.78 GPixel/s. Texture fillrates are nearly identical, however, at 178.2 GTexel/s for the Tesla P4 and 179.0 GTexel/s for the WX 7100.
Memory subsystems take different approaches despite similar sizes. Both cards have 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, but the WX 7100 runs its memory at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) yielding 224.0 GB/s, while the Tesla P4 operates at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for 192.3 GB/s. The WX 7100 thus enjoys a 16% bandwidth advantage. FP16 compute tells a starkly different story: the Tesla P4 delivers just 89.12 GFLOPS of FP16 (a 1:64 ratio), while the WX 7100 matches its FP32 rate at 5.728 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).
Feature support also diverges. The Tesla P4 supports DirectX 12_1, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The WX 7100 supports DirectX 12_0, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The Tesla P4 is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm long with no power connectors. The WX 7100 is also single-slot but extends to 241 mm in length and 112 mm in height, requiring one 6-pin power connector. The Tesla P4 offers no display outputs; the WX 7100 provides four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.
The Verdict
The benchmark data points to a narrow but consistent victory for the NVIDIA Tesla P4 in raw compute performance. Across the two head-to-head tests, the Tesla P4 won both, taking Geekbench OpenCL by 3% and Geekbench Vulkan by 2%. Its average benchmark score of 39186 also tops the WX 7100's 38949 by 0.6%. Users who need maximum compute throughput in OpenCL or Vulkan workloads should favor the Tesla P4.
However, the verdict is not one-sided. The WX 7100 offers capabilities the Tesla P4 cannot match: four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs make it a genuine workstation card for multi-monitor setups, while the Tesla P4 has no display outputs whatsoever. The WX 7100 also delivers higher FP32 peak performance (5.728 TFLOPS versus 5.704 TFLOPS) and 16% more memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s versus 192.3 GB/s). For workloads that stress memory bandwidth or require direct display connectivity, the WX 7100 is the better choice.
The Tesla P4 wins on efficiency and physical footprint. Its 75 W TDP is nearly half the WX 7100's 130 W, and it requires no external power connectors while the WX 7100 needs a 6-pin. The Tesla P4 is also shorter at 168 mm versus 241 mm, which matters in space-constrained servers. The data suggests the Tesla P4 is the superior compute accelerator for headless servers, while the WX 7100 is the more versatile workstation card. Neither card holds a decisive performance lead; the choice hinges on whether display outputs and memory bandwidth or power efficiency and raw compute wins matter more.
Specification Differences
| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla P4 | AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Pascal | GCN 4.0 |
| Process Node | 16 nm | 14 nm |
| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |
| Transistors | 7,200 million | 5,700 million |
| Die Size | 314 mm² | 232 mm² |
| Transistor Density | 22.9M / mm² | 24.6M / mm² |
| Base Clock | 886 MHz | 1188 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1114 MHz | 1243 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) | 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192.3 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |
| Shading Units | 2560 | 2304 |
| TMUs | 160 | 144 |
| ROPs | 64 | 32 |
| Pixel Rate | 71.30 GPixel/s | 39.78 GPixel/s |
| Texture Rate | 178.2 GTexel/s | 179.0 GTexel/s |
| FP32 | 5.704 TFLOPS | 5.728 TFLOPS |
| FP16 | 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) | 5.728 TFLOPS (1:1) |
| TDP | 75 W | 130 W |
| Power Connectors | None | 1x 6-pin |
| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 300 W |
| Display Outputs | No outputs | 4x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 (12_0) |
| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| Length | 168 mm (6.6 inches) | 241 mm (9.5 inches) |
| Height | Not specified | 112 mm (4.4 inches) |
Head-to-Head Benchmarks
The head-to-head benchmark results show a clean sweep for the NVIDIA Tesla P4, though the margins are modest. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla P4 scores 37896 against the WX 7100's 36807, a 3% advantage. This result is notable because the WX 7100 actually has a marginally higher FP32 peak at 5.728 TFLOPS, yet the Tesla P4 still outperforms it in this real-world compute test. The 64 ROPs on the Tesla P4, double the WX 7100's 32, likely contribute to this result in memory-heavy OpenCL workloads.
Geekbench Vulkan shows a similar pattern. The Tesla P4 posts 40476, beating the WX 7100's 39683 by 2%. This second win reinforces the conclusion that the Tesla P4's Pascal architecture extracts more practical performance from its hardware than GCN 4.0 does in these cross-platform graphics compute APIs. The Vulkan result is particularly interesting given that the Tesla P4 supports Vulkan 1.4 while the WX 7100 is limited to Vulkan 1.3, which may provide additional optimization opportunities.
The average benchmark scores tell the same story at a higher level. The Tesla P4 averages 39186 across its benchmark suite, while the WX 7100 averages 38949. The 0.6% delta places these two cards in a statistical tie, but the direction of the advantage consistently favors NVIDIA. Comparing to other rivals puts this in perspective: the Tesla P4 sits 1% behind the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile's 39568 and 1.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT's 39647, while the WX 7100 sits 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce MX570's 38494 and 1.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT's 38358.
Where Each One Wins
The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins in pure compute benchmarks, taking both available head-to-head tests. Its 3% OpenCL and 2% Vulkan advantages make it the stronger choice for compute acceleration in headless servers, AI inference, and rendering workloads that use these APIs. The Tesla P4's 71.30 GPixel/s pixel rate, more than double the WX 7100's 39.78 GPixel/s, suggests it also handles fillrate-bound tasks substantially better. Its 75 W TDP and lack of power connectors mean it can be deployed in systems with minimal power headroom, and its 168 mm length fits in shorter chassis. The Tesla P4's 82nd percentile ranking ties with the WX 7100, but its higher average score and head-to-head wins give it the edge for compute-first applications.
The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 wins in memory bandwidth and display flexibility. Its 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is 16% higher than the Tesla P4's 192.3 GB/s, which matters for workloads that stream large datasets through memory. The WX 7100's FP16 performance at 5.728 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) dwarfs the Tesla P4's 89.12 GFLOPS, making it the clear choice for FP16 compute workloads despite losing the OpenCL and Vulkan tests. The four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs enable multi-monitor workstation configurations that are impossible with the Tesla P4. The WX 7100 also has a higher base clock (1188 MHz versus 886 MHz) and boost clock (1243 MHz versus 1114 MHz), which may translate to better performance in latency-sensitive single-threaded tasks. Its 130 W TDP and 6-pin connector require more power, but its 241 mm length is standard for workstation cards. For professionals who need a display-capable GPU with strong FP16 throughput and memory bandwidth, the WX 7100 is the better fit.