AMD Radeon R9 M375 vs NVIDIA Tesla C2070 Comparison

The AMD Radeon R9 M375 and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 represent two very different eras of GPU design, separated by roughly four years of architectural evolution. The data shows the AMD part, built on a modern 28 nm process, delivers a 7.6% higher OpenCL score than the older, larger NVIDIA compute card, despite the Tesla having significantly more memory and a wider memory bus. This comparison illustrates how process node improvements and architectural efficiency can overcome raw specifications like transistor count and memory bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M375 has an average benchmark score of 10070, while the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scores 9716. This makes the AMD part roughly 3.6% faster on average, based on the available Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan results.

Q: How do the two compare in the single head-to-head benchmark?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon R9 M375 scores 10457 against the Tesla C2070's 9716, a delta of 7.6% in favor of the AMD card. The AMD card wins the only head-to-head benchmark listed.

Q: What are the key memory specifications that differ?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla C2070 uses 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 143.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD Radeon R9 M375 uses 2 GB of DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 28.80 GB/s of bandwidth—a substantial difference of roughly 5x in favor of the Tesla.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient according to the data?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M375 has no TDP listed in the specifications, whereas the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 is rated at 238 W and requires a 550 W suggested PSU. The AMD card's smaller die and modern process node suggest lower power draw, but no exact figure is provided for comparison.

Q: What are the architectural generations of each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M375 uses the GCN 1.0 architecture (chip "Tropo") on a 28 nm process, while the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 uses the Fermi architecture (chip "GF100") on a 40 nm process. The AMD card is from the "Gem System (R9 M300)" generation, and the Tesla is from the "Tesla Fermi (x20xx)" generation.

Q: Which card supports Vulkan?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M375 lists Vulkan 1.2.170 support, while the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 has no Vulkan support listed. Both support DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6, though the AMD card supports DirectX 12 (11_1) versus the Tesla's DirectX 12 (11_0).

Architecture Differences

The fundamental architectural split here is between AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 and NVIDIA's Fermi. The AMD Radeon R9 M375 uses the "Tropo" chip manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC, containing 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 12.2 million per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 uses the "GF100" chip on a 40 nm process, packing 3,100 million transistors onto a massive 529 mm² die, with a much lower density of 5.9 million per mm². The newer process node allows AMD to fit more functionality per area, even though the Tesla has over double the raw transistor count.

Compute resources differ significantly. The AMD card has 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 raster operation units (ROPs). The Tesla C2070 has 448 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Despite having fewer shaders, the Tesla's higher ROP count and TMU count suggest a design aimed at compute and rendering tasks that benefit from these specific units. The memory architecture also diverges: the Tesla uses 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the AMD uses 2 GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus. This gives the Tesla a 5x bandwidth advantage (143.4 GB/s vs 28.80 GB/s).

The feature sets reflect their respective generations. The AMD Radeon R9 M375 supports Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1), while the Tesla C2070 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and has no Vulkan support. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The Tesla is a dual-slot card with 1x DVI output, requiring 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connectors and a 550 W PSU, whereas the AMD card's power and physical dimensions are not specified. The Tesla predates the AMD card by about four years, with a release date of 2011-07-24 versus 2015-05-04 for the R9 M375.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the AMD Radeon R9 M375 scores 10457 and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scores 9716. This yields a 7.6% delta in favor of the AMD card. This result is notable because the Tesla has nearly 5x the memory bandwidth and triple the memory capacity, yet still loses the compute score. The AMD card's GCN architecture and higher clock speeds (1000 MHz base, 1015 MHz boost) likely contribute to its lead in this workload.

The AMD card's average benchmark score of 10070 places it at the 48th percentile among all GPUs, while the Tesla's 9716 places it at the 47th percentile. These percentile values are nearly identical, indicating that both cards sit in the same performance tier overall, despite the 3.6% difference in average scores. The R9 M375's Geekbench Vulkan score of 9682 is slightly lower than its OpenCL score, but the Tesla has no Vulkan result available.

Looking at the nearest rivals provides context. The AMD Radeon R9 M375 is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro K5100M (10043), 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M (10013), and 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M (9959). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A (10273) by 2%. The Tesla C2070, meanwhile, is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9724), 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (9665), and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 2100 (9653). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (9780) by 0.7%. These figures show both cards are competitive with mid-range workstation and mobile GPUs of their respective eras.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the AMD Radeon R9 M375 is the faster card overall, winning the sole head-to-head benchmark with a 7.6% margin. Its average score of 10070 exceeds the Tesla's 9716, and it holds a slightly higher percentile ranking (48th vs 47th). For users prioritizing raw compute performance in OpenCL workloads, the AMD card is the clear choice.

However, the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 has distinct advantages that may matter for specific use cases. Its 6 GB of GDDR5 memory and 143.4 GB/s bandwidth are vastly superior to the AMD's 2 GB DDR3 and 28.80 GB/s. For workloads that are memory-bound rather than compute-bound—such as large dataset processing or certain scientific simulations—the Tesla's memory subsystem could prove more valuable in practice, even if the benchmark score is lower.

The choice ultimately depends on the workload. If the task is general-purpose compute that fits within 2 GB of memory, the AMD Radeon R9 M375 delivers better performance per the data. If the task requires large memory capacity or high bandwidth, the Tesla C2070's specifications make it the more suitable hardware, despite its lower benchmark score. The Tesla also offers a dual-slot form factor and a defined power envelope (238 W TDP, 550 W suggested PSU), which may be preferable in server environments where power and cooling are managed.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon R9 M375 | NVIDIA Tesla C2070 |

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

| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | Fermi |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 40 nm |

| Transistors | 1,500 million | 3,100 million |

| Die Size | 123 mm² | 529 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 12.2M / mm² | 5.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1000 MHz | Not specified |

| Boost Clock | 1015 MHz | Not specified |

| Memory Clock | 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective) | 747 MHz (3 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory Type | DDR3 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 28.80 GB/s | 143.4 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 640 | 448 |

| TMUs | 40 | 56 |

| ROPs | 16 | 48 |

| Pixel Rate | 16.24 GPixel/s | 16.07 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 40.60 GTexel/s | 32.14 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 1,299.2 GFLOPS | 1,027.7 GFLOPS |

| TDP | Not specified | 238 W |

| Slot Width | Not specified | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | Not specified | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | Not specified | 550 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Not specified | 1x DVI |

| DirectX Support | 12 (11_1) | 12 (11_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.170 | Not specified |

| Length | Not specified | 248 mm (9.8 inches) |

| Release Date | 2015-05-04 | 2011-07-24 |

Where Each One Wins

AMD Radeon R9 M375 wins on:

• Compute performance: Delivers 1,299.2 GFLOPS FP32 versus the Tesla's 1,027.7 GFLOPS, a 26% advantage in theoretical peak throughput.
• OpenCL benchmark: Scores 10457 in Geekbench OpenCL, comfortably ahead of the Tesla's 9716.
• Pixel and texture rates: Higher pixel rate (16.24 GPixel/s vs 16.07 GPixel/s) and texture rate (40.60 GTexel/s vs 32.14 GTexel/s) suggest better fill-rate performance in graphics tasks.
• Modern feature support: Supports Vulkan 1.2.170 and PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Tesla lacks Vulkan and uses PCIe 2.0 x16.
• Process efficiency: The 28 nm node with higher transistor density (12.2M/mm² vs 5.9M/mm²) indicates a more modern, potentially more power-efficient design.

NVIDIA Tesla C2070 wins on:

• Memory capacity: 6 GB vs 2 GB, allowing for larger datasets and textures without swapping.
• Memory bandwidth: 143.4 GB/s vs 28.80 GB/s, a nearly 5x advantage that is critical for memory-heavy compute workloads.
• ROPs and TMUs: 48 ROPs vs 16, and 56 TMUs vs 40, suggesting better performance in tasks that rely heavily on these units, such as certain rendering operations.
• Physical form factor: Defined dual-slot design with 248 mm length and specific power connectors (1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin), making it a predictable choice for server installation.
• Power specifications: While higher TDP (238 W), the explicit power requirements (550 W suggested PSU) allow for precise power planning in multi-GPU systems.