AMD Radeon R9 M375X vs NVIDIA Tesla M10 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M10 records an average benchmark score of 9724, while the AMD Radeon R9 M375X records 8325. That puts the Tesla M10 about 16.8% higher overall.

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

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Tesla M10 scores 10318 versus 8273 for the R9 M375X. The Tesla M10 leads by 24.7%.

Q: Is the AMD card competitive in Vulkan workloads?

A: The R9 M375X scores 8377 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the Tesla M10 scores 9130. The Tesla M10 still wins, but the margin drops to 9%, so the AMD card is closer in Vulkan than in OpenCL.

Q: What are the memory capacities of each card?

A: The Tesla M10 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 83.20 GB/s bandwidth. The R9 M375X has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 72.00 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has higher clock speeds?

A: The Tesla M10 runs at a base clock of 1033 MHz and a boost clock of 1306 MHz. The R9 M375X runs at a base clock of 925 MHz and a boost clock of 1015 MHz. The Tesla M10 is higher in both.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are marked as end-of-life. The Tesla M10 was released in May 2016, and the R9 M375X was released in May 2015.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Tesla M10 is built on the Maxwell architecture with the GM107 chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 1,870 million transistors into a die size of 148 mm², giving a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. The AMD Radeon R9 M375X uses the GCN 1.0 architecture with the Tropo chip, also on a 28 nm TSMC process, but with 1,500 million transistors on a smaller 123 mm² die, resulting in a density of 12.2 million per square millimeter.

Both cards have 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs. That is a rare point of parity. The difference comes from clocks and memory. The Tesla M10 has a base clock of 1033 MHz and boost of 1306 MHz, while the R9 M375X sits at 925 MHz base and 1015 MHz boost. Those clock advantages feed directly into fill rates: the Tesla M10 delivers 20.90 GPixel/s and 52.24 GTexel/s, versus 16.24 GPixel/s and 40.60 GTexel/s for the AMD card.

Memory architecture is another split. Both use a 128-bit bus, but the Tesla M10 carries 8 GB of GDDR5 running at an effective 5.2 Gbps, giving 83.20 GB/s. The R9 M375X has 2 GB of GDDR5 at 4.5 Gbps effective, giving 72.00 GB/s. So the Tesla M10 has four times the capacity and about 15.6% more bandwidth.

API support differs slightly. The Tesla M10 lists DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The R9 M375X lists DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. Both are PCIe 3.0 x16 cards. The Tesla M10 is a dual-slot card with a 267 mm length, a single 8-pin power connector, and a suggested 550 W power supply. It has no display outputs, which marks it as a compute-focused accelerator. The R9 M375X has no listed dimensions, power connectors, or display outputs in the database.

The Tesla M10 belongs to the Tesla Maxwell generation, with a predecessor of Tesla Kepler and a successor of Tesla Pascal. The R9 M375X belongs to the Gem System (R9 M300) generation, with a predecessor of Solar System and a successor of Polaris Mobile.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear hierarchy. The NVIDIA Tesla M10 wins both recorded benchmarks, holds a higher average score, and sits at the 47th percentile among all GPUs, while the R9 M375X sits at the 43rd percentile. If the choice is between these two for compute tasks, the Tesla M10 is the stronger part.

That said, the R9 M375X is not a bad performer in its own right. Its average score of 8325 places it within 0.7% of the NVIDIA Quadro K1200, and it trails the GeForce GTX 675MX by only 1.2%. It is a capable mobile or small-form-factor graphics solution from 2015, but it is outclassed by the Tesla M10 in every recorded metric.

The Tesla M10 is the pick for anyone needing more VRAM and higher compute throughput. The 8 GB frame buffer is a substantial advantage over 2 GB, especially for workloads that hold large datasets in memory. The R9 M375X should be chosen only when the workload is light, the platform is power-constrained, or the Tesla M10 is simply not available. There is no benchmark in the database where the AMD card comes out ahead.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla M10 | AMD Radeon R9 M375X |

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

| Architecture | Maxwell | GCN 1.0 |

| Chip | GM107 | Tropo |

| Transistors | 1,870 million | 1,500 million |

| Die size | 148 mm² | 123 mm² |

| Transistor density | 12.6M / mm² | 12.2M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1033 MHz | 925 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1306 MHz | 1015 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective) | 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective) |

| Memory size | 8 GB | 2 GB |

| Memory bandwidth | 83.20 GB/s | 72.00 GB/s |

| Pixel rate | 20.90 GPixel/s | 16.24 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 52.24 GTexel/s | 40.60 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 1.672 TFLOPS | 1,299.2 GFLOPS |

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

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.2.170 |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | Not listed |

| Power connectors | 1x 8-pin | Not listed |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | Not listed |

| Length | 267 mm (10.5 inches) | Not listed |

| Display outputs | No outputs | Not listed |

| Release date | 2016-05-17 | 2015-05-04 |

The shading units, TMUs, ROPs, memory bus width, process node, foundry, and OpenGL version are identical, so they are not listed above.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Two direct comparisons exist in the database: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. The Tesla M10 wins both.

In OpenCL, the Tesla M10 scores 10318 against 8273 for the R9 M375X. That is a lead of 24.7%. This is the largest gap between the two cards, and it reflects the Tesla M10’s higher clocks, higher FP32 throughput (1.672 TFLOPS versus 1,299.2 GFLOPS), and larger memory bandwidth. OpenCL workloads that are memory-heavy will see a clear benefit from the Tesla M10’s 83.20 GB/s versus 72.00 GB/s.

In Vulkan, the Tesla M10 scores 9130 against 8377. The lead narrows to 9%. That is still a decisive win, but the R9 M375X closes much of the gap in this API. The AMD card’s DirectX 12 (11_1) support may help in some Vulkan or DX12 paths, but the recorded Vulkan result still favors NVIDIA.

The average benchmark score for the Tesla M10 is 9724, while the R9 M375X averages 8325. That difference of roughly 1399 points is driven by the OpenCL result, where the Tesla M10’s advantage is largest.

Looking at the nearest rivals for context: the Tesla M10’s average score of 9724 is 0.1% above the Tesla C2070, 0.6% below the GeForce GTX 1070, 0.6% above the Quadro P4000, and 0.7% above the Radeon Pro WX 2100. The R9 M375X’s average of 8325 is 0.7% above the Quadro K1200, 1.2% below the GeForce GTX 675MX, 1.3% below the Radeon 880M, and 1.6% below the GeForce MX330. These figures show that both cards sit in the mid-range of their respective eras, but the Tesla M10 sits in a higher tier overall.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Tesla M10 wins in every recorded category. It has higher base and boost clocks, more memory, more bandwidth, higher pixel and texture rates, and higher FP32 compute. It wins OpenCL by 24.7% and Vulkan by 9%. Its average benchmark score is about 16.8% higher than the AMD card’s. For compute workloads, large memory footprints, or any task that benefits from raw throughput, the Tesla M10 is the only reasonable choice between the two.

The AMD Radeon R9 M375X does not win any benchmark in the database. Its strengths are relative rather than absolute. It is a smaller die (123 mm² versus 148 mm²), which may imply lower manufacturing cost, though pricing is not recorded. It supports DirectX 12 (11_1) while the Tesla M10 supports 11_0, which could matter for certain legacy or compatibility-sensitive applications. Its Vulkan score is closer to the Tesla M10 than its OpenCL score, so if a workload is Vulkan-bound, the performance penalty is smaller.

The R9 M375X also has a lower transistor count (1,500 million versus 1,870 million) and a lower transistor density (12.2M / mm² versus 12.6M / mm²). That means less complexity, but also less capability. The AMD card belongs to the R9 M300 generation, which is a mobile-oriented family, and it predates the Tesla M10 by about a year. It is a reasonable part for light graphics or compute in a laptop or small system, but it is not a competitor to the Tesla M10 in head-to-head performance.

For a builder choosing between these two specific cards, the decision is straightforward: the Tesla M10 for any serious compute task, the R9 M375X only if the system cannot accommodate a dual-slot, 267 mm card with a 550 W power supply requirement. The Tesla M10 has no display outputs, so it cannot drive a monitor; the R9 M375X has no listed display outputs either, so neither card is for desktop use. Both are end-of-life products, so availability is a practical concern.

In short: the Tesla M10 is the faster card by every measured metric, and the R9 M375X is the weaker option that happens to be smaller and older. The database shows two wins for the Tesla M10 and zero for the AMD card, and that tells the full story.