AMD Radeon RX 570 vs NVIDIA Tesla M60 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla M60 and AMD Radeon RX 570 occupy nearly the same performance tier in the aggregate, yet the RX 570 decisively wins the available head-to-head benchmarks. The Tesla M60 averages 30,490 across its recorded tests, placing it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 570 averages 28,766, sitting at the 74th percentile—a gap of roughly 1.7% in favor of the Tesla. However, benchmark results tell a more nuanced story: the RX 570 outperforms the Tesla M60 in both shared tests, with the Vulkan delta being particularly stark. The Tesla M60’s nearest rivals (NVIDIA CMP 70HX at 30,476, AMD Radeon RX 6700 at 30,433, AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30,095, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at 29,945) all score within 1.8% of it, indicating a tightly clustered competitive field. The RX 570’s nearest rivals (AMD Radeon RX 6800M at 28,874, AMD Radeon RX 470 at 28,996, AMD Radeon R9 M295X at 28,580, and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 at 28,421) similarly show a narrow spread, with deltas ranging from -0.4% to 1.2%. These numbers underscore that while the Tesla M60 holds a slight aggregate edge, the RX 570’s per-test victories are substantial and consistent.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The AMD Radeon RX 570 wins both available head-to-head comparisons, and the margin is not trivial. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 570 scores 32,084 against the Tesla M60’s 29,506, a delta of -8% (negative indicating the Tesla M60 trails). That is a clear 8% performance advantage for the RX 570 in a compute-oriented workload. The gap widens dramatically in Geekbench Vulkan: the RX 570 posts 42,752 while the Tesla M60 manages 31,473, yielding a -26.4% delta. In other words, the RX 570 is more than a quarter faster than the Tesla M60 in Vulkan—a massive difference that cannot be dismissed as benchmark noise. The Tesla M60 wins zero head-to-head tests, while the RX 570 wins two. This is a lopsided result: the Tesla M60’s higher average score (30,490 vs. 28,766) is driven entirely by having fewer benchmark entries (two for the Tesla, four for the RX 570) rather than by superior performance. The RX 570’s additional tests—3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 at 880 and Geekbench Metal at 39,349—are not directly comparable, but they demonstrate the RX 570’s broader benchmark coverage. For users prioritizing raw compute or graphics API performance, the data is unambiguous: the RX 570 leads in every shared metric, with the Vulkan result being particularly decisive.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures from different process nodes. The Tesla M60 uses NVIDIA’s Maxwell 2.0 architecture on a 28 nm TSMC process, featuring the GM204 chip with 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die. The RX 570 employs AMD’s GCN 4.0 architecture on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, using the Polaris 20 chip with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: the RX 570 packs 24.6 million transistors per mm², nearly double the Tesla M60’s 13.1 million per mm². This density advantage comes from the newer 14 nm node, which also explains the RX 570’s higher clock speeds—its base clock is 1,168 MHz and boost is 1,244 MHz, versus the Tesla M60’s 557 MHz base and 1,178 MHz boost. The Tesla M60 compensates with a larger die (398 mm² vs. 232 mm²) and more transistors per chip area, but the architectural efficiency of GCN 4.0 at 14 nm yields better per-clock performance. The memory subsystems also diverge: the Tesla M60 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 160.4 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on the same 256-bit bus but achieves 224.0 GB/s bandwidth due to faster memory clocks (1,250 MHz vs. 1,750 MHz, translating to 5 Gbps vs. 7 Gbps effective). The RX 570’s bandwidth advantage is 39.9% higher, which directly benefits texture-heavy and memory-bound workloads. Shading units and TMUs are identical at 2,048 and 128 respectively, but ROPs differ: the Tesla M60 has 64 ROPs versus the RX 570’s 32, which explains the Tesla’s higher pixel rate (75.39 GPixel/s vs. 39.81 GPixel/s). Texture rates are close—150.8 GTexel/s for the Tesla, 159.2 GTexel/s for the RX 570—reflecting the RX 570’s higher clocks overcoming the identical TMU count.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 570 wins decisively in compute and graphics API performance based on the head-to-head data. Its OpenCL score of 32,084 beats the Tesla M60’s 29,506 by 8%, and its Vulkan score of 42,752 crushes the Tesla’s 31,473 by 26.4%. This makes the RX 570 the clear choice for workloads that leverage Vulkan—a modern API used in many games and compute applications—as well as general OpenCL compute tasks. The RX 570 also has an advantage in memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s vs. 160.4 GB/s), which suggests better performance in bandwidth-sensitive scenarios like high-resolution textures or data-parallel workloads. Additionally, the RX 570 supports FP16 at 5.095 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the Tesla M60 has no listed FP16 capability, giving the RX 570 a functional edge in mixed-precision compute. The Tesla M60, however, wins in specific rasterization metrics: its 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 75.39 GPixel/s, nearly double the RX 570’s 39.81 GPixel/s. This makes the Tesla M60 theoretically superior for fill-rate-bound rendering at high resolutions, though this advantage does not translate into wins in the available benchmarks. The Tesla M60 also has double the memory capacity (8 GB vs. 4 GB), which could matter for datasets that exceed 4 GB, but this is not reflected in the benchmark scores. For practical use, the RX 570’s benchmark victories are the strongest signal: it wins both shared tests, so any user choosing between these two for compute or Vulkan workloads should favor the RX 570 without hesitation. The Tesla M60’s higher average score (30,490 vs. 28,766) is misleading because it is based on only two tests, both of which it loses.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal several key differences beyond the obvious architectural split. Process node: the Tesla M60 is 28 nm, the RX 570 is 14 nm. Transistors: 5,200 million vs. 5,700 million, with the RX 570 having 9.6% more. Die size: 398 mm² vs. 232 mm², a 71.6% larger die for the Tesla. Transistor density: 13.1M/mm² vs. 24.6M/mm², favoring the RX 570. Base clock: 557 MHz vs. 1,168 MHz—the RX 570 is more than twice as fast at base. Boost clock: 1,178 MHz vs. 1,244 MHz, a 5.6% advantage for the RX 570. Memory clock: 1,253 MHz vs. 1,750 MHz, with effective rates of 5 Gbps vs. 7 Gbps. Memory size: 8 GB vs. 4 GB. Memory bandwidth: 160.4 GB/s vs. 224.0 GB/s, a 39.9% advantage for the RX 570. ROPs: 64 vs. 32. Pixel rate: 75.39 GPixel/s vs. 39.81 GPixel/s. Texture rate: 150.8 GTexel/s vs. 159.2 GTexel/s. FP32: 4.825 TFLOPS vs. 5.095 TFLOPS, with the RX 570 ahead by 5.6%. FP16: not listed for the Tesla, listed as 5.095 TFLOPS (1:1) for the RX 570. TDP: 300 W vs. 150 W, meaning the RX 570 draws half the power. Power connectors: 1x 8-pin vs. 1x 6-pin. Suggested PSU: 700 W vs. 450 W. Display outputs: none for the Tesla M60; the RX 570 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. DirectX support: 12 (12_1) for the Tesla, 12 (12_0) for the RX 570. Vulkan support: 1.4 for the Tesla, 1.3 for the RX 570. Physical dimensions: the Tesla M60 is 267 mm long, the RX 570 is 241 mm. Release dates: August 2015 for the Tesla, April 2017 for the RX 570. The RX 570 is newer, more power-efficient, and faster in compute—the only major spec where the Tesla leads is memory capacity, ROPs, and pixel rate.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M60 averages 30,490, while the AMD Radeon RX 570 averages 28,766. However, the Tesla M60’s score comes from only two benchmarks, both of which it loses against the RX 570.

Q: How much faster is the RX 570 in Vulkan?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 570 scores 42,752 versus the Tesla M60’s 31,473, a delta of -26.4% (meaning the Tesla trails by 26.4%). This is the largest performance gap between the two.

Q: Does the Tesla M60 have more memory bandwidth?

A: No. The RX 570 has 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Tesla M60 has 160.4 GB/s. The RX 570’s advantage is 39.9%, despite both using a 256-bit bus.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RX 570 has 24.6 million transistors per mm², compared to the Tesla M60’s 13.1 million per mm². This is due to the RX 570’s 14 nm process versus the Tesla’s 28 nm process.

Q: Which GPU supports FP16 compute?

A: Only the AMD Radeon RX 570 lists FP16 performance at 5.095 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The Tesla M60 has no FP16 specification listed.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Tesla M60 has a TDP of 300 W, while the RX 570 has a TDP of 150 W. The RX 570 draws exactly half the power, and its suggested PSU is 450 W versus 700 W for the Tesla.

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the superior choice based on the data. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, including an 8% advantage in OpenCL and a 26.4% advantage in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score is lower only because it includes additional tests (3DMark and Metal) that the Tesla M60 does not run, but in every directly comparable metric, the RX 570 leads. The RX 570 also offers higher memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s vs. 160.4 GB/s), higher FP32 throughput (5.095 TFLOPS vs. 4.825 TFLOPS), and FP16 support that the Tesla lacks. It does all this at half the TDP (150 W vs. 300 W) and with a much smaller die (232 mm² vs. 398 mm²), demonstrating superior architectural efficiency. The Tesla M60’s only advantages are its 8 GB memory capacity (double the RX 570’s 4 GB), its higher ROP count (64 vs. 32), and its resulting pixel rate (75.39 GPixel/s vs. 39.81 GPixel/s), but these do not translate into any benchmark wins. Users needing to store more than 4 GB of data on the GPU might prefer the Tesla M60, but for raw compute performance, Vulkan workloads, and power efficiency, the RX 570 is the clear winner. The Tesla M60’s 75th percentile ranking versus the RX 570’s 74th is a statistical artifact of its limited benchmark set, not a reflection of actual performance. Anyone choosing between these two for active workloads should pick the RX 570 without reservation—the data supports no other conclusion.