AMD Radeon RX 7600S vs NVIDIA Tesla M4 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla M4 and AMD Radeon RX 7600S represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. While the Tesla M4 is an end-of-life compute accelerator from the Maxwell generation, the RX 7600S is an active, modern mobile graphics solution built on RDNA 3.0. Benchmark data shows a stark performance gulf, with the AMD part delivering a Geekbench OpenCL score of 68,012 against the NVIDIA's 16,932, a difference of 75.1% in favor of the newer chip. Both cards occupy the 60th percentile among all GPUs, but their underlying specifications and intended use cases could not be more different.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M4 has an average benchmark score of 16,932, while the AMD Radeon RX 7600S has an average score of 16,696. Despite the RX 7600S winning the head-to-head Geekbench OpenCL test, its overall average is slightly lower by 1.4% when compared directly to the Tesla M4.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600S offers significantly higher memory bandwidth at 256.0 GB/s, which is nearly three times the 88.00 GB/s provided by the NVIDIA Tesla M4. This is due to the RX 7600S using faster GDDR6 memory running at 16 Gbps effective, compared to the Tesla M4's GDDR5 at 5.5 Gbps effective.

Q: What is the difference in transistor density between these architectures?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600S, built on a 6 nm process, has a transistor density of 65.2M / mm². The NVIDIA Tesla M4, using an older 28 nm process, has a much lower density of 12.9M / mm². This highlights the massive efficiency gains in manufacturing technology between 2015 and 2023.

Q: Which GPU supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600S is equipped with 28 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The NVIDIA Tesla M4 does not have any ray tracing cores and is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) support.

Q: Are these GPUs comparable in terms of physical size and power?

A: No. The NVIDIA Tesla M4 is a single-slot, 50 W card with no display outputs, designed for server compute tasks. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a 75 W TDP and no dedicated power connectors, intended for portable devices where display output is dependent on the host laptop.

Q: What is the performance difference in the head-to-head OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600S wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 68,012, which is 75.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla M4's score of 16,932. This indicates a massive advantage for the AMD part in compute workloads that utilize OpenCL.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is defined by process technology and design philosophy. The NVIDIA Tesla M4 is built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture using a 28 nm process at TSMC, packing 2,940 million transistors into a 228 mm² die. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S uses the RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 6 nm process, also at TSMC, which allows for 13,300 million transistors in a smaller 204 mm² die. This process shrink enables the RX 7600S to achieve a transistor density of 65.2M / mm², a massive leap over the Tesla M4's 12.9M / mm².

The compute layouts differ significantly as well. The Tesla M4 features 1,024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 raster operation units (ROPs). The RX 7600S scales this up with 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Furthermore, the RX 7600S introduces 28 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature completely absent from the older Maxwell-based Tesla M4. This gives the AMD part hardware support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the NVIDIA card is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1).

Clock speeds also reflect the architectural and process node improvements. The Tesla M4 has a base clock of 872 MHz and a boost clock of 1072 MHz, while the RX 7600S operates at a base of 1500 MHz and boosts up to 2200 MHz, with a game clock of 1865 MHz. This higher clock speed, combined with the newer architecture, results in dramatically different throughput figures. The Tesla M4 delivers 2.195 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 34.30 GPixel/s, whereas the RX 7600S achieves 15.77 TFLOPS FP32 and a pixel rate of 140.8 GPixel/s. The AMD card also supports FP16 compute at 31.54 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability not listed for the NVIDIA part.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are decisively one-sided. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S scores 68,012, while the NVIDIA Tesla M4 scores 16,932, giving the AMD card a 75.1% lead. This delta is the single largest factor in differentiating the two cards' compute capabilities. In practical terms, this means the RX 7600S can process OpenCL workloads over four times faster than the Tesla M4.

This win is consistent with the broader specification sheet. The RX 7600S has roughly 7.2 times the FP32 throughput (15.77 TFLOPS vs 2.195 TFLOPS), 2.9 times the memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s vs 88.00 GB/s), and double the VRAM capacity (8 GB vs 4 GB). While the Tesla M4's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (deltaPct -0.5%) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (deltaPct -0.6%), showing it is competitive with high-end cards from its own generation, it cannot compete with the modern architecture of the RX 7600S.

Interestingly, the average benchmark scores tell a slightly different story. The Tesla M4 has an average score of 16,932, which is 1.4% higher than the RX 7600S's average of 16,696. This is because the RX 7600S has a wider range of benchmark results, including lower scores in Passmark tests like DirectX 9 (211) and DirectX 10 (74), which drag down its average. However, in the head-to-head OpenCL test, the RX 7600S is the clear winner.

Specification Differences

The specifications of these two GPUs diverge in nearly every measurable field. The process node differs by 22 nm, with the Tesla M4 using 28 nm and the RX 7600S using 6 nm. Transistor count also varies drastically: 2,940 million for the NVIDIA card versus 13,300 million for the AMD card. The die size is similar (228 mm² vs 204 mm²), but the density is not.

Memory configurations are completely different. The Tesla M4 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, while the RX 7600S has 8 GB of GDDR6 on the same 128-bit bus width. The effective memory speed jumps from 5.5 Gbps to 16 Gbps, resulting in bandwidth going from 88.00 GB/s to 256.0 GB/s.

Compute unit counts are higher on the AMD side: 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs versus 1,024, 64, and 32 respectively. The RX 7600S also has 28 RT cores, which the Tesla M4 lacks. Clock speeds are higher on the AMD part (1500 MHz base, 2200 MHz boost) compared to the NVIDIA part (872 MHz base, 1072 MHz boost). The RX 7600S also has a defined game clock of 1865 MHz, while the Tesla M4 has none.

Power and form factor differ as well. The Tesla M4 has a 50 W TDP and is a single-slot card, while the RX 7600S has a 75 W TDP and is an IGP with no power connectors. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 on the NVIDIA card and PCIe 4.0 x16 on the AMD card. Finally, the Tesla M4 has no display outputs, while the RX 7600S outputs are dependent on the portable device it is integrated into.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7600S is the clear winner in raw compute performance and modern feature support. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, by a margin of 75.1%. With its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, hardware ray tracing, and double the VRAM (8 GB vs 4 GB), the RX 7600S is positioned for modern gaming and compute workloads on portable devices. Its higher pixel rate (140.8 GPixel/s) and texture rate (246.4 GTexel/s) make it far more capable for graphics-intensive tasks. The 6 nm process node also suggests better efficiency per transistor, even though the TDP is higher at 75 W.

The NVIDIA Tesla M4, despite being older and slower, still holds a slight edge in average benchmark score across all tests, at 16,932 versus 16,696. This indicates that in some specific workloads, particularly those optimized for its Maxwell architecture, it can perform competitively. Its 50 W TDP makes it a low-power compute solution for servers, and its single-slot design allows for dense deployment. The Tesla M4 also has a higher average score than the RX 7600S in the aggregate, and it is listed as being competitive with cards like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (deltaPct -0.6%). For legacy compute tasks that do not require modern API features or high memory bandwidth, the Tesla M4 can still be a viable option, especially given its end-of-life status which may make it available in specialized markets.

In summary, the RX 7600S wins on performance, features, and memory capacity, while the Tesla M4 wins on aggregate benchmark consistency and lower power consumption. The choice between them depends entirely on whether the user needs modern graphics capabilities or a low-power, legacy compute accelerator.