AMD Radeon RX 7700 vs NVIDIA Tesla K10 Comparison

AMD Radeon RX 7700 and NVIDIA Tesla K10 occupy different corners of the hardware landscape. The RX 7700 is a modern consumer graphics card built on RDNA 3.0, while the Tesla K10 is an end-of-life compute accelerator from 2012. The recorded data shows a single shared benchmark result, Geekbench OpenCL, where the AMD card scores 106,028 against the NVIDIA card’s 14,029, a delta of 655.8%. That gap dominates any direct comparison, but the two cards also differ fundamentally in architecture, memory, features, and intended use. This analysis walks through the numbers in the database to clarify where each product stands.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 wins the only head-to-head benchmark recorded in the database. In Geekbench OpenCL, it posts 106,028 points versus the Tesla K10’s 14,029 points. That is a 655.8% advantage, meaning the RX 7700 delivers more than seven times the compute performance in this specific workload. The RX 7700 also appears across nine benchmark entries, including 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (2,865), Passmark G3D (20,974), and Passmark GPU Compute (10,963). The Tesla K10 has only one recorded benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, so its performance profile is far less documented.

Across the entire database, the RX 7700 averages 15,852 points across all its benchmark entries, placing it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The Tesla K10 averages 14,029 points, placing it in the 55th percentile. The RX 7700’s average is 12.99% higher than the Tesla K10’s single score, but the percentile gap is narrow: 58 versus 55. This suggests that while the RX 7700 is stronger in raw compute, both cards sit near the middle of the overall GPU distribution, though the Tesla K10’s position is based on a single test.

The RX 7700 also wins in terms of feature availability. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The Tesla K10 supports DirectX 12 (11_0), Vulkan 1.2.175, and OpenGL 4.6. The RX 7700 has 40 ray tracing cores, while the Tesla K10 has none. The RX 7700 includes display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C), whereas the Tesla K10 has no display outputs at all. For any workload involving real-time graphics, modern APIs, or ray tracing, the RX 7700 is the only viable option.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different manufacturing eras. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 uses the Navi 32 chip on RDNA 3.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 81.2 million per mm². The NVIDIA Tesla K10 uses the GK104 chip on Kepler architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, for a density of 12.0 million per mm². The RX 7700 has roughly eight times the transistor count on a slightly larger die, with a density nearly seven times higher.

Clock speeds differ sharply. The RX 7700 runs at a base clock of 1900 MHz, a game clock of 2041 MHz, and a boost clock of 2459 MHz. The Tesla K10 has no recorded base or boost clocks in the database; only its memory clock is listed at 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective). The RX 7700’s memory clock is 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective), which is nearly double the Tesla K10’s memory clock in raw terms, and almost four times higher in effective data rate.

Memory configuration is another major split. The RX 7700 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, yielding 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla K10 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256 bit bus, yielding 160.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That is a 264% bandwidth advantage for the RX 7700, alongside four times the capacity. The RX 7700 also uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the Tesla K10 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, which halves the potential transfer rate for data moving between the card and the host system.

The RX 7700 has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The Tesla K10 has 1536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 7700 leads in every category: 66.7% more shading units, 25% more TMUs, and three times the ROP count. The RX 7700 also has 40 ray tracing cores, which the Tesla K10 lacks entirely. Neither card has tensor cores.

Power and physical design differ as well. The RX 7700 has a TDP of 200 W, uses dual-slot cooling, and requires two 8-pin power connectors. The Tesla K10 has a TDP of 225 W, also dual-slot, but uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin connector. Both cards recommend a 550 W power supply. The RX 7700 is 267 mm long, 135 mm tall, and 50 mm wide. The Tesla K10 is 272 mm long, with no recorded height or width. The RX 7700 is listed as Active production, while the Tesla K10 is End-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one head-to-head test between these two cards: Geekbench OpenCL. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 106,028, and the NVIDIA Tesla K10 scores 14,029. The delta is 655.8% in favor of the RX 7700. This is the largest single benchmark gap in the comparison, and it is the only direct measurement available.

To put that score in context, the RX 7700’s nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon R9 370X (average score 15,862, delta -0.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16,014, delta -1%), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15,679, delta 1.1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16,129, delta -1.7%). The RX 7700’s average benchmark score of 15,852 sits just below the R9 370X and RX 9060, and just above the Pro W5500. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 106,028, however, is far higher than its own average, indicating that this particular workload heavily favors the card’s compute capabilities.

The Tesla K10’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (14,150, delta -0.9%), the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13,871, delta 1.1%), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (13,821, delta 1.5%), and the AMD Radeon 660M (13,812, delta 1.6%). The Tesla K10’s single score of 14,029 places it just below the GTX 680 and just above the RX 570X. These rivals are all older or lower-end cards, and the Tesla K10’s performance sits within a narrow band around 14,000 points.

Beyond the head-to-head, the RX 7700 shows strong results in other tests. In Passmark G3D, it scores 20,974, which is its highest non-OpenCL benchmark. In Passmark GPU Compute, it scores 10,963. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 2,865. It also has Passmark scores for DirectX 9 (261), DirectX 11 (186), DirectX 10 (92), DirectX 12 (96), and G2D (1,206). The Tesla K10 has no recorded results for any of these tests, so no further direct comparison is possible.

The wins tally is 1 for the RX 7700 and 0 for the Tesla K10, based solely on the Geekbench OpenCL result. The data does not support any other head-to-head conclusion.

FAQ

Q: What is the biggest performance difference between the RX 7700 and Tesla K10?

A: In the only shared test, Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7700 scores 106,028 versus the Tesla K10’s 14,029, a 655.8% difference in favor of the AMD card.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RX 7700 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s on a 256 bit bus. The Tesla K10 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 160.0 GB/s on a 256 bit bus.

Q: Does the Tesla K10 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla K10 has no ray tracing cores. The RX 7700 has 40 ray tracing cores.

Q: Which card is more power efficient?

A: The RX 7700 has a TDP of 200 W, while the Tesla K10 has a TDP of 225 W. The RX 7700 delivers far higher performance at a lower power draw.

Q: Can the Tesla K10 output video to a display?

A: No. The Tesla K10 has no display outputs. The RX 7700 includes one HDMI 2.1a port, two DisplayPort 2.1 ports, and one USB Type-C port.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The RX 7700 is listed as Active production. The Tesla K10 is listed as End-of-life.

The Verdict

The data clearly favors the AMD Radeon RX 7700 for almost any use case. It wins the only direct benchmark by a wide margin, has more than four times the memory capacity, over three times the memory bandwidth, a newer architecture, a smaller process node, and a lower TDP. It supports modern APIs including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, includes ray tracing hardware, and has display outputs. The Tesla K10 is an older compute accelerator with no display outputs, no ray tracing, and a single recorded benchmark score that sits 655.8% below the RX 7700’s result.

Who should pick the RX 7700? Anyone needing a current, active graphics card for gaming, rendering, or general compute workloads. Its 16 GB of memory and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for large textures or data sets. Its 40 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support position it for modern real-time graphics. Its 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 25.18 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (1:1 ratio) indicate balanced compute capability.

Who should pick the Tesla K10? Only someone with a legacy compute workload that specifically requires Kepler architecture or a card with no display output, and who can tolerate a 225 W TDP and 4 GB memory ceiling. The Tesla K10’s 2.289 TFLOPS FP32 performance is an order of magnitude lower than the RX 7700’s 25.18 TFLOPS. Its 160.0 GB/s bandwidth is less than a third of the RX 7700’s. Its single benchmark score of 14,029 places it near the 55th percentile of all GPUs, but that is based on one test, and the card is end-of-life.

The percentile data reinforces the gap. The RX 7700 sits at the 58th percentile of all GPUs with an average score of 15,852. The Tesla K10 sits at the 55th percentile with an average score of 14,029. Those percentile ranks are close, but the average scores are not directly comparable because the RX 7700 has nine benchmark entries while the Tesla K10 has one. The single shared test, Geekbench OpenCL, shows a massive performance delta that the percentile ranks do not capture fully.

The RX 7700’s nearest rivals, such as the RTX 3060 Ti (average 16,129) and RX 9060 (16,014), are all within a few percentage points of its average score. The Tesla K10’s nearest rivals, such as the GTX 680 (14,150) and RX 570X (13,871), are also clustered tightly. Neither card stands out dramatically among its peers in average score, but the RX 7700 operates in a different performance tier. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2,865 and Passmark G3D score of 20,974 are not matched by any Tesla K10 data, simply because the Tesla K10 has no recorded results for those tests.

In practical terms, the RX 7700 is the only card in this comparison that can handle modern gaming or graphics workloads. The Tesla K10, with no display outputs and no ray tracing, is limited to headless compute tasks. The RX 7700’s launch MSRP is not recorded in the database, so no price comparison is possible. The Tesla K10’s launch MSRP is 5,099 USD, but that figure reflects its 2012 positioning as a professional compute card, not its current market value.

The verdict is straightforward: the RX 7700 wins on every measurable axis in the database. The Tesla K10 remains a historical artifact with a single benchmark score and a legacy architecture. For any new workload, the RX 7700 is the rational choice. For any workload that specifically requires Kepler-based compute without display output, the Tesla K10 exists, but the data shows it delivers a fraction of the performance at a higher power draw.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 7700 | NVIDIA Tesla K10 |

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

| Architecture | RDNA 3.0 | Kepler |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 28 nm |

| Transistors | 28,100 million | 3,540 million |

| Die Size | 346 mm² | 294 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 81.2M / mm² | 12.0M / mm² |

| Memory Size | 16 GB | 4 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Clock | 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) | 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Bandwidth | 624.1 GB/s | 160.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2560 | 1536 |

| TMUs | 160 | 128 |

| ROPs | 96 | 32 |

| Ray Tracing Cores | 40 | None |

| FP32 Performance | 25.18 TFLOPS | 2.289 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 25.18 TFLOPS (1:1) | Not recorded |

| TDP | 200 W | 225 W |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C | No outputs |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (11_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.2.175 |

| Production Status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release Date | 2025-09-17 | 2012-04-30 |

| Predecessor | Navi II | Tesla Fermi |

| Successor | Navi IV | Tesla Maxwell |

| Length | 267 mm (10.5 inches) | 272 mm (10.7 inches) |

| Height | 135 mm (5.3 inches) | Not recorded |

| Width | 50 mm (2 inches) | Not recorded |

| Geekbench OpenCL Score | 106,028 | 14,029 |

| Average Benchmark Score | 15,852 | 14,029 |

| Percentile vs All GPUs | 58 | 55 |