AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla K20m Comparison

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla K20m

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct benchmark comparisons between these cards, and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT dominates both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7700 XT scores 138,383 against the Tesla K20m's 16,241, a 752.1% advantage. That is not a marginal gap; it is a generational chasm. The RX 7700 XT delivers over eight times the raw compute throughput in this workload, reflecting the massive architectural progress between 2013 and 2023. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 7700 XT scores 46,443 versus 21,936 for the Tesla K20m, a 111.7% lead. While narrower than the OpenCL margin, the RX 7700 XT still more than doubles the Tesla's Vulkan performance. The RX 7700 XT wins both recorded head-to-head tests, taking 2 wins to 0.

Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the RX 7700 XT's average benchmark score is 22,549, placing it in the 67th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (average score 22,435, 0.5% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22,729, 0.8% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22,895, 1.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22,170, 1.7% slower). The RX 7700 XT sits in a tight cluster, trading blows with these cards within a 3% band. The Tesla K20m, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 19,089, placing it in the 64th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19,049, 0.2% slower), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (19,036, 0.3% slower), the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, 0.3% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (19,164, 0.4% faster). The Tesla K20m holds its own against these older and lower-tier cards, but it sits roughly 3,460 points below the RX 7700 XT in average score. In practical terms, the RX 7700 XT's average score is about 18% higher than the Tesla K20m's, a substantial gap that shows up across most workloads even though both cards occupy similar percentile rankings.

The RX 7700 XT also has a PassMark G3D score of 22,547 and a PassMark GPU Compute score of 12,912, along with PassMark DirectX scores of 119 (DX10), 232 (DX11), 79 (DX12), and 294 (DX9), plus a PassMark G2D score of 1,161. The Tesla K20m has no recorded PassMark results in the database, so the comparison in those legacy DirectX workloads cannot be made directly. However, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,316 for the RX 7700 XT, combined with its Vulkan and OpenCL dominance, paints a clear picture: the RX 7700 XT is the faster card in every measurable way.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different eras and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT uses the Navi 32 chip built on RDNA 3.0 architecture, with the codename Wheat Nas, and belongs to the Navi III (RX 7000) generation. It is fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process and packs 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The NVIDIA Tesla K20m uses the GK110 chip based on Kepler architecture, belongs to the Tesla Kepler (Kxx) generation, and is built on TSMC's much older 28 nm process. It contains 7,080 million transistors on a larger 561 mm² die, with a transistor density of just 12.6M per mm². The RX 7700 XT crams nearly four times as many transistors into a substantially smaller die, a direct result of the 5 nm process advantage.

The memory subsystems differ significantly. The RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192 bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The Tesla K20m has 5 GB of GDDR5 memory on a wider 320 bit bus, but only manages 208.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective). Despite having 128 more bits of bus width, the Tesla's older and slower memory technology gives it less than half the bandwidth of the RX 7700 XT. The RX 7700 XT also has more than twice the VRAM capacity, which matters for modern workloads with large datasets.

Compute resources also favor the AMD card heavily. The RX 7700 XT has 3,456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, 96 raster output units, and 54 ray tracing cores. The Tesla K20m has 2,496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and just 40 ROPs, with no ray tracing cores at all. The RX 7700 XT's pixel rate is 244.2 GPixel/s versus 36.71 GPixel/s for the Tesla, and its texture rate is 549.5 GTexel/s versus 146.8 GTexel/s. In FP32 compute, the RX 7700 XT delivers 35.17 TFLOPS, exactly ten times the Tesla's 3.524 TFLOPS. The RX 7700 XT also supports FP16 at 35.17 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the Tesla K20m has no recorded FP16 capability. The RX 7700 XT includes hardware ray tracing cores, a feature the Kepler-based Tesla completely lacks.

The feature sets diverge sharply as well. The RX 7700 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla K20m supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The AMD card has display outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. The Tesla K20m has no display outputs at all, as it is a compute-focused accelerator. The RX 7700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla K20m is limited to PCIe 2.0 x16. Power requirements are similar, with the RX 7700 XT rated at 245 W TDP using 2x 8-pin connectors, and the Tesla K20m at 225 W TDP using 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors. Both recommend a 550 W power supply. Physical dimensions are identical in length at 267 mm (10.5 inches), and both are dual-slot cards.

The production status tells the story: the RX 7700 XT is active and was released on 2023-09-05, while the Tesla K20m is end-of-life and was released on 2013-01-04. The RX 7700 XT's launch MSRP is 449 USD. The Tesla K20m's launch MSRP is 3,199 USD.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 138,383 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA Tesla K20m scores 16,241. The RX 7700 XT leads by 752.1%.

Q: Does the Tesla K20m support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla K20m has no ray tracing cores, while the RX 7700 XT includes 54 ray tracing cores.

Q: Can the Tesla K20m be used for display output?

A: No. The Tesla K20m has no display outputs, whereas the RX 7700 XT offers 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each card have?

A: The RX 7700 XT has 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192 bit bus. The Tesla K20m has 208.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 5 GB of GDDR5 on a 320 bit bus.

Q: What is the FP32 compute difference?

A: The RX 7700 XT delivers 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, exactly ten times the Tesla K20m's 3.524 TFLOPS.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 22,549 (67th percentile), while the Tesla K20m has an average of 19,089 (64th percentile).

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the superior card in every recorded benchmark and every architectural metric that matters. It wins both head-to-head tests, offers 752.1% higher OpenCL performance, 111.7% higher Vulkan performance, ten times the FP32 throughput, more than double the memory bandwidth, more than double the VRAM capacity, and it adds features like ray tracing and display outputs that the Tesla K20m simply does not have. The Tesla K20m was a compute accelerator from 2013, and its 28 nm Kepler architecture is hopelessly outclassed by the 5 nm RDNA 3.0 design of the RX 7700 XT.

The only category where the Tesla K20m is not clearly beaten is power consumption, where it draws 225 W versus 245 W for the RX 7700 XT. But that 20 W difference is trivial when the RX 7700 XT delivers roughly 18% higher average benchmark scores and vastly better performance in every individual test. The Tesla K20m's wider 320 bit memory bus is its only other comparative advantage, but the older GDDR5 memory technology negates it entirely, resulting in less than half the bandwidth.

For anyone choosing between these two cards today, the RX 7700 XT is the rational pick for any workload that involves graphics, gaming, or modern compute tasks. The Tesla K20m's lack of display outputs alone disqualifies it for most desktop use cases, and its end-of-life production status means no ongoing support. The RX 7700 XT is active, current, and dramatically more capable.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The RX 7700 XT uses a 5 nm process with 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, while the Tesla K20m uses a 28 nm process with 7,080 million transistors on a 561 mm² die. Transistor density is 81.2M per mm² versus 12.6M per mm². The RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192 bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Tesla K20m has 5 GB of GDDR5 on a 320 bit bus with 208.0 GB/s bandwidth. Shading units are 3,456 versus 2,496, TMUs are 216 versus 208, and ROPs are 96 versus 40. The RX 7700 XT has 54 ray tracing cores; the Tesla K20m has none. Pixel rate is 244.2 GPixel/s versus 36.71 GPixel/s, texture rate is 549.5 GTexel/s versus 146.8 GTexel/s, and FP32 is 35.17 TFLOPS versus 3.524 TFLOPS. The RX 7700 XT supports FP16 at 35.17 TFLOPS; the Tesla K20m has no FP16 data. TDP is 245 W versus 225 W, with 2x 8-pin versus 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors. The RX 7700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16; the Tesla K20m uses PCIe 2.0 x16. Display outputs are present on the RX 7700 XT and absent on the Tesla K20m. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus 12 (11_0), and Vulkan is 1.4 versus 1.2.175. The RX 7700 XT is active with a 2023 release date; the Tesla K20m is end-of-life with a 2013 release date.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT wins in every measured category. In Geekbench OpenCL, it beats the Tesla K20m by 752.1%. In Geekbench Vulkan, it wins by 111.7%. It has higher FP32 compute (35.17 TFLOPS versus 3.524 TFLOPS), higher memory bandwidth (432.0 GB/s versus 208.0 GB/s), more VRAM (12 GB versus 5 GB), more shading units (3,456 versus 2,496), more ROPs (96 versus 40), and it is the only one of the two with ray tracing capability. It also has display outputs, making it usable as a standard graphics card, whereas the Tesla K20m is a headless compute accelerator. The RX 7700 XT's average benchmark score of 22,549 is higher than the Tesla K20m's 19,089, and its 67th percentile ranking beats the Tesla's 64th percentile. The RX 7700 XT is also the only one of the two that is still in active production, with a modern feature set including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4.

The NVIDIA Tesla K20m's only advantages are its lower 225 W TDP (20 W less than the RX 7700 XT) and its wider 320 bit memory bus. Neither advantage translates into meaningful real-world performance, as the RX 7700 XT still delivers more than double the memory bandwidth. The Tesla K20m's 2496 shading units and 208 TMUs are respectable for its era, but they are outmatched by the RX 7700 XT's 3,456 shading units and 216 TMUs. The Tesla K20m also holds its own among its own nearest rivals, sitting within 0.4% of the GeForce GTX 780 and within 0.3% of the Quadro K6000, but that peer group is a decade older and a full tier below the RX 7700 XT's competition. For legacy compute workloads that specifically require Kepler architecture or 5 GB of GDDR5 memory, the Tesla K20m might still function, but for any modern task, gaming, or general GPU compute, the RX 7700 XT is the clear winner in every scenario the data supports.