AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla K10 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data splits cleanly between these two cards, though the comparison is heavily lopsided. The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT wins the only direct head-to-head benchmark available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, with a score of 18,290 versus the NVIDIA Tesla K10's 14,029. That is a 23.3% margin in favor of the AMD card, which is a substantial gap in raw compute throughput.

The NVIDIA Tesla K10 has no wins in the head-to-head comparison. Its single benchmark score places it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the RX 7800 XT sits at the 51st percentile. This is curious: the Tesla K10's percentile is actually higher, yet it loses the direct comparison. The explanation lies in the average benchmark score calculation. The Tesla K10 has only one recorded benchmark, giving it an average of 14,029. The RX 7800 XT has ten recorded benchmarks, and its average of 11,627 is dragged down by several low-scoring legacy tests like Passmark DirectX 9 (304 points) and Passmark DirectX 10 (121 points). These older API tests are not representative of the card's modern capabilities, but they pull the average down.

For use-case segmentation, the RX 7800 XT is the clear choice for anyone running modern workloads. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 54,228 dwarfs everything else in its record, indicating strong performance in current graphics APIs. The Tesla K10, by contrast, has no Vulkan score at all, and its only benchmark is OpenCL. This suggests the Tesla K10 is a compute-oriented accelerator with no display outputs, while the RX 7800 XT is a full-fledged consumer graphics card with HDMI 2.1a and DisplayPort 2.1 outputs.

The Passmark suite on the RX 7800 XT tells a more nuanced story. Its DirectX 11 score of 249 and DirectX 12 score of 93 are low compared to its G3D score of 24,176, which is a more holistic gaming metric. The G2D score of 1,177 indicates solid 2D performance. These numbers suggest the RX 7800 XT excels in modern 3D workloads but does not shine in legacy API tests, which is typical of newer architectures that prioritize features like ray tracing and mesh shaders over older fixed-function paths.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher raw OpenCL score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT scores 18,290 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 23.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla K10's 14,029.

Q: Does the Tesla K10 support modern graphics APIs like Vulkan?

A: The Tesla K10 supports Vulkan 1.2.175 and DirectX 12 (11_0), but it has no recorded Vulkan benchmark score. The RX 7800 XT supports Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), with a Geekbench Vulkan score of 54,228.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The RX 7800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth, while the Tesla K10 has 4 GB of GDDR5 with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use a 256-bit memory bus.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RX 7800 XT packs 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die, yielding 81.2 million transistors per mm². The Tesla K10 has 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, for 12.0 million per mm².

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Tesla K10's average benchmark score is 14,029, while the RX 7800 XT's average is 11,627. However, this is misleading because the RX 7800 XT has ten recorded benchmarks including several low-scoring legacy tests, whereas the Tesla K10 has only one.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The RX 7800 XT achieves 233.3 GPixel/s, compared to the Tesla K10's 23.84 GPixel/s. That is nearly a tenfold difference in pixel throughput.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test. The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT posts 18,290, while the NVIDIA Tesla K10 scores 14,029. The delta is 23.3% in AMD's favor, which indicates a decisive win in general compute workloads. OpenCL is a cross-platform API, so this result reflects raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth utilization rather than vendor-specific optimizations.

Looking at the surrounding data, the Tesla K10's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 with an average score of 14,150, a delta of -0.9% (meaning the K10 is essentially tied with the GTX 680). The RX 7800 XT's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 at 11,680, a delta of -0.5%. This is a fascinating juxtaposition: the Tesla K10, a 2012 compute card, competes with a 2012 gaming card, while the 2023 RX 7800 XT's average is dragged down to match a 2019 budget card due to legacy benchmark scores.

The RX 7800 XT's Geekbench Vulkan score of 54,228 is its strongest recorded result, and it is not part of the head-to-head comparison because the Tesla K10 has no Vulkan benchmark. This omission is significant: it means the head-to-head data underestimates the AMD card's advantage in modern graphics workloads. The Passmark G3D score of 24,176 further confirms that the RX 7800 XT is a capable 3D performer when measured with a comprehensive suite.

The Tesla K10's single score of 14,029 in OpenCL places it at the 55th percentile, which is higher than the RX 7800 XT's 51st percentile. This is counterintuitive given the direct comparison, but it makes sense when considering that the RX 7800 XT's average is diluted by its Passmark DirectX 9 score of 304 and DirectX 10 score of 121, which are likely from legacy tests that do not stress modern hardware properly. The G3D score of 24,176 is over 200 times higher than the DirectX 10 score, highlighting the gap between old and new API performance.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every measurable specification. Memory capacity is the most obvious: the RX 7800 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6, while the Tesla K10 has 4 GB of GDDR5. Memory bandwidth follows suit, with the RX 7800 XT at 624.1 GB/s versus 160.0 GB/s for the Tesla K10. Both use a 256-bit bus, but the GDDR6 memory clock of 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) crushes the Tesla's 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective).

Compute resources are also vastly different. The RX 7800 XT has 3,840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The Tesla K10 has 1,536 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 7800 XT also has 60 ray tracing cores, which the Tesla K10 lacks entirely. Pixel rate is 233.3 GPixel/s for AMD versus 23.84 GPixel/s for NVIDIA, and texture rate is 583.2 GTexel/s versus 95.36 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 37.32 TFLOPS for the RX 7800 XT versus 2.289 TFLOPS for the Tesla K10, a 16-fold difference.

Power delivery differs as well. The Tesla K10 has a 225 W TDP with a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connector setup and a suggested 550 W PSU. The RX 7800 XT has a 263 W TDP with 2x 8-pin connectors and a suggested 600 W PSU. Both are dual-slot cards. The Tesla K10 is 272 mm long, while the RX 7800 XT is 267 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 50 mm wide. The Tesla K10 has no display outputs, while the RX 7800 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1.

Bus interface differs: the Tesla K10 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RX 7800 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The API support reflects the generational gap: the Tesla K10 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175, while the RX 7800 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two cards is enormous. The Tesla K10 is built on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture, using the GK104 chip, and is part of the Tesla Kepler generation. It is fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, with 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. The RX 7800 XT uses AMD's RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, part of the Navi III (RX 7000) generation. It is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, packing 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die.

Transistor density tells the story of process advancement: the RX 7800 XT achieves 81.2 million transistors per mm², while the Tesla K10 manages only 12.0 million per mm². That is nearly a sevenfold improvement in packing efficiency, enabled by the move from 28 nm to 5 nm lithography. The die size increase from 294 mm² to 346 mm² is modest, but the transistor count jumps from 3,540 million to 28,100 million, an eightfold increase.

The Tesla K10's memory clock is 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective), while the RX 7800 XT runs at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective). The Tesla K10 has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, while the RX 7800 XT has 60 ray tracing cores and no tensor cores (the architecture uses a different compute model). The RX 7800 XT has FP16 performance equal to FP32 at 37.32 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the Tesla K10 has no recorded FP16 capability.

The Tesla K10's release date is April 2012, and it is marked as end-of-life, with its predecessor being Tesla Fermi and successor being Tesla Maxwell. The RX 7800 XT was released in September 2023, is marked as active, and has the predecessor Navi II and successor Navi IV. The codename for the RX 7800 XT is "Wheat Nas," while the Tesla K10 has no codename recorded. The Tesla K10's launch MSRP was 5,099 USD, while the RX 7800 XT's launch MSRP was 499 USD.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion: the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the superior card for virtually any modern workload. Its 23.3% OpenCL advantage over the Tesla K10 is the only direct comparison available, but the surrounding specifications reinforce this dominance. The RX 7800 XT has four times the memory capacity, nearly four times the memory bandwidth, 2.5 times the shading units, and over 16 times the FP32 compute throughput. It also adds ray tracing support, which the Tesla K10 lacks entirely.

The Tesla K10's single benchmark score of 14,029 is respectable for its era, and its 55th percentile ranking suggests it was a strong compute card relative to its contemporaries. However, the architecture is from 2012, and the database shows it has no Vulkan score, no display outputs, and only 4 GB of memory. These are crippling limitations for any modern use case. The RX 7800 XT, with its 54,228 Vulkan score and 16 GB memory, is clearly built for current and future software.

The average benchmark score discrepancy (14,029 for Tesla, 11,627 for RX 7800 XT) is an artifact of the benchmark suite composition, not a reflection of real-world capability. The RX 7800 XT's Passmark G3D score of 24,176 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 18,290 are strong indicators of actual performance, while its low DirectX 9 and 10 scores (304 and 121 respectively) are legacy tests that modern GPUs are not optimized for.

Who should pick which? The RX 7800 XT is the obvious choice for gamers, content creators, or anyone needing display outputs and modern API support. The Tesla K10 is only relevant for someone with a specific legacy compute workload that requires Kepler architecture and does not need display output or modern API features. Given that the Tesla K10 is end-of-life and the RX 7800 XT is active, the latter is also the more future-proof option. The data does not support any scenario where the Tesla K10 is preferable, except possibly for a niche compute task that predates 2015 and cannot run on newer hardware due to software dependencies.