AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE vs NVIDIA Tesla M60 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE and NVIDIA Tesla M60 represent two entirely different eras and purposes in GPU design. The RX 7900 GRE is a modern consumer gaming card built on RDNA 3.0, while the Tesla M60 is a legacy datacenter compute accelerator from the Maxwell generation. The benchmark data reflects this chasm: in the two shared tests, the AMD card wins decisively, with the Geekbench OpenCL score showing a 495.7% advantage. The Tesla M60, now end-of-life, holds a 75th percentile ranking against all GPUs, a respectable figure for its age, but the RX 7900 GRE sits at the 77th percentile with a far higher average benchmark score of 32456.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE than the NVIDIA Tesla M60 in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 175758 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA Tesla M60 scores 29506. This results in a 495.7% delta, meaning the AMD card is nearly six times faster in this compute workload.

Q: Does the NVIDIA Tesla M60 win any of the shared benchmarks?

A: No. In the two head-to-head benchmark tests available (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the NVIDIA Tesla M60 loses both. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE wins 2 out of 2 shared tests, with the Vulkan delta at 217.3% in AMD's favor.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE has 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth from its 16 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. The NVIDIA Tesla M60 offers 160.4 GB/s from its 8 GB GDDR5 memory, also on a 256-bit bus. This represents a 3.6x bandwidth advantage for the AMD card.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, has a transistor density of 109.1M / mm². The NVIDIA Tesla M60, fabricated on a 28 nm process, has a density of only 13.1M / mm². This is a direct result of the manufacturing node difference.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE has an average benchmark score of 32456. The NVIDIA Tesla M60 has an average benchmark score of 30490. Interestingly, the AMD card's nearest rival by average score is the AMD FirePro S10000 at 32388 (a 0.2% delta), while the Tesla M60's closest rival is the NVIDIA CMP 70HX at 30476 (a 0% delta).

Q: Are both cards the same physical size?

A: They are close in length but not identical. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE measures 276 mm in length, while the NVIDIA Tesla M60 measures 267 mm. Both are dual-slot cards, but the Tesla M60 has no display outputs and its height and width are not specified in the data.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, using the Navi 31 chip with the codename "Plum Bonito." It is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, packing 57,700 million transistors into a 529 mm² die. In contrast, the NVIDIA Tesla M60 uses the Maxwell 2.0 architecture with the GM204 chip, manufactured on a 28 nm process. This older node houses only 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die.

The manufacturing process difference drives a massive disparity in transistor density: 109.1M / mm² for the AMD card versus 13.1M / mm² for the NVIDIA card. This allows the RX 7900 GRE to implement far more compute resources. The AMD card features 5120 shading units, 320 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 160 render output units (ROPs). The Tesla M60, meanwhile, has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The AMD card also includes 80 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Maxwell-based Tesla M60, which has no RT cores listed.

Clock speeds also reflect the architectural evolution. The RX 7900 GRE has a base clock of 1287 MHz, a game clock of 1880 MHz, and a boost clock of 2245 MHz. The Tesla M60 runs much lower, with a base clock of 557 MHz and a boost clock of 1178 MHz. Memory technology differs as well: the AMD card uses GDDR6 at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA card uses GDDR5 at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective). The API support shows the AMD card supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the Tesla M60 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is limited to two Geekbench tests, but the results are unambiguous. In Geekbench OpenCL, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 175758 against the NVIDIA Tesla M60's 29506. This is a 495.7% delta, meaning the AMD card delivers roughly six times the compute throughput. This massive margin is consistent with the raw specifications: the AMD card offers 45.98 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus 4.825 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card — a 9.5x difference in theoretical peak.

The Vulkan test shows a narrower but still dominant win for AMD. The RX 7900 GRE scores 99850, while the Tesla M60 scores 31473, resulting in a 217.3% delta. The smaller gap in Vulkan relative to OpenCL suggests the older Maxwell architecture handles Vulkan workloads relatively better, but it is still far behind. These two tests are the only shared benchmarks in the data pack, so the analysis is necessarily focused on them. The AMD card wins both, giving it a 2-0 record in head-to-head comparisons.

It is worth remembering the Tesla M60's Geekbench Vulkan score of 31473 is higher than its OpenCL score of 29506, a rare inversion. This suggests the Maxwell architecture's Vulkan driver implementation was relatively strong, or that the OpenCL path was less optimized. Regardless, the AMD card's Vulkan score of 99850 is more than triple the Tesla M60's best result.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two cards diverge on nearly every major field. The process node and transistor counts are the most fundamental difference: 5 nm with 57,700 million transistors for the AMD card versus 28 nm with 5,200 million for the NVIDIA card. This leads to a die size difference of 529 mm² versus 398 mm². The transistor density ratio is stark, with the AMD card achieving 109.1M / mm² compared to 13.1M / mm² for the Tesla M60.

Memory configuration differs significantly. The RX 7900 GRE has 16 GB of GDDR6 with a bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s, while the Tesla M60 has 8 GB of GDDR5 with 160.4 GB/s. Both use a 256-bit memory bus, but the effective memory clock differs: 18 Gbps for AMD versus 5 Gbps for NVIDIA. The compute units follow suit: 5120 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 160 ROPs for AMD; 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs for NVIDIA. The AMD card has 80 RT cores, while the NVIDIA card has none.

Clock speeds are also distinct. The AMD card runs at 1287 MHz base, 1880 MHz game, and 2245 MHz boost. The Tesla M60 runs at 557 MHz base and 1178 MHz boost, with no game clock specified. Pixel and texture rates reflect these differences: 359.2 GPixel/s and 718.4 GTexel/s for AMD versus 75.39 GPixel/s and 150.8 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. FP32 throughput is 45.98 TFLOPS versus 4.825 TFLOPS, and the AMD card offers FP16 at 91.96 TFLOPS (2:1), while the Tesla M60 has no FP16 figure listed.

Power and connectivity also differ. The AMD card has a TDP of 260 W and requires a 600 W suggested PSU, while the Tesla M60 has a TDP of 300 W and requires a 700 W suggested PSU. The AMD card uses 2x 8-pin power connectors; the NVIDIA card uses 1x 8-pin. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for AMD versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for NVIDIA. Display outputs are a major differentiator: the RX 7900 GRE has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C, while the Tesla M60 has no display outputs at all, confirming its compute-only purpose.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE wins in every measurable category in the provided data. It is faster in both OpenCL and Vulkan benchmarks, with deltas of 495.7% and 217.3% respectively. It has more memory, higher bandwidth, more shading units, and a much higher transistor density. For any workload that uses compute shaders, ray tracing, or high-resolution textures, the RX 7900 GRE is the clear choice. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 576.0 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for large datasets and modern gaming at high resolutions. The presence of RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support means it can handle ray-traced effects and the latest graphics APIs.

The NVIDIA Tesla M60, despite losing every benchmark in this comparison, still has a role in legacy environments. Its 75th percentile ranking against all GPUs is respectable, and its average benchmark score of 30490 places it close to modern mid-range cards like the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (30433, a 0.2% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (29945, a 1.8% delta). The Tesla M60's dual-slot design and single 8-pin power connector make it easier to install in older servers, and its lack of display outputs is irrelevant for headless compute nodes. Its 8 GB of VRAM, while half the AMD card's capacity, may still be sufficient for certain virtual desktop infrastructure or legacy compute workloads.

For a modern build, the RX 7900 GRE is overwhelmingly superior. For a legacy datacenter deployment where the Tesla M60 is already installed and the workload does not require modern features, it can still function, but the data shows it is outclassed in raw performance by a factor of six in compute tasks. The choice between these two cards is not a matter of preference but of era: the RX 7900 GRE is a current-generation product (released 2023-07-26) with active production status, while the Tesla M60 is end-of-life (released 2015-08-29). The AMD card's launch MSRP is 549 USD, though no pricing analysis is provided here. The Tesla M60's niche is historical, not competitive.