AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla K20c Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains a single direct comparison between these two cards: the Geekbench OpenCL test. In that benchmark, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT scores 12,756 points against the NVIDIA Tesla K20c's 11,479 points. That is a lead of 11.1% for the AMD part, a decisive margin in a compute-oriented workload. The AMD card wins the only head-to-head matchup recorded, giving it a 1-0 record in direct comparisons.

This single result, however, does not tell the whole story. The RX 7900 XT has a much broader benchmark footprint, with ten recorded scores across 3DMark, Geekbench, and Passmark suites. The Tesla K20c has only the one OpenCL entry. When looking at the average benchmark score across all recorded tests, the RX 7900 XT sits at 13,745, while the Tesla K20c averages 11,479. That is a gap of roughly 19.7% in average performance, although the comparison is skewed by the fact that the AMD card has many more tests logged.

Look at the percentile rankings for context. The RX 7900 XT ranks in the 55th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The Tesla K20c sits in the 51st percentile. Both are upper-midrange performers by that metric, but the AMD card is clearly ahead. In the OpenCL test, the RX 7900 XT outperforms its nearest rivals by small margins: it is 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon 660M and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile, and 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 570X, but 1.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT. The Tesla K20c, by contrast, is 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, and 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, while leading the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M by 1.9%.

The Passmark results for the RX 7900 XT show where it excels and where it does not. Its G3D score is 29,009, a very strong showing. Its GPU compute score is 16,828. DirectX 11 performance is 340, DirectX 9 is 322, and DirectX 10 is 158. DirectX 12 is lower at 110, and the G2D score is 1,232. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result is 5,623. There are no comparable Passmark or 3DMark numbers for the Tesla K20c, so the only apples-to-apples comparison remains the OpenCL test.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two is generational and massive. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT uses the Navi 31 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, codenamed Plum Bonito. It is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA Tesla K20c uses the GK110 chip with Kepler architecture, also from TSMC but on a 28 nm node. The process difference alone explains a large part of the performance and efficiency gap.

Transistor counts tell the story. The RX 7900 XT packs 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 109.1M per mm². The Tesla K20c has 7,080 million transistors on a slightly larger die of 561 mm², resulting in just 12.6M per mm². That is nearly a nine-fold difference in density, which directly translates to the AMD card's far higher compute throughput.

The memory subsystems are also worlds apart. The RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. The Tesla K20c has 5 GB of GDDR5 on a 320-bit bus, but only 208.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has four times the capacity and nearly four times the bandwidth. Memory clock rates differ too: the RX 7900 XT runs at 2500 MHz with 20 Gbps effective, while the Tesla K20c runs at 1300 MHz with 5.2 Gbps effective.

Shader resources are heavily skewed toward the AMD part. The RX 7900 XT has 5,376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, 192 ROPs, and 84 ray tracing cores. The Tesla K20c has 2,496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 40 ROPs. It has no ray tracing cores. The AMD card also has a much higher pixel rate at 459.6 GPixel/s versus 36.71 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s versus 146.8 GTexel/s.

Compute throughput is where the gap becomes staggering. The RX 7900 XT delivers 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 103.0 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1). The Tesla K20c offers 3.524 TFLOPS of FP32 and no recorded FP16 capability. That is a 14.6x difference in single-precision floating point performance. The AMD card is in a completely different performance class.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has an average benchmark score of 13,745, while the NVIDIA Tesla K20c averages 11,479.

Q: How much faster is the RX 7900 XT in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The RX 7900 XT scores 12,756 versus 11,479 for the Tesla K20c, a lead of 11.1%.

Q: Does the Tesla K20c have any ray tracing hardware?

A: No. The Tesla K20c has no ray tracing cores, while the RX 7900 XT has 84.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the Tesla K20c has 5 GB of GDDR5.

Q: How do their percentile rankings compare?

A: The RX 7900 XT is in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, and the Tesla K20c is in the 51st percentile.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RX 7900 XT has 109.1M transistors per mm², versus 12.6M per mm² for the Tesla K20c.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RX 7900 XT uses a 5 nm process, the Tesla K20c uses 28 nm. The AMD card has 57,700 million transistors, the NVIDIA card has 7,080 million. The die sizes are 529 mm² for AMD and 561 mm² for NVIDIA, but the density gap is enormous: 109.1M/mm² versus 12.6M/mm².

Memory is 20 GB GDDR6 on the RX 7900 XT versus 5 GB GDDR5 on the Tesla K20c. Both use a 320-bit bus, but bandwidth is 800.0 GB/s versus 208.0 GB/s. The AMD card has 5,376 shading units, 336 TMUs, 192 ROPs, and 84 RT cores. The Tesla K20c has 2,496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 40 ROPs, with no RT cores.

Pixel rate is 459.6 GPixel/s versus 36.71 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 804.4 GTexel/s versus 146.8 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 51.48 TFLOPS versus 3.524 TFLOPS. The RX 7900 XT has FP16 at 103.0 TFLOPS, the Tesla K20c has none recorded. The AMD card draws 300 W with a suggested 700 W PSU and two 8-pin connectors. The NVIDIA card draws 225 W with a suggested 550 W PSU and one 6-pin plus one 8-pin connector. The RX 7900 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, the Tesla K20c uses PCIe 2.0 x16. The AMD card has display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C), the Tesla K20c has no outputs. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) for AMD versus 12 (11_0) for NVIDIA. Vulkan support is 1.4 for AMD versus 1.2.175 for NVIDIA. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The RX 7900 XT is 276 mm long, the Tesla K20c is 267 mm. Both are dual-slot cards. Release dates are November 2022 for AMD and November 2012 for NVIDIA.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the faster card in every recorded metric. It wins the only direct head-to-head benchmark by 11.1%. Its average benchmark score is 19.7% higher. It has a higher percentile ranking (55th versus 51st). Its compute capabilities are in a different league entirely: over 14 times the FP32 throughput, nearly four times the memory bandwidth, and four times the memory capacity. The Tesla K20c is a compute card from 2012, built on a 28 nm process with Kepler architecture. The RX 7900 XT is a modern RDNA 3.0 part on 5 nm. There is no scenario from the recorded data where the Tesla K20c wins.

Choose the RX 7900 XT if you need modern graphics features, ray tracing, high memory bandwidth, or any serious compute workload. Choose the Tesla K20c only if you have a legacy application that specifically requires a Kepler compute card and cannot use newer hardware. The Tesla K20c does have one advantage: its launch MSRP was 3,199 USD, which was a premium enterprise price, but the RX 7900 XT launched at 899 USD. However, both cards are now end-of-life, so current availability and pricing are not reflected in this database.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins in every category where data exists. In raw compute, it dominates. The OpenCL result is the only direct comparison, and the AMD card wins by 11.1%. In memory bandwidth, the 800.0 GB/s versus 208.0 GB/s is a four-fold advantage, which matters for large data sets. In pixel fillrate, 459.6 GPixel/s versus 36.71 GPixel/s, the AMD card is over 12 times faster. In texture rate, 804.4 GTexel/s versus 146.8 GTexel/s, it is over five times faster. In FP32 compute, 51.48 TFLOPS versus 3.524 TFLOPS, it is over 14 times faster.

The RX 7900 XT also wins on architecture features. It has ray tracing cores, the Tesla K20c does not. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, the Tesla K20c only supports DirectX 12 (11_0). It has modern display outputs, the Tesla K20c has none. It uses PCIe 4.0, the Tesla K20c uses PCIe 2.0. It has 20 GB of memory versus 5 GB, which is critical for modern workloads. The Tesla K20c's only potential advantage is its lower power draw at 225 W versus 300 W, but that is modest and does not compensate for the massive performance gap.

For a gaming or workstation build, the RX 7900 XT is the only sensible choice from these two. For a compute server that must use an older NVIDIA Tesla card with Kepler architecture, the Tesla K20c has a purpose, but it is a narrow one. The recorded data shows no benchmark where the Tesla K20c outperforms the RX 7900 XT, and the architectural gaps suggest it never will.