AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX vs NVIDIA Tesla K40m Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla K40m and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. The data shows a clear generational chasm: the RX 7900 XTX wins the only shared benchmark decisively, but the Tesla K40m retains relevance in specific compute workloads due to its specialized design. This analysis breaks down where each card excels based solely on the available benchmark and specification data.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the outright winner in every measurable head-to-head comparison. In the only shared benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7900 XTX scores 50,465 against the Tesla K40m’s 19,885, a delta of -60.6% from the AMD card’s perspective. This translates to the RX 7900 XTX delivering roughly 2.5 times the raw compute throughput in that test. The AMD card also dominates in every other benchmark category it was tested in, including Passmark G3D (31,238), Geekbench Vulkan (85,612), and Passmark GPU Compute (17,689). For any modern workload—gaming, rendering, or general-purpose compute—the RX 7900 XTX is the only viable choice from this pairing.

The NVIDIA Tesla K40m, however, has a niche advantage that isn't captured by raw performance scores: it was designed as a compute-focused accelerator with no display outputs. Its architecture, Kepler, was built for professional and scientific workloads where stability and double-precision capability mattered more than graphics output. The Tesla K40m’s 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus with 288.4 GB/s bandwidth is modest by modern standards, but it still offers a functional compute platform for legacy applications. Its 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, compared to the RX 7900 XTX’s 64th, is statistically insignificant and reflects the fact that both cards sit in similar overall performance percentiles despite their generational gap. The Tesla K40m wins only in the sense of being a purpose-built compute card with a specific legacy role—it is not competitive in any modern scenario.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is enormous. The Tesla K40m uses the GK110B chip on the Kepler architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC with 7,080 million transistors on a 561 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the RX 7900 XTX uses the Navi 31 chip on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process (also TSMC) with 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die—a transistor density of 109.1 million per square millimeter. That is nearly 8.7 times the density, allowing the RX 7900 XTX to pack 8 times more transistors into a slightly smaller die.

The core configurations differ drastically as well. The Tesla K40m has 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 48 raster operation pipelines. The RX 7900 XTX has 6,144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. The AMD card also includes 96 ray tracing cores, a feature completely absent from the Kepler architecture. Clock speeds tell a similar story: the Tesla K40m runs at a base of 745 MHz and boosts to 876 MHz, while the RX 7900 XTX runs at 1,929 MHz base and 2,498 MHz boost. Memory technology has also advanced—the Tesla uses GDDR5 at 6 Gbps effective, while the RX 7900 XTX uses GDDR6 at 20 Gbps effective, delivering 960.0 GB/s versus 288.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7900 XTX also doubles the memory capacity to 24 GB from 12 GB.

Feature support is another major divider. The Tesla K40m supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and OpenGL 4.6, with Vulkan 1.2.175. The RX 7900 XTX supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The bus interface also differs: PCIe 3.0 x16 on the Tesla versus PCIe 4.0 x16 on the AMD card. The RX 7900 XTX has modern display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C), while the Tesla K40m has no display outputs at all—it is purely a compute accelerator.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance (FP32)?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is decisively ahead with 61.39 TFLOPS FP32, compared to the NVIDIA Tesla K40m’s 5.046 TFLOPS. This is a 12-fold difference in theoretical peak performance.

Q: Is the Tesla K40m still worth using for anything?

A: The data shows it has no display outputs and is end-of-life, with a 65th percentile ranking. Its only advantage is its legacy Kepler architecture, which may support older compute frameworks. It scores 19,885 in Geekbench OpenCL, placing it near cards like the AMD FirePro W7000 (19,905) and NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602).

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX compare to its nearest rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score is 19,410, placing it within 1.2% of the NVIDIA TITAN Xp (19,177) and 1% of the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602). It lags the AMD FirePro D300 (19,637) by 1.2%, showing tight competition in that performance band.

Q: Which card has better memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX offers 960.0 GB/s bandwidth with 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus. The Tesla K40m provides 288.4 GB/s with 12 GB of GDDR5 on the same 384-bit bus—a 3.3 times difference in bandwidth.

Q: Do these cards support ray tracing?

A: Only the RX 7900 XTX has ray tracing hardware, with 96 RT cores. The Tesla K40m has no RT cores listed, as the Kepler architecture predates ray tracing acceleration entirely.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The Tesla K40m has a TDP of 245 W and requires a 550 W PSU. The RX 7900 XTX has a 355 W TDP and needs a 750 W PSU. Both are dual-slot cards, but the RX 7900 XTX is larger at 287 mm versus 267 mm.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification field. The process node jumps from 28 nm to 5 nm. Transistor count rises from 7,080 million to 57,700 million. Die size actually shrinks slightly from 561 mm² to 529 mm², while transistor density increases from 12.6M/mm² to 109.1M/mm². Base clock goes from 745 MHz to 1,929 MHz, boost from 876 MHz to 2,498 MHz. The RX 7900 XTX also has a game clock of 2,365 MHz, a feature absent on the Tesla. Memory speed increases from 6 Gbps to 20 Gbps effective.

Core counts are vastly different: shading units rise from 2,880 to 6,144, TMUs from 240 to 384, and ROPs from 48 to 192. The RX 7900 XTX adds 96 RT cores. Pixel rate jumps from 52.56 GPixel/s to 479.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 210.2 GTexel/s to 959.2 GTexel/s. FP32 performance goes from 5.046 TFLOPS to 61.39 TFLOPS, with the RX 7900 XTX also offering FP16 at 122.8 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability not listed for the Tesla.

Memory capacity doubles from 12 GB to 24 GB, and memory type changes from GDDR5 to GDDR6. TDP increases from 245 W to 355 W, and the suggested PSU rises from 550 W to 750 W. The bus interface upgrades from PCIe 3.0 x16 to PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs go from none to a full complement (1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C). The RX 7900 XTX also has specified dimensions (287 mm long, 110 mm tall, 51 mm wide) and uses 2x 8-pin power connectors, while the Tesla only lists length (267 mm). DirectX support improves from 12 (11_1) to 12 Ultimate (12_2), and Vulkan from 1.2.175 to 1.4.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is a decisive victory for the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The RX 7900 XTX scores 50,465, while the Tesla K40m scores 19,885. The delta is -60.6%, meaning the RX 7900 XTX is approximately 2.5 times faster in this workload. This result aligns with the raw specification differences: the AMD card has 12 times the FP32 throughput, 3.3 times the memory bandwidth, and 2.1 times the shading units.

Beyond the shared benchmark, the RX 7900 XTX demonstrates its breadth with multiple scores. It achieves 85,612 in Geekbench Vulkan, which is even higher than its OpenCL result, suggesting excellent modern API utilization. In Passmark tests, it scores 31,238 in G3D, 17,689 in GPU Compute, and 1,267 in G2D. The DirectX-specific Passmark scores (166 for DX10, 356 for DX11, 131 for DX12, 330 for DX9) indicate strong legacy compatibility. The Tesla K40m has no comparable benchmark scores in the data beyond its single OpenCL result, so its performance profile is almost entirely unknown outside that one test.

The nearest rival data for each card provides context. The Tesla K40m’s average score of 19,885 puts it within 0.1% of the AMD FirePro W7000 (19,905) and 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (19,765). The RX 7900 XTX’s average of 19,410 places it within 0.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (19,334) and 1.2% of the NVIDIA TITAN Xp (19,177). This suggests that while the RX 7900 XTX dominates the Tesla K40m, its average score is dragged down by the inclusion of multiple benchmark types, whereas the Tesla’s single score is purely OpenCL-based.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the superior GPU in nearly every measurable way. It wins the only shared benchmark by 60.6%, offers 12 times the FP32 compute, 3.3 times the memory bandwidth, and adds modern features like ray tracing and DisplayPort 2.1 support. Its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory is double the Tesla’s 12 GB GDDR5, and its 5 nm process delivers 8 times the transistor density. For any modern workload—gaming, content creation, or general compute—the RX 7900 XTX is the only rational choice from this pairing.

The NVIDIA Tesla K40m, however, is not without a purpose. It is a legacy compute card from 2013, now end-of-life, with no display outputs. Its 65th percentile ranking is statistically similar to the RX 7900 XTX’s 64th, but that similarity is misleading—it comes from a single OpenCL benchmark, not a broad suite. The Tesla K40m’s 12 GB of memory and 288.4 GB/s bandwidth were respectable in its era, but they are dwarfed by modern standards. Its only advantage is its Kepler architecture, which may be relevant for maintaining legacy scientific or professional compute environments that rely on older CUDA frameworks.

For builders today, the choice is clear: pick the RX 7900 XTX if you need a functional GPU with modern API support, display outputs, and massive compute headroom. Pick the Tesla K40m only if you have a specific legacy workload that requires its exact architecture and you cannot migrate. The RX 7900 XTX is the benchmark winner, the specification leader, and the practical choice. The Tesla K40m is a historical artifact with niche utility, best left to collectors or specialized compute labs running obsolete software stacks.