AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a fascinating split: AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT LP dominates in OpenCL compute, while NVIDIA's Tesla P40 crushes it in Vulkan performance. The two cards split their head-to-head tests exactly one win apiece, yet the margins tell dramatically different stories.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 9060 XT LP posts 88,183 points against the Tesla P40's 62,017. That is a 29.7% advantage for AMD, a decisive margin that reflects the younger card's raw compute throughput. The RX 9060 XT LP's FP32 rating of 24.99 TFLOPS more than doubles the Tesla P40's 11.76 TFLOPS, and the OpenCL result aligns with that specification gap. The Tesla P40's nearest rivals in this comparison include the AMD Radeon VII at 66,004 (1.4% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 at 64,212 (1.4% lower), and the NVIDIA CMP 30HX at 63,842 (2% lower). Against that field, the Tesla P40's 62,017 OpenCL score places it near the bottom of its immediate competitive cluster.

The Vulkan result flips the narrative entirely. The Tesla P40 scores 68,172 versus the RX 9060 XT LP's 39,476 — a 72.7% lead for NVIDIA. This is not a marginal win; it is a rout. The Vulkan delta dwarfs the OpenCL gap, suggesting the Tesla P40's driver stack or architectural characteristics give it a substantial edge in this specific API workload. Notably, the RX 9060 XT LP's Vulkan score of 39,476 is barely above half of its own OpenCL score, while the Tesla P40's Vulkan result (68,172) actually exceeds its OpenCL figure (62,017). That inversion underscores how differently the two architectures respond to these workloads.

The average benchmark scores tell a nuanced story. The Tesla P40 averages 65,095 across both tests; the RX 9060 XT LP averages 63,830. That puts the Tesla P40 2% ahead of the RX 9060 XT LP in aggregate, a narrow edge driven entirely by its Vulkan dominance. In the nearest-rival context, the RX 9060 XT LP sits between the NVIDIA CMP 30HX (63,842, 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 7600M (63,775, 0.1% delta), essentially tied with both. The Tesla P40's 65,095 average places it just 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon VII and 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100. Both cards share the 89th percentile among all GPUs, confirming they occupy the same overall performance tier despite their divergent workload strengths.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 9060 XT LP is the clear choice for OpenCL-based compute workloads. Its 29.7% lead in that benchmark is substantial, and its FP32 throughput of 24.99 TFLOPS — more than double the Tesla P40's 11.76 TFLOPS — reinforces that this is a compute-oriented strength, not a fluke. The RX 9060 XT LP also delivers 390.4 GTexel/s texture fill rate versus the Tesla P40's 367.4 GTexel/s, a modest 6% advantage that extends to texturing-heavy tasks. Its pixel rate of 195.2 GPixel/s similarly edges out the Tesla P40's 147.0 GPixel/s by roughly 33%. For any workload that leans on raw shader math, pixel throughput, or OpenCL compute, the RX 9060 XT LP is the decisive winner.

The Tesla P40 counters in Vulkan with a 72.7% margin that cannot be ignored. This makes it the stronger option for Vulkan-based rendering pipelines, which are increasingly common in modern game engines and real-time graphics applications. The Tesla P40's FP16 capability is negligible at 183.7 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), but its Vulkan score suggests that does not hinder it in this API. The NVIDIA card also offers 24 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 347.1 GB/s of bandwidth — slightly higher than the RX 9060 XT LP's 322.3 GB/s. For workloads that need large memory capacity, the Tesla P40's 24 GB versus 16 GB is a meaningful differentiator, even though the RX 9060 XT LP uses faster GDDR6 memory.

In aggregate terms, the Tesla P40 holds a 2% average benchmark advantage, but that headline number masks the split personality. The RX 9060 XT LP wins the compute crowd; the Tesla P40 wins the API-specific graphics crowd. Neither card is universally superior, and the choice hinges entirely on which workload profile matters more.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different eras and fundamentally different design philosophies. The Tesla P40 uses NVIDIA's GP102 chip on the Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm TSMC process. It packs 11,800 million transistors onto a 471 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.1 million per mm². The RX 9060 XT LP uses AMD's Navi 44 chip on RDNA 4.0, fabricated on a 4 nm TSMC process. It contains 29,700 million transistors on a much smaller 199 mm² die, achieving 149.2 million transistors per mm² — nearly six times the density of the Pascal chip.

These architectural differences manifest in every specification. The Tesla P40 has 3,840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RX 9060 XT LP has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs — roughly half the counts in each category. Yet the AMD card's much higher clocks (3,050 MHz boost versus 1,531 MHz boost) more than compensate for the lower unit counts, producing superior texture and pixel rates. The RX 9060 XT LP also adds 32 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Pascal-era Tesla P40, which has no RT cores and no tensor cores.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The Tesla P40 uses 24 GB of GDDR5 at 7.2 Gbps effective across a 384-bit bus, achieving 347.1 GB/s. The RX 9060 XT LP uses 16 GB of GDDR6 at 20.1 Gbps effective across a 128-bit bus, achieving 322.3 GB/s. The Tesla P40's wider bus gives it a slight bandwidth edge, but the RX 9060 XT LP's newer memory technology allows it to nearly match that bandwidth with a quarter of the bus width.

The FP16 story is particularly telling. The Tesla P40 delivers only 183.7 GFLOPS FP16, a 1:64 ratio to its FP32 — Pascal-era GPUs treated FP16 as an afterthought. The RX 9060 XT LP delivers 24.99 TFLOPS FP16, a 1:1 ratio to FP32, making it far more capable for mixed-precision workloads. API support also differs: the Tesla P40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RX 9060 XT LP supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 9060 XT LP connects via PCIe 5.0 x16, while the Tesla P40 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The Tesla P40 has no display outputs; the RX 9060 XT LP offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a.

FAQ

Q: Which card won the most benchmarks?

A: The split is exactly even. Each card won one of the two head-to-head tests: the RX 9060 XT LP won Geekbench OpenCL, and the Tesla P40 won Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: How large is the OpenCL performance gap?

A: The RX 9060 XT LP leads by 29.7% in Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 88,183 versus the Tesla P40's 62,017.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: The Tesla P40 leads by 72.7% in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 68,172 versus the RX 9060 XT LP's 39,476.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5, while the RX 9060 XT LP has 16 GB of GDDR6. The Tesla P40 also has a wider 384-bit memory bus versus 128-bit on the AMD card.

Q: Do both cards support ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 9060 XT LP has 32 ray tracing cores, while the Tesla P40 has none.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores?

A: The Tesla P40 averages 65,095 across both tests, which is 2% ahead of the RX 9060 XT LP's 63,830 average.

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward conclusion: choose the RX 9060 XT LP for OpenCL compute and modern feature support; choose the Tesla P40 for Vulkan workloads and larger memory capacity. The RX 9060 XT LP's 29.7% OpenCL lead and doubled FP32 throughput make it the superior compute card, while its ray tracing cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and PCIe 5.0 interface future-proof it for current and next-generation workloads. Its 140 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU also make it dramatically more power-efficient than the Tesla P40's 250 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU.

The Tesla P40's 72.7% Vulkan advantage is the single largest margin in either direction, and its 24 GB memory capacity is 50% larger than the AMD card's 16 GB. For Vulkan-based rendering or memory-hungry inference tasks, the Tesla P40 remains relevant despite its 2016 release date and end-of-life production status. Its average benchmark score of 65,095 edges out the RX 9060 XT LP's 63,830, but that 2% aggregate lead is entirely attributable to the Vulkan result.

The RX 9060 XT LP is the more balanced and modern card, with active production status and a 2025 release date. The Tesla P40 is a legacy product with a 2016 release date and end-of-life status, yet its Vulkan strength and memory capacity keep it competitive. For most users, the RX 9060 XT LP's compute dominance and feature set make it the safer pick. For specialized Vulkan or memory-bound workloads, the Tesla P40's specific advantages justify consideration. The 89th percentile ranking for both cards confirms they are peers overall, but their strengths could not be more different.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla P40 | AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Pascal | RDNA 4.0 |

| Process Node | 16 nm | 4 nm |

| Transistors | 11,800 million | 29,700 million |

| Die Size | 471 mm² | 199 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.1M / mm² | 149.2M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1303 MHz | 1380 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1531 MHz | 3050 MHz |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 347.1 GB/s | 322.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 240 | 128 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 0 | 32 |

| Pixel Rate | 147.0 GPixel/s | 195.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 367.4 GTexel/s | 390.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 11.76 TFLOPS | 24.99 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 183.7 GFLOPS (1:64) | 24.99 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 140 W |

| Power Connectors | 8-pin EPS | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 300 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1b, 2x DisplayPort 2.1a |

| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Production Status | End-of-life | Active |

| Release Date | 2016-09-12 | 2025-12-16 |