Intel Arc A550M vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

The Intel Arc A550M and NVIDIA Tesla P4 occupy different corners of the GPU landscape, yet both are end-of-life products with distinct design goals. The Arc A550M is a mobile-focused part built on Intel’s Xe-HPG architecture, while the Tesla P4 is a datacenter inference card from NVIDIA’s Pascal generation. The recorded benchmark data shows a clear overall winner, but the two cards serve very different workloads. The Arc A550M averages 49737 across its recorded tests, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The Tesla P4 averages 37628, sitting in the 81st percentile. That difference of roughly 32% in average score is substantial, but it does not tell the whole story, as the Tesla P4’s strengths lie in areas not captured by these particular benchmarks.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A550M wins both recorded head-to-head benchmarks outright. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 49894 against the Tesla P4’s 34947, a 42.8% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Arc A550M scores 49580 against 40309, a 23% lead. This gives the Arc A550M two wins and the Tesla P4 zero in the database’s head-to-head comparisons. The OpenCL gap is particularly pronounced, indicating that the Arc A550M handles general compute workloads with significantly more throughput.

The Tesla P4, however, wins in the context of its intended deployment. It is a single-slot, 75 W card with no display outputs and no power connectors, designed for server installations where physical space and power delivery are constrained. Its 168 mm length and single-slot profile make it suitable for dense chassis. The Arc A550M, by contrast, is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) solution, meaning it is designed to be part of a mobile platform rather than a standalone expansion card. Neither card is meant for the same use case, and the benchmark results reflect compute capability rather than deployment suitability.

The Arc A550M also holds the advantage in API support. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla P4 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The Arc A550M’s higher DirectX feature level matters for modern gaming and graphics workloads, even if the Tesla P4 was never intended for those tasks. The data shows the Arc A550M as the stronger all-around performer, but the Tesla P4 remains competitive in its narrow niche as a low-power compute accelerator.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different eras and different design philosophies. The Intel Arc A550M uses the DG2-512 chip on the Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation for Arc 5 Mobile. It is built on a 6 nm process at TSMC and packs 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die. That works out to a transistor density of 53.4 million per square millimeter. The Tesla P4 uses the GP104 chip on NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture, part of the Tesla Pascal generation. It is built on a 16 nm process, also at TSMC, with 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, for a density of 22.9 million per square millimeter. The Arc A550M is built on a much more advanced process node, which explains its higher transistor count in a similar physical footprint.

The memory subsystems differ as well. The Arc A550M has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla P4 also has 8 GB, but it is GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 192.3 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the Arc A550M achieves higher bandwidth thanks to faster memory clocks. The Arc A550M’s memory runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective, while the Tesla P4’s memory runs at 1502 MHz with 6 Gbps effective.

The compute resources are arranged differently. The Arc A550M has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 16 ray tracing cores. The Tesla P4 has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, but no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The Tesla P4 has more shading units and TMUs, yet it produces lower throughput. The Arc A550M’s pixel rate is 131.2 GPixel/s versus 71.30 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 262.4 GTexel/s versus 178.2 GTexel/s. In raw FP32 compute, the Arc A550M delivers 8.397 TFLOPS against the Tesla P4’s 5.704 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is stark: the Arc A550M reaches 16.79 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the Tesla P4 manages only 89.12 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Arc A550M has an average benchmark score of 49737, while the NVIDIA Tesla P4 averages 37628. The Arc A550M sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, compared to the Tesla P4’s 81st percentile.

Q: How do the two cards compare in OpenCL performance?

A: The Arc A550M scores 49894 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Tesla P4 scores 34947. That is a 42.8% difference in favor of the Arc A550M.

Q: Does the Tesla P4 have any ray tracing hardware?

A: No. The Tesla P4 has no ray tracing cores. The Arc A550M includes 16 ray tracing cores.

Q: What memory configurations do the two GPUs use?

A: Both have 8 GB of memory, but the Arc A550M uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Tesla P4 uses GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 192.3 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has better API support for modern graphics?

A: The Arc A550M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla P4 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What are the power requirements of each card?

A: The Arc A550M has a TDP of 60 W, while the Tesla P4 has a TDP of 75 W. The Tesla P4 requires no power connectors and lists a suggested PSU of 250 W, while the Arc A550M, as an IGP, has no power connector or suggested PSU listed.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification category. The Arc A550M uses the DG2-512 chip on Xe-HPG architecture, while the Tesla P4 uses GP104 on Pascal. The process node is 6 nm for the Arc A550M versus 16 nm for the Tesla P4. Transistor counts are 21,700 million versus 7,200 million. Die sizes are 406 mm² versus 314 mm². Transistor density is 53.4 million per square millimeter for the Arc A550M and 22.9 million per square millimeter for the Tesla P4.

Clock speeds also diverge. The Arc A550M has a base clock of 900 MHz and a boost clock of 2050 MHz. The Tesla P4 has a base clock of 886 MHz and a boost clock of 1114 MHz. Memory clocks are 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the Arc A550M and 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for the Tesla P4. Memory type is GDDR6 versus GDDR5. Bus width is 128-bit versus 256-bit. Bandwidth is 224.0 GB/s versus 192.3 GB/s.

Compute unit counts differ: 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs for the Arc A550M, versus 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs for the Tesla P4. The Arc A550M has 16 ray tracing cores; the Tesla P4 has none. Pixel rate is 131.2 GPixel/s versus 71.30 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 262.4 GTexel/s versus 178.2 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 8.397 TFLOPS versus 5.704 TFLOPS. FP16 performance is 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64).

Power and physical specs also differ. The Arc A550M has a 60 W TDP and is listed as an IGP, while the Tesla P4 has a 75 W TDP and is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm (6.6 inches) in length. The Tesla P4 has no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The Arc A550M has no power connector or suggested PSU listed. Bus interfaces are PCIe 4.0 x16 for the Arc A550M and PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Tesla P4. Display outputs are portable device dependent for the Arc A550M, while the Tesla P4 has no outputs. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the Arc A550M and 12 (12_1) for the Tesla P4.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two head-to-head benchmark comparisons, and the Intel Arc A550M wins both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Arc A550M scores 49894 against the Tesla P4’s 34947. The delta is 42.8%, the largest margin in either test. This result aligns with the theoretical compute figures, as the Arc A550M’s 8.397 TFLOPS of FP32 performance exceeds the Tesla P4’s 5.704 TFLOPS by roughly 47%. The OpenCL benchmark appears to scale closely with raw FP32 throughput.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the Arc A550M scores 49580 against the Tesla P4’s 40309, a 23% margin. The smaller gap in Vulkan suggests that the Tesla P4’s architecture handles the Vulkan API relatively better than it handles OpenCL, or that the Arc A550M’s driver overhead is more pronounced in this API. Still, the Arc A550M remains ahead by a comfortable margin.

Context from the nearest rivals helps interpret these scores. The Arc A550M’s average score of 49737 places it just 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (49957) and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001). It is 2.4% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951) and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48477). These are all desktop-class GPUs, some of them flagship models, which indicates that the Arc A550M, despite its mobile designation, competes at a high level in compute benchmarks.

The Tesla P4’s average score of 37628 puts it 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37648) and 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37157). It is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507) and 1.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135). The Tesla P4’s nearest rivals are a mix of modern desktop cards and mobile parts, and it sits in a competitive position relative to them, even though it is from an older generation.

The Verdict

The data points to the Intel Arc A550M as the superior performer in the recorded benchmarks. It wins both head-to-head tests, with margins of 42.8% in OpenCL and 23% in Vulkan. Its average score is 49737 versus 37628, and it ranks in the 86th percentile of all GPUs versus the Tesla P4’s 81st. For anyone comparing raw compute throughput, the Arc A550M is the clear choice.

The Tesla P4, however, should not be dismissed outright. Its 75 W TDP, single-slot form factor, and lack of power connectors make it suitable for server deployments where the Arc A550M, as an IGP, cannot physically be installed. The Arc A550M’s display outputs are portable device dependent, meaning it is tied to a mobile platform, whereas the Tesla P4 is a standalone card with no display outputs at all. The Tesla P4 is also the only one of the two with a recorded release date (September 12, 2016), making it an older but proven design.

The choice ultimately depends on the workload. For compute-heavy tasks where the card can be integrated into a mobile platform, the Arc A550M offers dramatically better performance, more modern architecture, and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate. For a low-power, single-slot accelerator in a server environment, the Tesla P4 remains viable, but its benchmark results show it is outclassed by the Arc A550M in every recorded test. The Arc A550M wins the performance comparison outright, while the Tesla P4 wins on deployment flexibility within its intended server context.