Intel Arc A550M vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P40 records an average benchmark score of 65095, while the Intel Arc A550M sits at 49737. That places the Tesla P40 about 30.9% higher in average performance.

Q: How does the Tesla P40 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Tesla P40 sits 1.4% above the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (64212), 1.4% below the AMD Radeon VII (66004), and 2% above both the NVIDIA CMP 30HX (63842) and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP (63830). Its percentile rank is 89 among all GPUs.

Q: Where does the Arc A550M rank among all GPUs?

A: The Arc A550M holds an 86th percentile ranking. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 49957, just 0.4% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 50951, which is 2.4% higher. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT trails it by 2.6% with a score of 48477.

Q: Which GPU wins in the Vulkan benchmark, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P40 wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 68172 versus the Arc A550M's 49580, a 37.5% advantage.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The Tesla P40 uses 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 347.1 GB/s bandwidth. The Arc A550M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are both GPUs still in production?

A: No. Both are marked as end-of-life in the database. The Tesla P40 was released on 2016-09-12, while the Arc A550M has no recorded release date.

Architecture Differences

The Tesla P40 is built on NVIDIA's Pascal architecture using the GP102 chip, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It belongs to the Tesla Pascal (Pxx) generation. The Intel Arc A550M uses the Xe-HPG architecture with the DG2-512 chip, also from TSMC but on a 6 nm process, and belongs to the Alchemist (Arc 5 Mobile) generation.

Transistor counts differ significantly. The Tesla P40 packs 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, for a transistor density of 25.1M per mm². The Arc A550M has 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, resulting in a much higher density of 53.4M per mm². The smaller process node allows Intel to fit nearly twice the transistors on a smaller physical die.

Compute resource allocation also differs. The Tesla P40 has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The Arc A550M has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Tesla P40 has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The Arc A550M includes 16 ray tracing cores, reflecting its more modern feature set.

The FP16 capability is a major architectural divergence. The Tesla P40 delivers 183.7 GFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 1:64 ratio, indicating it treats FP16 as a low-priority path. The Arc A550M delivers 16.79 TFLOPS of FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, meaning it can process two FP16 operations per FP32 operation. This is a fundamental difference in how each architecture handles half-precision workloads.

API support also differs. The Tesla P40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the Arc A550M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Where Each One Wins

The Tesla P40 wins in raw compute throughput. Its FP32 output is 11.76 TFLOPS, versus 8.397 TFLOPS for the Arc A550M. It also leads in texture rate at 367.4 GTexel/s versus 262.4 GTexel/s, and in pixel rate at 147.0 GPixel/s versus 131.2 GPixel/s. The memory subsystem favors the Tesla P40 as well, with 347.1 GB/s of bandwidth versus 224.0 GB/s, and a 384-bit bus versus 128-bit.

The Arc A550M wins in architectural modernity and efficiency. Its 6 nm process node, 16 ray tracing cores, and DirectX 12 Ultimate support indicate it is designed for newer rendering pipelines. Its FP16 throughput at 16.79 TFLOPS is vastly superior, and its thermal envelope is far smaller. The Tesla P40 has a TDP of 250 W, while the Arc A550M draws only 60 W.

For compute-heavy workloads like OpenCL, the Tesla P40 is the clear choice. Its 24 GB memory capacity is three times larger, which matters for large datasets. For portable devices and applications requiring ray tracing support, the Arc A550M is the relevant option, though its benchmark scores are lower. The Tesla P40 has no display outputs, so it is strictly a compute accelerator. The Arc A550M's display outputs are portable device dependent, meaning it can serve in mobile systems where display connectivity is required.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla P40 | Intel Arc A550M |

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

| Architecture | Pascal | Xe-HPG |

| Process Node | 16 nm | 6 nm |

| Transistors | 11,800 million | 21,700 million |

| Die Size | 471 mm² | 406 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.1M / mm² | 53.4M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1303 MHz | 900 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1531 MHz | 2050 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1808 MHz, 7.2 Gbps effective | 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus Width | 384 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 347.1 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 240 | 128 |

| ROPs | 96 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 0 | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 147.0 GPixel/s | 131.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 367.4 GTexel/s | 262.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 11.76 TFLOPS | 8.397 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 183.7 GFLOPS (1:64) | 16.79 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 60 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 8-pin EPS | None |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | None |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | Portable Device Dependent |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these GPUs, both in Geekbench tests. The Tesla P40 wins both, but the margin varies substantially by API.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla P40 scores 62017 against the Arc A550M's 49894. That is a 24.3% advantage. The OpenCL result aligns with the raw FP32 difference: the Tesla P40's 11.76 TFLOPS is about 40% higher than the Arc A550M's 8.397 TFLOPS, though real-world OpenCL scaling does not perfectly track theoretical peak. The Tesla P40's larger memory bus and higher bandwidth likely contribute to the observed gap.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the Tesla P40 scores 68172, while the Arc A550M scores 49580. The delta expands to 37.5%, a notably larger gap than in OpenCL. The Tesla P40's Vulkan score is also higher than its own OpenCL score, suggesting the Pascal architecture responds well to Vulkan's lower-level API overhead. The Arc A550M's Vulkan score of 49580 is slightly lower than its OpenCL score of 49894, indicating a small regression when moving to Vulkan.

The average benchmark score tells a similar story. The Tesla P40 averages 65095 across both tests, placing it at the 89th percentile. The Arc A550M averages 49737, placing it at the 86th percentile. Despite the 24.3% and 37.5% deltas in individual tests, the percentile difference is only three points, which reflects how densely packed the mid-to-high GPU range is.

The Tesla P40's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon VII, outscores it by 1.4%, meaning the P40 sits in a tightly contested performance band. The Arc A550M's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, outscores it by just 0.4%, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 by 0.5%. The Arc A550M beats the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT by 2.6%, showing that its performance level is competitive with much larger desktop parts despite its 60 W mobile-oriented design.

The recorded wins tally is 2 for the Tesla P40 and 0 for the Arc A550M. No benchmark in the database favors the Intel part. The Tesla P40's advantages in FP32 throughput, memory bandwidth, and texture rate all surface in these results. The Arc A550M's advantages, namely FP16 throughput, ray tracing cores, and power efficiency, do not appear in the recorded Geekbench tests.