Intel Arc A580 vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 and Intel Arc A580 occupy very different corners of the GPU market, yet the benchmark data from the FACT PACK shows a clear performance hierarchy between the two. The Tesla T4, an end-of-life server accelerator built on the 12 nm Turing architecture, delivers a Geekbench OpenCL score of 61,276 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 72,190. The Intel Arc A580, an active consumer graphics card on the 6 nm Xe-HPG architecture, counters with an OpenCL score of 91,657 and a Vulkan score of 79,381. Across the two shared head-to-head benchmarks, the Intel card wins both, achieving a 33.1% higher OpenCL score and a 9.1% higher Vulkan score.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive gap appears in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the Intel Arc A580 scores 91,657 against the Tesla T4’s 61,276. That is a 30,381-point difference, translating to a 33.1% advantage for Intel. This is not a marginal lead; it is a substantial margin that reflects the Arc A580’s higher raw compute throughput. The Tesla T4’s FP32 performance is rated at 8.141 TFLOPS, while the Arc A580 reaches 12.29 TFLOPS, a 50.9% difference in theoretical peak that aligns with the OpenCL result’s direction, though the actual benchmark gap is smaller.

In the Vulkan test, the margin tightens considerably. The Intel Arc A580 scores 79,381, while the Tesla T4 scores 72,190, giving Intel a 9.1% advantage. This narrower gap suggests that the Vulkan workload is less sensitive to the raw FP32 throughput difference, or that the Tesla T4’s architecture handles certain aspects of the API more efficiently. The Tesla T4’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores may contribute to its relative strength in this test, even though the Arc A580 has 24 RT cores and no listed tensor cores.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the average benchmark scores tell a different story than the head-to-head results. The Tesla T4 has an average benchmark score of 66,733, which places it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs. The Intel Arc A580’s average is 57,756, placing it in the 87th percentile. This inversion—where the Tesla T4 wins on average but loses on both head-to-head tests—indicates that the Tesla T4’s results are more consistent across a wider range of workloads, while the Arc A580’s performance is more variable, excelling in the specific Geekbench tests but potentially underperforming elsewhere.

The nearest rivals for each card reinforce this split. The Tesla T4’s closest competitor is the AMD Radeon VII, which scores 66,004, a 1.1% difference from the Tesla T4’s average. The Intel Arc A580’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM at 58,085, a 0.6% difference. Notably, the Intel Arc A770, a sibling in the same Alchemist generation, scores 68,809, which is 3% higher than the Tesla T4’s average—showing that even within Intel’s own lineup, the A580 is not the top performer.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A580 wins decisively in the two shared benchmarks, but the nature of those wins matters. In OpenCL, the 33.1% lead is substantial and suggests that any workload leveraging OpenCL compute—such as certain scientific simulations, video encoding pipelines, or physics calculations—will favor the Intel card. The Arc A580’s higher FP32 throughput (12.29 TFLOPS vs. 8.141 TFLOPS) and higher texture rate (384.0 GTexel/s vs. 254.4 GTexel/s) provide the theoretical foundation for this advantage. The pixel rate also favors Intel at 192.0 GPixel/s versus the Tesla T4’s 101.8 GPixel/s, a near-doubling that could benefit rasterization-heavy tasks.

The Vulkan win for the Arc A580 is smaller at 9.1%, but it still indicates that the Intel card is the better choice for Vulkan-based games or applications. The Tesla T4, however, is not a gaming card—it has no display outputs, making it a purely compute-oriented accelerator. This means the Vulkan result is less practically relevant for the Tesla T4’s intended use case, but the data still shows Intel’s superiority in this API.

The Tesla T4 does not win any of the head-to-head benchmarks, but its average benchmark score of 66,733 versus the Arc A580’s 57,756 gives it a 15.5% advantage in aggregate performance. This suggests that the Tesla T4 is more balanced across diverse workloads, even if it loses in the specific tests available. The Tesla T4’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory versus the Arc A580’s 8 GB is a clear advantage for memory-heavy tasks, despite the Arc A580’s higher bandwidth (512.0 GB/s vs. 320.0 GB/s). The Tesla T4 also has a much lower TDP at 70 W versus 175 W, and it requires no power connectors, while the Arc A580 needs two 8-pin connectors.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split in use cases. For any workload that is captured by the Geekbench OpenCL or Vulkan tests, the Intel Arc A580 is the faster card. The 33.1% OpenCL lead is decisive, and the 9.1% Vulkan lead is meaningful. If the task is compute-heavy and uses these APIs, the Arc A580 is the choice, provided the system can accommodate its dual-slot design, 175 W TDP, and 450 W suggested power supply.

For applications that rely on a broader mix of benchmarks, the Tesla T4’s higher average score (66,733 vs. 57,756) and higher percentile ranking (90th vs. 87th) indicate that it is the more consistently capable card. The Tesla T4’s 16 GB memory capacity is double that of the Arc A580, which is critical for large datasets in machine learning inference or data analytics. Its 70 W TDP and single-slot design make it far easier to deploy in dense server environments, and its lack of display outputs confirms its server-focused role.

The verdict is straightforward: choose the Intel Arc A580 for client-side compute tasks that fit within its 8 GB memory envelope and where OpenCL or Vulkan performance is paramount. Choose the NVIDIA Tesla T4 for server deployments where memory capacity, power efficiency, and consistent multi-workload performance are more important than peak speed in a single API. The Tesla T4’s end-of-life status and the Arc A580’s active production status also factor into long-term availability, but the performance data alone favors Intel for raw speed and NVIDIA for balance.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The Intel Arc A580 scores 91,657 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 33.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla T4’s score of 61,276.

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A580 in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The Arc A580 scores 79,381 versus the Tesla T4’s 72,190, a 9.1% advantage for Intel.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two cards?

A: The Tesla T4 has an average benchmark score of 66,733, while the Arc A580 averages 57,756, giving the Tesla T4 a 15.5% higher average.

Q: Which card has more memory and what are the bandwidth implications?

A: The Tesla T4 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Arc A580 has 8 GB with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Tesla T4 has twice the capacity but the Arc A580 has 60% more bandwidth.

Q: What are the TDP and power requirements differences?

A: The Tesla T4 has a 70 W TDP and requires no power connectors, with a suggested 250 W PSU. The Arc A580 has a 175 W TDP, requires two 8-pin connectors, and suggests a 450 W PSU.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The Tesla T4 ranks in the 90th percentile, while the Arc A580 ranks in the 87th percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures with distinct design goals. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 uses the TU104 chip on the Turing architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. This chip contains 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 25.0M per mm². In contrast, the Intel Arc A580 uses the DG2-512 chip on the Xe-HPG architecture, built on a 6 nm process at TSMC. This newer process allows 21,700 million transistors on a smaller 406 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 53.4M per mm². The 6 nm node gives Intel a manufacturing advantage in terms of density, though the Tesla T4’s larger die suggests a different design trade-off.

Memory configurations differ significantly. The Tesla T4 offers 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Arc A580 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on the same 256-bit bus but achieves 512.0 GB/s due to faster 16 Gbps effective memory clocks versus the Tesla T4’s 10 Gbps. This means the Arc A580 moves data 60% faster per second, but the Tesla T4 holds twice as much data on board, which is critical for large model inference.

Compute resources are allocated differently. The Tesla T4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The Arc A580 has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with 24 RT cores and no tensor cores. This gives the Arc A580 more raw shading and texture throughput, reflected in its 12.29 TFLOPS FP32 versus the Tesla T4’s 8.141 TFLOPS. The Tesla T4’s tensor cores are a key differentiator for AI workloads, as the Arc A580 has no equivalent hardware.

Clock speeds and power profiles diverge sharply. The Tesla T4 runs at a base of 585 MHz and a boost of 1590 MHz, while the Arc A580 runs at 1700 MHz base and 2000 MHz boost. Despite higher clocks, the Arc A580 consumes 175 W versus the Tesla T4’s 70 W, a 2.5x power draw increase. The Tesla T4 is single-slot with no power connectors, while the Arc A580 is dual-slot with two 8-pin connectors.

Physical and interface differences matter for deployment. The Tesla T4 is 168 mm long and uses PCIe 3.0 x16, with no display outputs. The Arc A580 uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0 outputs. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla T4 is end-of-life, released in September 2018, with a predecessor of Tesla Volta and successor of Server Ampere. The Arc A580 is active, released in October 2023, with a predecessor of Xe Graphics and successor of Battlemage. The Tesla T4’s generation is Tesla Turing (Txx), while the Arc A580 is in the Alchemist (Arc 5) generation.