Intel Arc A750 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data between the Intel Arc A750 and the NVIDIA Tesla K80 shows a decisive, though not entirely unexpected, outcome. In the two shared tests, the Intel Arc A750 wins both, leaving the Tesla K80 without a single victory. The margin of victory is substantial, making this less of a contest and more of a demonstration of generational divide.

The most lopsided result comes from the Geekbench OpenCL test. The Intel Arc A750 scores 98,554 points, while the NVIDIA Tesla K80 manages only 18,620 points. This translates to a performance advantage of 429.3% for the Intel part. To put that in perspective, the Arc A750 is not just faster; it is over five times faster in this compute-oriented workload. This is a massive gap that reflects fundamental differences in raw compute throughput, clock speeds, and feature support between the two architectures.

The second test, Geekbench Vulkan, tells a similar story. The Arc A750 posts a score of 85,631, compared to the Tesla K80's 19,111. The advantage here is 348.1%. While slightly less extreme than the OpenCL result, it is still a dominant win. Vulkan is a modern graphics and compute API, and the Arc A750's hardware is clearly designed to excel in it, whereas the Tesla K80's Kepler architecture lacks the dedicated hardware and optimizations for such workloads.

When looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the Arc A750's average benchmark score is 20,582. This places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc B570 (average score 20,556, a 0.1% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (average score 20,534, a 0.2% difference). This indicates the A750 is positioned competitively among modern mid-range offerings.

In contrast, the Tesla K80's average benchmark score is 18,866, placing it in the 63rd percentile. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (average score 18,789, a 0.4% difference) and the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (average score 19,030, a -0.9% difference). While the percentile ranking is not drastically lower, the absolute performance gap is clear. The K80 is competitive with older, high-end workstation parts, but it is simply outclassed by the modern Arc A750 in these tests.

The data shows a clear hierarchy. The Arc A750 is not just the winner; it is the winner by an order of magnitude in the shared workloads. The Tesla K80's age and architecture are significant handicaps that no amount of driver optimization or software tuning can overcome in these synthetic benchmarks.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the Intel Arc A750 in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The Intel Arc A750 scores 98,554 points, which is 429.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla K80's score of 18,620 points.

Q: Does the NVIDIA Tesla K80 win any of the shared benchmarks?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the Intel Arc A750 wins both shared tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), giving it 2 wins against 0 for the Tesla K80.

Q: What is the performance difference in the Vulkan API test?

A: The Arc A750 achieves a score of 85,631 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the Tesla K80 scores 19,111. This results in a 348.1% advantage for the Intel card.

Q: How does the Tesla K80 compare to other GPUs in its performance class?

A: The Tesla K80's average benchmark score of 18,866 is very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (18,789, a 0.4% difference) and the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, a -0.5% difference).

Q: Based on average benchmark scores, what is the overall performance gap?

A: The Intel Arc A750 has an average benchmark score of 20,582, while the Tesla K80 has an average of 18,866. The difference is roughly 1,716 points, or approximately 9.1%, favoring the Intel card.

Q: What are the direct architectural impacts of the performance difference?

A: The Arc A750 has a significantly newer architecture (Xe-HPG on a 6 nm process) with much higher clock speeds (2050 MHz base, 2400 MHz boost) and double the FP32 throughput (17.20 TFLOPS vs 4.113 TFLOPS), which directly explains its superior benchmark results.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast, spanning two completely different eras of design philosophy. The Intel Arc A750 is built on the Xe-HPG architecture and uses the DG2-512 chip, fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. This modern design packs 21,700 million transistors onto a 406 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 53.4 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the NVIDIA Tesla K80 utilizes the Kepler 2.0 architecture with the GK210 chip, built on a much older 28 nm process at the same foundry. It contains only 7,100 million transistors on a larger 561 mm² die, leading to a lower density of 12.7 million per square millimeter.

These fundamental differences in manufacturing and design translate directly to capabilities. The Arc A750 features 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units. It also includes 28 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Tesla K80, which has no RT cores and relies on its 2,496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The Intel card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla K80 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6, but the Arc A750 supports Vulkan 1.4 compared to the K80's Vulkan 1.2.175.

The clock speeds further illustrate the generational leap. The Arc A750 operates at a base clock of 2050 MHz and boosts to 2400 MHz, while the Tesla K80 runs at a paltry 562 MHz base and 824 MHz boost. This massive clock advantage, combined with the newer architecture, results in the Arc A750's FP32 performance of 17.20 TFLOPS, versus the Tesla K80's 4.113 TFLOPS. The Intel card also supports FP16 at 34.41 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, whereas the Tesla K80 has no FP16 support listed. The pixel rate (268.8 GPixel/s vs 42.85 GPixel/s) and texture rate (537.6 GTexel/s vs 171.4 GTexel/s) are also dramatically higher on the Arc A750.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every measurable specification. The most obvious difference is in memory configuration. The Intel Arc A750 comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA Tesla K80 offers a larger 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, but with a lower bandwidth of 240.6 GB/s. The Arc A750's memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), while the Tesla K80's memory runs at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective). This gives the Intel card a 2.1x bandwidth advantage despite having less total memory.

The power profiles also differ significantly. The Arc A750 has a TDP of 225 W and requires a 550 W power supply, using a 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connector setup. The Tesla K80 has a higher TDP of 300 W and recommends a 700 W power supply, but only uses a single 8-pin connector. Both are dual-slot cards, but the Tesla K80 has a specified length of 267 mm (10.5 inches), while the Arc A750's length is not listed.

The bus interface and display outputs represent another set of clear differences. The Arc A750 uses the modern PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and includes display outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0. The Tesla K80 uses the older PCIe 3.0 x16 interface and has no display outputs at all, as it is designed for compute-only server environments. In terms of release timing, the Arc A750 was released in October 2022, while the Tesla K80 dates back to November 2014. Both are now end-of-life products, with the Arc A750 succeeding Xe Graphics and preceding Battlemage, while the Tesla K80 followed Tesla Fermi and preceded Tesla Maxwell.

Where Each One Wins

Looking strictly at the benchmark data, the Intel Arc A750 wins in every measurable category. It is the clear victor in both Geekbench OpenCL (98,554 vs 18,620) and Geekbench Vulkan (85,631 vs 19,111). Its average benchmark score of 20,582 is higher than the Tesla K80's 18,866, and it achieves a higher percentile ranking (66th vs 63rd) among all GPUs.

The Arc A750's wins are not marginal; they are decisive. The 429.3% advantage in OpenCL and 348.1% advantage in Vulkan indicate that the Intel card is in a completely different performance tier. For any workload that relies on these APIs, the Arc A750 is the only reasonable choice based on the data.

The Tesla K80, on the other hand, has no benchmark wins to its name in this comparison. Its sole advantages are qualitative and based on specification: it has more memory (12 GB vs 8 GB), a longer physical length, and a higher TDP. However, these do not translate into any performance superiority in the available test data. The K80's higher memory capacity could theoretically be useful for holding larger datasets, but the significantly lower bandwidth (240.6 GB/s vs 512.0 GB/s) would likely negate any capacity advantage in practice.

The data also shows that the Tesla K80 is not a weak card in absolute terms; its average score of 18,866 is comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. However, in this specific head-to-head, it is outclassed at every turn. The Arc A750's nearest rivals include the Intel Arc B570 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, both of which are modern parts that sit in a similar performance bracket. The Tesla K80, by contrast, is grouped with the older Quadro K6000 and Radeon RX 6600, showing it is a relic of a previous performance tier.

The Verdict

Based on the data provided, the choice between the Intel Arc A750 and the NVIDIA Tesla K80 is unambiguous. The Arc A750 is the superior graphics card for any benchmark-visible workload. It wins both shared tests by margins of 429.3% and 348.1%, and it holds a higher average benchmark score (20,582 vs 18,866) and a higher percentile ranking (66th vs 63rd). For anyone looking to run the types of workloads represented by Geekbench OpenCL or Geekbench Vulkan, the Arc A750 is the only sensible option.

The Tesla K80's only potential advantages are its larger 12 GB memory pool and its compute-focused design with no display outputs. However, these do not translate into any performance wins in the data. The K80's lower bandwidth, significantly lower clock speeds (562 MHz base vs 2050 MHz base), and lack of modern API support (DirectX 12 11_1 vs 12 Ultimate) place it at a severe disadvantage. Its 4.113 TFLOPS FP32 performance is a fraction of the Arc A750's 17.20 TFLOPS.

The verdict is simple: pick the Intel Arc A750 if you need performance in modern APIs, ray tracing, or any of the benchmarked workloads. Pick the NVIDIA Tesla K80 only if you have a specific need for its 12 GB of memory and can tolerate its significantly lower performance and lack of display outputs. The data does not support any other conclusion. The Arc A750 is the winner by a landslide, and the Tesla K80, while historically significant, is simply outmatched in every benchmark category presented.