Intel Arc A770 vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Arc A770 leads with an average benchmark score of 68,809, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 trails at 66,733. That puts the Arc A770 roughly 3% ahead of the Tesla T4 in overall performance.

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

A: The Intel Arc A770 scores 109,175 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 scores 61,276. The Arc A770 is 78.2% faster in this test, making it the clear winner in raw compute workloads.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density despite being on an older process?

A: The Intel Arc A770 packs 53.4M transistors per mm² on a 6 nm TSMC process, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 has only 25.0M transistors per mm² on a 12 nm TSMC process. The Arc A770’s denser design contributes to its performance advantage.

Q: What is the power consumption difference between the two cards?

A: The Intel Arc A770 has a TDP of 225 W, while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 draws just 70 W. The Tesla T4 is designed for low-power server environments, whereas the Arc A770 targets desktop gaming and workstation use.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same modern graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. However, the Arc A770 also includes dedicated ray tracing cores (32) and the Tesla T4 has tensor cores (320), which serve different workload purposes.

Q: Which card has a higher memory bandwidth?

A: The Intel Arc A770 offers 512.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth with 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the Tesla T4 provides 320.0 GB/s with the same 16 GB capacity and bus width. The Arc A770’s bandwidth is 60% higher.

Architecture Differences

The Intel Arc A770 and NVIDIA Tesla T4 are built on fundamentally different architectures targeting different use cases. The A770 uses Intel’s Xe-HPG architecture on the DG2-512 chip, manufactured on TSMC’s 6 nm process. It packs 21,700 million transistors into a 406 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 53.4M per mm². In contrast, the Tesla T4 uses NVIDIA’s Turing architecture on the TU104 chip, built on a 12 nm process. It contains 13,600 million transistors on a larger 545 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 25.0M per mm².

The A770’s newer process node gives it a significant efficiency and density advantage, which translates into higher clock speeds. The A770 runs at a base clock of 2100 MHz and boosts to 2400 MHz, while the Tesla T4 has a much lower base clock of 585 MHz and a boost clock of 1590 MHz. This clock speed difference is a major factor in the A770’s performance lead.

Shader resources also differ substantially. The Arc A770 has 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 raster output units. The Tesla T4 is more modest, with 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. For ray tracing, the A770 includes 32 dedicated RT cores, while the Tesla T4 has 40 RT cores — a slight advantage for NVIDIA in that specific area. However, the Tesla T4 also includes 320 tensor cores, which the A770 lacks entirely, making the T4 better suited for AI inference tasks.

Memory architecture is similar in capacity and bus width — both have 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus — but the A770’s memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), yielding 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Tesla T4’s memory runs at 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective), producing 320.0 GB/s. The A770’s 60% bandwidth advantage is critical for texture-heavy workloads.

Where Each One Wins

The Intel Arc A770 dominates in raw compute and graphics performance. In the head-to-head benchmarks, it wins both available tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. Its 78.2% lead in OpenCL and 30.6% lead in Vulkan show that for general-purpose GPU compute, rendering, and gaming, the A770 is the stronger choice. The A770’s higher pixel rate (307.2 GPixel/s vs 101.8 GPixel/s) and texture rate (614.4 GTexel/s vs 254.4 GTexel/s) further cement its advantage in fill-rate-bound scenarios.

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 wins in power efficiency and form factor. With a TDP of just 70 W compared to the A770’s 225 W, the T4 is designed for dense server deployments where power and cooling are constrained. It is single-slot and requires no power connectors, while the A770 is dual-slot and needs a 6-pin plus 8-pin power connector. The T4 also has a much lower suggested PSU requirement of 250 W versus 550 W for the A770.

The Tesla T4’s 320 tensor cores make it a specialized option for machine learning inference, though the benchmark data does not include specific AI workloads. The A770’s 32 RT cores and higher FP32 throughput (19.66 TFLOPS vs 8.141 TFLOPS) make it better suited for real-time ray tracing and general 3D rendering. For workloads like Vulkan-based gaming or OpenCL compute, the A770 is the clear winner. For low-power, headless server deployments where tensor core acceleration matters, the T4 has its niche.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every major specification. The Intel Arc A770 uses the DG2-512 chip with Xe-HPG architecture (Alchemist generation), while the NVIDIA Tesla T4 uses TU104 with Turing architecture (Tesla Turing generation). Process nodes differ: 6 nm for the A770 versus 12 nm for the T4. The A770 has 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die; the T4 has 13,600 million on 545 mm².

Clock speeds are starkly different. The A770’s base clock is 2100 MHz and boost is 2400 MHz, while the T4’s base is 585 MHz and boost is 1590 MHz. Memory clocks also diverge: the A770 runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) versus the T4’s 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective).

The A770 has more shading units (4,096 vs 2,560), more TMUs (256 vs 160), and more ROPs (128 vs 64). However, the T4 has more RT cores (40 vs 32) and includes 320 tensor cores, which the A770 does not have. The A770’s FP32 performance is 19.66 TFLOPS versus 8.141 TFLOPS for the T4, and FP16 is 39.32 TFLOPS versus 16.28 TFLOPS (both at 2:1 ratio).

Power and physical specs differ dramatically. The A770 has a 225 W TDP, dual-slot design, and requires a 6-pin plus 8-pin power connector. The T4 has a 70 W TDP, single-slot design, and requires no power connectors. The suggested PSU is 550 W for the A770 and 250 W for the T4. The A770 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the T4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The A770 has display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 2.0), whereas the T4 has no display outputs at all. The T4’s length is 168 mm (6.6 inches), while the A770’s dimensions are not listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are decisive: the Intel Arc A770 wins both benchmark tests, giving it a 2-0 record over the NVIDIA Tesla T4. The largest margin comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the A770 scores 109,175 against the T4’s 61,276 — a 78.2% advantage. This huge gap reflects the A770’s superior shading unit count (4,096 vs 2,560), higher clock speeds, and double the memory bandwidth.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the A770 again takes the lead with 94,284 versus the T4’s 72,190, a 30.6% difference. While the margin narrows compared to OpenCL, it still represents a significant performance advantage in Vulkan-based rendering and compute workloads. The A770’s newer architecture and higher fill rates contribute to this win.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the A770’s average score of 68,809 places it 3% ahead of the T4’s 66,733. The A770 also has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,969, a test the T4 does not have data for. Both GPUs sit at the 90th percentile among all GPUs, indicating that despite the A770’s lead, both are high-performing cards in their respective classes.

The A770’s rival comparisons reinforce its standing: it sits close to the NVIDIA CMP 90HX (delta -0.3%), the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 (delta +0.4%), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 (delta -1.5%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (delta -1.7%). The Tesla T4, meanwhile, is close to the AMD Radeon VII (delta +1.1%), NVIDIA Tesla P40 (delta +2.5%), and AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 (delta -2.7%). The two cards themselves are separated by just 3%, but the benchmark wins show the A770’s advantage is consistent and substantial in compute-heavy tests.