NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs NVIDIA Tesla K20c Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla K20c and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti represent vastly different eras and purposes within NVIDIA’s lineup, and the benchmark data reflects that divide. In the single available OpenCL benchmark, the Tesla K20c scores 11,479 points against the GTX 560 Ti’s 10,690 points, a 7.4% advantage for the professional compute card. That margin places the K20c in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 560 Ti sits at the 49th percentile. The K20c’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, scores 11,528 points, meaning the Tesla trails by just 0.4%; the GTX 560 Ti, meanwhile, is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600S’s 10,629 points. The data shows a clear, if modest, performance hierarchy: the Tesla edges ahead, but both cards are firmly mid-pack in the current landscape.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole head-to-head result is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it goes decisively to the Tesla K20c. With a score of 11,479 versus 10,690, the K20c leads by 7.4% — a meaningful gap in raw compute throughput. This is not a close call; the delta is nearly double the margin seen between either card and its immediate rivals. For context, the K20c’s closest competitor, the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, is only 0.4% behind at 11,528, while the GTX 560 Ti’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 450, sits just 1.1% ahead at 10,804. The Tesla’s win is substantial enough that it would not be overshadowed by even a near-term competitor.

Looking at the rivals’ deltas reinforces the gap. The K20c is 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11,680) and 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (11,627), but it is 1.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M (11,261). The GTX 560 Ti, by contrast, is 0.7% behind the NVIDIA Quadro K2200 (10,761) and 1.0% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M275X (10,582). The Tesla’s score places it in a tighter, slightly higher-performance cluster, while the GTX 560 Ti’s cluster sits lower and more dispersed. The 7.4% delta between the two cards is larger than any single rival delta for either, indicating that the head-to-head result is robust and not a statistical artifact.

The compute-oriented nature of the Tesla is evident in the raw numbers behind the score. The K20c delivers 3.524 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the GTX 560 Ti manages 1,263.4 GFLOPS — a 2.8x advantage for the Tesla. Pixel fill rates tell a similar story: the K20c pushes 36.71 GPixel/s versus 13.17 GPixel/s for the GTX 560 Ti, and texture rates are 146.8 GTexel/s versus 52.67 GTexel/s. These are not incremental differences; they are generational leaps that explain why the OpenCL score favors the Tesla so clearly.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward choice for different use cases. The NVIDIA Tesla K20c is the superior compute performer, winning the only benchmark by 7.4% and offering more than double the FP32 throughput, pixel rate, and texture rate of the GTX 560 Ti. It is the card to pick for anyone prioritizing raw computational workloads, such as scientific simulations or data processing, where its 5 GB of GDDR5 memory and 208.0 GB/s bandwidth provide a substantial buffer over the GTX 560 Ti’s 1024 MB and 128.3 GB/s.

However, the GTX 560 Ti is a more practical option for display-oriented tasks, as it is the only one of the two with any video outputs — 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a — while the Tesla K20c has no outputs at all. The GTX 560 Ti also draws less power, with a 170 W TDP versus the Tesla’s 225 W, and requires a smaller suggested PSU of 450 W versus 550 W. For a user building a system that must also drive a monitor, the GTX 560 Ti is the only viable choice, despite its lower compute scores. For headless compute servers or dedicated accelerator nodes, the Tesla K20c’s performance lead and larger memory pool make it the logical selection.

The percentile rankings corroborate this split. The K20c’s 51st percentile places it just above the midpoint of all GPUs, while the GTX 560 Ti’s 49th percentile sits just below. Neither card is a top-tier performer in absolute terms, but the Tesla’s advantage is consistent across every metric measured. The GTX 560 Ti’s only wins are in power efficiency and connectivity — areas that do not appear in benchmark scores but matter in real-world system design.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The Tesla K20c uses the GK110 chip, part of the Kepler architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The GTX 560 Ti uses the GF114 chip, from the Fermi 2.0 architecture, on a larger 40 nm process. This process shrink is one reason the K20c packs 7,080 million transistors onto a 561 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.6M per mm². The GTX 560 Ti, by contrast, has just 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, with a density of 5.9M per mm² — less than half the density of the Tesla.

The Kepler architecture in the K20c emphasizes massively parallel compute, with 2,496 shading units, 208 texture mapping units, and 40 ROPs. The Fermi 2.0 architecture in the GTX 560 Ti is more modest, with 384 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The K20c’s shading unit count is 6.5x higher, which directly translates to its FP32 output of 3.524 TFLOPS versus 1,263.4 GFLOPS. The transistor budget is also telling: the K20c uses 3.6x more transistors, and while it is a larger die, the density increase shows a more advanced manufacturing process that packs more compute logic per square millimeter.

Both cards support DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but they diverge on Vulkan support. The Tesla K20c supports Vulkan 1.2.175, while the GTX 560 Ti has no Vulkan support listed. This is a significant software feature gap, as Vulkan is a modern low-overhead graphics API used in many current games and applications. The K20c’s inclusion of Vulkan suggests better forward-compatibility for compute and rendering workloads, even though its primary design intent is non-graphical compute.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal stark contrasts beyond architecture. Memory is a major differentiator: the Tesla K20c has 5 GB of GDDR5 on a 320-bit bus, delivering 208.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the GTX 560 Ti has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, with 128.3 GB/s bandwidth. The Tesla’s memory clock is 1300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective) versus the GTX 560 Ti’s 1002 MHz (4 Gbps effective), further widening the bandwidth gap.

Power requirements also differ. The Tesla K20c has a 225 W TDP and requires a 550 W suggested PSU, using one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector. The GTX 560 Ti has a 170 W TDP, a 450 W suggested PSU, and uses two 6-pin connectors. Physical dimensions favor the GTX 560 Ti, which is 229 mm (9 inches) long, while the Tesla is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long — both are dual-slot cards. Display outputs are exclusive to the GTX 560 Ti, which has 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a; the Tesla has none.

The release dates reflect a generational gap: the GTX 560 Ti launched on 2011-01-24, while the Tesla K20c came later on 2012-11-11. Both are end-of-life products, but their lineage differs — the Tesla’s predecessor is Tesla Fermi and successor is Tesla Maxwell, while the GTX 560 Ti follows GeForce 400 and precedes GeForce 600. The launch MSRP for the Tesla K20c was 3,199 USD, and for the GTX 560 Ti it was 249 USD, a difference that underscores their target markets: professional compute versus consumer gaming.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in the OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K20c scores 11,479 points, which is 7.4% higher than the GTX 560 Ti’s 10,690 points.

Q: Does the Tesla K20c support Vulkan?

A: Yes, the Tesla K20c supports Vulkan 1.2.175, while the GTX 560 Ti has no Vulkan support listed.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The Tesla K20c has 5 GB of GDDR5, while the GTX 560 Ti has 1024 MB of GDDR5.

Q: Can either card output video to a display?

A: Only the GTX 560 Ti has display outputs, with 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a; the Tesla K20c has no outputs.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The Tesla K20c has a 225 W TDP, while the GTX 560 Ti has a 170 W TDP; the suggested PSUs are 550 W and 450 W, respectively.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The Tesla K20c achieves 36.71 GPixel/s, which is nearly three times the GTX 560 Ti’s 13.17 GPixel/s.