NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti vs NVIDIA Tesla M10 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti and the NVIDIA Tesla M10 are both end-of-life products from NVIDIA, but they target entirely different segments of the GPU market. The GTX 560 Ti is a consumer gaming card from the GeForce 500 generation, built on the Fermi 2.0 architecture, while the Tesla M10 is a datacenter-oriented accelerator from the Tesla Maxwell generation. Despite their different origins, benchmark data from Geekbench places them in a surprisingly close contest, with the older consumer card holding a narrow edge in the single available OpenCL test.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available between these two GPUs is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the results are remarkably tight. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti scores 10,690 points, while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 10,318 points. This gives the GTX 560 Ti a 3.6% advantage over the Tesla M10 in this specific workload. It is a narrow victory, but it is a victory nonetheless for a card released several years earlier.

The overall benchmark averages tell a similar story. The GTX 560 Ti has an average benchmark score of 10,690, which places it in the 49th percentile of all GPUs. The Tesla M10, however, has an average score of just 9,724, placing it in the 47th percentile. The gap in average scores is larger than the single head-to-head delta suggests, because the Tesla M10’s average is pulled down by its additional Geekbench Vulkan score of 9,130, which is significantly lower than its OpenCL result. This indicates that the Tesla M10’s performance is highly dependent on the API used, with OpenCL being its stronger suit.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card provides further context. The GTX 560 Ti sits between the NVIDIA Quadro K2200 (10,761 points, 0.7% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600S (10,629 points, 0.6% lower). Its position among these rivals shows that it is competitive with much newer mid-range hardware in OpenCL compute tasks. The Tesla M10, on the other hand, is bracketed by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (9,780 points, 0.6% higher) and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (9,716 points, 0.1% lower). The fact that the Tesla M10 trades blows with a high-end consumer card like the GTX 1070 in this metric highlights that raw compute throughput is not its primary weakness.

The data shows a clear winner in the OpenCL test: the GTX 560 Ti wins the head-to-head with a 3.6% margin. However, the Tesla M10’s Vulkan score suggests that its architecture may be better suited for modern graphics APIs, even if that performance is not reflected in the OpenCL comparison. The single head-to-head result is the only direct evidence available, and it favors the older Fermi card.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti achieves a Geekbench OpenCL score of 10,690, which is 3.6% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla M10’s score of 10,318 in the same test.

Q: How does the Tesla M10’s average benchmark score compare to its OpenCL score?

A: The Tesla M10 has an average benchmark score of 9,724, which is lower than its OpenCL score of 10,318. This is because the average also includes its Geekbench Vulkan score of 9,130, which is significantly lower.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each GPU against all other GPUs?

A: The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is in the 49th percentile of all GPUs, while the Tesla M10 is in the 47th percentile. This indicates that the GTX 560 Ti sits slightly higher in the overall performance distribution.

Q: Which card has a higher pixel rate?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M10 has a higher pixel rate at 20.90 GPixel/s, compared to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti’s pixel rate of 13.17 GPixel/s. The Tesla M10’s advantage here is substantial.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: Yes, both the GeForce GTX 560 Ti and the Tesla M10 support DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6. However, the Tesla M10 also supports Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 560 Ti does not have a listed Vulkan version.

Q: How does the texture rate of the two cards compare?

A: The texture rates are nearly identical. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti achieves 52.67 GTexel/s, while the Tesla M10 achieves 52.24 GTexel/s. The difference is less than 1%.

Architecture Differences

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti and the Tesla M10 are built on fundamentally different architectures from different eras. The GTX 560 Ti uses the GF114 chip, which is based on the Fermi 2.0 architecture, a refined version of NVIDIA’s first-generation Fermi design. This chip is manufactured on a 40 nm process at TSMC and contains 1,950 million transistors on a large 332 mm² die. The transistor density is relatively low at 5.9M per mm², reflecting the older manufacturing technology.

In contrast, the Tesla M10 uses the GM107 chip, built on the Maxwell architecture. This is a much newer design, manufactured on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. The GM107 chip contains 1,870 million transistors, which is slightly fewer than the GF114, but it is packed into a much smaller 148 mm² die. This results in a transistor density of 12.6M per mm², more than double that of the GTX 560 Ti. The higher density is a direct result of the more advanced 28 nm process node.

The architectural differences extend to the core configuration. The GTX 560 Ti has 384 shading units, 64 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 raster operation units (ROPs). The Tesla M10, despite having a smaller die, has a higher number of shading units at 640, but fewer TMUs at 40 and fewer ROPs at 16. This configuration suggests that the Maxwell architecture is more efficient at compute-heavy tasks per shading unit, but the Fermi design dedicates more hardware to texture and pixel processing.

The memory subsystems also differ architecturally. The GTX 560 Ti uses a 256-bit memory bus, while the Tesla M10 uses a 128-bit bus. This is a significant architectural difference that impacts memory bandwidth, as discussed later. Neither card features dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as both predate those technologies. The Tesla M10 does support Vulkan 1.4, whereas the GTX 560 Ti does not list Vulkan support, indicating a generational leap in API compatibility despite the similar DirectX and OpenGL versions.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge significantly across nearly every major specification category. The most glaring difference is memory capacity: the GTX 560 Ti has 1,024 MB of GDDR5 memory, while the Tesla M10 offers 8 GB of GDDR5. This is an eightfold difference, reflecting the Tesla M10’s intended role in virtualized datacenter workloads where large memory pools are essential. However, the GTX 560 Ti compensates with a wider 256-bit memory bus, delivering 128.3 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the Tesla M10’s narrower 128-bit bus yields only 83.20 GB/s despite its higher memory clock of 1,300 MHz (5.2 Gbps effective) versus 1,002 MHz (4 Gbps effective).

Clock speeds also differ. The GTX 560 Ti has no listed base or boost clock, only its memory clock. The Tesla M10, however, has a base clock of 1,033 MHz and a boost clock of 1,306 MHz. This gives the Tesla M10 a substantial raw clock speed advantage, which contributes to its higher pixel rate of 20.90 GPixel/s versus 13.17 GPixel/s for the GTX 560 Ti. The compute performance in FP32 also favors the Tesla M10, which delivers 1.672 TFLOPS compared to the GTX 560 Ti’s 1,263.4 GFLOPS.

Power and physical specifications show further divergence. The GTX 560 Ti has a TDP of 170 W with two 6-pin power connectors and a suggested PSU of 450 W. The Tesla M10 has a higher TDP of 225 W but uses a single 8-pin connector and suggests a 550 W PSU. The GTX 560 Ti is shorter at 229 mm (9 inches), while the Tesla M10 is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long. Both are dual-slot cards. The bus interface differs as well: the GTX 560 Ti uses PCIe 2.0 x16, while the Tesla M10 uses the newer PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are another major differentiator: the GTX 560 Ti has 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a, while the Tesla M10 has no display outputs whatsoever, confirming its headless server orientation. The GTX 560 Ti was released on January 24, 2011, with a launch MSRP of 249 USD, while the Tesla M10 was released on May 17, 2016.

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a nuanced picture. In the single head-to-head OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti comes out ahead with a 3.6% higher score. For users prioritizing raw OpenCL compute performance in a legacy application, the GTX 560 Ti is the better choice based strictly on this metric. Its higher average benchmark score of 10,690 versus 9,724 and its superior 49th percentile ranking reinforce this conclusion.

However, the Tesla M10 offers clear advantages in other areas. Its 8 GB of memory is a massive upgrade over the GTX 560 Ti’s 1 GB, making it the only viable option for workloads that require large memory footprints, such as virtual desktop infrastructure or large dataset processing. Its higher pixel rate of 20.90 GPixel/s and FP32 throughput of 1.672 TFLOPS indicate that it is more capable in rendering and compute-heavy tasks that can leverage its newer Maxwell architecture. The Tesla M10 also supports Vulkan 1.4, which the GTX 560 Ti lacks, making it more future-proof for modern graphics APIs.

The choice between these two cards depends entirely on the use case. If the task is a legacy OpenCL workload where the GTX 560 Ti’s 3.6% lead matters, and memory capacity is not a constraint, then the data supports the GTX 560 Ti. But for any modern application requiring substantial memory, higher pixel throughput, or Vulkan support, the Tesla M10 is the clear winner despite its lower OpenCL score. The Tesla M10’s lack of display outputs also means it is not a consumer graphics card; it is designed for server environments. The GTX 560 Ti, with its DVI and mini-HDMI outputs, is the only one of the two that can drive a monitor directly. The data ultimately shows two specialized tools: the GTX 560 Ti for legacy consumer compute and display, and the Tesla M10 for memory-hungry, headless datacenter workloads.