NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER vs NVIDIA Tesla K40m Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla K40m and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER occupy different ends of the GPU spectrum, separated by nearly six years of architecture evolution. The data shows a decisive overall victory for the RTX 2060 SUPER, which delivers a 74.2% higher score in the only shared benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, with a score of 76,957 against the Tesla K40m’s 19,885. This margin reflects not just raw compute improvements but also fundamental shifts in design priorities, from the Kepler-era professional compute card to the Turing-based consumer gaming card.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole direct comparison available in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the RTX 2060 SUPER scores 76,957 against the Tesla K40m’s 19,885. This represents a delta of -74.2% from the RTX 2060 SUPER’s perspective, meaning the Tesla K40m trails by that percentage. In absolute terms, the RTX 2060 SUPER delivers roughly 3.87 times the OpenCL performance of the Tesla K40m. This is a massive gap, and it is not a narrow victory; the RTX 2060 SUPER wins the only head-to-head benchmark recorded, with zero wins for the Tesla K40m.

The Tesla K40m’s nearest rivals in the database include the AMD FirePro W7000 (average score 19,905, a delta of -0.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (19,765, delta 0.6%), the AMD FirePro D300 (19,637, delta 1.3%), and the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602, delta 1.4%). These are all cards with average scores within 1.5% of the Tesla K40m’s 19,885. This places the Tesla K40m in a performance tier occupied by mid-range workstation and older gaming GPUs, not modern high-end parts.

For the RTX 2060 SUPER, its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (average score 18,159, delta -0.4%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18,189, delta -0.5%), the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18,373, delta -1.5%), and the Intel Arc A770M (18,383, delta -1.6%). The RTX 2060 SUPER’s own average benchmark score is 18,093, which is slightly lower than its Geekbench OpenCL score of 76,957, indicating that the OpenCL test is an outlier on the high side for it. The average score across all its benchmarks is 18,093, and that average is what the nearest rivals are compared against. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s Geekbench Vulkan score is 77,402, and its Passmark G3D score is 16,462, showing strong performance across different APIs and workloads.

The data indicates that the Tesla K40m’s 19,885 OpenCL score sits close to its own average of 19,885 (which is the same number, as it only has one benchmark), while the RTX 2060 SUPER’s OpenCL score is far above its multi-test average. This suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER excels particularly in OpenCL compute workloads, while the Tesla K40m is a more consistent but lower-performing part.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on entirely different architectures and process nodes. The Tesla K40m uses the GK110B chip, based on the Kepler architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It contains 7,080 million transistors on a die size of 561 mm², giving a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. The RTX 2060 SUPER uses the TU106 chip, based on the Turing architecture, on a 12 nm process, also at TSMC. It packs 10,800 million transistors into a smaller die of 445 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 24.3 million per square millimeter. This nearly doubling of density is a direct result of the smaller process node, allowing more transistors in a smaller area.

Clock speeds differ substantially. The Tesla K40m has a base clock of 745 MHz and a boost clock of 876 MHz. The RTX 2060 SUPER operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz. This is roughly a 88% higher base clock and an 88% higher boost clock, which contributes significantly to the performance gap.

Memory configurations also diverge. The Tesla K40m has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.4 GB/s, with an effective memory clock of 6 Gbps. The RTX 2060 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, but with a higher effective clock of 14 Gbps, it achieves a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Despite having 4 GB less memory, the RTX 2060 SUPER has 55% more memory bandwidth due to the newer memory type and higher clock.

Compute resources differ in allocation. The Tesla K40m has 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 48 render output units (ROPs). The RTX 2060 SUPER has 2,176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Tesla K40m has more shading units and TMUs, but the RTX 2060 SUPER has more ROPs. Critically, the RTX 2060 SUPER includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, which are absent entirely from the Tesla K40m. These dedicated hardware units enable real-time ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, features that the Kepler architecture cannot support.

The pixel rate for the Tesla K40m is 52.56 GPixel/s, while the RTX 2060 SUPER achieves 105.6 GPixel/s, exactly double. The texture rate is 210.2 GTexel/s for the Tesla K40m and 224.4 GTexel/s for the RTX 2060 SUPER, a more modest 6.8% difference. In floating-point performance, the Tesla K40m delivers 5.046 TFLOPS for FP32, while the RTX 2060 SUPER delivers 7.181 TFLOPS for FP32 and 14.36 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1 ratio). This means the RTX 2060 SUPER provides 42% higher FP32 throughput and supports FP16 at double that rate, which the Tesla K40m does not offer at all.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has better raw compute performance in the shared benchmark?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER scores 76,957 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Tesla K40m scores 19,885. The RTX 2060 SUPER wins with a 74.2% higher score.

Q: Does the Tesla K40m have more memory than the RTX 2060 SUPER?

A: Yes, the Tesla K40m has 12 GB of GDDR5, while the RTX 2060 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6. However, the RTX 2060 SUPER has higher bandwidth at 448.0 GB/s versus 288.4 GB/s.

Q: What is the process node difference between the two?

A: The Tesla K40m is on a 28 nm process, while the RTX 2060 SUPER is on a 12 nm process. Both are fabricated by TSMC.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 SUPER support ray tracing hardware?

A: Yes, the RTX 2060 SUPER includes 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The Tesla K40m has no RT cores or tensor cores.

Q: What is the TDP difference?

A: The Tesla K40m has a TDP of 245 W and a suggested PSU of 550 W. The RTX 2060 SUPER has a TDP of 175 W and a suggested PSU of 450 W.

Q: Which GPU is newer?

A: The Tesla K40m was released on 2013-11-21, while the RTX 2060 SUPER was released on 2019-07-08, making the RTX 2060 SUPER about five and a half years newer.

The Verdict

The data is unequivocal: the RTX 2060 SUPER is the stronger GPU in every measurable category that matters for modern workloads. It wins the only shared benchmark by a 74.2% margin, has higher clock speeds, higher memory bandwidth, and includes dedicated RT and tensor cores. The Tesla K40m retains advantages in memory capacity (12 GB vs 8 GB), shading unit count (2,880 vs 2,176), and TMU count (240 vs 136), but these do not translate into benchmark wins. The Tesla K40m’s 19,885 OpenCL score is 74.2% below the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 76,957, and its overall percentile rank of 65 versus the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 62 is a relative positioning that does not overcome the raw performance gap.

For compute-intensive tasks that rely on FP32 or FP16 throughput, the RTX 2060 SUPER provides 7.181 TFLOPS and 14.36 TFLOPS respectively, versus 5.046 TFLOPS for the Tesla K40m. The RTX 2060 SUPER also delivers double the pixel rate (105.6 GPixel/s vs 52.56 GPixel/s) and higher texture rate (224.4 GTexel/s vs 210.2 GTexel/s). The Tesla K40m’s 12 GB memory could be useful for very large datasets, but the lower bandwidth and older GDDR5 type limit its practical throughput.

The RTX 2060 SUPER also consumes less power, with a TDP of 175 W versus 245 W for the Tesla K40m, and requires a smaller suggested PSU (450 W vs 550 W). Its 229 mm length is shorter than the Tesla K40m’s 267 mm, and it includes display outputs (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C) while the Tesla K40m has no outputs. The RTX 2060 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Tesla K40m supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Specification Differences

The key specification differences are as follows:

• Chip: GK110B (Kepler) vs TU106 (Turing)
• Process Node: 28 nm vs 12 nm
• Transistors: 7,080 million vs 10,800 million
• Die Size: 561 mm² vs 445 mm²
• Transistor Density: 12.6M / mm² vs 24.3M / mm²
• Base Clock: 745 MHz vs 1470 MHz
• Boost Clock: 876 MHz vs 1650 MHz
• Memory Clock: 1502 MHz, 6 Gbps effective vs 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective
• Memory Size: 12 GB vs 8 GB
• Memory Type: GDDR5 vs GDDR6
• Memory Bus Width: 384 bit vs 256 bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 288.4 GB/s vs 448.0 GB/s
• Shading Units: 2880 vs 2176
• TMUs: 240 vs 136
• ROPs: 48 vs 64
• RT Cores: None vs 34
• Tensor Cores: None vs 272
• Pixel Rate: 52.56 GPixel/s vs 105.6 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 210.2 GTexel/s vs 224.4 GTexel/s
• FP32: 5.046 TFLOPS vs 7.181 TFLOPS
• FP16: Not specified vs 14.36 TFLOPS (2:1)
• TDP: 245 W vs 175 W
• Power Connectors: Not specified vs 1x 8-pin
• Suggested PSU: 550 W vs 450 W
• Display Outputs: No outputs vs 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C
• DirectX Support: 12 (11_1) vs 12 Ultimate (12_2)
• Vulkan Support: 1.2.175 vs 1.4
• Release Date: 2013-11-21 vs 2019-07-08
• Predecessor: Tesla Fermi vs GeForce 10
• Successor: Tesla Maxwell vs GeForce 30
• Production Status: End-of-life for both

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2060 SUPER wins decisively in raw compute, memory bandwidth, pixel throughput, and feature support. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 76,957 is the dominant data point, and it also posts strong scores in Vulkan (77,402) and Passmark G3D (16,462). The RTX 2060 SUPER’s 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores make it suitable for ray-traced rendering and AI-based workloads, which the Tesla K40m cannot handle. Its FP16 capability at 14.36 TFLOPS is a major advantage for mixed-precision compute.

The Tesla K40m’s only concrete advantages are its larger 12 GB memory capacity, higher shading unit count (2,880), and higher TMU count (240). In workloads that require fitting very large models or datasets into VRAM, the extra 4 GB could be beneficial, but the 288.4 GB/s bandwidth is a bottleneck. The Tesla K40m’s 52.56 GPixel/s pixel rate is exactly half of the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 105.6 GPixel/s, and its 5.046 TFLOPS FP32 is 30% lower. The Tesla K40m’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD FirePro W7000 and Quadro K5200, have scores near 19,900, confirming it sits in a much lower performance class.

In summary, the RTX 2060 SUPER is the clear choice for any application where compute speed, bandwidth, and modern API support are priorities. The Tesla K40m might be relevant for legacy deployments where 12 GB of VRAM is essential, but its performance ceiling is far below the RTX 2060 SUPER’s. The benchmark data, architecture differences, and feature sets all point to the RTX 2060 SUPER as the superior hardware across essentially all metrics.