NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla K80 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by nearly four years of architectural evolution. The data shows a fascinating split: while their average benchmark scores are nearly identical, the individual test results reveal a massive performance gulf in compute workloads. The Tesla K80, a dual-GPU compute accelerator from 2014, and the RTX 2070, a 2018 consumer gaming card, both land at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, yet their underlying strengths and weaknesses could not be more different.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is stark and unambiguous. In the two shared benchmark tests, the GeForce RTX 2070 delivers a crushing victory, outperforming the Tesla K80 by a staggering margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2070 scores 79,966, while the Tesla K80 manages just 18,620. This represents a delta of -76.7% for the Tesla, meaning the RTX 2070 is roughly 4.3 times faster in this particular compute workload. The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story: the RTX 2070 scores 82,521 against the Tesla's 19,111, another -76.8% delta in favor of the newer card.

These results are surprising given that the Tesla K80's average benchmark score (18,866) is actually 0.4% higher than the RTX 2070's (18,789). The explanation lies in the benchmark composition. The Tesla K80's average is derived solely from its two Geekbench scores, while the RTX 2070's average pulls from ten different tests, including Passmark suites where it posts strong results like 16,094 in G3D and 6,411 in GPU Compute. When comparing directly on the same two tests, the RTX 2070 is the clear winner. Notably, in the nearestRivals comparison, the Tesla K80 edges out the RTX 2070 by that 0.4% margin, but this is a statistical artifact of the different benchmark sets rather than an indication of real-world parity.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two cards is immense. The Tesla K80 is built on the Kepler 2.0 architecture, specifically the GK210 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 28 nm process. It packs 7,100 million transistors onto a 561 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.7 million per square millimeter. The RTX 2070, by contrast, uses the Turing architecture with the TU106 chip on a 12 nm process. It contains 10,800 million transistors on a smaller 445 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 24.3 million per square millimeter.

The memory subsystems diverge significantly. The Tesla K80 offers 12 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, delivering 240.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 2070 counters with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, but achieves a higher 448.0 GB/s bandwidth thanks to faster 14 Gbps effective memory clocks. The K80's memory runs at 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective), while the RTX 2070's runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Clock speeds also favor the newer card dramatically: the RTX 2070 has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost of 1620 MHz, versus the Tesla's 562 MHz base and 824 MHz boost.

Compute unit counts tell a nuanced story. The Tesla K80 has more shading units (2,496 vs. 2,304) and more texture mapping units (208 vs. 144), but the RTX 2070 has more ROPs (64 vs. 48). The RTX 2070 also introduces dedicated hardware absent from the Kepler card: 36 ray tracing cores and 288 tensor cores. These enable features the Tesla K80 simply cannot offer. The pixel rate favors the RTX 2070 at 103.7 GPixel/s versus 42.85 GPixel/s, and the texture rate also favors it at 233.3 GTexel/s versus 171.4 GTexel/s. Raw FP32 performance is another decisive win for the RTX 2070: 7.465 TFLOPS versus 4.113 TFLOPS. The RTX 2070 also supports FP16 at 14.93 TFLOPS (2:1), a feature the Tesla K80 lacks entirely.

API support further separates them. The RTX 2070 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Tesla K80 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both support OpenGL 4.6. Power requirements also differ: the Tesla K80 has a 300 W TDP and suggests a 700 W power supply, while the RTX 2070 has a 175 W TDP and suggests a 450 W PSU. Both are dual-slot cards with a single 8-pin power connector, but the RTX 2070 is physically smaller at 229 mm (9 inches) versus the Tesla's 267 mm (10.5 inches).

Where Each One Wins

Despite the RTX 2070's dominance in the head-to-head benchmarks, each card has contexts where it excels. The Tesla K80's primary advantage is memory capacity: 12 GB versus 8 GB. For workloads that require large datasets to reside in GPU memory without constant transfers, the Tesla's extra 4 GB could be decisive. Its higher shading unit count (2,496 vs. 2,304) suggests it may handle certain parallel compute patterns more gracefully, even if raw throughput is lower.

The RTX 2070 wins in virtually every performance metric that matters for modern workloads. Its FP32 throughput is 81% higher (7.465 vs. 4.113 TFLOPS), giving it a massive edge in general-purpose compute. The FP16 support at 14.93 TFLOPS opens up accelerated half-precision workloads that the Tesla cannot touch. The dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI inference tasks, respectively, which are completely unavailable on the Kepler architecture. The RTX 2070's display outputs (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C) also make it functional as a consumer GPU, whereas the Tesla K80 has no display outputs at all and is strictly a compute accelerator.

In benchmark terms, the RTX 2070 posts a Passmark G3D score of 16,094 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 6,411, demonstrating strong performance across both rasterization and compute tasks. The Tesla K80 has no Passmark scores in the data, only the two Geekbench results where it trails badly. The RTX 2070 also wins on efficiency: 175 W TDP versus 300 W, meaning it delivers more performance per watt and requires a less substantial power supply (450 W vs. 700 W).

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla K80 has an average benchmark score of 18,866, which is 0.4% higher than the RTX 2070's 18,789. However, this comparison is misleading because the two cards were tested on different benchmark suites.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 2070 in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX 2070 scores 82,521 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the Tesla K80 scores 19,111. This represents a -76.8% delta for the Tesla, meaning the RTX 2070 is over four times faster in this test.

Q: What are the memory capacity and bandwidth differences?

A: The Tesla K80 has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory with 240.6 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 2070 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 2070 has nearly double the bandwidth despite less capacity.

Q: Does the Tesla K80 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla K80 is based on the Kepler 2.0 architecture and has zero ray tracing cores. The RTX 2070 includes 36 dedicated ray tracing cores as part of its Turing architecture.

Q: What is the FP32 performance difference?

A: The RTX 2070 delivers 7.465 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 81% higher than the Tesla K80's 4.113 TFLOPS. The RTX 2070 also adds FP16 support at 14.93 TFLOPS, which the Tesla K80 lacks entirely.

Q: Which card has better API support?

A: The RTX 2070 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Tesla K80 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 for virtually every use case except those requiring maximum memory capacity. The RTX 2070 dominates the shared benchmarks by margins of roughly 77%, offers 81% higher FP32 throughput, adds FP16 capabilities, includes dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores, supports newer APIs, runs at substantially higher clocks, and does all of this while consuming 125 W less power and requiring a 450 W PSU instead of 700 W. Its launch MSRP was 499 USD.

The Tesla K80's only clear advantage is its 12 GB memory capacity versus 8 GB on the RTX 2070. For compute workloads where datasets exceed 8 GB and the extra capacity prevents memory swapping, the Tesla could still serve a purpose. Its higher shading unit count (2,496 vs. 2,304) and larger die size also suggest it was designed for sustained compute throughput, though the benchmark data does not reflect this advantage in the tests performed. The Tesla also posts a 0.4% higher average score, but this is due to benchmark composition rather than real-world superiority.

For anyone choosing between these two cards today, the RTX 2070 is the logical pick unless the specific workload requires more than 8 GB of VRAM and cannot be adapted. The Tesla K80 is end-of-life (released November 2014) and the RTX 2070 is also end-of-life (released October 2018), but the Turing card remains competitive in modern API support and raw compute. The Tesla K80's Kepler architecture is severely outdated, lacking the feature set and performance efficiency of Turing. The verdict from the data is clear: the RTX 2070 wins decisively on performance, features, and efficiency, while the Tesla K80's sole merit is its larger memory pool.