NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER vs NVIDIA Tesla M40 Comparison

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER outperforms the NVIDIA Tesla M40 in every head-to-head comparison, with margins that are not incremental but generational. The RTX 4070 SUPER wins both shared tests with deltas exceeding 340%, establishing it as the dominant choice for any workload where these two overlap.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two benchmarks shared between these cards are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the RTX 4070 SUPER wins both decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4070 SUPER scores 172,795 against the Tesla M40’s 39,192, a delta of 340.9%. This is not a close contest; it represents a fourfold advantage in raw compute throughput as measured by this workload.

The Vulkan result is even more lopsided. The RTX 4070 SUPER posts 205,624, while the Tesla M40 manages just 44,602. That is a 361% delta, the largest margin recorded in any shared test. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s Vulkan score is also higher than its own OpenCL result, suggesting the architecture scales particularly well with modern APIs — a point reinforced by its DirectX 12 Ultimate support versus the Tesla M40’s older DirectX 12 (12_1) feature level.

Context from the aggregate data strengthens the verdict. The RTX 4070 SUPER carries an average benchmark score of 43,223 across all recorded tests, while the Tesla M40 averages 41,897. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rivals — the Quadro M6000 24 GB, RTX 5050 Mobile, and Quadro M6000 — all sit within 0.2% of its average, placing it in a tightly contested performance tier. The Tesla M40, by contrast, is bracketed by the Tesla M40 24 GB (0.5% ahead) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (2.5% behind), a different and lower competitive neighborhood.

The wins tally is 2–0 in favor of the RTX 4070 SUPER, with no shared test where the Tesla M40 takes the lead. There is no benchmark in the data where the Tesla M40 posts a higher score than the RTX 4070 SUPER.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 SUPER wins everywhere the two are directly compared. In compute-focused workloads like Geekbench OpenCL, its 340.9% lead indicates a fundamental throughput advantage, not a marginal one. For Vulkan-based rendering or compute, the 361% delta shows the RTX 4070 SUPER is in a completely different performance class.

The Tesla M40 has no wins in the head-to-head data. Its only advantage is contextual: it belongs to the same 83rd percentile of all GPUs as the RTX 4070 SUPER, meaning both sit at a comparable level relative to the entire GPU landscape. But within that percentile, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s average score of 43,223 exceeds the Tesla M40’s 41,897 by roughly 3.2%. The Tesla M40’s nearest rival, the RTX 3080 Ti, is 1.7% behind it, while the RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rival, the RTX 4090 Mobile, is 1% behind — so the Tesla M40 competes with older high-end parts, while the RTX 4070 SUPER sits among modern equivalents.

For any user choosing between these two, the data supports the RTX 4070 SUPER for every benchmark category present. The Tesla M40’s role is historical or niche — a card with no display outputs and no modern API features beyond Vulkan 1.4, suited only to compute tasks that do not leverage the RTX 4070 SUPER’s architectural advantages.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are separated by two full GPU generations and a fundamental design philosophy shift. The RTX 4070 SUPER uses the AD104 chip on the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The Tesla M40 uses the GM200 chip on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC.

The transistor counts tell the story of density. The RTX 4070 SUPER packs 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, yielding a density of 121.8 million transistors per mm². The Tesla M40 contains only 8,000 million transistors spread across a much larger 601 mm² die, for a density of 13.3 million per mm². The RTX 4070 SUPER achieves nearly ten times the transistor density, which explains its massive performance advantage despite a smaller physical die.

The RTX 4070 SUPER also introduces hardware that the Tesla M40 entirely lacks: 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores. The Tesla M40 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. This is a structural difference, not a clock-speed difference. The RTX 4070 SUPER is designed for modern rendering pipelines and AI acceleration; the Tesla M40 predates both features. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s FP32 throughput is 35.48 TFLOPS with FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, while the Tesla M40 lists only 6.832 TFLOPS FP32 and no FP16 support. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s shading unit count is 7,168 versus 3,072, its TMUs are 224 versus 192, and its ROPs are 80 versus 96 — the Tesla M40 actually has more ROPs, but that does not compensate for the compute deficit.

Memory architecture differs as well. The RTX 4070 SUPER uses 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, achieving 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The Tesla M40 uses 12 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 384-bit bus, but only reaches 288.4 GB/s. The newer memory type and higher clock speed overcome the narrower bus.

Specification Differences

The process node is the starkest difference: 5 nm for the RTX 4070 SUPER versus 28 nm for the Tesla M40. Clock speeds follow — the RTX 4070 SUPER runs at 1980 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost, while the Tesla M40 runs at 948 MHz base and 1112 MHz boost. Memory clocks differ massively: the RTX 4070 SUPER’s memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective, the Tesla M40’s at 1502 MHz with 6 Gbps effective.

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s power consumption is lower despite the performance advantage: 220 W TDP versus 250 W, with a suggested PSU of 550 W versus 600 W. The RTX 4070 SUPER uses a 1x 16-pin power connector; the Tesla M40 uses an 8-pin EPS. Both are dual-slot cards, and both are 267 mm long.

The bus interface differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RTX 4070 SUPER, PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Tesla M40. Display outputs are a major split — the RTX 4070 SUPER offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the Tesla M40 has no outputs. API support: the RTX 4070 SUPER supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), the Tesla M40 only DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s production status is end-of-life, as is the Tesla M40’s. The RTX 4070 SUPER has a launch MSRP of 599 USD; the Tesla M40 has no listed launch MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER scores 172,795 versus the Tesla M40’s 39,192, a 340.9% advantage.

Q: Does the Tesla M40 win any shared benchmark?

A: No. The RTX 4070 SUPER wins both shared tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), with a wins tally of 2–0.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between the two cards?

A: The largest delta is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4070 SUPER leads by 361% (205,624 versus 44,602).

Q: Do both cards have the same memory capacity?

A: Yes, both have 12 GB, but the RTX 4070 SUPER uses GDDR6X with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, while the Tesla M40 uses GDDR5 with 288.4 GB/s.

Q: Does the Tesla M40 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla M40 has no ray tracing cores, while the RTX 4070 SUPER includes 56 RT cores.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER averages 43,223 across all tests; the Tesla M40 averages 41,897.

The Verdict

The data directs a clear conclusion: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the superior GPU in every measurable way within this comparison. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks by margins of 340.9% and 361%, carries a higher average benchmark score (43,223 versus 41,897), and does so with a lower TDP (220 W versus 250 W). For any workload represented in the benchmark data — OpenCL compute, Vulkan rendering, or any of the RTX 4070 SUPER’s additional DirectX tests — the RTX 4070 SUPER is the only rational choice.

The Tesla M40’s sole comparative strength is its wider 384-bit memory bus and higher ROP count (96 versus 80), but those do not translate into competitive performance in the shared tests. Its place in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs matches the RTX 4070 SUPER’s percentile, but the underlying scores reveal a large gap within that tier. The Tesla M40 is a legacy compute card with no display outputs, no ray tracing, no tensor cores, and a 28 nm process that limits its efficiency.

Who should pick which? Anyone requiring modern API support (DirectX 12 Ultimate), ray tracing, tensor acceleration, or display connectivity should choose the RTX 4070 SUPER without hesitation. The Tesla M40 is only defensible for a legacy compute environment where its specific Maxwell-era feature set is required and where the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 5 nm architecture is not an option — but based purely on the benchmark data, there is no performance scenario where the Tesla M40 comes out ahead.