NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains two shared benchmark tests between the NVIDIA Tesla P40 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both cases, the RTX 4070 Ti delivers decisively higher scores, leaving the Tesla P40 with zero wins across the head-to-head comparison.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4070 Ti scores 176,953 points, while the Tesla P40 scores 62,017 points. That represents a delta of -65% for the Tesla P40, meaning the RTX 4070 Ti is roughly 185% faster in this workload. The gap is even more pronounced in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4070 Ti posts 213,808 points against the Tesla P40's 68,172 points, a delta of -68.1%. In percentage terms, the RTX 4070 Ti outperforms the Tesla P40 by about 214% in Vulkan compute.

These are not marginal differences; they are generational leaps. The RTX 4070 Ti's scores are more than double the Tesla P40's in both tests. For context, the Tesla P40's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 65,095, placing it at the 89th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The RTX 4070 Ti's average benchmark score is 44,795, which sits at the 84th percentile. This is an unusual situation: the RTX 4070 Ti has a lower average score than the Tesla P40, yet it wins both shared tests by wide margins. The explanation lies in the composition of the benchmark suites. The Tesla P40 only has two recorded benchmarks (both Geekbench), while the RTX 4070 Ti has ten recorded benchmarks, including several Passmark tests with low scores (e.g., Passmark DirectX 9 at 352, DirectX 12 at 116, and G2D at 1,200). These Passmark results drag down the RTX 4070 Ti's average, despite its dominant OpenCL and Vulkan performance.

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, the Tesla P40 sits close to the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (average score 64,212, delta 1.4%), the AMD Radeon VII (average score 66,004, delta -1.4%), the NVIDIA CMP 30HX (average score 63,842, delta 2%), and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP (average score 63,830, delta 2%). The RTX 4070 Ti, meanwhile, is bracketed by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (average score 45,152, delta -0.8%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (average score 45,384, delta -1.3%), the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (average score 44,075, delta 1.6%), and the Intel Arc A730M (average score 45,592, delta -1.7%). These rival groups show that the Tesla P40 competes in a higher average-score tier, but that is a statistical artifact of the sparse benchmark coverage, not a reflection of real-world compute capability.

The raw specifications corroborate the benchmark results. The RTX 4070 Ti has 7,680 shading units, double the Tesla P40's 3,840. Its FP32 throughput is 40.09 TFLOPS, versus 11.76 TFLOPS for the Tesla P40, a factor of 3.4x. The RTX 4070 Ti also has 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Tesla P40. Memory bandwidth favors the RTX 4070 Ti as well: 504.2 GB/s versus 347.1 GB/s, despite the Tesla P40 having a wider 384-bit bus and 24 GB of GDDR5 memory, compared to the RTX 4070 Ti's 192-bit bus and 12 GB of GDDR6X.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: for any workload captured by Geekbench OpenCL or Vulkan, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the superior choice. It delivers 2.85x the OpenCL score and 3.14x the Vulkan score of the Tesla P40. If the task involves general-purpose GPU compute, ray tracing, or tensor operations, the RTX 4070 Ti wins outright.

Who should pick the Tesla P40? Only those who specifically need 24 GB of VRAM on a 384-bit memory bus. The Tesla P40 has no display outputs, so it is strictly a compute or server card. Its 24 GB of GDDR5 provides 347.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is lower than the RTX 4070 Ti's 504.2 GB/s, but the larger capacity could matter for datasets that exceed 12 GB. The Tesla P40 also has a lower TDP at 250 W versus 285 W, and it uses an 8-pin EPS power connector rather than the 1x 16-pin connector on the RTX 4070 Ti. Both cards require a 600 W suggested PSU.

Who should pick the RTX 4070 Ti? Anyone running compute workloads that fit within 12 GB of memory. The RTX 4070 Ti offers 3.4x the FP32 throughput, 60 RT cores for ray tracing, 240 tensor cores for AI acceleration, and full DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2), versus the Tesla P40's DirectX 12 (12_1). The RTX 4070 Ti also has display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a), making it a viable hybrid card for both rendering and compute. The launch MSRP for the RTX 4070 Ti is 799 USD; the Tesla P40's launch MSRP is 5,699 USD.

For percentile ranking, the Tesla P40 at the 89th percentile versus the RTX 4070 Ti at the 84th percentile might suggest the opposite conclusion, but the sparse benchmark coverage on the Tesla P40 inflates its standing. The head-to-head data is the only direct comparison, and it favors the RTX 4070 Ti by a wide margin in both tests. The verdict is straightforward: the RTX 4070 Ti is the faster card in every measurable shared workload, and the Tesla P40's only advantage is memory capacity.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different eras and architectures. The Tesla P40 uses the GP102 chip built on the Pascal architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 16 nm process. It contains 11,800 million transistors on a die size of 471 mm², yielding a transistor density of 25.1 million per square millimeter. The RTX 4070 Ti uses the AD104 chip built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It packs 35,800 million transistors on a much smaller die of 294 mm², giving a transistor density of 121.8 million per square millimeter, roughly 4.85x higher.

The memory subsystems differ substantially. The Tesla P40 offers 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1808 MHz (7.2 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 347.1 GB/s. The RTX 4070 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Despite having half the bus width and half the capacity, the RTX 4070 Ti's faster memory technology delivers 45% more bandwidth.

Compute resources: the Tesla P40 has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 4070 Ti has 7,680 shading units (exactly double), 240 TMUs (same), and 80 ROPs (fewer). Pixel rate favors the RTX 4070 Ti at 208.8 GPixel/s versus 147.0 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 626.4 GTexel/s versus 367.4 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 40.09 TFLOPS versus 11.76 TFLOPS. FP16 is a stark contrast: the RTX 4070 Ti delivers 40.09 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio with FP32), while the Tesla P40 manages only 183.7 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), meaning the RTX 4070 Ti has over 218x the FP16 throughput.

Feature sets diverge completely. The RTX 4070 Ti includes 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores; the Tesla P40 has neither. The RTX 4070 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla P40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4070 Ti runs on PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla P40 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX 4070 Ti has display outputs; the Tesla P40 has none. Power consumption is 285 W for the RTX 4070 Ti and 250 W for the Tesla P40, with both requiring a 600 W suggested PSU.

The Tesla P40 was released in 2016, predating the RTX 4070 Ti's 2023 release by nearly seven years. The Tesla P40's predecessor is Tesla Maxwell and its successor is Tesla Volta. The RTX 4070 Ti's predecessor is GeForce 30 and its successor is GeForce 50. Both are end-of-life products.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more memory?

A: The Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the RTX 4070 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus. The Tesla P40 offers double the capacity, but the RTX 4070 Ti provides higher bandwidth (504.2 GB/s versus 347.1 GB/s).

Q: Does the Tesla P40 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla P40 has no RT cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 4070 Ti has 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads.

Q: Can I use the Tesla P40 for display output?

A: No. The Tesla P40 has no display outputs, making it a compute-only card. The RTX 4070 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: How do their FP32 performances compare?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti delivers 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 3.4x higher than the Tesla P40's 11.76 TFLOPS.

Q: Which GPU is more power efficient in terms of TDP?

A: The Tesla P40 has a lower TDP of 250 W, compared to the RTX 4070 Ti's 285 W. However, the RTX 4070 Ti delivers far more performance per watt, given its much higher scores in shared benchmarks.

Q: Why does the Tesla P40 have a higher percentile ranking than the RTX 4070 Ti?

A: The Tesla P40 ranks at the 89th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4070 Ti ranks at the 84th percentile. This is because the Tesla P40 has only two recorded benchmarks (both Geekbench, with high scores), while the RTX 4070 Ti has ten benchmarks including several low-scoring Passmark tests, which lower its average. The head-to-head data shows the RTX 4070 Ti winning both shared tests by over 65%.

Where Each One Wins

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti wins in:

• Compute performance: 2.85x higher OpenCL score and 3.14x higher Vulkan score.
• FP32 throughput: 40.09 TFLOPS versus 11.76 TFLOPS.
• FP16 throughput: 40.09 TFLOPS versus 183.7 GFLOPS, a 218x advantage.
• Memory bandwidth: 504.2 GB/s versus 347.1 GB/s.
• Ray tracing: 60 RT cores versus none.
• Tensor operations: 240 tensor cores versus none.
• API support: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus 12_1.
• Display connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a versus no outputs.
• Pixel rate: 208.8 GPixel/s versus 147.0 GPixel/s.
• Texture rate: 626.4 GTexel/s versus 367.4 GTexel/s.
• Interface bandwidth: PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16.

NVIDIA Tesla P40 wins in:

• Memory capacity: 24 GB versus 12 GB.
• Memory bus width: 384-bit versus 192-bit.
• ROPs: 96 versus 80.
• Power draw: 250 W versus 285 W.
• Physical length: 267 mm versus 285 mm (shorter by 18 mm).
• Launch MSRP: 5,699 USD versus 799 USD (stated once as recorded).

Use-case split:

• Choose the RTX 4070 Ti for AI inference, machine learning training, ray-traced rendering, gaming, and any workload that benefits from tensor cores or RT cores. Its 3.4x FP32 advantage and massive FP16 throughput make it the clear choice for compute-dense tasks.
• Choose the Tesla P40 only for workloads that require more than 12 GB of VRAM and can tolerate lower bandwidth and far lower compute throughput. Examples from the data would include holding very large datasets in memory, though the 347.1 GB/s bandwidth may become a bottleneck. The lack of display outputs also restricts it to server or headless compute roles.

The head-to-head wins are 2-0 in favor of the RTX 4070 Ti, with zero wins for the Tesla P40. The data does not support any scenario where the Tesla P40 outperforms the RTX 4070 Ti in the shared benchmarks. The only reasons to consider the Tesla P40 are its 24 GB capacity and its lower power draw, but these come at the cost of 65% to 68% lower performance in the tests where both cards were measured.