NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and the NVIDIA Tesla P4 are separated by seven years of architecture design, yet their average benchmark scores place them within 0.1% of each other. The RTX 4070 averages 37,648 points across all tests, while the Tesla P4 averages 37,628 points. This near-identical aggregate performance, however, masks a stark divergence in how each card achieves its results, as the individual benchmark data reveals a generational chasm in capability.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two tests where both cards share a common benchmark are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the results are decisive. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4070 scores 154,858 points against the Tesla P4's 34,947 points. That is a 343.1% advantage for the Ada Lovelace card—a more than four-fold increase in raw compute throughput. The RTX 4070's Vulkan result is similarly dominant: 174,152 points versus 40,309 points, a 332% lead.

These deltas are not incremental improvements; they represent a complete architectural overhaul. The RTX 4070 wins both head-to-head contests, securing 2 wins to the Tesla P4's 0. The Tesla P4's closest comparable result in the entire database is its own Geekbench Vulkan score, which still falls short of the RTX 4070's OpenCL score by a factor of 3.8. The data shows no scenario in these shared tests where the Pascal card is competitive.

The aggregate average scores tell a different story, but only because the RTX 4070 has nine additional benchmarks (including Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute) that pull its mean downward, while the Tesla P4 has only two data points. The RTX 4070's Passmark G3D score of 26,927 and GPU Compute score of 14,720 are strong, but they are averaged against lower DirectX-specific scores like 139 for DirectX 10 and 103 for DirectX 12. The Tesla P4's average is based solely on its two Geekbench results, which are consistently low. Consequently, the 0.1% deltaPct between the two cards' average scores is a statistical artifact of differing test coverage, not a reflection of comparable performance in any single workload.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 wins outright in every shared benchmark, but its dominance is not uniform across all workload types. Its greatest strength appears in compute-heavy and modern API tests. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 174,152 suggests excellent performance in contemporary graphics APIs, while the 154,858 OpenCL result indicates strong general-purpose compute capability. The 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 29.15 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1) rate provide the raw mathematical firepower for these results.

The Tesla P4, conversely, has no winning benchmark in the dataset. Its performance profile is defined by its absence of modern features. With no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, it cannot accelerate the same workloads as the RTX 4070. Its FP16 performance of 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) is a single-digit fraction of the RTX 4070's FP16 output. The Tesla P4's only potential advantage lies in its physical specifications: a 75 W TDP and single-slot design enable deployment in power-constrained or density-optimized servers, whereas the RTX 4070 requires 200 W and a dual-slot footprint.

For users prioritizing raw compute in OpenCL or Vulkan, the choice is unambiguous—the RTX 4070 delivers 343.1% and 332% more performance, respectively. The Tesla P4's niche would be legacy deployments or inference tasks that cannot use RTX 4070's feature set, but the benchmark data provides no evidence of such a workload where it wins.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent opposite ends of NVIDIA's architectural evolution. The RTX 4070 uses the AD104 chip built on TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die for a density of 121.8M transistors per mm². The Tesla P4 uses the GP104 chip on TSMC's 16 nm process, with 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die—a density of just 22.9M per mm². The RTX 4070 crams nearly five times more transistors into a slightly smaller physical area.

Core configuration differences are equally stark. The RTX 4070 has 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, 64 ROPs, 46 ray tracing cores, and 184 tensor cores. The Tesla P4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with no ray tracing or tensor cores at all. This means the RTX 4070 can execute hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-accelerated tensor operations, while the Tesla P4 is limited to traditional rasterization and compute.

Memory subsystems also diverge. The RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla P4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 192.3 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the newer GDDR6X memory at 21 Gbps effective speed gives the RTX 4070 more than 2.6 times the bandwidth. Clock speeds reflect the process advantage: the RTX 4070 boosts to 2475 MHz versus the Tesla P4's 1114 MHz.

Other differences include the RTX 4070's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support versus the Tesla P4's DirectX 12 (12_1), and the RTX 4070's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface versus the Tesla P4's PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX 4070 also has display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) while the Tesla P4 has none, reflecting its intended server role.

FAQ

Q: Why do the average scores of the two cards differ by only 0.1% if the RTX 4070 is so much faster?

A: The RTX 4070's average of 37,648 is based on 10 benchmarks, including several low Passmark DirectX scores (139 for DX10, 103 for DX12). The Tesla P4's average of 37,628 is based on only 2 benchmarks (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), both of which are low but consistent. The averages coincidentally align, but the head-to-head deltas show a 343.1% and 332% difference in the shared tests.

Q: Does the Tesla P4 have any performance advantage in the benchmarks?

A: No. The Tesla P4 wins 0 of the 2 head-to-head benchmarks. The RTX 4070 wins both Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan by margins of 343.1% and 332%, respectively.

Q: Can the Tesla P4 run modern ray tracing games?

A: No. The Tesla P4 has no ray tracing cores listed in its specifications. The RTX 4070 has 46 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RTX 4070 provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth with 12 GB GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus. The Tesla P4 provides 192.3 GB/s with 8 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. The RTX 4070 has approximately 2.6 times the bandwidth despite a narrower bus.

Q: Which card has better FP16 compute performance?

A: The RTX 4070 achieves 29.15 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio with FP32). The Tesla P4 achieves 89.12 GFLOPS FP16 (1:64 ratio). The RTX 4070 outperforms by a factor of over 300 in this specific metric.

Q: Are these cards in the same performance percentile?

A: Yes, both cards rank at the 81st percentile against all GPUs in the database, despite their architectural differences and the RTX 4070's overwhelming wins in shared benchmarks.

The Verdict

The data supports only one conclusion for general-purpose use: the RTX 4070 is the superior performer. It wins every shared benchmark, delivers 343.1% higher OpenCL scores and 332% higher Vulkan scores, and offers hardware features (ray tracing cores, tensor cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate) that the Tesla P4 entirely lacks. The RTX 4070's 5 nm process, 29.15 TFLOPS FP32, and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth make it suitable for modern gaming, content creation, and AI workloads.

The Tesla P4's case rests on its operational profile rather than performance. Its 75 W TDP and single-slot design allow deployment in environments where the RTX 4070's 200 W and dual-slot footprint are prohibitive. Its lack of display outputs and PCIe 3.0 interface indicate a server-oriented design, and its 8 GB GDDR5 memory may suffice for legacy inference tasks that do not require the RTX 4070's capabilities.

Users who need maximum compute in OpenCL or Vulkan should choose the RTX 4070 without hesitation. Users constrained by power budgets or physical space, and who do not require ray tracing or tensor acceleration, may find the Tesla P4 adequate—but they must accept a 343.1% performance deficit in the only comparable tests. The RTX 4070, despite being end-of-life, remains the data-driven choice for virtually all performance-sensitive applications.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | NVIDIA Tesla P4 |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | AD104 | GP104 |

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Pascal |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 16 nm |

| Transistors | 35,800 million | 7,200 million |

| Die Size | 294 mm² | 314 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 121.8M / mm² | 22.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1920 MHz | 886 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2475 MHz | 1114 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) | 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 12 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 192 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 504.2 GB/s | 192.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 5888 | 2560 |

| TMUs | 184 | 160 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| RT Cores | 46 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 184 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 158.4 GPixel/s | 71.30 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 455.4 GTexel/s | 178.2 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 29.15 TFLOPS | 5.704 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 29.15 TFLOPS (1:1) | 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) |

| TDP | 200 W | 75 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Single-slot |

| Power Connectors | 1x 16-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | 250 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | No outputs |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Length | 240 mm (9.4 inches) | 168 mm (6.6 inches) |

| Release Date | 2023-04-11 | 2016-09-12 |

| Predecessor | GeForce 30 | Tesla Maxwell |

| Successor | GeForce 50 | Tesla Volta |