NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, yet both are end-of-life products in the database. The Tesla T4 is a Turing-era accelerator aimed at datacenter inference, while the RTX 4080 SUPER is an Ada Lovelace consumer flagship. The benchmark data shows a clear performance gulf, but the story is more nuanced when you consider architecture, power, and intended use. This analysis uses only recorded measurements and specification fields from the database.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison in the database covers two compute-oriented tests: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both, the RTX 4080 SUPER wins decisively.

• Geekbench OpenCL: The Tesla T4 scores 61,276, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 219,065. The delta is -72%, meaning the RTX 4080 SUPER is roughly 3.6 times faster in raw compute throughput. This is not a marginal lead; it is a generational jump reflected in shading units (2,560 vs 10,240) and FP32 throughput (8.141 TFLOPS vs 52.22 TFLOPS).
• Geekbench Vulkan: The Tesla T4 scores 72,190, and the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 260,075, a delta of -72.2%. The Vulkan gap is even slightly larger than OpenCL, suggesting the RTX 4080 SUPER's newer driver stack and higher clock speeds (boost 2550 MHz vs 1590 MHz) translate directly into graphics API performance.

Looking at the average benchmark score, the Tesla T4 posts 66,733, which places it in the 90th percentile of all GPUs. The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average score of 54,209, which is only the 86th percentile. This is a crucial nuance: the average score is dragged down by the RTX 4080 SUPER's inclusion of legacy DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 tests (scores of 381 and 193, respectively) in its benchmark suite, while the Tesla T4 only has the two Geekbench entries. The RTX 4080 SUPER's Passmark G3D score of 34,245 and GPU compute score of 19,822 are strong, but the older API tests penalize its average. Do not mistake the percentile for overall capability; the head-to-head tests are the apples-to-apples comparison, and they are not close.

The RTX 4080 SUPER also wins on every direct metric. Its texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s is over three times the Tesla T4's 254.4 GTexel/s, and its pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s dwarfs the T4's 101.8 GPixel/s. Memory bandwidth tells a similar story: 736.3 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s, a 130% advantage. The only areas where the Tesla T4 does not lose are power consumption and physical footprint, but those are not benchmark scores.

The Verdict

From the data, the RTX 4080 SUPER is the superior performer in every recorded benchmark and specification that affects speed. It wins both head-to-head tests, has a higher boost clock (2550 MHz vs 1590 MHz), more shading units (10,240 vs 2,560), more RT cores (80 vs 40), and more texture mapping units (320 vs 160). If your workload is compute-heavy or graphics-heavy, the RTX 4080 SUPER is the clear choice.

However, the Tesla T4 has a distinct advantage in power efficiency. Its TDP is 70 W, compared to 320 W for the RTX 4080 SUPER. That is a 4.5 times difference in power draw. The T4 also requires no power connectors and only a 250 W suggested PSU, while the RTX 4080 SUPER needs a single 16-pin connector and a 700 W PSU. For a datacenter environment with dense server racks, the T4's low power profile and single-slot design (168 mm length) are practical advantages that the RTX 4080 SUPER, with its triple-slot width and 310 mm length, cannot match.

So the verdict is split by use case. The RTX 4080 SUPER is for anyone who needs raw performance in a desktop or workstation, where power and space are not limiting factors. The Tesla T4 is for specialized inference or low-power acceleration tasks where the 70 W envelope and lack of display outputs are features, not drawbacks. The database shows the T4's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon VII (delta 1.1%) and the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 (delta -2.7%), indicating it sits in a mid-range compute tier. The RTX 4080 SUPER's rivals are the RTX 4080 (delta -0.1%) and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (delta -1.1%), showing it competes at the high end. Pick based on the workload, not the average percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural eras and are built on different process nodes, which explains much of the performance gap.

• Process Node: The Tesla T4 uses a 12 nm process at TSMC, while the RTX 4080 SUPER uses a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. This is a massive difference in transistor density: the T4 packs 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die (25.0M / mm²), while the RTX 4080 SUPER fits 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die (121.1M / mm²). The RTX 4080 SUPER has more than three times the transistor count in a smaller physical area.
• Architecture: The Tesla T4 is based on Turing, while the RTX 4080 SUPER uses Ada Lovelace. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical. The key difference is in the execution units. The T4 has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 4080 SUPER has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. This is a 4x increase in shaders and a 2x increase in TMUs.
• Tensor Cores: Both have 320 tensor cores. However, the FP16 performance tells a different story. The Tesla T4 achieves 16.28 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio (meaning half the FP32 rate). The RTX 4080 SUPER achieves 52.22 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, meaning it does not halve its throughput for FP16. This is a significant architectural improvement for AI workloads.
• RT Cores: The RTX 4080 SUPER has 80 RT cores, double the Tesla T4's 40. This suggests better ray tracing performance, though no ray tracing benchmarks are recorded in the database.
• Memory Type: The Tesla T4 uses GDDR6, while the RTX 4080 SUPER uses GDDR6X. Both have 16 GB on a 256-bit bus, but the GDDR6X allows a much higher effective speed (23 Gbps vs 10 Gbps), leading to the bandwidth difference mentioned earlier.

The T4's memory clock is 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective), while the RTX 4080 SUPER runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). The higher effective speed is not just a clock bump; it is a different memory technology with higher data rates per pin.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The Tesla T4 has an average score of 66,733, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has an average score of 54,209. However, this average is misleading because the RTX 4080 SUPER was tested with additional legacy DirectX benchmarks (DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12) that are absent from the Tesla T4's record. In the shared Geekbench tests, the RTX 4080 SUPER is far ahead.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Tesla T4 has a TDP of 70 W, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has a TDP of 320 W. The Tesla T4 requires no power connectors and a 250 W suggested PSU, while the RTX 4080 SUPER needs a 16-pin connector and a 700 W suggested PSU.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same graphics APIs?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. There is no difference in API support in the database.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of each?

A: The Tesla T4 has 320.0 GB/s from GDDR6 memory, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has 736.3 GB/s from GDDR6X memory. Both have 16 GB capacity and a 256-bit bus width.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has 10,240 shading units, compared to the Tesla T4's 2,560. This is a 4x difference and is the primary driver of the FP32 performance gap (52.22 TFLOPS vs 8.141 TFLOPS).

Q: What is the release date difference?

A: The Tesla T4 was released on 2018-09-12, while the RTX 4080 SUPER was released on 2024-01-30. The T4's predecessor is Tesla Volta, and its successor is Server Ampere. The RTX 4080 SUPER's predecessor is GeForce 30, and its successor is GeForce 50.

Q: How do they compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The Tesla T4's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon VII with a delta of 1.1%, and it is 2.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40. The RTX 4080 SUPER is 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 and 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X.

Where Each One Wins

• Compute Throughput (FP32/FP16): The RTX 4080 SUPER wins outright. Its FP32 of 52.22 TFLOPS is over six times the Tesla T4's 8.141 TFLOPS. FP16 is also a win for the RTX 4080 SUPER at 52.22 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) for the T4.
• Memory Bandwidth: The RTX 4080 SUPER wins with 736.3 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s. This benefits large datasets, texture streaming, and high-resolution rendering.
• Ray Tracing: The RTX 4080 SUPER has 80 RT cores versus 40, so it likely handles ray-traced scenes better, though no direct benchmark is recorded.
• Power Efficiency: The Tesla T4 wins. At 70 W, it draws less than a quarter of the RTX 4080 SUPER's 320 W. For compute nodes where power density is a constraint, the T4 is the practical choice.
• Physical Size: The Tesla T4 is single-slot and 168 mm long, while the RTX 4080 SUPER is triple-slot and 310 mm long with a height of 140 mm and width of 61 mm. The T4 fits in tighter chassis.
• Display Outputs: The Tesla T4 has none, while the RTX 4080 SUPER has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. For any visual output, the RTX 4080 SUPER is required.
• Bus Interface: The RTX 4080 SUPER uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla T4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The newer interface offers higher bandwidth to the host system.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the two GPUs in the database:

• Chip: TU104 (Tesla T4) vs AD103 (RTX 4080 SUPER)
• Architecture: Turing vs Ada Lovelace
• Generation: Tesla Turing (Txx) vs GeForce 40
• Process Node: 12 nm vs 5 nm (both TSMC)
• Transistors: 13,600 million vs 45,900 million
• Die Size: 545 mm² vs 379 mm²
• Transistor Density: 25.0M / mm² vs 121.1M / mm²
• Base Clock: 585 MHz vs 2295 MHz
• Boost Clock: 1590 MHz vs 2550 MHz
• Memory Clock: 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective) vs 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective)
• Memory Type: GDDR6 vs GDDR6X
• Bandwidth: 320.0 GB/s vs 736.3 GB/s
• Shading Units: 2560 vs 10240
• TMUs: 160 vs 320
• ROPs: 64 vs 112
• RT Cores: 40 vs 80
• FP32: 8.141 TFLOPS vs 52.22 TFLOPS
• FP16: 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) vs 52.22 TFLOPS (1:1)
• Pixel Rate: 101.8 GPixel/s vs 285.6 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 254.4 GTexel/s vs 816.0 GTexel/s
• TDP: 70 W vs 320 W
• Slot Width: Single-slot vs Triple-slot
• Power Connectors: None vs 1x 16-pin
• Suggested PSU: 250 W vs 700 W
• Bus Interface: PCIe 3.0 x16 vs PCIe 4.0 x16
• Display Outputs: No outputs vs 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
• Dimensions: 168 mm length vs 310 mm length, 140 mm height, 61 mm width
• Release Date: 2018-09-12 vs 2024-01-30
• Predecessor: Tesla Volta vs GeForce 30
• Successor: Server Ampere vs GeForce 50
• Launch MSRP: The RTX 4080 SUPER has a launch MSRP of 999 USD; the Tesla T4 has no launch MSRP recorded.

The tensor core count is identical at 320, and both share the same API list. The memory size and bus width are also the same at 16 GB and 256 bit. Everything else in the specification table separates these two products into different performance classes.