NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database shows a decisive performance gap between these two cards. In the two shared benchmark tests, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 dominates the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB by an enormous margin.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4080 scores 214,739 against the Tesla M40's 37,439. That is a 473.6% advantage for the RTX 4080. This is not a close contest by any measure. The RTX 4080 delivers more than five times the raw compute throughput in this API-level test.

The Vulkan result follows the same pattern. The RTX 4080 posts 263,779, while the Tesla M40 manages 45,975. The delta is 473.7%, essentially identical to the OpenCL gap. This suggests the performance difference is fundamental to the hardware architecture, not a quirk of a particular API or driver path.

The RTX 4080 wins both head-to-head tests, with a 2-0 record. The Tesla M40 has zero wins in this comparison. For context, the RTX 4080's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 54,247, while the Tesla M40 averages 41,707. That is a 12,540-point gap, or roughly 30% in the RTX 4080's favor. However, the head-to-head tests show a much larger disparity because the Tesla M40 only has two benchmark entries in the database, both of which are compute-oriented.

Looking at the percentile rankings, the RTX 4080 sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, while the Tesla M40 is at the 83rd. Despite the massive head-to-head deltas, the percentile difference is modest because the Tesla M40's limited benchmark set still places it well above most cards. The RTX 4080's nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% faster in average score), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% slower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% slower). The Tesla M40's closest competitor is another Tesla M40 variant, just 0.5% away, followed by the RTX 3080 Ti at 1.3% faster.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The RTX 4080 is the superior card for any workload that appears in the benchmark suite. It wins every shared test by a factor of roughly 5.7x. If you need compute performance, modern API support, or any kind of rendering capability, the RTX 4080 is the only rational choice.

The Tesla M40 24 GB has one clear advantage: memory capacity. It offers 24 GB of VRAM versus 16 GB on the RTX 4080. For workloads that require holding very large datasets entirely in GPU memory, and where raw speed is secondary, the Tesla M40 could be considered. However, the bandwidth difference is stark: the RTX 4080 delivers 716.8 GB/s, while the Tesla M40 manages just 288.4 GB/s. The RTX 4080 moves data more than twice as fast, which matters even for memory-bound tasks.

The Tesla M40 also has no display outputs. It is a compute-only accelerator. The RTX 4080 includes 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. If you need to connect a monitor, the Tesla M40 is disqualified outright.

For anyone building a system today, the RTX 4080 wins on performance, feature set, and usability. The Tesla M40 is a legacy compute card with a specific niche: massive memory capacity in a low-power envelope (250 W versus 320 W), but it cannot keep up in any measurable compute test.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4080 uses the AD103 chip built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.1 million per square millimeter. The Tesla M40 uses the GM200 chip on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die, with a density of just 13.3 million per square millimeter. The process node difference is the single largest architectural divide: 5 nm versus 28 nm represents multiple generations of fabrication technology.

The RTX 4080 includes 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The Tesla M40 has neither. This is a hard functional difference. Any workload that leverages hardware ray tracing or tensor core acceleration runs only on the RTX 4080. The Tesla M40 is limited to traditional shader compute.

API support also differs. The RTX 4080 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla M40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The higher DirectX feature level on the RTX 4080 enables modern rendering techniques that the Tesla M40 cannot execute in hardware.

The shading unit count tells the story of compute capacity. The RTX 4080 has 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs. The Tesla M40 has 3,072 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 4080 has more than three times the shader count and substantially more texture units.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every specification that matters. The RTX 4080 has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. The Tesla M40 runs at 948 MHz base and 1112 MHz boost. The RTX 4080's clocks are more than double the Tesla M40's.

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The RTX 4080 uses 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, with an effective speed of 22.4 Gbps and bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The Tesla M40 uses 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with 6 Gbps effective speed and 288.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4080 has less capacity but far higher bandwidth. The Tesla M40 has 8 GB more memory but less than half the bandwidth.

Compute throughput follows the same pattern. The RTX 4080 delivers 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 and 48.74 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1). The Tesla M40 manages 6.832 TFLOPS FP32 and has no FP16 capability listed. The RTX 4080 is roughly 7.1x faster in FP32.

Pixel and texture rates reinforce the gap. The RTX 4080 achieves 280.6 GPixel/s and 761.5 GTexel/s. The Tesla M40 reaches 106.8 GPixel/s and 213.5 GTexel/s. The RTX 4080 is 2.6x faster in pixel fill and 3.6x faster in texture fill.

Power and physical specs differ. The RTX 4080 has a TDP of 320 W, uses a 1x 16-pin power connector, and requires a 700 W suggested PSU. It is a triple-slot card measuring 310 mm long, 140 mm tall, and 61 mm wide. The Tesla M40 has a 250 W TDP, uses an 8-pin EPS connector, and needs a 600 W PSU. It is dual-slot and 267 mm long. The Tesla M40 is shorter, lower power, and physically slimmer, but offers no display outputs.

The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 4080 versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the Tesla M40.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in compute benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 wins both shared tests. It scores 214,739 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 37,439 for the Tesla M40, a 473.6% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 263,779 versus 45,975, a 473.7% advantage.

Q: Does the Tesla M40 have any advantage over the RTX 4080?

A: Yes, it has more memory capacity: 24 GB versus 16 GB. It also has a lower TDP at 250 W versus 320 W, and a shorter physical length at 267 mm versus 310 mm. However, its memory bandwidth is much lower at 288.4 GB/s versus 716.8 GB/s.

Q: Can the Tesla M40 be used for gaming or display output?

A: No. The Tesla M40 has no display outputs listed in the database. It is a compute-only accelerator. The RTX 4080 includes 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Q: What architecture does each card use?

A: The RTX 4080 uses Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm process with the AD103 chip. The Tesla M40 uses Maxwell 2.0 on a 28 nm process with the GM200 chip.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 support ray tracing?

A: Yes. It has 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores. The Tesla M40 has neither, so hardware ray tracing and tensor acceleration are unavailable on that card.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, while the Tesla M40 averages 41,707. The RTX 4080 sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs; the Tesla M40 is at the 83rd.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4080 wins in every benchmark category where both cards have recorded data. That includes OpenCL compute, Vulkan compute, and by extension all DirectX 12 workloads given its higher feature level. The card's 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, 716.8 GB/s bandwidth, and 76 RT cores make it suitable for modern gaming, content creation, ray-traced rendering, and AI-adjacent workloads that use tensor cores.

The Tesla M40 24 GB wins in one specific scenario: workloads that require more than 16 GB of GPU memory. Its 24 GB capacity exceeds the RTX 4080's 16 GB. For tasks like large dataset inference, big batch processing, or holding massive textures and geometry in VRAM, the Tesla M40 can fit data that would spill over on the RTX 4080. Its 250 W TDP and dual-slot design also make it easier to fit into dense compute servers.

The Tesla M40's 384-bit memory bus and GDDR5 memory provide 288.4 GB/s, which is sufficient for memory-resident workloads that are not bandwidth-limited. Its 6.832 TFLOPS FP32 is a fraction of the RTX 4080's capability, but for certain legacy compute tasks, that may be acceptable.

The RTX 4080 wins on every measurable performance metric, every API feature, and every usability aspect. The Tesla M40 is a specialized tool for memory capacity. The data shows that for general-purpose acceleration, rendering, or gaming, the RTX 4080 is the clear choice. For a narrow use case involving very large memory footprints on a budget power budget, the Tesla M40 retains a niche. But the 473.6% and 473.7% deltas in shared tests leave little room for interpretation: the RTX 4080 is the superior processor in almost every scenario.