NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 vs NVIDIA Tesla K80 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains two direct benchmark comparisons between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 and the NVIDIA Tesla K80. Both tests are decisive victories for the RTX 5050. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5050 scores 90,334 points against the Tesla K80's 18,620 points. This represents a 385.1% advantage for the newer card, a margin that places the two products in completely different performance tiers.

The Geekbench Vulkan test tells a similar story. The RTX 5050 achieves 89,381 points, while the Tesla K80 manages only 19,111 points. The delta here is 367.7% in favor of the RTX 5050. These are not close contests; the RTX 5050 delivers roughly 4.7 times the OpenCL performance and 4.7 times the Vulkan performance of the Tesla K80 across these specific workloads.

Looking at the broader database context, the RTX 5050's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 21,035 points. This places it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (average score 21,153, a 0.6% difference), the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21,237, 1% difference), and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21,379, 1.6% difference). The RTX 5050 sits within a tight cluster of mid-range performers, trading places with these cards by single-digit percentage points.

The Tesla K80's average benchmark score is 18,866 points, placing it at the 63rd percentile. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (18,789, a 0.4% difference), the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, 0.5% difference), and the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, 0.9% difference). Despite being near the same percentile ranking, the gap in raw scores between the two cards is substantial in the head-to-head tests.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5050 wins all recorded head-to-head benchmarks, taking both available tests. The Tesla K80 has no recorded wins in this comparison. However, the data suggests different application domains. The RTX 5050 is a GeForce 50-series consumer card with modern API support, including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. It is designed for gaming and general graphics workloads, with display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1b) and a robust feature set including ray tracing cores and tensor cores.

The Tesla K80 is a compute-focused accelerator with no display outputs. It is built on the Kepler 2.0 architecture and supports DirectX 12 (11_1), Vulkan 1.2.175, and OpenGL 4.6. Its absence of display outputs means it is intended for server or workstation compute tasks rather than interactive graphics. The RTX 5050's advantage in OpenCL and Vulkan suggests it handles general-purpose compute and graphics APIs more effectively, but the Tesla K80's 12 GB of memory (versus 8 GB on the RTX 5050) could be relevant for memory-bound workloads where capacity matters more than raw throughput.

The RTX 5050's 66th percentile ranking versus the Tesla K80's 63rd percentile is a modest overall standing difference, but the head-to-head deltas are enormous. This implies that the Tesla K80's average score is bolstered by its performance in other unrecorded tests, while the RTX 5050's average is pulled down by its weaker Passmark scores, such as 66 in DirectX 12 and 103 in DirectX 10.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is generational and fundamental. The RTX 5050 uses the GB207 chip built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 16,900 million transistors on a 149 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 113.4 million per square millimeter. The Tesla K80 uses the GK210 chip on Kepler 2.0 architecture, also fabricated at TSMC but on a 28 nm process. It packs 7,100 million transistors across a much larger 561 mm² die, with a density of just 12.7 million per square millimeter.

Clock speeds reinforce the architectural gap. The RTX 5050 runs at a base clock of 2317 MHz with a boost of 2572 MHz, while the Tesla K80 operates at a base of 562 MHz and boosts to 824 MHz. Memory clocks differ as well: the RTX 5050 uses 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) GDDR6, whereas the Tesla K80 uses 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective) GDDR5.

The RTX 5050 has 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. It also includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Tesla K80, which has no ray tracing or tensor core hardware. The Tesla K80 counters with 2496 shading units, 208 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, a configuration that gives it higher texture and pixel processing capacity relative to its shading count.

Pixel and texture rates reflect these differences. The RTX 5050 achieves 82.30 GPixel/s and 205.8 GTexel/s, while the Tesla K80 manages 42.85 GPixel/s and 171.4 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance is stark: the RTX 5050 delivers 13.17 TFLOPS in both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio), while the Tesla K80 provides 4.113 TFLOPS in FP32 and no FP16 support.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 delivers 13.17 TFLOPS in FP32, while the NVIDIA Tesla K80 provides 4.113 TFLOPS. This is a roughly 3.2x difference in raw single-precision throughput.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Tesla K80 has 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus with 240.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 5050 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. Although the Tesla K80 has more memory, the RTX 5050 has higher memory bandwidth.

Q: Does the Tesla K80 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla K80 has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 5050 includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores.

Q: What API levels do the two cards support?

A: The RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla K80 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX 5050 has a TDP of 130 W with a suggested PSU of 300 W. The Tesla K80 has a TDP of 300 W with a suggested PSU of 700 W.

Q: Which card is still in production?

A: The RTX 5050 is marked as Active production status, while the Tesla K80 is End-of-life.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 | NVIDIA Tesla K80 |

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

| Architecture | Blackwell 2.0 | Kepler 2.0 |

| Process node | 5 nm | 28 nm |

| Transistors | 16,900 million | 7,100 million |

| Die size | 149 mm² | 561 mm² |

| Transistor density | 113.4M / mm² | 12.7M / mm² |

| Base clock | 2317 MHz | 562 MHz |

| Boost clock | 2572 MHz | 824 MHz |

| Memory size | 8 GB | 12 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory bus width | 128 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | 240.6 GB/s |

| Memory clock | 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) | 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective) |

| Shading units | 2560 | 2496 |

| TMUs | 80 | 208 |

| ROPs | 32 | 48 |

| Ray tracing cores | 20 | null |

| Tensor cores | 80 | null |

| Pixel rate | 82.30 GPixel/s | 42.85 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 205.8 GTexel/s | 171.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 13.17 TFLOPS | 4.113 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 13.17 TFLOPS (1:1) | null |

| TDP | 130 W | 300 W |

| Suggested PSU | 300 W | 700 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 5.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1b, 3x DisplayPort 2.1b | No outputs |

| DirectX | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (11_1) |

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.2.175 |

| Production status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release date | 2025-06-30 | 2014-11-16 |

| Predecessor | GeForce 40 | Tesla Fermi |

| Successor | GeForce 60 | Tesla Maxwell |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | Dual-slot |

| Power connector | 1x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin |

The Verdict

The data overwhelmingly favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 for any workload captured in the benchmark suite. Its OpenCL score is 385.1% higher and its Vulkan score is 367.7% higher than the Tesla K80. The RTX 5050 also brings modern features: ray tracing cores, tensor cores, higher clocks, greater memory bandwidth, and a far smaller and more efficient 5 nm design with a 130 W TDP versus 300 W. It supports newer API versions and has display outputs, making it usable for interactive graphics.

The Tesla K80 retains a niche advantage in memory capacity, offering 12 GB versus 8 GB, and a wider 384-bit memory bus. Its 48 ROPs and 208 TMUs give it higher rasterization throughput per clock, but its low clocks and aging architecture cap its overall performance. For tasks that require large memory footprints and do not need modern graphics features or high compute throughput, the Tesla K80 could still serve, but the benchmark data shows it trailing by a wide margin.

Buyers looking for general graphics, gaming, or modern compute workloads should choose the RTX 5050 without hesitation. The Tesla K80 is a legacy compute card with no display support and an end-of-life status. Its only advantage from the recorded data is memory size, which may matter for specific server-side inference or data processing tasks that fit within 12 GB. Otherwise, the RTX 5050 is the superior choice across every measured metric.