NVIDIA L4 vs NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB Comparison

The NVIDIA L4 and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB represent two distinct eras of NVIDIA server hardware, and the benchmark data reflects a decisive generational shift. The L4, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, delivers a commanding lead over the older Pascal-based P100 in the only shared test, while consuming a fraction of the power and offering modern feature support. The recorded data shows the L4 is the superior performer by a wide margin, but the P100 retains specific advantages in memory bandwidth and legacy software compatibility that may matter in niche deployments.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA L4 wins the only direct benchmark comparison available in the database, the Geekbench OpenCL test, with a score of 140,838 against the P100's 79,605. This represents a 76.9% advantage for the L4, a massive gap that underscores the architectural leap between the two generations. The L4's average benchmark score of 131,072 places it in the 95th percentile of all GPUs, while the P100's average of 79,605 lands in the 92nd percentile. The L4 also has a recorded Vulkan score of 121,306, indicating strong API versatility, whereas the P100 has no Vulkan score listed, suggesting it was not tested or does not support the API at a competitive level.

The L4's wins extend beyond raw compute. Its FP32 performance is listed at 30.29 TFLOPS, more than three times the P100's 9.526 TFLOPS. The L4 also doubles the FP16 throughput at 30.29 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the P100 achieves 19.05 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, meaning the L4's FP16 performance is actually higher even when accounting for the P100's boosted ratio. The L4's texture rate of 489.6 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 163.2 GPixel/s both exceed the P100's respective 297.7 GTexel/s and 127.6 GPixel/s, indicating superiority in rasterization-heavy workloads.

The P100's single clear advantage lies in memory bandwidth. Its HBM2 memory offers 732.2 GB/s across a 4096-bit bus, compared to the L4's 300.1 GB/s across a 192-bit GDDR6 bus. This gives the P100 a 2.4x bandwidth advantage, which can be critical for memory-bound workloads such as large matrix operations or data streaming. The P100 also has a higher base clock at 1190 MHz versus the L4's 795 MHz, though the L4's boost clock of 2040 MHz far exceeds the P100's 1329 MHz, making the base clock advantage largely irrelevant in sustained workloads.

The Verdict

The data clearly favors the NVIDIA L4 for nearly all modern use cases. Its 76.9% lead in OpenCL performance, combined with its 72 W TDP against the P100's 250 W, makes it the obvious choice for energy-conscious deployments. The L4's 24 GB of GDDR6 memory also exceeds the P100's 16 GB of HBM2, providing more capacity for larger models and datasets. The L4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and includes 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, making it suitable for ray tracing and AI acceleration, features entirely absent from the P100.

The P100 should only be considered by users who specifically require its 732.2 GB/s memory bandwidth or who need to maintain compatibility with legacy Pascal-era software stacks. Its 16 GB capacity is smaller, its FP32 performance is roughly a third of the L4's, and its production status is listed as end-of-life, meaning no further updates or support are likely. The P100's launch MSRP was 5,699 USD, but the database does not provide a comparable figure for the L4, so pricing comparisons are not possible from the recorded data.

For new deployments, the L4 is the rational choice. Its 95th percentile standing among all GPUs, versus the P100's 92nd percentile, confirms its overall superiority. The L4's nearest rivals include the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, which scores only 0.7% below it, and the RTX 4000 Ada Generation, which scores 3.1% higher, placing the L4 in a competitive performance tier. The P100's nearest rivals include the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB, which scores 0.3% lower, and the GeForce RTX 5090, which scores 0.3% higher, showing that the P100 is clustered with much newer consumer cards despite its age.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the L4 scores 140,838 and the P100 scores 79,605. The L4 wins by a delta of 76.9%, a margin so large that it dwarfs any other performance difference between the two cards. This single result encapsulates the generational gap: the L4's Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process, delivers far higher compute density than the P100's 16 nm Pascal design.

In FP32 compute, the L4's 30.29 TFLOPS is 3.2 times the P100's 9.526 TFLOPS. This translates directly to faster single-precision math, which is the foundation of most scientific and AI workloads. The L4's FP16 performance of 30.29 TFLOPS, achieved at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, is 1.6 times the P100's 19.05 TFLOPS, even though the P100 uses a 2:1 ratio that doubles its FP16 throughput relative to its FP32. The L4's tensor cores, numbering 240, provide additional acceleration for matrix operations, a feature the P100 lacks entirely.

The L4 also leads in texture and pixel throughput. Its 489.6 GTexel/s texture rate is 64% higher than the P100's 297.7 GTexel/s, and its 163.2 GPixel/s pixel rate is 28% higher than the P100's 127.6 GPixel/s. These metrics matter for graphics and visualization workloads, though both cards lack display outputs, indicating their primary role is compute acceleration.

The P100's only meaningful win is memory bandwidth. At 732.2 GB/s, it more than doubles the L4's 300.1 GB/s. This stems from the P100's 4096-bit HBM2 interface versus the L4's 192-bit GDDR6 bus. For workloads that read and write large contiguous blocks of memory, such as certain HPC simulations or database operations, the P100's bandwidth could provide a tangible advantage despite its lower compute throughput. However, the L4's larger 24 GB capacity partially offsets this, allowing it to hold more data in memory without resorting to host transfers.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA L4, with 30.29 TFLOPS, is more than three times the Tesla P100's 9.526 TFLOPS.

Q: Does the Tesla P100 have ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The P100 has no RT cores and no tensor cores, while the L4 includes 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The Tesla P100, with 732.2 GB/s from HBM2, exceeds the L4's 300.1 GB/s from GDDR6.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The L4 has a 72 W TDP, while the P100 has a 250 W TDP, making the L4 significantly more power-efficient.

Q: Which card supports newer APIs?

A: The L4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the P100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The L4 has 24 GB of GDDR6, while the P100 has 16 GB of HBM2.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures. The NVIDIA L4 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm². The L4's generation is listed as Server Ada (Lxx), and it is an active production product released on 2023-03-20.

The Tesla P100 uses the older Pascal architecture with the GP100 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It contains 15,300 million transistors on a 610 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.1 million per mm². The P100's generation is Tesla Pascal (Pxx), and it is end-of-life, having been released on 2016-06-19.

The L4's process advantage is stark: 5 nm versus 16 nm allows for more than four times the transistor density. This explains why the L4 packs 7,424 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs into a much smaller die, while the P100 manages only 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs on a larger die. The L4's 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are absent from the P100, which lacks hardware support for ray tracing and tensor operations.

The memory subsystems also differ fundamentally. The L4 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 across a 192-bit bus, while the P100 uses 16 GB of HBM2 across a 4096-bit bus. The P100's wider bus provides its bandwidth advantage, but the L4's newer memory technology offers higher effective clock speeds (12.5 Gbps versus 1430 Mbps), resulting in adequate bandwidth for its compute capabilities.

Specification Differences

The specifications where the two GPUs differ are numerous and significant. The L4 has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the P100 has 16 GB of HBM2. The L4's memory bus is 192-bit, versus the P100's 4096-bit. Bandwidth is 300.1 GB/s for the L4 and 732.2 GB/s for the P100.

The L4 features 7,424 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, compared to the P100's 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The L4 includes 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores; the P100 has neither. FP32 performance is 30.29 TFLOPS for the L4 versus 9.526 TFLOPS for the P100. FP16 performance is 30.29 TFLOPS (1:1) for the L4 versus 19.05 TFLOPS (2:1) for the P100.

The L4's base clock is 795 MHz with a boost of 2040 MHz, while the P100's base is 1190 MHz with a boost of 1329 MHz. The L4 has a 72 W TDP and is single-slot with no power connectors, while the P100 has a 250 W TDP, is dual-slot, and requires one 8-pin connector. The L4 is 169 mm long, while the P100 is 267 mm long. The L4 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the P100 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Both cards have no display outputs.

API support differs: the L4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the P100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The L4's memory clock is 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective), while the P100's is 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective). The L4's texture rate is 489.6 GTexel/s and pixel rate is 163.2 GPixel/s, versus the P100's 297.7 GTexel/s and 127.6 GPixel/s.