NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 vs NVIDIA Tesla M4 Comparison

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 and NVIDIA Tesla M4 represent two very different generations of NVIDIA's professional GPU lineup. The Quadro RTX 4000 is a Turing-architecture workstation card designed for high-end visualization and compute, while the Tesla M4 is a low-power Maxwell-architecture accelerator built for datacenter inference. Benchmark data shows the RTX 4000 is the clear performance leader, though the M4's specific design goals make it a distinct product for a different use case.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only shared benchmark between these two cards is Geekbench OpenCL, and the results are decisively in favor of the Quadro RTX 4000. In that test, the RTX 4000 scores 74,540 while the Tesla M4 scores 16,932. That is a delta of 340.2%, meaning the RTX 4000 is roughly four and a half times faster in raw compute throughput. This is not a marginal victory; it is a generational gap that reflects the fundamental differences in their architectures, core counts, and memory subsystems.

Looking at the broader benchmark picture, the Quadro RTX 4000's average benchmark score across all tests is 17,789, which places it at the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in that aggregate ranking include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (avg score 17,666, delta 0.7%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (avg score 17,639, delta 0.9%), and the AMD Radeon 780M (avg score 17,588, delta 1.1%). These are all within a couple of percent of the RTX 4000, showing that while it is not a top-tier performer by modern standards, it holds its own against a wide range of contemporary and older hardware.

The Tesla M4, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 16,932 from its single Geekbench OpenCL result, putting it at the 60th percentile. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (avg score 17,019, delta -0.5%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (avg score 17,037, delta -0.6%), and the NVIDIA T400 4 GB (avg score 16,792, delta 0.8%). The M4 is essentially neck-and-neck with these cards, with deltas under 1%. This tells a different story: the M4 is not a compute monster; it is a low-power part that trades raw performance for efficiency.

In terms of specific benchmark categories, the RTX 4000's Passmark scores show a wide spread of capabilities. It scores 15,117 in Passmark G3D, which is a strong general 3D performance indicator, and 6,176 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its DirectX performance varies significantly: 205 in DirectX 9, 128 in DirectX 11, 108 in DirectX 10, and only 52 in DirectX 12. The low DirectX 12 score is notable, suggesting driver or architectural limitations in that API, despite the card supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The M4 has no equivalent Passmark data, so direct comparisons in those tests are impossible.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 is the superior performer in every measurable way. With 340.2% higher Geekbench OpenCL score, it is the only choice for anyone needing raw compute power, CUDA acceleration, or modern graphics features. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 416.0 GB/s bandwidth dwarfs the M4's 4 GB GDDR5 with 88.00 GB/s, making it far more capable for large datasets, high-resolution textures, and complex scenes.

However, the Tesla M4 has its own niche. Its 50 W TDP is exceptionally low compared to the RTX 4000's 160 W, and it requires no external power connectors. The suggested PSU of 250 W versus 450 W further underscores its efficiency. For datacenter deployments where power density is a primary concern and workloads are lightweight inference tasks rather than heavy rendering, the M4's low power draw could be a decisive advantage. It is also a smaller die at 228 mm² versus 545 mm², which could be relevant in certain physical configurations.

For workstation users, the RTX 4000 is the obvious pick. It has display outputs (3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C) while the M4 has none, meaning the M4 cannot drive a monitor. The RTX 4000 also supports modern APIs including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, while the M4 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The RTX 4000's launch MSRP is 899 USD, which reflects its positioning as a professional workstation card. The M4 has no listed launch MSRP, indicating it was sold primarily through OEM channels.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The Quadro RTX 4000 uses the Turing architecture on the TU104 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It packs 13,600 million transistors into a 545 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 25.0 million per mm². The M4, in contrast, uses the Maxwell 2.0 architecture on the GM206 chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. It has just 2,940 million transistors on a 228 mm² die, with a density of 12.9 million per mm².

These architectural differences manifest in core counts. The RTX 4000 has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. It also includes 36 ray tracing cores and 288 tensor cores, which are entirely absent from the M4. The M4 has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, and no RT or tensor cores. This means the RTX 4000 can accelerate ray-traced workloads and AI inferencing via tensor cores, while the M4 is purely a traditional rasterization and compute part.

The memory architectures also diverge significantly. The RTX 4000 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 416.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The M4 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, providing only 88.00 GB/s. The clock speeds tell a similar story: the RTX 4000 boosts to 1545 MHz versus the M4's 1072 MHz, and the memory runs at 13 Gbps effective versus 5.5 Gbps effective.

Compute throughput is where the gap is most stark. The RTX 4000 delivers 7.119 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 14.24 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio), while the M4 manages only 2.195 TFLOPS of FP32 and has no FP16 capability listed. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: 98.88 GPixel/s and 222.5 GTexel/s for the RTX 4000 versus 34.30 GPixel/s and 68.61 GTexel/s for the M4.

Specification Differences

The most obvious specification difference is memory: 8 GB GDDR6 versus 4 GB GDDR5. The bus width halves from 256-bit to 128-bit, and bandwidth drops from 416.0 GB/s to 88.00 GB/s. The RTX 4000's boost clock of 1545 MHz exceeds the M4's 1072 MHz, and its base clock is also higher at 1005 MHz versus 872 MHz.

Power consumption is a major differentiator. The RTX 4000 has a 160 W TDP and requires a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. The M4 draws only 50 W, needs no external power connector, and can run on a 250 W PSU. This makes the M4 far more suitable for dense server environments where power and cooling are constrained.

Display outputs are another clear split. The RTX 4000 offers 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C, making it a fully functional workstation card. The M4 has no display outputs at all, confirming its role as a headless compute accelerator. The RTX 4000 is also physically larger at 241 mm in length and 111 mm in height, while the M4's dimensions are not listed.

The API support differs slightly: the RTX 4000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the M4 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4000 was released on 2018-11-12, while the M4 came earlier on 2015-11-09, reflecting their generational difference.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 scores 74,540 compared to the Tesla M4's 16,932, a 340.2% advantage.

Q: Does the Tesla M4 support ray tracing?

A: No. The M4 has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, while the RTX 4000 includes 36 RT cores and 288 tensor cores.

Q: Can the Tesla M4 output video to a display?

A: No. The M4 has no display outputs, whereas the RTX 4000 offers 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x USB Type-C.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX 4000 has a 160 W TDP and needs a 450 W PSU, while the M4 consumes just 50 W and runs on a 250 W PSU.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each card have?

A: The RTX 4000 provides 416.0 GB/s from 8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the M4 offers 88.00 GB/s from 4 GB GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus.

Q: Which card has better DirectX support?

A: The RTX 4000 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the M4 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.