NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation vs NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB Comparison

The Verdict

The data presents a generational mismatch. The NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation is the clear overall winner, posting a Geekbench OpenCL score of 160,786 against the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB's 79,396. That is a 102.5% advantage for the Ada card in the recorded head-to-head benchmark. The RTX 4500 sits in the 97th percentile of all GPUs, while the Tesla P100 places in the 92nd percentile; both are high performers, but the Ada card is measurably faster in this test.

The Tesla P100 is an end-of-life product from the Pascal generation, while the RTX 4500 is an active product from the Ada Lovelace generation. For anyone building a system today, the RTX 4500 is the obvious choice based on raw compute performance. The Tesla P100, however, retains a niche for legacy deployments or specific HPC workloads where its 549.1 GB/s memory bandwidth and 12 GB of HBM2 might still be relevant, though its 12 GB capacity is half that of the RTX 4500's 24 GB. The verdict is simple: the RTX 4500 wins decisively on performance; the Tesla P100 only makes sense if the workload requires its specific memory subsystem and the hardware is already in hand.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4500 Ada Generation wins the only recorded head-to-head test, which is Geekbench OpenCL. Its 160,786 score represents a 102.5% delta over the Tesla's 79,396. This is not a marginal win; it is a doubling of performance. The RTX 4500 also has a higher average benchmark score of 166,094 compared to the Tesla's 79,396, and it has a second recorded score in Vulkan (171,401) that the Tesla does not have at all.

The Tesla P100's only "win" is in memory bandwidth. It offers 549.1 GB/s over a 3072-bit bus, which is higher than the RTX 4500's 432.0 GB/s over a 192-bit bus. This could matter for memory-bound tasks that are not captured by the OpenCL score. Additionally, the Tesla has a higher pixel rate? No, the data shows the RTX 4500 has a higher pixel rate at 206.4 GPixel/s versus 127.6 GPixel/s. The Tesla does have more ROPs (96 vs 80), but the Ada card's higher clocks compensate. In terms of compute, the RTX 4500's FP32 throughput of 39.63 TFLOPS is more than four times the Tesla's 9.526 TFLOPS. The Tesla's FP16 performance of 19.05 TFLOPS is higher than its FP32 due to a 2:1 ratio, but the RTX 4500 matches its FP32 at 39.63 TFLOPS, which still doubles it.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is fundamental. The RTX 4500 uses the AD103 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, integrating 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. The Tesla P100 uses the GP100 chip on TSMC's 16 nm process, with 15,300 million transistors on a larger 610 mm² die. This means the Ada chip has a transistor density of 121.1M per mm² versus the Pascal chip's 25.1M per mm².

The RTX 4500 is built on Ada Lovelace, which includes 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. The Tesla P100 has no RT cores and no tensor cores; it is a pure compute card from the Pascal era. The RTX 4500 also has a massive shader count advantage: 7680 shading units versus 3584. Its texture units number 240 versus 224, and its ROPs are 80 versus 96.

Memory technology differs as well. The RTX 4500 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 at 18 Gbps effective, while the Tesla uses 12 GB of HBM2 at 1430 Mbps effective. The Tesla's HBM2 offers a wider 3072-bit bus and higher bandwidth, but the Ada card's 24 GB capacity is double. The interface also advances: the RTX 4500 uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

Power and cooling also diverge. The RTX 4500 has a 210 W TDP and requires no power connectors, relying on the PCIe slot. The Tesla has a 250 W TDP and requires a single 8-pin connector. The RTX 4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6, but Vulkan support is 1.4 on the Ada card versus 1.3 on the Tesla. The RTX 4500 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs; the Tesla has no display outputs at all.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is significantly faster, scoring 160,786 versus the Tesla P100's 79,396 in Geekbench OpenCL, a 102.5% improvement.

Q: Does the Tesla P100 have any advantage in memory bandwidth?

A: Yes. The Tesla P100 offers 549.1 GB/s of bandwidth over a 3072-bit HBM2 bus, which is higher than the RTX 4500's 432.0 GB/s over a 192-bit GDDR6 bus.

Q: Can the Tesla P100 output video to a display?

A: No. The Tesla P100 has no display outputs, while the RTX 4500 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: What is the difference in FP32 compute power?

A: The RTX 4500 delivers 39.63 TFLOPS of FP32, while the Tesla P100 delivers 9.526 TFLOPS. The Ada card is roughly four times faster in FP32.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: The RTX 4500 has 60 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate. The Tesla P100 has no RT cores and supports only DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The RTX 4500 is listed as Active, while the Tesla P100 is End-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only recorded head-to-head test is Geekbench OpenCL. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation scores 160,786, and the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79,396. The delta is 102.5%, meaning the Ada card is more than twice as fast in this workload. This is a decisive victory, and it aligns with the theoretical specifications.

The RTX 4500's FP32 throughput of 39.63 TFLOPS versus the Tesla's 9.526 TFLOPS explains the OpenCL result. The Ada card also has a much higher texture rate (619.2 GTexel/s vs 297.7 GTexel/s) and pixel rate (206.4 GPixel/s vs 127.6 GPixel/s). The Tesla's higher memory bandwidth does not compensate in this particular test.

In the broader database, the RTX 4500's average benchmark score is 166,094, which places it ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5500 (165,217, 0.5% faster) and the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 (164,894, 0.7% faster), but behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X (168,574, 1.5% slower). The Tesla P100's average score of 79,396 places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 0.3% behind) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, 0.6% ahead), but behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80,959, 1.9% slower).

The RTX 4500 also has a Vulkan score of 171,401, which is not available for the Tesla P100. The data shows the RTX 4500 is not just a generational upgrade, it is a categorical leap in compute performance, with the Tesla P100's only saving grace being its specialized HBM2 memory configuration that provides higher bandwidth for certain memory-heavy tasks.