NVIDIA RTX A4500 vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive performance advantage for the NVIDIA RTX A4500 across every shared benchmark. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX A4500 scores 141,837, while the Tesla P40 manages 62,017. That is a delta of 128.7%, meaning the RTX A4500 more than doubles the Tesla P40 in raw compute throughput. This is not a marginal improvement; it is a generational leap that places the two cards in entirely different performance tiers.

The Geekbench Vulkan results tell a similar story, though the gap narrows slightly. The RTX A4500 posts 129,980 against 68,172 for the Tesla P40, a 90.7% advantage. Even in Vulkan, where the Tesla P40 is comparatively stronger relative to its own OpenCL showing, it still trails by nearly a factor of two. The RTX A4500 wins both head-to-head contests, giving it a clean 2-0 record in the shared benchmark suite.

Looking at the broader database averages, the RTX A4500 holds an average benchmark score of 91,671 across all recorded tests, while the Tesla P40 averages 65,095. That is a 40.8% gap in aggregate performance, consistent with the individual benchmark deltas. The RTX A4500 also sits at the 93rd percentile among all GPUs, whereas the Tesla P40 lands at the 89th percentile. Both are high-ranking cards, but the RTX A4500 is clearly closer to the top of the overall distribution.

The RTX A4500's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile (average score 91,134, a 0.6% deficit), the AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 (92,466, a 0.9% advantage over the RTX A4500), the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 (87,445, a 4.8% deficit), and the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 (87,108, a 5.2% deficit). This places the desktop RTX A4500 in a tightly contested band where the MI60 edges it out by less than a percentage point. The Tesla P40, by contrast, sits among rivals like the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 (64,212, a 1.4% deficit), the AMD Radeon VII (66,004, a 1.4% advantage), the NVIDIA CMP 30HX (63,842, a 2% deficit), and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP (63,830, a 2% deficit). The Tesla P40 is competitive within its own generation, but that generation is simply not in the same class as the RTX A4500.

The FP32 compute figures reinforce this hierarchy. The RTX A4500 delivers 23.65 TFLOPS, exactly double the Tesla P40's 11.76 TFLOPS. The FP16 comparison is even more lopsided: the RTX A4500 achieves 23.65 TFLOPS with a 1:1 FP32/FP16 ratio, while the Tesla P40 manages only 183.7 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio. That is a difference of more than two orders of magnitude, though it matters only for workloads that actually use FP16, since the Tesla P40 was never designed for such compute.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX A4500 is the superior card in every measured category. It wins both shared benchmarks, has a higher average score, a higher percentile rank, and delivers roughly double the FP32 throughput. The Tesla P40's only advantages are memory capacity (24 GB versus 20 GB) and a lower launch MSRP of 5,699 USD, though that price reflects a 2016 product now long past its relevance. The RTX A4500 was released in 2021 and is also end-of-life, but its architecture and feature set place it far ahead.

For any workload that relies on raw compute, the RTX A4500 is the only rational choice from a performance standpoint. The Tesla P40 does not win a single benchmark in the shared suite. Its 24 GB frame buffer is its sole statistical advantage, and even that is offset by slower GDDR5 memory with significantly lower bandwidth. The Tesla P40's 347.1 GB/s bandwidth cannot compete with the RTX A4500's 640.0 GB/s, so the larger capacity does not translate into better memory-bound performance.

The Tesla P40 also lacks display outputs entirely, making it unsuitable for any interactive or graphics-oriented task. The RTX A4500 provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, enabling direct display connectivity. For a workstation card, this is a fundamental difference that goes beyond raw benchmark scores.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A4500 wins in every compute-focused category. It has higher FP32 and FP16 throughput, higher pixel rate (158.4 GPixel/s versus 147.0 GPixel/s), higher texture rate (369.6 GTexel/s versus 367.4 GTexel/s), and more shading units (7,168 versus 3,840). Its memory subsystem is faster in every respect: GDDR6 versus GDDR5, 640.0 GB/s versus 347.1 GB/s, and a 320-bit bus versus a 384-bit bus. The RTX A4500 also supports PCIe 4.0 versus the Tesla P40's PCIe 3.0, doubling the available bus bandwidth.

The RTX A4500 additionally includes 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Tesla P40. That means hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor operations are simply unavailable on the Pascal card. The Tesla P40 also lacks modern API support: it tops out at DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX A4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, so those APIs are not differentiating factors.

The Tesla P40's only wins are memory capacity (24 GB versus 20 GB) and a lower launch MSRP of 5,699 USD. Its base clock is higher (1303 MHz versus 1050 MHz), and its boost clock is closer (1531 MHz versus 1650 MHz), but the RTX A4500's much larger shader count and modern architecture overwhelm those clock advantages. The Tesla P40 also has more TMUs (240 versus 224), but the RTX A4500's higher texture rate shows that TMU count alone does not determine performance.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL workloads?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A4500 scores 141,837 in Geekbench OpenCL, a 128.7% advantage over the Tesla P40's 62,017.

Q: Does the Tesla P40 support ray tracing?

A: No. The Tesla P40 has no RT cores, while the RTX A4500 includes 56 RT cores.

Q: Which card has more memory?

A: The Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5, while the RTX A4500 has 20 GB of GDDR6.

Q: Can the Tesla P40 be used for display output?

A: No. The Tesla P40 has no display outputs, whereas the RTX A4500 provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Q: What is the FP16 compute difference?

A: The RTX A4500 delivers 23.65 TFLOPS FP16, while the Tesla P40 delivers 183.7 GFLOPS, a difference of roughly 128 times.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX A4500 averages 91,671 across all recorded tests, while the Tesla P40 averages 65,095, a 40.8% gap.

Architecture Differences

The RTX A4500 uses the GA102 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. The Tesla P40 uses the GP102 chip on Pascal architecture, fabricated on TSMC's 16 nm process. The node difference is significant: 8 nm versus 16 nm allows the RTX A4500 to pack 28,300 million transistors into a 628 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The Tesla P40 contains 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, for a density of 25.1 million per square millimeter. The RTX A4500 has more than twice the transistor count on a die that is only about a third larger.

The RTX A4500 features 7,168 shading units, 224 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 56 RT cores, and 224 tensor cores. The Tesla P40 has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, with no RT or tensor cores. The shading unit advantage is nearly 2:1, which explains the large FP32 delta. The RT core and tensor core presence is a fundamental architectural difference: the RTX A4500 can accelerate ray tracing and tensor operations in hardware, while the Tesla P40 cannot.

Memory architecture also differs substantially. The RTX A4500 uses 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, with 640.0 GB/s of bandwidth and an effective memory speed of 16 Gbps. The Tesla P40 uses 24 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with 347.1 GB/s of bandwidth and an effective speed of 7.2 Gbps. The wider bus on the Tesla P40 does not compensate for the slower memory type. The RTX A4500 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the Tesla P40 is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16.

Specification Differences

The RTX A4500 has a base clock of 1050 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz, while the Tesla P40 has a base clock of 1303 MHz and a boost clock of 1531 MHz. The Tesla P40 starts higher but boosts lower; the RTX A4500 has a wider clock range and a higher peak.

The RTX A4500 draws 200 W and uses a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 550 W. The Tesla P40 draws 250 W and uses an 8-pin EPS connector, with a suggested PSU of 600 W. Both are dual-slot cards of identical length (267 mm) and near-identical height (112 mm versus 111 mm).

The RTX A4500 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the Tesla P40 supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX A4500 has four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs; the Tesla P40 has none. The Tesla P40 was released in 2016 with a launch MSRP of 5,699 USD, while the RTX A4500 launched in 2021 with no recorded MSRP. Both are end-of-life products.