NVIDIA RTX A5000 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits these two NVIDIA workstation cards into entirely different performance tiers. The NVIDIA RTX A5000 wins every recorded head-to-head test, with decisive margins in both compute and graphics workloads. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 does not win any of the shared benchmark comparisons, but it occupies a distinct niche: a low-profile, low-power accelerator with no display outputs, built for passive compute offload rather than interactive workstation use.

In the two direct comparisons available, the RTX A5000 dominates. In Geekbench OpenCL, the A5000 scores 157,905 against the Tesla P4’s 34,947, a delta of -77.9% from the P4’s perspective, meaning the A5000 is roughly 4.5 times faster in raw compute throughput. In Geekbench Vulkan, the A5000 posts 137,828 against the P4’s 40,309, a -70.8% delta, again a massive gap. These are not close contests; they are generational leaps.

The Tesla P4’s strength is not in peak performance but in operational efficiency. Its 75 W TDP, single-slot design, and lack of power connectors make it suitable for dense server installations where space and power budgets are tight. The RTX A5000, with a 230 W TDP, a dual-slot cooler, and a single 8-pin power connector, requires substantially more infrastructure. The recorded data shows the P4 also holds a higher percentile rank against all GPUs (81st) than the A5000 (78th), an artifact of the different benchmark suites each card is tested with, not an indication of real-world superiority.

For use-case selection, the RTX A5000 is the clear choice for any workload requiring maximum throughput: large data sets, high-resolution rendering, or complex simulation. The Tesla P4 is better suited to inference tasks, video transcoding, or virtualized environments where its modest power draw and compact footprint allow higher card density per server. The A5000’s 24 GB memory capacity versus the P4’s 8 GB further reinforces this split: the A5000 can hold far larger models and working sets in VRAM.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different eras and foundries. The Tesla P4 uses the GP104 chip on NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The RTX A5000 uses the GA102 chip on the Ampere architecture, built on Samsung’s 8 nm process. This alone explains most of the performance gap: Ampere is two generations ahead of Pascal in compute efficiency and feature support.

Transistor counts tell the story clearly. The P4 packs 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, yielding a density of 22.9 million transistors per square millimeter. The A5000 integrates 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, with a density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The A5000 has nearly four times the transistor budget and more than double the die area, which translates directly into more execution units.

The A5000’s feature set is fundamentally newer. It includes 64 RT cores for ray tracing and 256 tensor cores for AI acceleration, neither of which exists on the Pascal-based P4. The P4’s FP16 throughput is listed at 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64), meaning it processes half-precision math at a fraction of its FP32 rate. The A5000 achieves 27.77 TFLOPS in both FP16 and FP32, a 1:1 ratio, which is critical for modern AI inference and mixed-precision workloads. The P4 cannot accelerate tensor operations at all, making it obsolete for deep learning tasks that rely on such hardware.

Memory technology also differs. The P4 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 192.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The A5000 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, with 768.0 GB/s of bandwidth, exactly four times the bandwidth of the older card. Effective memory speed is 6 Gbps on the P4 versus 16 Gbps on the A5000. Clock speeds are higher on the A5000 as well: 1170 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost versus 886 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost on the P4.

The A5000 also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the P4 is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. The A5000 has four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, whereas the P4 has no display outputs at all, reinforcing the P4’s role as a compute-only accelerator. API support is newer on the A5000: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus DirectX 12 (12_1), with the same OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4 support on both.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in compute workloads?

A: The RTX A5000 is dramatically faster. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 157,905 versus the Tesla P4’s 34,947, a -77.9% delta. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 137,828 versus 40,309, a -70.8% delta.

Q: Do both cards support ray tracing and AI acceleration?

A: No. The RTX A5000 includes 64 RT cores and 256 tensor cores. The Tesla P4 has neither, and its FP16 throughput is limited to 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64), while the A5000 achieves 27.77 TFLOPS in both FP16 and FP32.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Tesla P4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 192.3 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5000 has 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 768.0 GB/s bandwidth, exactly four times the bandwidth.

Q: Which card is more suitable for a dense server deployment?

A: The Tesla P4, with a 75 W TDP, single-slot design, and no power connectors, can be installed in far greater density than the RTX A5000, which requires 230 W, a dual-slot cooler, and a single 8-pin connector.

Q: Can either card output video to displays?

A: Only the RTX A5000, which has four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The Tesla P4 has no display outputs and is strictly a compute accelerator.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile rank against all GPUs?

A: The Tesla P4 ranks in the 81st percentile, while the RTX A5000 ranks in the 78th percentile. This reflects different benchmark suites rather than relative performance, as the head-to-head results heavily favor the A5000.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and the NVIDIA RTX A5000:

• Chip: GP104 (Tesla P4) versus GA102 (RTX A5000)
• Architecture: Pascal versus Ampere
• Process node: 16 nm (TSMC) versus 8 nm (Samsung)
• Transistors: 7,200 million versus 28,300 million
• Die size: 314 mm² versus 628 mm²
• Transistor density: 22.9M / mm² versus 45.1M / mm²
• Base clock: 886 MHz versus 1170 MHz
• Boost clock: 1114 MHz versus 1695 MHz
• Memory clock: 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) versus 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective)
• Memory size: 8 GB versus 24 GB
• Memory type: GDDR5 versus GDDR6
• Memory bus width: 256 bit versus 384 bit
• Memory bandwidth: 192.3 GB/s versus 768.0 GB/s
• Shading units: 2560 versus 8192
• TMUs: 160 versus 256
• ROPs: 64 versus 96
• RT cores: None versus 64
• Tensor cores: None versus 256
• Pixel rate: 71.30 GPixel/s versus 162.7 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: 178.2 GTexel/s versus 433.9 GTexel/s
• FP32 performance: 5.704 TFLOPS versus 27.77 TFLOPS
• FP16 performance: 89.12 GFLOPS (1:64) versus 27.77 TFLOPS (1:1)
• TDP: 75 W versus 230 W
• Slot width: Single-slot versus Dual-slot
• Power connectors: None versus 1x 8-pin
• Suggested PSU: 250 W versus 550 W
• Bus interface: PCIe 3.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x16
• Display outputs: No outputs versus 4x DisplayPort 1.4a
• DirectX support: 12 (12_1) versus 12 Ultimate (12_2)
• Dimensions: 168 mm (6.6 inches) length versus 267 mm (10.5 inches) length, 112 mm (4.4 inches) height
• Release date: 2016-09-12 versus 2021-04-11
• Predecessor: Tesla Maxwell versus Quadro Turing
• Successor: Tesla Volta versus Workstation Ada

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Two direct benchmark comparisons exist between these cards, and both are decisive wins for the RTX A5000.

Geekbench OpenCL: The A5000 scores 157,905 versus the P4’s 34,947. The delta is -77.9%, meaning the A5000 outperforms the P4 by a factor of approximately 4.5. This is the largest margin in the entire data set and reflects the A5000’s massive advantage in raw compute resources: 8192 shading units versus 2560, 256 tensor cores versus none, and 27.77 TFLOPS FP32 versus 5.704 TFLOPS.

Geekbench Vulkan: The A5000 scores 137,828 versus the P4’s 40,309. The delta is -70.8%, a slightly smaller but still overwhelming gap. Vulkan performance benefits from the A5000’s newer architecture, higher clocks, and better memory bandwidth, but the fundamental compute advantage carries through regardless of API.

There are no other overlapping benchmark results in the database. The A5000’s additional benchmarks, including Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores, Passmark G2D and G3D, and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, have no corresponding P4 results for comparison. The P4’s only recorded benchmarks are the two Geekbench tests above. Within the shared tests, the A5000 wins 2 out of 2.

The nearest rival data provides additional context. The P4’s average benchmark score is 37,628, placing it within 0.1% of the GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507). The A5000’s average score is 33,622, which sits within 0.2% of the GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB (33,694) and 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (33,849). These averages are not directly comparable across the two cards because they aggregate different test suites, but they show that each card lands in a similar percentile band relative to its own benchmark set.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the RTX A5000 is the superior card in every measurable head-to-head test. It wins both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan by margins of -77.9% and -70.8% respectively, and it offers 24 GB of GDDR6 memory versus the Tesla P4’s 8 GB of GDDR5, with four times the bandwidth. For any compute-heavy workload, from AI inference to 3D rendering, the A5000 is the only rational choice.

The Tesla P4 is not without a purpose, but that purpose is narrow. Its 75 W TDP, single-slot footprint, and absence of power connectors make it an exceptional candidate for high-density server installations where the A5000’s 230 W draw and dual-slot cooler would be prohibitive. The P4’s lack of display outputs also makes it a pure compute accelerator, suitable for virtualization or offload tasks where video output is handled elsewhere.

Who should pick the RTX A5000? Anyone needing maximum throughput, large memory capacity, ray tracing capability, or tensor core acceleration. Its 64 RT cores and 256 tensor cores are essential for modern graphics workloads and AI applications, and its 1:1 FP16/FP32 ratio enables efficient mixed-precision computing. The A5000 is also newer by roughly five years, with a 2021 release date versus 2016 for the P4, and supports PCIe 4.0 for faster host communication.

Who should pick the Tesla P4? Environments where power density and physical space are the limiting factors. A server chassis filled with P4 cards can deliver aggregate compute at a fraction of the power cost of an equivalent A5000 array. The P4’s 81st percentile rank against all GPUs, driven by its specific benchmark set, shows it remains competitive in its class. But for any single-card workload where performance matters, the A5000 wins outright.

The verdict: the RTX A5000 is the performance leader and the default recommendation for professional compute. The Tesla P4 is a specialized tool for high-density, low-power deployments, and its benchmark results show it cannot compete on raw speed. Choose based on the constraint that matters most: power and density for the P4, performance and capability for the A5000.