GPU Comparison

NVIDIA Tesla M40 vs AMD Radeon Pro 575, this is a clash of two very different compute philosophies. The data shows a clear winner in raw benchmark performance, but the story is more nuanced when you consider what each card was designed to do. The Tesla M40 is a datacenter muscle card, while the Radeon Pro 575 is a mobile workstation part. Let’s break down what the numbers actually say.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head benchmark data contains two direct comparisons: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both, the NVIDIA Tesla M40 wins decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla M40 scores 39,192 against the Radeon Pro 575’s 34,596. That’s a 13.3% delta in favor of NVIDIA. The Vulkan test shows a larger gap: the Tesla M40 hits 44,602 while the AMD card manages 37,878, a 17.8% advantage for the NVIDIA part.

These are not small margins. A 13.3% lead in OpenCL and a 17.8% lead in Vulkan represent meaningful performance headroom for the Tesla M40. The only benchmark where the Radeon Pro 575 has a score is Geekbench Metal, where it posts 46,192, but there is no comparable Metal score for the Tesla M40, so that’s a platform-specific win that doesn’t factor into the head-to-head tally. The official head-to-head record is 2 wins for the Tesla M40 and 0 for the Radeon Pro 575.

The average benchmark score tells a similar story. The Tesla M40 averages 41,897 across its available tests, while the Radeon Pro 575 averages 39,555. That’s a difference of roughly 2,342 points, or about 5.9% in favor of the Tesla M40. Interestingly, the Tesla M40’s nearest rival is the Tesla M40 24 GB (which scores 41,707, a 0.5% delta), meaning the 12 GB version is essentially on par with its bigger sibling. The Radeon Pro 575’s nearest rival is the RTX A500 Mobile (39,568, 0% delta), so it’s right in line with a modern low-power mobile workstation GPU.

Where Each One Wins

The Tesla M40 wins in compute-heavy workloads that leverage OpenCL and Vulkan, think GPU-accelerated rendering, scientific simulation, or machine learning inference. Its 6.832 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is roughly 52% higher than the Radeon Pro 575’s 4.489 TFLOPS. That raw compute advantage shows up directly in the benchmark deltas. The Vulkan result is particularly telling: a 17.8% lead suggests the Maxwell architecture handles modern graphics APIs more efficiently in this configuration, possibly due to its higher pixel rate (106.8 GPixel/s vs 35.07 GPixel/s) and texture rate (213.5 GTexel/s vs 140.3 GTexel/s).

The Radeon Pro 575 wins in scenarios where the Tesla M40 simply cannot compete: any task requiring display output. The Tesla M40 has no display outputs whatsoever, it’s a compute-only card. The Radeon Pro 575, being a mobile part, has "Portable Device Dependent" outputs, meaning it can drive a laptop or all-in-one display. If you need a GPU for actual visual work on a workstation, the Radeon Pro 575 is the only option here. It also wins in power efficiency per compute unit: its 150 W TDP is 40% lower than the Tesla M40’s 250 W, and it achieves 4.489 TFLOPS in that envelope. The Tesla M40 needs 250 W to hit 6.832 TFLOPS.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is substantial. The Tesla M40 is built on NVIDIA’s Maxwell 2.0 architecture, using the GM200 chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 28 nm process. It packs 8,000 million transistors into a 601 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 13.3 million per mm². The Radeon Pro 575 uses AMD’s GCN 4.0 architecture, built on the Ellesmere chip, fabricated by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm process. It has 5,700 million transistors on a much smaller 232 mm² die, achieving a higher density of 24.6 million per mm².

The node difference matters. The 14 nm process allows AMD to pack more transistors per area, but the 28 nm process on the Tesla M40 allows for a much larger, more powerful chip overall. The Tesla M40 has 3,072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The Radeon Pro 575 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and just 32 ROPs. That 3x difference in ROPs is a major reason the Tesla M40’s pixel rate is triple that of the AMD card.

Memory architecture also diverges sharply. The Tesla M40 uses a 384-bit memory bus with 12 GB of GDDR5, delivering 288.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon Pro 575 uses a 256-bit bus with only 4 GB of GDDR5, yielding 217.0 GB/s. The Tesla M40’s memory clock is 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective), while the AMD card runs its memory at 1695 MHz (6.8 Gbps effective). Despite the higher clock, the narrower bus limits the AMD card’s total bandwidth.

Compute features differ too. The Radeon Pro 575 supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (4.489 TFLOPS each), which is useful for certain workloads. The Tesla M40 has no listed FP16 support. Both support DirectX 12, but the Tesla M40 has a higher feature level (12_1 vs 12_0). Vulkan support is also slightly different: 1.4 on the Tesla M40, 1.3 on the Radeon Pro 575.

Specification Differences

Here are the key specification differences between the two cards, based strictly on the data:

• Process node: 28 nm (TSMC) vs 14 nm (GlobalFoundries)
• Transistors: 8,000 million vs 5,700 million
• Die size: 601 mm² vs 232 mm²
• Transistor density: 13.3M/mm² vs 24.6M/mm²
• Base clock: 948 MHz vs not specified
• Boost clock: 1112 MHz vs not specified
• Memory size: 12 GB vs 4 GB
• Memory bus width: 384 bit vs 256 bit
• Memory bandwidth: 288.4 GB/s vs 217.0 GB/s
• Shading units: 3072 vs 2048
• TMUs: 192 vs 128
• ROPs: 96 vs 32
• Pixel rate: 106.8 GPixel/s vs 35.07 GPixel/s
• Texture rate: 213.5 GTexel/s vs 140.3 GTexel/s
• FP32 performance: 6.832 TFLOPS vs 4.489 TFLOPS
• FP16 performance: not listed vs 4.489 TFLOPS (1:1)
• TDP: 250 W vs 150 W
• Slot width: Dual-slot vs MXM Module
• Power connectors: 8-pin EPS vs None
• Suggested PSU: 600 W vs not specified
• Display outputs: No outputs vs Portable Device Dependent
• Vulkan version: 1.4 vs 1.3
• DirectX feature level: 12_1 vs 12_0

The Radeon Pro 575 also has a slightly faster memory clock (1695 MHz vs 1502 MHz) and effective data rate (6.8 Gbps vs 6 Gbps), but that doesn’t compensate for the smaller bus.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla M40 scores 39,192 versus the AMD Radeon Pro 575’s 34,596, giving NVIDIA a 13.3% lead.

Q: Is the Radeon Pro 575 better at any benchmark?

A: The Radeon Pro 575 has a Geekbench Metal score of 46,192, but there is no Metal score for the Tesla M40, so no direct comparison exists. In the two head-to-head tests, the Radeon Pro 575 wins zero.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The Tesla M40 has 12 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the Radeon Pro 575 has 4 GB on a 256-bit bus. Bandwidth is 288.4 GB/s versus 217.0 GB/s.

Q: Can I use the Tesla M40 for a display?

A: No. The Tesla M40 has no display outputs, making it compute-only. The Radeon Pro 575 has outputs that are dependent on the portable device it’s installed in.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient?

A: The Radeon Pro 575 has a 150 W TDP versus the Tesla M40’s 250 W, and it delivers 4.489 TFLOPS in that envelope. The Tesla M40 delivers 6.832 TFLOPS at 250 W.

Q: How does the Tesla M40 compare to its own sibling, the 24 GB version?

A: The Tesla M40 24 GB scores 41,707 on average, just 0.5% ahead of the 12 GB model’s 41,897 average. They are essentially equivalent in performance.

The Verdict

The data makes the compute winner obvious: the NVIDIA Tesla M40 outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 575 by 13.3% in OpenCL and 17.8% in Vulkan. It has more than double the ROPs, triple the pixel rate, 50% more shading units, and 71% more FP32 throughput. If your workload is pure GPU compute, rendering, simulation, or number crunching, the Tesla M40 is the clear choice on raw performance.

However, the Radeon Pro 575 exists in a different context. It’s a mobile MXM module with a 150 W TDP, meaning it fits in laptops or all-in-one workstations. It has display outputs (device-dependent), which the Tesla M40 lacks entirely. It also supports FP16 at 1:1, which the Tesla M40 does not. For a portable workstation that needs to drive a screen and handle moderate compute, the Radeon Pro 575 is the only sensible option here.

The verdict splits cleanly: pick the Tesla M40 for headless compute density and raw performance. Pick the Radeon Pro 575 for mobile workstations where power draw, physical size, and display connectivity matter more than peak throughput. The benchmark data does not support the Radeon Pro 575 in a straight performance contest, but the specification differences, particularly the 100 W TDP gap and the presence of display outputs, make it the right tool for a completely different job.