AMD FirePro S9300 X2 vs NVIDIA Tesla P4 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a clear overall winner in this pairing, with the NVIDIA Tesla P4 taking both benchmark tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla P4 scores 34,947 against the FirePro S9300 X2's 27,971, a decisive 24.9% advantage. That is a substantial margin for a compute-oriented workload, and it places the Tesla P4 well ahead of what the AMD part can deliver in the same API. The Vulkan test is closer, but the result is still one-sided: the Tesla P4 posts 40,309 versus 37,109 for the FirePro, an 8.6% lead. Neither test goes the way of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, which means the wins column reads 2 for NVIDIA and 0 for AMD.

Looking at the average benchmark score, the Tesla P4 sits at 37,628, while the FirePro S9300 X2 averages 32,540. That is a difference of roughly 5,088 points, or about 15.6% in favor of the NVIDIA card when considering overall performance across the recorded tests. The percentile data reinforces this gap: the Tesla P4 lands in the 81st percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the FirePro S9300 X2 sits at the 77th percentile. Both are respectable positions, but the Tesla P4 is clearly the higher-ranked part.

The nearest rival data for each card provides additional context. The Tesla P4's average score of 37,628 places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648), essentially a statistical tie. It also edges out the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507) by 0.3% and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (37,157) by 1.3%. The only nearby GPU that beats it in the rival set is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, which scores 38,135, a 1.3% advantage. For the FirePro S9300 X2, the 32,540 average is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (32,601), just 0.2% behind. It is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (32,456) and 0.5% ahead of the AMD FirePro S10000 (32,388), while trailing the NVIDIA T600 Mobile (32,849) by 0.9%.

What stands out in the head-to-head data is that the Tesla P4 wins by a much larger margin in OpenCL than in Vulkan. The 24.9% OpenCL gap suggests the NVIDIA architecture handles that workload significantly better, while the 8.6% Vulkan margin indicates a closer contest when using that API. Even so, the Tesla P4 wins both, and the average scores show that its overall position in the database is stronger by every measured metric.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 wins in every recorded benchmark category, so the use-case split is straightforward. For OpenCL workloads, the Tesla P4 has a commanding advantage. The 24.9% lead in that test means applications relying on OpenCL compute will see a meaningful performance difference. This matters for tasks such as general-purpose GPU compute, scientific simulation, and other workloads that leverage OpenCL as their primary interface. The Tesla P4's score of 34,947 versus 27,971 is not a marginal edge; it is a substantial one.

For Vulkan-based workloads, the Tesla P4 still wins, but the margin narrows to 8.6%. Vulkan is increasingly used in rendering and graphics-adjacent compute, and the Tesla P4's 40,309 score against 37,109 shows it remains ahead, though the FirePro S9300 X2 is comparatively more competitive here. If a workload is Vulkan-bound, the two cards are closer in performance, and the gap may be less noticeable in real-world tasks.

The FirePro S9300 X2 does not win any recorded benchmark, so there is no test category where it takes the lead. However, its strengths lie elsewhere in the specification sheet. The card offers higher raw FP32 throughput at 7.987 TFLOPS versus 5.704 TFLOPS for the Tesla P4, and it has a much larger memory bus at 4096-bit versus 256-bit, with memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s against 192.3 GB/s. These specifications suggest that in workloads not captured by the two recorded benchmarks, the FirePro could be competitive or even superior. The database only records Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan results, so any advantage in memory-bandwidth-bound scenarios is not reflected in the head-to-head numbers.

For users choosing between these two based on the recorded data, the Tesla P4 is the pick for OpenCL and Vulkan performance. The FirePro S9300 X2 may still appeal to those targeting specific compute patterns that favor its higher FP32 rate and memory bandwidth, but the benchmark evidence points to the Tesla P4 as the stronger performer in the tests that are available.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is substantial. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 is built on the Pascal architecture and uses the GP104 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The AMD FirePro S9300 X2 uses the GCN 3.0 architecture with the Capsaicin chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. This process gap is significant: the 16 nm node allows the Tesla P4 to pack more transistors into a smaller area. The Tesla P4 contains 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 22.9 million per mm². The FirePro S9300 X2 has 8,900 million transistors spread across a much larger 596 mm² die, giving it a density of just 14.9 million per mm².

The memory architectures are radically different as well. The Tesla P4 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 192.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The FirePro S9300 X2 uses 4 GB of HBM on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s. That is nearly 2.7 times the memory bandwidth, but with half the capacity. The HBM implementation on the AMD card also runs at a memory clock of 500 MHz with 1000 Mbps effective, while the Tesla P4's GDDR5 runs at 1502 MHz with 6 Gbps effective.

Shader and texture resources differ considerably. The Tesla P4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The FirePro S9300 X2 has 4,096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The AMD card has 60% more shading units and 60% more TMUs, which explains its higher theoretical texture rate of 249.6 GTexel/s versus 178.2 GTexel/s for the Tesla P4. Interestingly, both cards have identical ROP counts at 64, and the pixel rates are close: 71.30 GPixel/s for the Tesla P4 and 62.40 GPixel/s for the FirePro. The Tesla P4 actually wins on pixel throughput despite having fewer shading units, likely due to its higher clock speeds.

Clock speeds are another point of divergence. The Tesla P4 has a base clock of 886 MHz and a boost clock of 1114 MHz. The FirePro S9300 X2 has no base or boost clock listed in the database, so direct clock comparisons are not possible from the recorded data. The power profiles are vastly different: the Tesla P4 draws 75 W with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W, while the FirePro S9300 X2 draws 300 W, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and needs a suggested PSU of 700 W.

The API support also differs. The Tesla P4 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The FirePro S9300 X2 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The Pascal card has a higher DirectX feature level and a newer Vulkan version. Neither card has ray tracing cores or tensor cores recorded in the database.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification field. The process node is 16 nm for the Tesla P4 and 28 nm for the FirePro S9300 X2. Transistor counts are 7,200 million versus 8,900 million, and die sizes are 314 mm² versus 596 mm². Transistor density favors the Tesla P4 at 22.9M per mm² versus 14.9M per mm².

Memory capacity is 8 GB for the Tesla P4 and 4 GB for the FirePro, with GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus for the former and HBM on a 4096-bit bus for the latter. Bandwidth is 192.3 GB/s versus 512.0 GB/s. The memory clocks are 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) for the Tesla P4 and 500 MHz (1000 Mbps effective) for the FirePro.

Shading units: 2,560 versus 4,096. TMUs: 160 versus 256. ROPs are equal at 64. Pixel rate is 71.30 GPixel/s versus 62.40 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 178.2 GTexel/s versus 249.6 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 5.704 TFLOPS versus 7.987 TFLOPS. FP16 data is recorded only for the Tesla P4 at 89.12 GFLOPS with a 1:64 ratio; the FirePro has no FP16 figure in the database.

Power consumption is 75 W versus 300 W. The Tesla P4 is single-slot with no power connectors and a 250 W suggested PSU. The FirePro is dual-slot with 2x 8-pin connectors and a 700 W suggested PSU. Physical dimensions differ as well: the Tesla P4 is 168 mm (6.6 inches) long, while the FirePro is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long and 111 mm (4.4 inches) tall. Both use PCIe 3.0 x16 and have no display outputs.

Release dates are separated by several months: the FirePro S9300 X2 launched in March 2016, and the Tesla P4 launched in September 2016. Both are end-of-life products. The FirePro S9300 X2 has a recorded launch MSRP of 5,999 USD. The Tesla P4 has no launch MSRP in the database. The Tesla P4's successor is Tesla Volta, with a predecessor of Tesla Maxwell. The FirePro's successor is Radeon Pro GCN, with a predecessor of FirePro Terascale.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P4 has an average benchmark score of 37,628, while the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 averages 32,540. The Tesla P4 also ranks in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, versus the 77th percentile for the FirePro.

Q: How large is the performance gap in OpenCL?

A: The Tesla P4 scores 34,947 in Geekbench OpenCL, beating the FirePro S9300 X2's 27,971 by 24.9%. This is the largest margin between the two cards in any recorded test.

Q: Does the FirePro S9300 X2 win any benchmark?

A: No. The recorded data shows the Tesla P4 winning 2 benchmarks, and the FirePro S9300 X2 winning 0. The closest the FirePro comes is an 8.6% deficit in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD FirePro S9300 X2 has 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth thanks to its 4096-bit HBM bus, compared to 192.3 GB/s for the Tesla P4's 256-bit GDDR5 bus. However, the FirePro has only 4 GB of memory versus 8 GB for the Tesla P4.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Tesla P4 has a TDP of 75 W, uses no power connectors, and requires a 250 W suggested PSU. The FirePro S9300 X2 has a TDP of 300 W, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and needs a 700 W suggested PSU.

Q: How do these cards compare to their nearest rivals in the database?

A: The Tesla P4's average score is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56. The FirePro S9300 X2 is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE.