NVIDIA Tesla P4 vs NVIDIA TITAN V Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla P4 and NVIDIA TITAN V represent two very different philosophies from the same company, separated by over a year of GPU architecture evolution. The Tesla P4 is a low-power, single-slot compute card from the Pascal era, while the TITAN V is a dual-slot enthusiast flagship built on the Volta architecture. Benchmark data from the FACT PACK shows a dramatic performance gap, but also reveals that the P4 holds its own in specific efficiency-oriented contexts. This analysis breaks down the head-to-head results, specification deltas, and architectural differences using only the provided data.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data available for direct comparison is limited to two synthetic tests, but the margin between the cards is stark. In Geekbench OpenCL, the TITAN V scores 157,265 points against the Tesla P4’s 34,947 points. This translates to a delta of -77.8% for the P4, meaning the TITAN V is roughly 4.5 times faster in raw compute throughput. The gap is slightly narrower, but still decisive, in Geekbench Vulkan: the TITAN V posts 152,117 points versus the P4’s 40,309 points, a -73.5% delta.

These results align with the architectural gulf between the two cards. The TITAN V has double the shading units (5,120 vs 2,560) and nearly triple the texture mapping units (320 vs 160). Its FP32 throughput is listed at 14.90 TFLOPS, compared to the P4’s 5.704 TFLOPS — a 2.6x advantage that is directly reflected in the OpenCL scores. The Vulkan test shows a slightly smaller relative gap, likely due to driver optimizations or the test’s workload characteristics, but the TITAN V still wins by a wide margin.

Interestingly, the Tesla P4’s average benchmark score across all tests is 37,628, which is actually higher than the TITAN V’s average of 34,355. This is because the TITAN V’s average is dragged down by its Passmark scores, particularly the DirectX 12 result of 81 and DirectX 10 result of 153. The P4 does not have Passmark scores in the provided data, so its average is based solely on the two Geekbench tests. The TITAN V’s Passmark G3D score of 19,805 is strong, but the low DirectX scores suggest that the Volta architecture’s compute-focused design does not translate to legacy DirectX workloads.

When looking at percentile rankings, the Tesla P4 sits at the 81st percentile of all GPUs, while the TITAN V is at the 79th percentile. This counterintuitive result stems from the P4’s higher average benchmark score relative to the broader GPU population. The P4’s nearest rivals include the GeForce RTX 4070 (avg score 37,648, delta -0.1%) and the Radeon RX Vega 56 (avg score 37,507, delta 0.3%), showing it clusters with modern mid-range and older high-end cards. The TITAN V’s nearest rivals include the RTX A1000 (avg score 34,207, delta 0.4%) and the Radeon HD 7970 (avg score 34,541, delta -0.5%), indicating its average performance is closer to entry-level professional cards than to contemporary flagships.

The wins tally is 2-0 in favor of the TITAN V, but this does not tell the whole story. The Tesla P4 draws only 75 W and requires no external power connectors, while the TITAN V is a 250 W card needing a 6-pin and 8-pin connector. In terms of performance per watt, the P4’s 5.704 TFLOPS at 75 W (76.1 GFLOPS/W) far exceeds the TITAN V’s 14.90 TFLOPS at 250 W (59.6 GFLOPS/W). This makes the P4 a more efficient compute solution for constrained environments, even if its absolute performance is much lower.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split in use cases. The TITAN V is the overwhelming choice for any workload that prioritizes absolute compute performance. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 157,265 is 350% higher than the P4’s 34,947, and its FP32 throughput of 14.90 TFLOPS nearly triples the P4’s 5.704 TFLOPS. For users running machine learning inference, scientific simulations, or heavy 3D rendering, the TITAN V’s 12 GB of HBM2 memory with 651.3 GB/s bandwidth provides a massive advantage over the P4’s 8 GB GDDR5 at 192.3 GB/s. The TITAN V also includes 640 tensor cores, which the P4 lacks entirely, making it the only option for tensor-accelerated workloads.

Conversely, the Tesla P4 is the logical pick for server environments with strict power and space constraints. Its 75 W TDP means it can be powered directly from the PCIe slot, requiring no additional cables. The single-slot design and 168 mm length make it far easier to fit into dense chassis than the TITAN V’s dual-slot, 267 mm form factor. The P4’s 81st percentile ranking versus the TITAN V’s 79th percentile suggests that, relative to the entire GPU market, the P4 offers more balanced overall performance when considering its efficiency. For tasks like video transcoding, light AI inference, or virtual desktop infrastructure, the P4’s lower power draw and smaller footprint are compelling advantages.

Gamers should look elsewhere entirely. The TITAN V’s Passmark DirectX 12 score of 81 is abysmal, and even its best Passmark result (DirectX 9 at 213) is low. The Tesla P4 has no display outputs, making it unusable as a primary graphics card. The TITAN V at least offers HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, but its DirectX performance is so poor that it would be a poor gaming investment. The data suggests both cards are compute-first products, with the TITAN V excelling in raw throughput and the P4 in power efficiency.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The Tesla P4 has an average benchmark score of 37,628, while the TITAN V averages 34,355. This is due to the TITAN V’s low Passmark DirectX scores, which are not present in the P4’s dataset.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The TITAN V scores 157,265 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to the Tesla P4’s 34,947. This represents a -77.8% delta for the P4, making the TITAN V roughly 4.5 times faster.

Q: Does the Tesla P4 support tensor cores?

A: No. The Tesla P4 has no tensor cores listed in its specifications. The TITAN V includes 640 tensor cores, which are absent from the P4.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The TITAN V offers 651.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth from its 3072-bit HBM2 interface. The Tesla P4 provides 192.3 GB/s over a 256-bit GDDR5 bus, which is about 70% less.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both the Tesla P4 and TITAN V are listed as end-of-life in the production status field.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The TITAN V has a density of 25.9M transistors per mm², slightly higher than the Tesla P4’s 22.9M / mm². Both are manufactured by TSMC, but on different process nodes.

Specification Differences

The most striking difference is in memory architecture. The TITAN V uses 12 GB of HBM2 with a 3072-bit bus, delivering 651.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The Tesla P4 uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 192.3 GB/s. This is a 3.4x bandwidth advantage for the TITAN V, critical for memory-bound compute tasks.

Clock speeds also diverge significantly. The TITAN V runs at a 1200 MHz base and 1455 MHz boost, while the P4 operates at 886 MHz base and 1114 MHz boost. The TITAN V’s memory clock is 848 MHz (1696 Mbps effective), whereas the P4’s memory runs at 1502 MHz (6 Gbps effective) — a case where the GDDR5 has a higher clock but lower bandwidth due to the narrower bus.

Compute resources show a consistent doubling: the TITAN V has 5,120 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, versus the P4’s 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. This results in pixel rates of 139.7 GPixel/s and texture rates of 465.6 GTexel/s for the TITAN V, against 71.30 GPixel/s and 178.2 GTexel/s for the P4.

Power and physical characteristics could not be more different. The TITAN V draws 250 W with a 600 W suggested PSU, requiring dual power connectors. The P4 draws just 75 W with a 250 W suggested PSU and needs no external power. The TITAN V is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, while the P4 is single-slot at 168 mm. The TITAN V also has display outputs (1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a), while the P4 has none.

Architecture Differences

The Tesla P4 is built on the Pascal architecture, using the GP104 chip fabricated on a 16 nm TSMC process. The TITAN V uses the Volta architecture with the GV100 chip on a 12 nm process. This process shrink allows the TITAN V to pack 21,100 million transistors onto an 815 mm² die, versus the P4’s 7,200 million on 314 mm². The transistor density is 25.9M / mm² for Volta, compared to 22.9M / mm² for Pascal.

The most significant architectural addition in Volta is the tensor core. The TITAN V includes 640 tensor cores, designed for deep learning matrix operations. The Pascal-based P4 has no tensor cores, limiting its AI capabilities to traditional CUDA shader workloads. The FP16 performance highlights this difference: the TITAN V delivers 29.80 TFLOPS at 2:1 ratio, while the P4 manages only 89.12 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio — a 334x gap in half-precision throughput.

The generation labels also differ: the P4 is part of the "Tesla Pascal (Pxx)" generation, while the TITAN V is classified under "GeForce 10". Their predecessors and successors follow different lineages — the P4’s predecessor is Tesla Maxwell and its successor is Tesla Volta, whereas the TITAN V’s predecessor is GeForce 900 and its successor is GeForce 20. Both cards support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the TITAN V’s Volta architecture was designed with compute-heavy features that Pascal lacks, including the tensor cores and a more robust FP16 path.