AMD Radeon RX 6650M vs NVIDIA Tesla P40 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M and NVIDIA Tesla P40 are two very different graphics cards, separated by six years of architectural evolution and designed for entirely different segments of the market. The RX 6650M is a mobile gaming GPU built on modern RDNA 2.0, while the Tesla P40 is a datacenter compute accelerator from the Pascal era. Benchmark data shows the AMD part leading in both tested workloads, but the NVIDIA card brings substantially more memory and raw compute throughput to the table, making the choice highly dependent on the intended use case.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650M scores 71,768 on average, while the NVIDIA Tesla P40 scores 65,095. The RX 6650M also holds a higher percentile rank at 91, compared to the P40's 89.

Q: How large is the performance gap in Vulkan workloads?

A: In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the RX 6650M scores 77,735 versus the P40's 68,172, giving AMD a 14% advantage. This is the largest delta between the two cards in any benchmark.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between the two cards?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla P40 has 24 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is three times the 8 GB of GDDR6 found on the AMD Radeon RX 6650M. The P40 also has a wider 384-bit memory bus versus the RX 6650M's 128-bit bus.

Q: Which card has higher FP32 compute throughput?

A: The Tesla P40 delivers 11.76 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to the RX 6650M's 8.659 TFLOPS. This gives the NVIDIA card a significant raw compute advantage despite losing in the OpenCL and Vulkan benchmark tests.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RX 6650M has a 120 W TDP and requires no power connectors, as it is an integrated graphics package (IGP). The Tesla P40 has a 250 W TDP, uses an 8-pin EPS connector, and recommends a 600 W power supply.

Q: Which card supports hardware ray tracing?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650M includes 28 ray tracing cores as part of its RDNA 2.0 architecture. The NVIDIA Tesla P40, based on the older Pascal architecture, has no ray tracing cores.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins decisively in the two head-to-head benchmark tests available. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 65,800 against the P40's 62,017, a 6.1% edge. The Vulkan test shows an even larger gap, with the RX 6650M at 77,735 versus 68,172 for the P40, a 14% difference. These results suggest the AMD card is better optimized for modern graphics APIs and general compute workloads that leverage those interfaces.

However, the NVIDIA Tesla P40 occupies a different performance envelope. Its 11.76 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is 35.8% higher than the RX 6650M's 8.659 TFLOPS. The P40 also offers 347.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth on a 384-bit bus, compared to 224.0 GB/s on the RX 6650M's 128-bit bus. For workloads that saturate raw compute or require massive memory pools—such as large model inference or scientific computing—the P40's specifications are more compelling despite its lower benchmark scores.

The RX 6650M counters with architectural modernity. Its 7 nm process node allows for a transistor density of 46.7 million per square millimeter, nearly double the P40's 25.1 million. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the P40 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The RX 6650M's FP16 performance of 17.32 TFLOPS (2:1) dwarfs the P40's 183.7 GFLOPS (1:64), making the AMD card vastly superior for half-precision workloads.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is stark. The RX 6650M is built on RDNA 2.0, AMD's second-generation gaming architecture, using a 7 nm process from TSMC. It packs 11,060 million transistors into a 237 mm² die. The Tesla P40 uses the older Pascal architecture on a 16 nm process, with 11,800 million transistors spread across a much larger 471 mm² die.

These process differences explain the transistor density discrepancy: the RX 6650M achieves 46.7 million transistors per square millimeter, while the P40 manages only 25.1 million. The AMD chip also integrates 28 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the Pascal-based P40. The RX 6650M supports newer API features including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the P40 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) despite also supporting Vulkan 1.4.

The memory subsystems reflect their different design goals. The RX 6650M uses 8 GB of GDDR6 at 14 Gbps effective, while the P40 uses 24 GB of GDDR5 at 7.2 Gbps effective. The P40's 384-bit bus gives it substantially higher bandwidth at 347.1 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s for the RX 6650M. The RX 6650M is a mobile part with no display outputs of its own, while the P40 is a dual-slot accelerator with no display outputs at all—both are fundamentally non-user-facing in different ways.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RX 6650M has 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, while the P40 has 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Clock speeds also diverge significantly: the RX 6650M boosts to 2,416 MHz with a base of 2,068 MHz, while the P40 boosts to 1,531 MHz from a 1,303 MHz base.

Pixel and texture rates tell a mixed story. The RX 6650M achieves 154.6 GPixel/s, slightly ahead of the P40's 147.0 GPixel/s. However, the P40's texture rate of 367.4 GTexel/s is substantially higher than the RX 6650M's 270.6 GTexel/s, reflecting its larger TMU count.

Power and physical characteristics could not be more different. The RX 6650M is an IGP with a 120 W TDP and no power connectors, while the P40 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height, requiring an 8-pin EPS connector and a 600 W power supply. The RX 6650M uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the P40 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The P40 launched with a launch MSRP of 5,699 USD, though both cards are now end-of-life.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the AMD Radeon RX 6650M wins both available tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6650M scores 65,800 against the Tesla P40's 62,017, a 6.1% advantage. The Vulkan test shows an even more pronounced gap, with the RX 6650M scoring 77,735 versus 68,172 for the P40, a 14% delta. This represents a clean sweep for AMD, with 2 wins and 0 losses in the head-to-head comparison.

The 14% Vulkan advantage is particularly telling. Vulkan is a low-overhead API that benefits from modern architecture features and efficient driver implementations. The RDNA 2.0 architecture in the RX 6650M appears to handle these workloads with far greater efficiency than the older Pascal design. The RX 6650M's nearest rival is the NVIDIA TITAN X Pascal, which scores 72,098 with a delta of -0.5%, placing the AMD card just behind it in the broader performance hierarchy.

The Tesla P40's closest competitor in its own benchmark neighborhood is the AMD Radeon VII at 66,004, which beats it by 1.4%. The P40 scores 65,095 on average, placing it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs—still a strong showing, but clearly behind the RX 6650M's 91st percentile ranking. The average benchmark score difference of 6,673 points between the two cards (71,768 versus 65,095) confirms that despite the P40's superior raw specifications, the RX 6650M delivers better real-world performance in the tested workloads.