AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

FAQ

Q: How large is the performance gap between the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT in the recorded benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins both head-to-head tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 171304 versus 61276 for the Tesla T4, a delta of -64.2% from the Radeon's perspective. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon scores 136875 versus 72190, a -47.3% delta.

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla T4 has a higher average benchmark score of 66733, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT averages 48477. This is counterintuitive given the Radeon's head-to-head wins, but the Tesla T4 sits at the 90th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon sits at the 85th percentile.

Q: What architecture and process node does each card use?

A: The Tesla T4 uses NVIDIA's Turing architecture on a 12 nm TSMC process. The Radeon RX 6800 XT uses AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture on a 7 nm TSMC process. The Radeon's node is smaller, allowing for a much higher transistor density.

Q: How do the memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The Radeon RX 6800 XT has 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the Tesla T4 has 320.0 GB/s. Both cards have 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, but the Radeon runs its memory at 16 Gbps effective versus 10 Gbps effective for the Tesla.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The Tesla T4 has a 70 W TDP and requires no power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 250 W. The Radeon RX 6800 XT has a 300 W TDP, uses 2x 8-pin power connectors, and needs a 700 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card has ray tracing and tensor cores?

A: The Tesla T4 has 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The Radeon RX 6800 XT has 72 RT cores but no tensor cores. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The Tesla T4 is built on the Turing architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 12 nm process. It packs 13,600 million transistors into a 545 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.0M per mm². The Radeon RX 6800 XT uses RDNA 2.0, also from TSMC, but on a 7 nm process. It contains 26,800 million transistors in a slightly smaller 520 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 51.5M per mm².

The compute resources differ sharply. The Tesla T4 has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The Radeon RX 6800 XT more than doubles the shading units to 4608, nearly doubles TMUs to 288, and doubles ROPs to 128. In terms of raw throughput, the Tesla T4 delivers 8.141 TFLOPS of FP32 and 16.28 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1). The Radeon reaches 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 and 41.47 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1).

Ray tracing hardware is present on both, but with different counts. The Tesla T4 has 40 RT cores, while the Radeon RX 6800 XT has 72. The Tesla T4 also includes 320 tensor cores, a feature absent from the Radeon, which reflects its server/AI inference heritage. The Radeon compensates with a higher memory clock, running at 16 Gbps effective versus 10 Gbps for the Tesla.

The power envelope tells the story of different deployment targets. The Tesla T4 is a 70 W single-slot card with no power connectors and no display outputs, designed for dense server installations. The Radeon RX 6800 XT is a 300 W dual-slot card with 2x 8-pin connectors and full display outputs including 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C. The Tesla T4 uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the Radeon uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these cards, and the Radeon RX 6800 XT dominates both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon scores 171304 against the Tesla T4's 61276. That is a 64.2% advantage for the Radeon, a massive margin that reflects the Radeon's far higher shader count and clock speeds. The Tesla T4's base clock is 585 MHz with a boost of 1590 MHz; the Radeon's base is 1825 MHz with a boost of 2250 MHz and a game clock of 2015 MHz. Higher clocks and more units translate directly to OpenCL compute performance.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon wins again, scoring 136875 versus 72190 for the Tesla T4, a 47.3% delta. Vulkan workloads often stress geometry and memory bandwidth, where the Radeon's 512.0 GB/s bandwidth and 288 TMUs provide a clear edge. The Tesla T4's 320.0 GB/s bandwidth and 160 TMUs cannot keep pace.

The Radeon's wins are not close. The OpenCL margin is nearly two-thirds, and the Vulkan margin is almost half. For any compute or graphics workload in these tests, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is the faster card by a wide margin. The Tesla T4's strengths, if any, lie elsewhere, likely in its tensor cores for AI inference, though no direct benchmark in the database measures that capability against the Radeon.

It is worth remembering the Tesla T4's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 66733, which is higher than the Radeon's 48477. This discrepancy arises because the Tesla T4 has only two benchmarks in the database, both from Geekbench, while the Radeon has eleven benchmarks spanning 3DMark, PassMark, and Geekbench. The Radeon's PassMark scores are low for DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12, which drags its average down despite its strong Geekbench results.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla T4 | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT |

|----------------|-----------------|------------------------|

| Architecture | Turing | RDNA 2.0 |

| Process Node | 12 nm | 7 nm |

| Transistors | 13,600 million | 26,800 million |

| Die Size | 545 mm² | 520 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.0M / mm² | 51.5M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 585 MHz | 1825 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1590 MHz | 2250 MHz |

| Game Clock | None | 2015 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1250 MHz, 10 Gbps effective | 2000 MHz, 16 Gbps effective |

| Memory Bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | 512.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2560 | 4608 |

| TMUs | 160 | 288 |

| ROPs | 64 | 128 |

| RT Cores | 40 | 72 |

| Tensor Cores | 320 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 101.8 GPixel/s | 288.0 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 254.4 GTexel/s | 648.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 8.141 TFLOPS | 20.74 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) | 41.47 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 70 W | 300 W |

| Slot Width | Single-slot | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 700 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C |

| Length | 168 mm (6.6 inches) | 267 mm (10.5 inches) |

| Release Date | 2018-09-12 | 2020-10-27 |

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT wins on every direct benchmark in the database. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 171304 is 64.2% higher than the Tesla T4's 61276, and its Vulkan score of 136875 is 47.3% higher than 72190. For pure compute and graphics workloads measured by Geekbench, the Radeon is the clear choice. Its higher shading unit count (4608 versus 2560), higher clocks, and nearly double the memory bandwidth (512.0 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s) give it an insurmountable lead.

The Radeon also wins on architectural features for gaming and general graphics. It has more RT cores (72 versus 40), more TMUs (288 versus 160), and more ROPs (128 versus 64). Its pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s is nearly triple the Tesla T4's 101.8 GPixel/s. The Radeon's texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s is more than double the Tesla's 254.4 GTexel/s. Any workload that benefits from rasterization throughput will favor the Radeon.

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 wins in specific server-oriented contexts. It has tensor cores (320) that the Radeon lacks entirely, which is critical for AI inference workloads that rely on tensor operations. Its 70 W TDP and single-slot design, with no power connectors and no display outputs, make it suitable for dense server deployments where power and space are constrained. Its suggested PSU of 250 W is far below the Radeon's 700 W requirement. The Tesla T4 also has a higher percentile ranking, sitting at the 90th percentile of all GPUs versus the Radeon's 85th percentile.

The Radeon's average benchmark score of 48477 is lower than the Tesla's 66733, but this reflects the Radeon's broader benchmark suite, which includes PassMark tests where it scores low (for example, 100 in DirectX 12 and 155 in DirectX 10). Those older API tests are not representative of modern workloads. In the tests both cards share, the Radeon wins decisively.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: for any workload measured by the shared benchmarks, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the far faster card. In Geekbench OpenCL, it leads by 64.2%. In Geekbench Vulkan, it leads by 47.3%. The Radeon's specifications, including 4608 shading units, a 2250 MHz boost clock, and 512.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, support these results. A builder looking for a general-purpose GPU for compute or graphics should choose the Radeon without hesitation.

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is a different animal. Its 320 tensor cores are a feature the Radeon does not have, and its 70 W power draw makes it viable for server environments where the Radeon's 300 W TDP and 700 W PSU requirement are prohibitive. The Tesla T4 also has no display outputs, reinforcing its role as a compute accelerator rather than a user-facing graphics card. Its percentile rank of 90 versus the Radeon's 85 suggests that across the entire GPU landscape, the Tesla T4 holds its own in aggregate benchmark terms.

For a PC builder or workstation user, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is the practical choice. It offers superior raw performance, modern display outputs, and PCIe 4.0 support. The Tesla T4 is suited for specialized AI inference tasks in a server rack, where tensor cores and low power consumption matter more than raw FP32 throughput. The Radeon's launch MSRP was 649 USD, but the database does not list a price for the Tesla T4. The verdict: choose the Radeon for performance, choose the Tesla only if you specifically need tensor cores and minimal power draw.