AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data draws a clear split between these two cards. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is a compute-oriented accelerator that does not win any of the shared benchmark comparisons in the database. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT wins both head-to-head tests, which means the use-case split is defined entirely by the workloads where the AMD part is measured and the Tesla T4 is not.

The Tesla T4 holds the 90th percentile across all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 66,733. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon VII (1.1% ahead), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (2.5% behind), the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 (2.7% ahead), and the Intel Arc A770 (3% ahead). This places the T4 in a tight cluster of professional and workstation cards where performance deltas are small. The RX 6900 XT, by contrast, sits at the 86th percentile with an average score of 50,951. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (1.6% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (1.9% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (2% behind), and the Intel Arc A550M (2.4% behind). The RX 6900 XT therefore competes in a different performance band, one that is actually lower on average despite its higher raw scores in individual tests.

The wins break down as 0 for the Tesla T4 and 2 for the RX 6900 XT in the shared tests. However, the RX 6900 XT has a much broader benchmark footprint, with results in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench Metal, Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan, and five Passmark tests. The Tesla T4 only has Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan results. This means the AMD card wins on coverage: it is measured in more scenarios, including DirectX 12, Metal, and 2D workloads, while the NVIDIA part is only present in two cross-platform compute tests.

For use cases, the RX 6900 XT is the card for anyone who needs strong results across a wide range of graphics APIs and compute frameworks. Its Passmark DirectX 11 score of 279 and DirectX 9 score of 268 show it handles legacy APIs well, while its DirectX 12 score of 113 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,079 confirm modern low-level API performance. The Tesla T4, with no display outputs and a 70 W TDP, is clearly aimed at server inference or virtualization tasks, but the database shows no benchmark wins for it in any measured test.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and different design philosophies. The Tesla T4 uses the TU104 chip on NVIDIA's Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It packs 13,600 million transistors into a 545 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.0 million transistors per mm². The RX 6900 XT uses the Navi 21 chip on AMD's RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process, also at TSMC. It fits 26,800 million transistors into a smaller 520 mm² die, achieving 51.5 million transistors per mm². The AMD part has roughly double the transistor count in a slightly smaller package, and its density advantage is substantial.

The compute resources differ sharply. The Tesla T4 has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. It also includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, which are absent from the RX 6900 XT. The RX 6900 XT has 5,120 shading units, exactly double, along with 320 TMUs and 128 ROPs, also double. It has 80 ray tracing cores but no tensor cores. This means the NVIDIA card is the only one with dedicated tensor hardware, while the AMD card has a 2:1 advantage in every traditional shader resource category.

Clock behavior is another major difference. The Tesla T4 has a base clock of 585 MHz and a boost clock of 1,590 MHz, reflecting its low-power server role. The RX 6900 XT has a base clock of 1,825 MHz, a game clock of 2,015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,250 MHz. The AMD card runs at much higher frequencies across the board, which compounds its shader count advantage.

Memory configurations are similar in capacity but not in speed. Both cards have 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The Tesla T4 runs its memory at 1,250 MHz with 10 Gbps effective speed, yielding 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6900 XT runs its memory at 2,000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed, yielding 512.0 GB/s. The AMD card has 60% more bandwidth, which matters for high-resolution textures and compute workloads that are memory-bound.

The feature set also diverges. The Tesla T4 has no display outputs, a single-slot form factor, no power connectors, and a 250 W suggested PSU. The RX 6900 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C outputs, a triple-slot design, two 8-pin power connectors, and a 700 W suggested PSU. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level feature support is identical, but the physical and power requirements are completely different. The Tesla T4 is end-of-life, as is the RX 6900 XT, and both have successor generations listed in the database.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two tests where both cards were measured are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. In both, the RX 6900 XT wins by a wide margin. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla T4 scores 61,276 while the RX 6900 XT scores 187,673. The delta is -67.3%, meaning the Tesla T4 trails by more than two-thirds. This is the largest gap in the shared dataset.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the Tesla T4 scores 72,190 while the RX 6900 XT scores 148,525. The delta is -51.4%, meaning the NVIDIA card is roughly half the AMD card's score. This is a smaller but still decisive margin. The RX 6900 XT's Vulkan result is about 2.4 times the Tesla T4's OpenCL result, which shows the AMD card scales well across different compute APIs.

Looking at the RX 6900 XT's broader benchmark suite puts these wins in context. Its Geekbench Metal score is 177,021, nearly matching its OpenCL score of 187,673. Its Passmark G3D score is 26,732, while its Passmark GPU Compute score is 14,547. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,079 is a modern DirectX 12 result that the Tesla T4 has no equivalent for. The Tesla T4's average benchmark score of 66,733 is actually higher than the RX 6900 XT's 50,951, which is counterintuitive given the head-to-head results. This happens because the RX 6900 XT's Passmark DirectX scores are low compared to its Geekbench results, pulling its average down. For example, the Passmark DirectX 10 score of 167 and DirectX 12 score of 113 are far below the Geekbench numbers. The Tesla T4, with only two high Geekbench scores, benefits from a smaller and more consistent sample.

The percentile data reinforces this. The Tesla T4 ranks at the 90th percentile despite losing both shared tests, because its two scores are both strong relative to the full GPU database. The RX 6900 XT ranks at the 86th percentile, four points lower, because its average includes several weaker Passmark results. This is a useful reminder that average scores and head-to-head results can tell different stories.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA Tesla T4 has an average benchmark score of 66,733, higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's average of 50,951.

Q: Does the RX 6900 XT win every shared benchmark?

A: Yes. The RX 6900 XT wins both Geekbench OpenCL (187,673 vs 61,276) and Geekbench Vulkan (148,525 vs 72,190). The Tesla T4 has zero wins in the head-to-head data.

Q: Does the Tesla T4 have tensor cores?

A: Yes, the Tesla T4 has 320 tensor cores. The RX 6900 XT has no tensor cores listed in the database.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The RX 6900 XT has 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the Tesla T4 has 320.0 GB/s. Both use 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RX 6900 XT has 51.5 million transistors per mm², compared to the Tesla T4's 25.0 million per mm². The RX 6900 XT uses a 7 nm process, while the Tesla T4 uses 12 nm.

Q: Do both cards support the same graphics APIs?

A: Yes. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the two cards. Shared specifications such as memory size (16 GB), memory type (GDDR6), memory bus width (256 bit), API support, manufacturer (TSMC foundry), and production status (end-of-life) are not repeated here.

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla T4 | AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT |

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

| Chip | TU104 | Navi 21 |

| Architecture | Turing | RDNA 2.0 |

| Generation | Tesla Turing (Txx) | Navi II (RX 6000) |

| 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 | 1,825 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1,590 MHz | 2,250 MHz |

| Game clock | None | 2,015 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1,250 MHz, 10 Gbps effective | 2,000 MHz, 16 Gbps effective |

| Memory bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | 512.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 2,560 | 5,120 |

| TMUs | 160 | 320 |

| ROPs | 64 | 128 |

| RT cores | 40 | 80 |

| Tensor cores | 320 | None |

| Pixel rate | 101.8 GPixel/s | 288.0 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 254.4 GTexel/s | 720.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 8.141 TFLOPS | 23.04 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) | 46.08 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 70 W | 300 W |

| Slot width | Single-slot | Triple-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) |

| Height | None | 120 mm (4.7 inches) |

| Width | None | 50 mm (2 inches) |

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

| Predecessor | Tesla Volta | Navi |

| Successor | Server Ampere | Navi III |

| Launch MSRP | None | 999 USD |

| Average benchmark score | 66,733 | 50,951 |

| Percentile vs all GPUs | 90 | 86 |

The Verdict

The data supports a straightforward choice for most users. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is the stronger card in every shared benchmark, with a 67.3% lead in Geekbench OpenCL and a 51.4% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. It also has double the shading units, TMUs, and ROPs, higher clocks, more memory bandwidth, and a larger benchmark footprint covering DirectX, Metal, and Passmark tests. Anyone selecting a card for general graphics or compute workloads should pick the RX 6900 XT based on the recorded measurements.

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is not without merit, but its strengths are not visible in the benchmark wins. It has a higher average score (66,733 vs 50,951) and a higher percentile rank (90 vs 86), driven by two consistently strong Geekbench results. It also has 320 tensor cores, which the RX 6900 XT lacks, and a dramatically lower power profile at 70 W with no power connectors. The 250 W suggested PSU, single-slot design, and lack of display outputs point to a server accelerator role. For a deployment where tensor core support and low power draw are priorities, the Tesla T4 is the only option of the two, but the database shows it loses every measured head-to-head test. The RX 6900 XT is the correct choice for raw performance, while the Tesla T4 is the correct choice for a specific server-side feature set that the benchmarks do not capture.