AMD Radeon VII vs NVIDIA Tesla T4 Comparison

The NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon VII occupy the same performance tier in the aggregate benchmark database, with average scores of 66,733 and 66,004 respectively. That 1.1% gap places them as direct rivals, yet the data reveals two fundamentally different interpretations of a high-end GPU. The Tesla T4 is a 70-watt, single-slot accelerator with no display outputs, engineered for dense server deployments. The Radeon VII is a 295-watt, dual-slot consumer card with a 1.02 TB/s memory bus and full display connectivity. Benchmark results show the Radeon VII winning both head-to-head tests decisively, but the Tesla T4 achieves 90th percentile performance across all GPUs while consuming a fraction of the power. This is not a story of a clear victor, but of two cards built for different battlefields.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon VII wins every benchmark where the two overlap. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 91,947 against the Tesla T4's 61,276, a 33.4% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, the Radeon VII posts 91,788 versus 72,190, a 21.4% lead. These are not marginal victories; they represent a substantial raw compute advantage in both compute and graphics API workloads. The Radeon VII's 13.44 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 420.0 GTexel/s texture rate explain this dominance in compute-heavy tasks. For any workload that scales with shading units and fill rate—rendering, simulation, or general GPGPU compute—the data unambiguously favors the Radeon VII.

The Tesla T4 wins where benchmarks do not capture the full picture. Its 70 W TDP against the Radeon VII's 295 W means the Tesla T4 can be deployed in servers without additional power connectors, while the Radeon VII requires 2x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU. The Tesla T4's 168 mm length and single-slot design allow for denser chassis configurations than the Radeon VII's 280 mm dual-slot footprint. Furthermore, the Tesla T4 includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which the Radeon VII lacks entirely. In inference or ray-traced workloads that leverage these dedicated units, the Tesla T4's architecture provides capabilities the Radeon VII cannot match, even if the aggregate benchmarks do not reflect this. The Tesla T4 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon VII is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3.

The wins split cleanly: Radeon VII for raw compute throughput and API-agnostic performance; Tesla T4 for power efficiency, server integration, and feature-specific acceleration. The 90th percentile ranking for both cards confirms that each is a top-tier performer, but they achieve that status through different means.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs diverge at the most fundamental architectural level. The Tesla T4 is built on NVIDIA's Turing architecture using a TU104 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 12 nm process. The Radeon VII uses AMD's GCN 5.1 architecture with the Vega 20 chip, on TSMC's 7 nm node. This process difference is stark: the Tesla T4 packs 13,600 million transistors across a 545 mm² die, yielding a density of 25.0 million transistors per mm². The Radeon VII integrates 13,230 million transistors on a much smaller 331 mm² die, achieving 40.0 million transistors per mm². The 7 nm process gives AMD a density advantage of 60% over the Tesla T4's 12 nm node.

Core configurations reinforce the architectural split. The Radeon VII fields 3,840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, against the Tesla T4's 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The Radeon VII has 50% more shading units and TMUs, which directly drives its higher FP32 and texture throughput. However, the Tesla T4 counters with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores—hardware that has no equivalent in the Radeon VII. These dedicated units enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor operations, features absent from the GCN 5.1 architecture.

Memory subsystems could not be more different. The Tesla T4 uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon VII uses 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus, delivering 1.02 TB/s—more than three times the bandwidth. Clock speeds also favor AMD: the Radeon VII runs at a 1400 MHz base and 1750 MHz boost, while the Tesla T4 sits at 585 MHz base and 1590 MHz boost. This combination of wider memory bus and higher clocks gives the Radeon VII its substantial benchmark lead. The Tesla T4's lower clocks and narrower bus are the price of its 70 W power envelope.

Feature sets diverge in API support and physical design. The Tesla T4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon VII manages DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. The Tesla T4 has no display outputs, while the Radeon VII provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. Power delivery reflects their intended environments: the Tesla T4 draws power from the PCIe slot with no connectors, whereas the Radeon VII requires 2x 8-pin connectors. The Tesla T4 is single-slot and 168 mm long; the Radeon VII is dual-slot, 280 mm long, 125 mm tall, and 40 mm wide.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher raw compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon VII delivers 13.44 TFLOPS FP32 and 26.88 TFLOPS FP16, against the NVIDIA Tesla T4's 8.141 TFLOPS FP32 and 16.28 TFLOPS FP16. The Radeon VII is 65% faster in FP32 and 65% faster in FP16.

Q: Why is the Tesla T4 competitive despite lower benchmark scores?

A: The Tesla T4's 70 W TDP versus the Radeon VII's 295 W TDP allows deployment in environments where power and space are constrained. Its single-slot, 168 mm design requires no power connectors, unlike the Radeon VII's dual-slot, 280 mm footprint with 2x 8-pin connectors. Additionally, the Tesla T4 includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores for specialized workloads.

Q: Do the cards support the same graphics APIs?

A: No. The Tesla T4 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon VII supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The Radeon VII has 1.02 TB/s bandwidth from 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus. The Tesla T4 has 320.0 GB/s from 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The Radeon VII's bandwidth is 3.2 times higher.

Q: What is the performance relationship between the two cards?

A: The Tesla T4 has an average benchmark score of 66,733, which is 1.1% higher than the Radeon VII's 66,004. However, in direct head-to-head tests, the Radeon VII wins both: 33.4% ahead in Geekbench OpenCL and 21.4% ahead in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: Are there any display output differences?

A: Yes. The Tesla T4 has no display outputs, while the Radeon VII provides 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The Tesla T4 is designed for server-side acceleration, not direct video output.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla T4 | AMD Radeon VII |

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

| Architecture | Turing | GCN 5.1 |

| Chip | TU104 | Vega 20 |

| Process node | 12 nm | 7 nm |

| Transistors | 13,600 million | 13,230 million |

| Die size | 545 mm² | 331 mm² |

| Transistor density | 25.0M / mm² | 40.0M / mm² |

| Base clock | 585 MHz | 1400 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1590 MHz | 1750 MHz |

| Memory type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory bus width | 256 bit | 4096 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 320.0 GB/s | 1.02 TB/s |

| Shading units | 2560 | 3840 |

| TMUs | 160 | 240 |

| ROPs | 64 | 64 |

| RT cores | 40 | None |

| Tensor cores | 320 | None |

| Pixel rate | 101.8 GPixel/s | 112.0 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 254.4 GTexel/s | 420.0 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 8.141 TFLOPS | 13.44 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 16.28 TFLOPS (2:1) | 26.88 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 70 W | 295 W |

| Slot width | Single-slot | Dual-slot |

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

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 600 W |

| Display outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Length | 168 mm | 280 mm |

| Height | N/A | 125 mm |

| Width | N/A | 40 mm |

| Release date | 2018-09-12 | 2019-02-06 |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two available head-to-head benchmarks both favor the Radeon VII by wide margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Radeon VII scores 91,947 against the Tesla T4's 61,276, a 33.4% difference. This is the largest gap in any comparison between the two cards. The Radeon VII's advantage stems from its 3,840 shading units and 1.02 TB/s memory bandwidth, which allow it to feed compute units far more effectively than the Tesla T4's 2,560 shading units and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 4096-bit memory bus is the decisive factor; it provides 3.2 times the bandwidth of the Tesla T4's 256-bit bus.

The Geekbench Vulkan result shows a narrower but still substantial gap. The Radeon VII posts 91,788, beating the Tesla T4's 72,190 by 21.4%. This test likely exercises the graphics pipeline more than raw compute, which benefits the Tesla T4's Turing architecture and its 40 RT cores. However, the Radeon VII's higher boost clock of 1750 MHz versus 1590 MHz, combined with its superior texture rate of 420.0 GTexel/s against 254.4 GTexel/s, still secures a clear win.

The aggregate benchmark data shows the Tesla T4 at 66,733, a 1.1% edge over the Radeon VII's 66,004. This apparent contradiction arises because the Tesla T4 has two benchmark entries (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan) while the Radeon VII has four (adding 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and Geekbench Metal). The Radeon VII's Metal score of 77,975 and Steel Nomad score of 2,304 pull its average down despite its OpenCL and Vulkan wins. The Tesla T4's nearest rival list includes the Radeon VII with a 1.1% deltaPct, while the Radeon VII's list places the Tesla T4 at -1.1% deltaPct, confirming their statistical equivalence in the broader dataset.

The Radeon VII also leads in pixel rate (112.0 GPixel/s versus 101.8 GPixel/s) and FP32 throughput (13.44 TFLOPS versus 8.141 TFLOPS). These metrics translate directly to the benchmark outcomes. The Tesla T4's only architectural counters are its RT cores and tensor cores, which do not appear in the tested workloads. In the data available, the Radeon VII is the unequivocal performance winner in every direct comparison, with its largest victory coming in OpenCL and its smallest in Vulkan. The Tesla T4's 90th percentile ranking is preserved by its efficiency and specialized hardware, not by raw benchmark scores against this particular rival.