NVIDIA Tesla K40t

Power and Cooling

The NVIDIA Tesla K40t is a dual-slot accelerator built on the 28 nm process at TSMC, with a transistor count of 7,080 million on a 561 mm² die. Its thermal design power is rated at 245 W, a figure that reflects its Kepler GK110B architecture's balance between compute throughput and heat generation. For system integration, the suggested power supply unit is 550 W, which accounts for the card's draw alongside typical host components. The board measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length, making it compatible with most server chassis and workstation towers that can accommodate dual-slot PCIe cards.

The card relies on the PCIe 3.0 x16 bus interface for both data transfer and, critically, for power delivery, there are no auxiliary power connectors listed in the specification. This means the 245 W TDP must be supplied entirely through the motherboard slot, a design choice that simplifies cabling but places a firm requirement on the host system's power delivery circuitry. The absence of display outputs reinforces its role as a compute-only device; it is not intended to drive monitors. Cooling is handled by the dual-slot form factor, which allows for a robust heatsink and fan assembly capable of dissipating the 245 W under sustained load. The 28 nm process node and the 12.6M transistors per square millimeter density are indicative of the era's manufacturing capabilities, and the resulting power envelope is modest by modern standards but was substantial for its release period.

Who Should Consider It

The Tesla K40t occupies a specific niche in the benchmark database, with a percentile rank of 50 against all GPUs, meaning it sits exactly at the median of the tracked performance distribution. This positioning suggests it is not a top-tier performer, nor is it a low-end part. For gaming or interactive workloads, the card's lack of display outputs makes it unsuitable as a primary graphics solution; however, its 12 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 288.4 GB/s of bandwidth, provides ample capacity for compute tasks that require large datasets resident on the card. The 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units offer a balanced compute profile.

The data indicates that the Tesla K40t is best suited for compute-centric applications rather than real-time rendering. Its FP32 throughput of 5.046 TFLOPS positions it for scientific simulation, data analytics, and machine learning inference tasks that do not require the latest architectural features. At a 1080p resolution, the card could handle older or less demanding games at medium settings if it had display outputs, but since it does not, such considerations are moot. For users with existing server infrastructure who need a Kepler-class compute device with substantial memory capacity, the K40t remains a viable option. The 50th percentile ranking implies that half of all tracked GPUs outperform it, so it is not recommended for cutting-edge workloads; instead, it serves as a capable accelerator for legacy codebases or as a development platform for CUDA-based projects that do not demand the latest hardware.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Tesla K40t is built on the Kepler architecture, which predates the introduction of dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores. Consequently, the specification lists no RT cores and no tensor cores, these features are absent from the hardware. This is a critical limitation for modern workloads that rely on hardware-accelerated ray tracing or tensor operations for AI inference. The card's feature set is instead defined by its compute capabilities and API support. It supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175, which provides a baseline level of compatibility with contemporary graphics APIs, albeit without the advanced features enabled by newer hardware.

In terms of raw compute, the K40t delivers 5.046 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, with a pixel rate of 52.56 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 210.2 GTexel/s. These figures indicate a strong rasterization capability for its generation, but they do not translate into ray tracing performance because no dedicated hardware exists. The memory subsystem, comprising 12 GB of GDDR5 at 6 Gbps effective across a 384-bit interface, yields 288.4 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that supports data-intensive compute but cannot compensate for the absence of RT/tensor acceleration. The card's API support for Vulkan 1.2.175 is notable for a 2013 release, as it allows access to modern compute and graphics pipelines, but developers targeting ray tracing will find no hardware assistance. The architecture's GK110B chip is a compute-oriented design, and the feature set reflects that focus.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK provides no nearest rivals for the Tesla K40t, which means a direct comparative analysis against specific competing products is not possible based on the available data. The benchmark results are empty, and the nearestRivals array is null. This absence of comparative data is itself informative: the card's percentile rank of 50 against all GPUs serves as a general reference point, but without named rivals, the analysis must rely on the card's absolute specifications. In the historical context of its release, the Tesla K40t would have competed with other high-end compute accelerators of the Kepler generation, but the FACT PACK does not enumerate them.

Given the lack of rival data, the positioning must be inferred from the percentile score. A percentile of 50 means the card is exactly average among all GPUs ever tracked by the database. This is a meaningful statement: it outperforms half of the GPUs in the database and underperforms the other half. The card's 12 GB memory capacity and 5.046 TFLOPS FP32 performance are substantial for its era, but they are eclipsed by subsequent generations. Without rival names or scores, no specific delta percentages can be cited. The comparison framework is thus limited to the percentile rank and the card's own specifications. The predecessor (Tesla Fermi) and successor (Tesla Maxwell) are listed, indicating a generational progression, but no performance figures for those are provided.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the Tesla K40t is notably sparse: the benchmarks array is empty, and the average benchmark score is 0. This lack of direct benchmark scores means that quantitative performance analysis must be derived from the hardware specifications and the percentile rank. The FP32 throughput of 5.046 TFLOPS, combined with a texture rate of 210.2 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 52.56 GPixel/s, provides a theoretical peak for compute-bound workloads. The memory bandwidth of 288.4 GB/s over a 384-bit interface is a key enabler for memory-intensive tasks, and the 12 GB capacity allows for large working sets.

The percentile rank of 50 indicates that the card's real-world performance, as measured by the database's aggregate scoring, lands at the median of all GPUs. This is a significant finding because it suggests that despite its age and architectural limitations, the K40t remains competitive with half of the GPUs in the database, a testament to its compute capability rather than its gaming prowess. The lack of rival data, however, precludes any specific percentage comparisons. The card's FP32 compute is its strongest attribute, and the 5.046 TFLOPS figure is the headline number. The absence of FP16 performance is noteworthy, as it limits the card's utility in workloads that benefit from reduced-precision arithmetic, such as certain AI inference tasks.

In summary, the Tesla K40t delivers a median level of performance across all GPUs, with its compute throughput and memory capacity being its primary strengths. The data shows a card that is neither exceptional nor obsolete, but rather a capable compute accelerator from the Kepler era. The empty benchmark results and missing rivals mean that the analysis must rest on the theoretical specifications and the percentile rank, which together paint a picture of a solid, mid-pack performer. For users evaluating this card, the 12 GB memory and 5.046 TFLOPS are the figures that matter most, and the 245 W TDP and 550 W PSU recommendation define the system requirements. In the absence of comparative data, the percentile rank of 50 is the single most informative metric, placing the K40t squarely in the middle of the performance distribution.