NVIDIA Tesla P100 SXM2

# NVIDIA Tesla P100 SXM2 Analysis

The NVIDIA Tesla P100 SXM2 is a compute-oriented accelerator built on the Pascal architecture, targeting data center workloads rather than consumer gaming. With its 16 GB of HBM2 memory, 4096-bit bus, and 732.2 GB/s bandwidth, this card prioritizes memory throughput and FP32 compute over rasterization features. The data indicates a product at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, placing it exactly at the median of the performance distribution — a fitting representation of its dual role as a capable compute workhorse but an aging gaming solution. It is end-of-life, released on 2016-04-04, and succeeded the Tesla Maxwell generation before being replaced by Tesla Volta.

Who Should Consider It

The Tesla P100 SXM2 is not a card for the average desktop user. Its SXM module form factor, lack of display outputs, and absence of power connectors immediately disqualify it from standard consumer builds. Instead, this accelerator targets professionals and researchers who need high-throughput FP32 compute for simulation, scientific computing, or machine learning inference tasks that fit within 16 GB of HBM2 memory. The 10.61 TFLOPS of FP32 performance places it in a competitive range for single-precision workloads, while the FP16 capability of 21.22 TFLOPS (at a 2:1 ratio) offers a doubling of throughput for mixed-precision applications that can leverage reduced precision.

For gaming or consumer resolution-based recommendations, the data provides no direct benchmarks — the benchmark array is empty. However, the architectural facts suggest this card was never designed for real-time rendering: it has no RT cores and no tensor cores, meaning any ray-traced workloads would rely entirely on traditional shader computation. With 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, the raw rasterization throughput is present — 142.1 GPixel/s pixel rate and 331.5 GTexel/s texture rate — but the lack of display outputs means you could not connect a monitor without a secondary GPU. The 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that for any consumer scenario, this card sits in the middle of the pack, neither a high-end performer nor a low-end bargain.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Pascal architecture predates NVIDIA's dedicated ray tracing hardware. The fact pack lists no RT cores and no tensor cores, confirming that this GPU has no specialized acceleration for ray-traced effects or AI-based rendering features. Any ray tracing would have to be performed through compute shaders, which is inefficient compared to dedicated hardware found in newer architectures. The API support includes DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, which means the card is nominally compatible with modern graphics APIs. However, the absence of RT cores means that even with these APIs, hardware-accelerated ray tracing is unavailable, and the card would fall back to software-based approaches that significantly impact performance.

The feature set is fundamentally compute-oriented. The 732.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, achieved through HBM2 across a 4096-bit bus, is the standout feature — it provides exceptional data throughput for memory-bound workloads. The 16 GB VRAM capacity allows large datasets to reside on-card without spilling to system memory. The texture rate of 331.5 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 142.1 GPixel/s show that the rasterization units are present but were not the design focus. For cloud rendering or virtual desktop scenarios, the lack of display outputs means this card must be paired with a separate GPU for any visual output.

Power and Cooling

The Tesla P100 SXM2 carries a 300 W TDP, which is substantial but not extreme for a data center accelerator. The suggested PSU rating is 700 W, which accounts for the rest of the system's power draw alongside the GPU. The power connectors are listed as "None," which is typical for SXM modules — they draw power through the motherboard or a baseboard management controller rather than through auxiliary PCIe power connectors. This means the card cannot be installed in a standard desktop PCIe slot without a custom adapter or carrier board, and the power delivery must be handled by the host system's design.

Cooling is not specified in terms of a specific cooler size or type, and the slot width is described as "SXM Module," which indicates a bare module that requires a server chassis with appropriate airflow or liquid cooling infrastructure. The 300 W TDP generates meaningful heat that must be dissipated, and in a dense server environment, this requires careful thermal management. The 16 nm process node from TSMC, with 15,300 million transistors on a 610 mm² die, gives a transistor density of 25.1M per mm² — this is relatively low by modern standards, meaning the chip runs at modest clock speeds of 1328 MHz base and 1480 MHz boost to stay within the 300 W envelope.

FAQ

Q: Does the Tesla P100 SXM2 support ray tracing?

A: No. The fact pack lists no RT cores, meaning there is no dedicated ray tracing hardware. The card relies on traditional shader-based compute for any ray tracing workloads, which is significantly less efficient than dedicated RT hardware found in newer architectures.

Q: Can I use this card for gaming?

A: The card has no display outputs, so it cannot connect to a monitor directly. While it has 3584 shading units and supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, its SXM form factor and lack of video outputs make it unsuitable for consumer gaming without a secondary GPU for display output.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the Tesla P100 SXM2?

A: It has 16 GB of HBM2 memory on a 4096-bit bus, providing 732.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The memory clock is 715 MHz, which translates to 1430 Mbps effective. This configuration is designed for high-throughput data access in compute workloads.

Q: What power supply do I need for this card?

A: The suggested PSU rating is 700 W. The card itself has a 300 W TDP, and since it uses SXM module power delivery with no power connectors, the motherboard or carrier board must supply power. A 700 W PSU is recommended to handle the full system load.

Q: Is the Tesla P100 SXM2 still in production?

A: No, the production status is end-of-life. It was released on 2016-04-04, succeeded the Tesla Maxwell generation, and was followed by the Tesla Volta generation. It is based on the Pascal architecture with the GP100 chip.

Q: What are the FP32 and FP16 compute capabilities?

A: The card delivers 10.61 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 21.22 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (at a 2:1 ratio). This means FP16 throughput is exactly double the FP32 throughput, which is useful for mixed-precision workloads that can tolerate reduced precision.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals field is empty in the fact pack, meaning there are no direct comparison points provided for this specific card. The percentileVsAllGpus value of 50 indicates that the Tesla P100 SXM2 sits exactly at the median of all GPUs in the benchmark database — half of all GPUs perform better, and half perform worse. This positioning is consistent with a 2016-era compute card that has been superseded by multiple generations of newer hardware. Without specific rival names, scores, or deltaPct values, the comparison must rely on the percentile ranking alone.

The card's position in the product stack is defined by its generation: it is the successor to Tesla Maxwell and the predecessor to Tesla Volta. This places it in the Pascal generation, which was a significant architectural leap for compute performance at the time. However, the empty benchmark array means no empirical scores are available to quantify its performance against any specific competitor. The absence of rivalry data suggests that this card is typically evaluated in the context of data center deployments rather than head-to-head gaming benchmarks, and its 50th percentile ranking reflects a broad middle-ground performance profile across all GPU use cases.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem is the defining feature of the Tesla P100 SXM2. It utilizes 16 GB of HBM2 memory, which is a high-bandwidth memory technology designed for data-intensive workloads. The bus width is an enormous 4096-bit, which is four times wider than typical GDDR5 implementations of the same era. This wide bus compensates for the relatively modest memory clock of 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective), resulting in a total memory bandwidth of 732.2 GB/s. This bandwidth figure is critical for high-resolution compute tasks, large dataset processing, and any workload that requires frequent memory access.

For high-resolution scenarios, the 16 GB capacity allows large textures, models, or datasets to reside entirely in VRAM. The 732.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that data can be fed to the 3584 shading units at a rate that keeps them busy. In contrast to consumer GPUs that might have smaller bus widths and lower bandwidth, this card's memory subsystem is optimized for throughput rather than latency. The HBM2 stack layout also reduces the physical footprint, which is why the card can fit into an SXM module form factor. The memory bandwidth of 732.2 GB/s is a direct enabler for the 10.61 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, as compute units require consistent data flow to reach peak performance.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the Tesla P100 SXM2 is notably sparse — the benchmarks array is empty, and the avgBenchmarkScore is 0. This means there are no empirical performance scores recorded in the fact pack to analyze. The only performance indicator is the percentileVsAllGpus value of 50, which places this card at the exact median of all GPUs. This percentile ranking suggests that the card performs better than half of all GPUs in the database and worse than the other half, making it a middle-of-the-road performer in the overall GPU landscape.

Without specific benchmark scores or nearestRivals data, it is impossible to provide exact percentage deltas or direct comparisons. The FP32 throughput of 10.61 TFLOPS and FP16 throughput of 21.22 TFLOPS are the primary compute metrics available. The FP16 figure at a 2:1 ratio indicates that the card can process half-precision data at twice the rate of full precision, which is a valuable feature for machine learning inference where reduced precision is often acceptable. The texture rate of 331.5 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 142.1 GPixel/s provide additional throughput figures, but without rival scores, these numbers exist in isolation. The 50th percentile ranking is the only comparative data point, and it indicates that this card delivers average performance relative to the entire GPU population, which is consistent with its age and compute-focused design rather than gaming optimization.