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TekSpek GPU - Pro Graphics
Tesla vs GeForce

Tesla vs GeForce


Date issued:

NVIDIA® CUDA parallel computing architecture is enabled on GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla products. Whereas GeForce and Quadro are designed for consumer graphics and professional visualization respectively, the NVIDIA® Tesla™ product family is designed ground-up for parallel computing and offers exclusive computing features.

THE TESLA ADVANTAGE #1: PERFORMANCE

The NVIDIA® Tesla products are designed with exclusive features to maximize performance for computing professionals.

Advantages Tesla GeForce
Faster Double Precision Performance 515 GigaFlops Much lower at 1/8th single precision
Faster PCI-E Communication Two DMA engines for bi-directional communication Only one DMA engine available
Larger Memory Size 3GB & 6GB available for HPC apps Largest memory is 1.5GB
Optimized for InfiniBand NVIDIA GPUDirect for accelerated communication Extra memory copies and context switching
Performance Drivers TCC driver on Windows reduces CUDA kernel overhead Kernel launch overhead reduces GPU performance

THE TESLA ADVANTAGE #2: RELIABILITY

Computational professionals depend on mission critical applications to run reliably without data error. All Tesla products undergo zero error tolerance testing in the most strenuous conditions for hundreds of times longer than any other NVIDIA products. Tesla exclusive features include:

Advantages Tesla GeForce
ECC Protection All internal and external memories protected No memories protected
Zero Error Stress Tested Stress tested for several days with zero tolerance for error Tested only for graphics apps
Manufactured by NVIDIA Guaranteed by NVIDIA to be of highest quality Manufactured by 3rd party board makers
Enterprise Level Support Three year warranty and prioritized support for bugs and feature requests Consumer level support
ISV Certification HPC software vendors certify only on Tesla Functionality/performance risk with software

THE TESLA ADVANTAGE #3: HPC SOLUTIONS

HPC customers have unique requirements. Only Tesla business unit provides products and solutions to meet these special needs.

Advantages Tesla GeFroce
Integrated Systems Innovative Servers and workstations Consumer oriented products
18-24 Month Availability Longer life cycle for investment protection Supply depends on consumer demand
Cluster management and GPU monitoring Access GPUs in clusters for temperature, power, and usage No support for datacenter features
HPC Expertise Total solution expertise provided by CUDA/OpenCL engineers and technical staff No HPC expertise or support