Calculate the TPS of the Tesla K40s on local AI models
Every model in our catalogue assessed against this card at the context length and minimum quality you choose. Speed is an estimate for a single request, calculated from this card's memory bandwidth and the size of each model once compressed.
Calculated for this card
721 models in our catalogue altogether
Largest model it holds
ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B
21B · Q3_K_M · 74.1 tok/s
Fastest model
Gemma 3 QAT 1B
104 tok/s · 1B
Which AI models can run on a Tesla K40s?
Set the inputs, read the answer
More context means more memory for the conversation cache. Speed is for a fresh conversation and does not change with this setting.
Hides models that would only fit by being compressed below this point.
411 models match
Calculating| Quantisation | Fit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
Gemma 3 1B | 1B | Mar 2025 | 1.8 GB | 33k tokens | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
Gemma 3 QAT 1B | 1B | Apr 2025 | 1.8 GB | 33k tokens | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
HGRN 1B (WT 103) ≈ | 1B | Nov 2023 | 1.8 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
LLama 3..2 Typhoon 2 1B ≈ | 1B | Dec 2024 | 1.8 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
OLMo-1B ≈ | 1B | Feb 2024 | 1.8 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
104
tok/s
36–208 · low confidence |
Pythia-1b ≈ | 1B | Apr 2023 | 1.8 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
96.1
tok/s
34–192 · low confidence |
OpenELM-1.1B ≈ | 1.1B | May 2024 | 1.9 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
94.4
tok/s
33–189 · low confidence |
DeciCoder-1B ≈ | 1.1B | Aug 2023 | 1.9 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
94.4
tok/s
33–189 · low confidence |
SantaCoder ≈ | 1.1B | Jan 2023 | 1.9 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
94.4
tok/s
33–189 · low confidence |
TinyLlama-1.1B (1T token checkpoint) ≈ | 1.1B | Oct 2023 | 1.9 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
94.4
tok/s
33–189 · low confidence |
TinyLlama-1.1B (3T token checkpoint) ≈ | 1.1B | Oct 2023 | 1.9 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
86.5
tok/s
30–173 · low confidence |
EXAONE 4.0 (1.2B) ≈ | 1.2B | Jul 2025 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
86.5
tok/s
30–173 · low confidence |
LFM2-1.2B ≈ | 1.2B | Jul 2025 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
86.5
tok/s
30–173 · low confidence |
MinerU2.5 ≈ | 1.2B | Sep 2025 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
86.5
tok/s
30–173 · low confidence |
Pleias 1.0 1.2B ≈ | 1.2B | Dec 2024 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
86.5
tok/s
30–173 · low confidence |
Pleias-RAG-1B ≈ | 1.2B | Apr 2025 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
84.4
tok/s
30–169 · low confidence |
Llama 3.2 1B | 1.2B | Sep 2024 | 2.2 GB | 131k tokens | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
83.2
tok/s
29–166 · low confidence |
DeepSeekMoE-16B | 16B | Jan 2024 | 10.0 GB | 4k tokens | Q4_K_M | Tight |
|
83.2
tok/s
29–166 · low confidence |
MiniCPM-1.2B ≈ | 1.2B | Jun 2024 | 2.0 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
DeepSeek Coder 1.3B ≈ | 1.3B | Jan 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
DeepSeek-VL-1.3B ≈ | 1.3B | Mar 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
DigiRL ≈ | 1.3B | Jun 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
GLA Transformer 1.3B ≈ | 1.3B | Aug 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
Janus 1.3B ≈ | 1.3B | Oct 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
|
79.9
tok/s
28–160 · low confidence |
Kosmos-2.5 ≈ | 1.3B | Aug 2024 | 2.1 GB | 131k tokens ? | Q8_0 | Comfortable |
Speeds are estimates for a single request — one conversation at a time — calculated from memory bandwidth, model size and quantisation. Real throughput varies with the inference runtime and its version. Figures published by hardware vendors measure many simultaneous requests and are much higher.
On record
Tesla K40s full specification
Everything on record for this board, ordered by how much it bears on running a language model rather than by how a spec sheet would list it. Memory comes first because it decides the outcome; the rest is context.
Memory
The two specifications that decide what this card can run and how quickly. Capacity sets which models fit; bandwidth sets how many tokens per second they produce once they do.
- Memory size
- 12 GB
- Memory bandwidth
- 288 GB/s
- Memory type
- GDDR5
- Memory bus width
- 384 bit
- Memory clock
- 1.5 GHz
The chip
Which processor is on the board and how it was manufactured. A smaller process size generally means more performance for the same power.
- Graphics processor
- GK110B
- Architecture
- Kepler
- Generation
- Tesla Kepler(Kxx)
- Foundry
- TSMC
- Process size
- 28 nm
- Transistors
- 7.1 billion
- Transistor density
- 12,600 K/mm²
- Die size
- 561 mm²
- Package
- BGA-2152
- Released
- 22 November 2013
Clock speeds
How fast the processor runs. Worth far less here than on a gaming benchmark: generating text is limited by memory bandwidth, so a higher clock barely moves the result.
- Base clock
- 706 MHz
- Boost clock
- 706 MHz
Processing units
What the chip contains. These drive graphics performance and matter mainly for processing a long prompt rather than for producing the answer.
- Shading units
- 2,880
- Texture mapping units
- 240
- Render output units
- 48
- L1 cache
- 16 KB
- L2 cache
- 1.5 MB
Theoretical performance
Peak arithmetic rates published for the board. These are ceilings that no real workload reaches, and generating text reaches a small fraction of them because it is limited by memory rather than arithmetic.
- Single precision (FP32)
- 4.1 TFLOPS
- Double precision (FP64)
- 1.4 TFLOPS
- Pixel rate
- 42 GPixel/s
- Texture rate
- 169 GTexel/s
The board
What it takes to physically install and power the card — the practical constraints that decide whether it fits the machine you already own.
- Power draw (TDP)
- 245 W
- Suggested power supply
- 550 W
- Bus interface
- PCIe 3.0 x16
- Slot width
- Dual-slot
- Dimensions
- 267 mm
Software support
Which graphics and compute interfaces the card supports. CUDA compute capability is the one that bears on inference: below 7.0 there are no tensor cores, and modern inference software falls back to slower code paths.
- CUDA compute capability
- 3.5
- DirectX
- 11.1
- OpenGL
- 4.6
- Vulkan
- 1.2
- OpenCL
- 3.0
- Shader model
- 5.1
Listings
Where to buy a Tesla K40s
No vendor is currently listing this card. Listings come from vendors who publish them here directly — browse the vendor directory to see who is selling what.
What the numbers mean
What the memory subsystem means for AI
Memory
12 GB
Bandwidth
288 GB/s
Largest model
ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B
Tesla K40s carries 12 GB of GDDR5. That reaches comfortably into small and mid-sized models, though the largest stay out of reach without splitting them. Driver overhead leaves roughly 10.8 GB.
Memory bandwidth reaches 288 GB/s across a bus of 384 bits. Bandwidth is this card's real constraint. Every token requires reading the entire model out of memory, so a large model will feel slow here even when it fits.
The figure is the bus width multiplied by a memory clock of 1.5 GHz. Widening the bus and raising the clock are the two levers a manufacturer has, which is why a card with unremarkable cores can still generate quickly.
Put together, the largest model that fits is ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B, 21B, compressed to Q3_K_M and generating around 74.1 tokens per second.
The chip and how it was built
Tesla K40s is built on the graphics processor GK110B, using the architecture Kepler from NVIDIA, as part of the generation Tesla Kepler(Kxx).
The chip is manufactured by TSMC, on a process of 28 nm, with a die measuring 561 mm², holding 7.1 billion transistors. A smaller process generally means more performance for the same power, though for language models it matters far less than the memory subsystem.
It was released in November 2013, roughly 12.81011066352 years ago. Inference software support tends to follow hardware by a year or two, so a card of this age generally has mature, well-optimised code paths available to it.
Compute throughput, and why it matters less than it looks
FP64
1.4 TFLOPS
Double-precision throughput reaches 1.4 TFLOPS. It has no bearing on running a language model — no inference runtime uses it — but it separates datacentre parts from consumer ones, since the latter deliberately restrict it.
Clocks run from a base of 706 MHz to a boost of 706 MHz. Worth far less here than on a gaming benchmark: raising the clock speeds up the arithmetic, and the arithmetic is not what generation is waiting on.
Cache and processing units
Tesla K40s has an L1 cache of 16 KB, backed by an L2 cache of 1.5 MB. Cache absorbs a share of the memory traffic that would otherwise hit the main bus, which is the one place on this page where a number other than bandwidth quietly affects generation speed — a large L2 lets more of the working set stay close to the cores.
There are 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. These drive graphics workloads and contribute to prompt processing, but they sit idle for much of the time a model spends generating a reply.
Power, size and installation
Power draw
245 W
Tesla K40s is rated at 245 W, and the suggested system power supply is 550 W. Running a language model keeps a card busy in bursts rather than continuously — it draws hard while generating and idles between requests — so sustained draw over a working day is usually well below the rated figure.
The board occupies dual-slot, measuring 267 mm long. Worth checking against the case and power supply already in the machine, since the largest cards need considerably more of both than a typical desktop provides.
It connects over PCIe 3.0 x16. The interface governs how quickly a model is loaded from disk into the card, not how fast it runs once there, so a narrower link costs a few seconds at startup and nothing thereafter.
The extremes
The largest AI models that run on a Tesla K40s
The biggest open-weight models that fit on this card, newest first. Each is shown at the best compression the card can hold.
The fastest AI models on a Tesla K40s
Where this card produces tokens quickest. Smaller models dominate here, because generating each token means reading the whole model out of memory once.
Step by step
How to work out the tokens per second of a Tesla K40s
You do not have to calculate anything by hand — the gputps.com calculator on this page has already worked it out for every model this card can hold. Reading off the answer takes six steps.
-
01
Find the model in the table
The table lists 411 models this card runs. Search narrows the list by name or by size.
-
02
Set the context length you will actually use
Set the context to your real working length. Short questions cost almost nothing, but a long document can consume a large share of 12 GB that is frequently the difference between a model fitting and not.
-
03
Set a minimum quality if you need one
Compression is what lets bigger models fit. The quality control drops any model that needs more of it than you are willing to give.
-
04
Take the range as the answer
Speeds come with error bars for a reason. The best case here is 104 tok/s on Gemma 3 QAT 1B. The same card and model vary by thirty to fifty per cent between inference runtimes.
-
05
Read the fit verdict last
A tight fit runs but leaves no room to raise the context later; comfortable has headroom. The memory column shows what each model needs against an available 12 GB.
-
06
Open the model to compare cards
Each model page repeats this calculation for the whole catalogue. Worth a look before deciding: it shows what else runs the same model, alongside Tesla K40s.
Answers
Tesla K40s — common questions
Tesla K40s— who makes it?
This is a product of NVIDIA, with the chip manufactured by TSMC, on a process of 28 nm.
Tesla K40s— when was it released?
It was released in November 2013.
Tesla K40s— how much power does it use?
Rated board power is 245 W, and the suggested system power supply is 550 W. Generating text draws hard in bursts and idles between requests, so average consumption over a working session is normally well below the rated figure.
Tesla K40s— how much cache does it have?
The L1 cache is 16 KB, and the L2 cache is 1.5 MB. Cache absorbs part of the memory traffic that would otherwise reach the main bus, so a larger L2 gives a modest lift to generation speed beyond what bandwidth alone predicts.
Tesla K40s— does it support CUDA?
Yes. It reports CUDA compute capability 3.5, which predates tensor cores. Capability 7.0 and above has tensor cores, which modern inference software uses; below that it falls back to slower code paths for quantised models.
Tesla K40s— what bus interface does it use?
It uses PCIe 3.0 x16. This governs how fast a model is loaded onto the card rather than how fast it runs once loaded, so it costs a few seconds at startup and nothing during generation.
Tesla K40s— is it good for running local AI models?
Its memory covers small and mid-sized models, though the largest are out of reach though its bandwidth means generation will feel slow on larger models. In total it runs 411 of the models we track. Whether that is enough depends entirely on which model you want — the table above answers that directly.
Tesla K40s— can it run a model that does not fit in its memory?
Only partly. Layers beyond the card's 12 GB drags the whole thing down, and none of the figures on this page assume it.
Would two Tesla K40s cards be twice as fast?
No. A second card doubles the memory to 24 GB which lets you hold models neither could hold alone, but generation does not split that way. These figures describe one card.
Tesla K40s— which AI models can it run?
411 of the 721 open-weight language models we track fit on this card and can be run locally. The table on this page lists every one, with the memory it needs, the quantisation it runs at and an estimated generation speed.
Tesla K40s— what is the largest AI model it can run?
The largest model in our catalogue that fits is ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B at 21B parameters, compressed to Q3_K_M. It generates roughly 74.1 tokens per second and needs about 10.1 GB of the card's memory.
Tesla K40s— how many tokens per second does it produce?
It depends on the model. The fastest model we track here is Gemma 3 QAT 1B at about 104 tokens per second, while larger models run proportionally slower because each token requires reading the whole model out of memory once. Speeds are estimates for a single conversation at a time.
Tesla K40s— can it run 7B models?
Yes. For example it runs Gemma 4 E4B at Q8_0, using about 9.8 GB of memory and generating around 23.1 tokens per second.
Tesla K40s— can it run 13B models?
Yes. For example it runs DeepSeekMoE-16B at Q4_K_M, using about 10.0 GB of memory and generating around 83.2 tokens per second.
Tesla K40s— how much memory does it have?
This card has 12 GB of GDDR5. Around a tenth is reserved by the inference runtime and the driver, leaving roughly 10.8 GB available for a model and its conversation.
Tesla K40s— what is its memory bandwidth?
Memory bandwidth reaches 288 GB/s across a bus of 384 bits. This is the single best predictor of how fast it generates text, because producing each token means reading the entire model out of memory once.
Tesla K40s— what type of memory does it use?
It uses GDDR5 clocked at 1.5 GHz. HBM types are found on datacentre accelerators and carry far more bandwidth than the GDDR used on desktop cards, which is why they generate tokens considerably faster at the same capacity.
The other direction
Looking at it from the other side?
This page starts from the hardware. If you already know which model you want and need to know what it takes to run it, start from the model instead.