NVIDIA Tesla K80 - 24GB GDDR5 - PCI-E - Passive Cooling

The NVIDIA Tesla K80 is a dual-GPU compute accelerator built on the Kepler architecture, packing two GK210 processors with a combined 4992 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR5 memory onto a single full-length PCIe card. Originally designed for data center deployment, the K80 delivered substantial performance gains across scientific computing disciplines — NVIDIA documented 5-10x speedups in applications spanning seismic analysis (RTM), molecular dynamics (NAMD, AMBER, LAMMPS), lattice quantum chromodynamics (CHROMA), and deep learning frameworks like CAFFE. The 24GB memory pool, split as 12GB per GPU, remains generous enough to accommodate moderately sized neural network models and scientific datasets.

As a passive-cooled card, the K80 is built for rack-mounted servers with high-volume airflow and is not suitable for consumer desktop cases. Each GPU appears as a separate CUDA device to the host system, so applications must be written or configured to leverage both GPUs for maximum throughput. While newer architectures like Volta, Ampere, and Hopper have dramatically surpassed the K80 in raw performance, memory bandwidth, and power efficiency, the K80 has found a second life as an affordable compute card for students, researchers, and hobbyists who need hands-on GPU computing experience without the cost of current-generation hardware. Its broad CUDA compatibility means it still runs the vast majority of GPU-accelerated software, albeit more slowly than modern alternatives.