High efficiency breeding based on different responses of crop genotypes to nutrients is the most economic and effective way to achieve high yield and high nutrient efficient. In order to evaluate the differences of nutrient efficiency over winter wheat cultivars with different yields in dryland, nine winter wheat varieties were planted in a field where no fertilizer was applied for six years. Obtained results showed that, N and P uptakes in shoot and grain, N and P harvest indexes, N and P efficiency of different winter wheat cultivars were significantly different. With the increase of fertilizer rate, N and P uptakes in shoot and grain of different yield cultivars increased, and the increments were greater in high-yield varieties than the low-yield ones, showing a stronger response of high-yield cultivars to the input of fertilizer. However, N and P harvest indexes were not affected by the fertilization treatments. Compared with the low-yield cultivars, the high-yield ones were greater by 222% and 49% in N recovery efficiency and N partial factor productivity, and 766% and 49% in P recovery efficiency and P partial factor productivity respectively at the treatment of low fertilizer input. Partial factor productivity of different yield cultivars decreased significantly under high fertilizer input.