NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada vs RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Workstation Edition: 32 GB, two generations
Eurokommerz, Vienna, since 2006: Private AI/ML · IT Managed Services · Enterprise Training · AI Hardware & Software
- The RTX 5000 Ada and the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Workstation Edition both have 32 GB with ECC in a dual-slot card of 4.4 × 10.5 in; the Ada card uses GDDR6 at 576 GB/s, the Blackwell card GDDR7 at 896 GB/s
- On paper the RTX 5000 Ada has 12,800 CUDA cores, 65.3 TFLOPS in single precision and 250 W; the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition has 10,496 cores of the newer generation, 51 TFLOPS and 200 W
- NVIDIA's vGPU list includes the RTX 5000 Ada from release 16.1 and not the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition; the Blackwell card with 32 GB and vGPU is the passive Server Edition
- FP4 Tensor Cores, PCIe 5.0, DisplayPort 2.1b and 4:2:2 encoding exist only on the Blackwell card; by our sizing rule both cards have the same budget of 25.7 GiB for model weights and KV cache
- No published test we use sets the two cards directly against each other; in Blender Open Data for Blender 4.5.0 the median is 8,486.57 samples per minute for the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition (17 submissions) and 5,677.13 for the RTX 5000 Ada (9)
Supplied by Eurokommerz: NVIDIA RTX workstation cards Check price and availability →
RTX 5000 Ada or RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell in the rows that decide
The NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Workstation Edition both carry 32 GB with ECC on a board of the same size. The Blackwell card reads its memory at 896 GB/s instead of 576 GB/s, draws 200 W instead of 250 W and adds FP4 Tensor Cores, PCIe 5.0 and DisplayPort 2.1b. The Ada card is the one on NVIDIA's vGPU list, and it runs in images whose driver is older than the Blackwell generation. In the table, WE stands for Workstation Edition.
| WHAT DECIDES | RTX 5000 ADA | RTX PRO 4500 WE |
|---|---|---|
| GPU memory | 32 GB GDDR6 with ECC | 32 GB GDDR7 with ECC |
| Memory bandwidth | 576 GB/s | 896 GB/s |
| Total board power | 250 W | 200 W |
| Size and slots | 4.4 × 10.5 in, dual slot | 4.4 × 10.5 in, dual slot |
| Tensor formats | FP8, no FP4 | FP4 and FP8 |
| vGPU | from release 16.1 | not on the list |
| Host interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 5.0 x16 |
| Display outputs | 4 × DisplayPort 1.4a | 4 × DisplayPort 2.1b |
| 4:2:2 encoding | no | yes |
| Announced | 8 August 2023 | 18 March 2025 |
NVIDIA datasheets 2898211 (August 2023) and 5108623 (April 2026); NVIDIA's vGPU supported-GPU list of 2 October 2026; NVIDIA's Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix of 16 October 2026; NVIDIA's press releases of 8 August 2023 and 18 March 2025.
32 GB at 576 GB/s and at 896 GB/s
Both datasheets state ECC and a 256-bit memory interface. The difference is the memory type: GDDR6 at 576 GB/s on the Ada card, GDDR7 at 896 GB/s on the Blackwell card, which is 56 per cent more by our arithmetic.
Because the size is equal, a scene, a dataset or a model file that fits one card fits the other. For language models our sizing rule gives both the same budget for weights plus KV cache, 25.7 GiB. The rule takes 0.9 times the memory the driver reports and subtracts 3 GiB; we scale the reported memory from the 95.6 GiB the driver shows on the 96 GB card, an assumption, and the driver on the delivered card decides. By file size on Hugging Face, read 10 November 2026, Gemma 4 12B-it in BF16 (22.28 GiB) and Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct in FP8 (24.02 GiB) lie inside that budget on either card. Qwen3.8-27B-FP8 (28.75 GiB) fits neither card: it is above 0.9 times the memory the driver reports, about 28.7 GiB by the same scaling.
What separates the two for AI is the number format and the memory bandwidth. Model files in NVFP4 compute natively only on Blackwell cards, and the Blackwell card has the higher bandwidth. What that is worth in tokens per second on this pair is not published: one system measurement of token rates exists for the RTX 5000 Ada and none for the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition. Both points are set out in RTX 5000 Ada and RTX 4500 Ada for AI.
12,800 against 10,496 CUDA cores, 65.3 against 51 TFLOPS
On paper the older card has the higher compute figures. NVIDIA's datasheet gives the RTX 5000 Ada 12,800 CUDA cores, 400 Tensor Cores of the fourth generation, 100 RT Cores of the third and 65.3 TFLOPS in single precision. The RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition has 10,496 CUDA cores and 51 TFLOPS; its Tensor Cores are fifth generation and its RT Cores fourth generation, and NVIDIA publishes no counts for them. Both TFLOPS figures are peak rates at the boost clock.
The core counts come from two generations and give no ranking. The RT Core figures are level, 151.0 against 153 TFLOPS. The Tensor figures cannot be compared at all: the Ada datasheet states 1044.4 TFLOPS as an effective FP8 rate with sparsity, the Blackwell datasheet 1,617 AI TOPS as an effective FP4 figure with sparsity.
One card has the higher single-precision peak and the other the higher memory bandwidth, so the datasheets do not settle which is faster in a given application. That takes a measurement.
No published test sets the two cards side by side
Puget Systems had both cards on one bench, a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, for its professional GPU roundup of 18 December 2025. Its text gives each Blackwell card against the Ada card of the same number, so the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition against the RTX 4500 Ada (28 to 73 per cent ahead in six tests; see RTX 4500 Ada vs RTX PRO 4500 and 4000 Blackwell) and the RTX PRO 5000 against the RTX 5000 Ada (18 to 58 per cent). The pair of this page is not set out in the text, and the scores are in chart images that we do not transcribe.
Blender Open Data holds both cards. Its medians for Blender 4.5.0, as read on 10 November 2026 with OptiX and CUDA runs in one pool, are 8,486.57 samples per minute for the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition (17 submissions; the Server Edition has a row of its own) and 5,677.13 for the RTX 5000 Ada (9 submissions), 49 per cent more by our arithmetic. Nobody controls processor or driver in this crowd-sourced data, and a neighbouring row shows how coarse it is: the RTX 4500 Ada has a median of 5,673.65 from 5 submissions, almost the same value as the RTX 5000 Ada.
SPEC has published results with the RTX 5000 Ada, and we found none with a Blackwell card. One of them is a SPECviewperf 15.0 run of 16 April 2025 on an HP Z6 G5 A at Full HD, with composites of 184.42 in solidworks-08, 123.22 in catia-07 and 241.11 in creo-04. A buyer who needs a SPEC figure for a tender therefore has one for the Ada card only.
250 W and 200 W in the same slot position
On paper the two boards are interchangeable in a chassis: 4.4 by 10.5 in (about 112 by 267 mm, converted), two slots wide, actively cooled. The power side matches as well. Each card has a 16-pin PCIe CEM5 connector and, per NVIDIA's quick start guides, an adapter in the box that takes two 8-pin PCIe cables; the Blackwell datasheet names the connector, the Ada datasheet does not, so the guide is the source there. A workstation that holds an RTX 5000 Ada offers the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition the slots, the length and the power leads it needs, with 50 W less to supply and to cool. NVIDIA publishes no power-supply wattage for either card.
The host interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 on the Ada card and PCIe 5.0 x16 on the Blackwell card. Each has four full-size DisplayPort outputs and no HDMI output, and each drives four displays at most. The Ada datasheet lists four displays at 4096 × 2160 and 120 Hz, four at 5120 × 2880 and 60 Hz or two at 7680 × 4320 and 60 Hz over DisplayPort 1.4a; the Blackwell datasheet lists four at 3840 × 2160 and 165 Hz or two at 7680 × 4320 and 100 Hz over DisplayPort 2.1b.
Each card has two encoders and two decoders. NVIDIA's support matrix of 16 October 2026 lists both with AV1 encoding and an unrestricted number of NVENC sessions, and 4:2:2 encoding for the Blackwell card only.
We supply both cards across the EU; send us the workstation model and the number of seats and we reply within one business day with a written quote for the card that fits, or for both.
vGPU on the RTX 5000 Ada, and what Blackwell offers instead
NVIDIA's vGPU list of 2 October 2026 includes the RTX 5000 Ada from release 16.1 with full support; its display ports have to be turned off when vGPU software is used. The RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition is not on the list. A company that shares one 32 GB card among several virtual workstations therefore stays with the Ada card, or moves to the other card named RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell: the Server Edition, a passive single-slot card with 165 W for rack servers, which is on the list from release 20.0. That card is described in the RTX PRO 4500 Server Edition specs and on the page to buy the RTX PRO 4500 Server Edition.
MIG is no substitute on either card. No Ada card is in NVIDIA's MIG guide of 4 November 2026. For the Blackwell card the wording matters: NVIDIA's MIG guide lists an RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell without naming the edition; the Workstation Edition datasheet does not mention MIG. We do not plan on it, and MIG and vGPU on RTX PRO and RTX Ada cards gives the reasons.
For display walls the Blackwell card is the one documented without a gap. It is on NVIDIA's RTX PRO Sync page of 15 October 2026 and in the sync table of the 621.14 release notes. For the RTX 5000 Ada, NVIDIA's datasheet and its RTX PRO Sync page list the card as compatible; the sync table in the 621.14 driver release notes does not. Mosaic is named in the Ada datasheet for Windows 10 and Linux; the Blackwell datasheet has no Mosaic line, and NVIDIA's Mosaic page names its RTX PRO products as a family.
Drivers and an image built around the Ada card
Both cards are in the newest release of each current branch, the Workstation Edition under the name NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell: 582.99, 597.30 and 621.14 on Windows, 580.196.07, 595.112.07 and 620.70.06 on Linux. A fleet on a current driver can mix them, as our article on mixing Ada and Blackwell GPUs describes.
An older, frozen image is a different matter. The earliest releases in which we find the RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition in NVIDIA's product lists are Linux 570.169, then 575.64 and 580.65.06 in the two following branches, and the earliest Windows release that NVIDIA's driver search returns for it is 573.42 of 17 June 2025. These are our readings of the lists and no NVIDIA statements. NVIDIA announced the RTX 5000 Ada on 8 August 2023, and the card ran on earlier branches; Puget Systems, for one, tested it on driver 552.74 in August 2024. An image validated on such a driver takes another RTX 5000 Ada without change and needs a newer driver before the Blackwell card goes in.
Certification follows the same logic. Dassault's SOLIDWORKS 2026 certification list, read 10 November 2026, has rows with desktop workstations for the RTX 5000 Ada and for an RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, whose two editions it does not separate. A row is one computer model with one card and one driver, so a seat that must stay inside a certified combination is checked against the row for its own workstation.
RTX 5000 Ada vs RTX PRO 4000 and RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell
| CARD | MEMORY | BANDWIDTH | BOARD POWER | SLOTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 5000 Ada | 32 GB GDDR6 | 576 GB/s | 250 W | dual |
| RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | 24 GB GDDR7 | 672 GB/s | 145 W | single |
| RTX PRO 4500 (workstation) | 32 GB GDDR7 | 896 GB/s | 200 W | dual |
| RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48 GB | 48 GB GDDR7 | 1,344 GB/s | 300 W | dual |
NVIDIA datasheets 2898211 (August 2023), 5323450 (June 2026), 5108623 (April 2026) and 5349550 (June 2026).
NVIDIA names no successor for the RTX 5000 Ada. By number the Blackwell card is the RTX PRO 5000, with 48 or 72 GB at 300 W, and our existing comparison RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell vs RTX 5000 Ada covers that pair; the 48 GB card is described on the page to buy the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48 GB and in RTX PRO 5000 48 GB vs 72 GB.
The RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell is the step down in memory. It has 24 GB, 8 GB less than the RTX 5000 Ada, with a higher bandwidth of 672 GB/s at 145 W in a single slot. Where 24 GB is enough, it does the work at 105 W less and in half the slot width: buy the RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, specs. The steps inside the Blackwell line are in RTX PRO 4000 vs RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell and RTX PRO 4500 vs RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, and every tier of both generations is in our overview of RTX Ada and RTX PRO Blackwell.
Which of the two to order
- Virtual workstations on vGPU. The RTX 5000 Ada, which is on NVIDIA's list; in a rack server the Blackwell route is the Server Edition.
- One more seat in a fleet with a validated Ada image. The RTX 5000 Ada: buy the RTX 5000 Ada, RTX 5000 Ada specs. The smaller Ada card (RTX 4500 Ada specs, buy) is compared in RTX 4500 Ada vs RTX 5000 Ada.
- A new seat for rendering, video or local AI. The RTX PRO 4500 Workstation Edition: more bandwidth, FP4, 4:2:2 encoding and 50 W less at the same memory. See buy the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell and its 32 GB spec page.
- A tender that asks for a published SPEC result. We found one for the Ada card only.
- A display wall with a sync board. Both are on NVIDIA's sync page; the Blackwell card is also in the current driver table.
If the image, the hypervisor or the application leaves the choice open, tell us what the cards will run and in which machines, and we answer with the card we would quote and the reason.
FAQ
RTX 5000 Ada vs RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell: which is faster?
Does the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell fit in a workstation that holds an RTX 5000 Ada?
Which of the two cards supports vGPU?
RTX 5000 Ada vs RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell: what is the difference?
RTX 5000 Ada vs Blackwell: which RTX PRO card matches it?
Do the RTX 5000 Ada and the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell load the same AI models?
Do both cards run on the same driver?
We supply the RTX 5000 Ada and the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Workstation Edition across the EU, as cards or in workstations built to order. Describe your task in a few sentences and our team will help. We reply within one business day.
Check price and availabilityWe reply within one business day