NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
Dead heat, NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell split our benchmark suite evenly.
NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4's numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in LTX-Video (distilled), where NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 leads by 95% (8.95 vs 4.58 frames/s); the closest fight is FLUX.1 dev (2% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell runs 135 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 12, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3-4B tok/s | 193.14 | 298.78 | -35% |
| Llama-3.1-8B tok/s | 157.26 | 208.3 | -25% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B tok/s | 86.2 | 114.63 | -25% |
| Qwen3-32B tok/s | 43.8 | 54.27 | -19% |
| Llama-3.3-70B tok/s | 0 | 26.29 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 18.576 | 17.46 | +6% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 9.975 | 9.075 | +10% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 4.264 | 4.2 | +2% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.993 | 1.8 | +11% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 0.8 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.95 | 4.58 | +95% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.66 | 0.56 | +18% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 is faster on 7 of 8; NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 3 min | 3.4 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.11x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 4 min | 6.7 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.70x faster |
| 6-panel comic page | 4.8 min | 5.6 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.17x faster |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 6.3 min | 7.6 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.21x faster |
| Full codebase review | 11.7 min | 8.7 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.34x faster |
| 10 short social clips | 13.7 min | 16.5 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.21x faster |
| 40-product photo shoot | 22.2 min | 25.1 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.13x faster |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 50.2 min | 55.9 min | NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 1.11x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 40GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 1555 GB/s | 1344 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,410 MHz | 2,377 MHz |
| TDP | 400 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $12,000 | $4,500 |
| Release | 2020-05-14 | 2025-08-01 |
FAQ
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 has 40GB VRAM and a 400W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell fits 15 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 leads by roughly 95% (8.95 vs 4.58 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4 full review · NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings