NVIDIA A40 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell wins 5 of 9 benchmarks, averaging 5.7% faster.
NVIDIA A40'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 Z-Image Turbo, where NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell leads by 37% (3.225 vs 4.425 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 32B (3% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A40 runs 8 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 8, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA A40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 160.79 | 179.58 | -10% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 106.18 | 112.36 | -6% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 57.85 | 60.62 | -5% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 26.89 | 27.8 | -3% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 9.2 | 8.56 | +7% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 3.225 | 4.425 | -27% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 1.95 | 0 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.31 | 0.26 | +19% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA A40 is faster on 1 of 3; NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell on 2.
| Workflow | NVIDIA A40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 10.2 min | 6.4 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 1.59x faster |
| Full codebase review | 17.3 min | 16.5 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 1.05x faster |
| 10 short social clips | 33.4 min | 34.2 min | NVIDIA A40 1.02x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA A40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 48GB | 24GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 696 GB/s | 672 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,740 MHz | 2,617 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 140 W |
| Launch MSRP | $5,000 | $1,500 |
| Release | 2020-10-05 | 2025-08-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA A40 or NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 5 of 9 benchmarks in our suite with an average 5.7% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA A40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA A40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell has 24GB VRAM and a 140W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA A40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A40 fits 4 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell. 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 A40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell?
- Z-Image Turbo: NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell leads by roughly 37% (3.225 vs 4.425 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA A40 full review · NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings