NVIDIA L40 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell wins 7 of 11 benchmarks, averaging 4.1% faster.
NVIDIA L40'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 FLUX.1 dev, where NVIDIA L40 leads by 74% (2.464 vs 1.414 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (5% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA L40 runs 11 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 9, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 211.33 | 221.92 | -5% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 135.12 | 146.19 | -8% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 74.27 | 80.09 | -7% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 34.08 | 37.61 | -9% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 11.2 | 13.1 | -15% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 5.625 | 6.45 | -13% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 2.464 | 1.414 | +74% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.114 | 0.879 | +27% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0.48 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 2.61 | 3.58 | -27% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA L40 is faster on 4 of 7; NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell on 3.
| Workflow | NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 7 min | 6.2 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 1.13x faster |
| 6-panel comic page | 9.1 min | 11.6 min | NVIDIA L40 1.27x faster |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 12.1 min | 14.6 min | NVIDIA L40 1.20x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 13 min | 10.6 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 1.22x faster |
| Full codebase review | 13.5 min | 12.5 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 1.08x faster |
| 40-product photo shoot | 41.1 min | 50.1 min | NVIDIA L40 1.22x faster |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 1 h 30 min | 1 h 54 min | NVIDIA L40 1.26x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 48GB | 32GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 864 GB/s | 896 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,490 MHz | 2,407 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 200 W |
| Launch MSRP | $7,000 | $2,600 |
| Release | 2022-10-13 | 2025-08-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA L40 or NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 7 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 4.1% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA L40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA L40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 32GB VRAM and a 200W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA L40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA L40 fits 2 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 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 L40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- FLUX.1 dev: NVIDIA L40 leads by roughly 74% (2.464 vs 1.414 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA L40 full review · NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings