NVIDIA L40 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 59.3% 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 LTX-Video (distilled), where NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell leads by 75% (2.61 vs 4.58 frames/s); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (41% apart).
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 211.33 | 298.78 | -29% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 135.12 | 208.3 | -35% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 74.27 | 114.63 | -35% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 34.08 | 54.27 | -37% |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 26.29 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 11.2 | 17.46 | -36% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 5.625 | 9.075 | -38% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 2.464 | 4.2 | -41% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.114 | 1.8 | -38% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0.48 | 0.8 | -40% |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 2.61 | 4.58 | -43% |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0.37 | 0.56 | -34% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA L40 is faster on 0 of 8; NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell on 8.
| Workflow | NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 7 min | 3.4 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 2.08x faster |
| 6-panel comic page | 9.1 min | 5.6 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.62x faster |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 12.1 min | 7.6 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.61x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 13 min | 6.7 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.92x faster |
| Full codebase review | 13.5 min | 8.7 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.54x faster |
| 10 short social clips | 28.2 min | 16.5 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.71x faster |
| 40-product photo shoot | 41.1 min | 25.1 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.64x faster |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 1 h 30 min | 55.9 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 1.61x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA L40 | NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 48GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 864 GB/s | 1344 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,490 MHz | 2,377 MHz |
| TDP | 300 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $7,000 | $4,500 |
| Release | 2022-10-13 | 2025-08-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA L40 or NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 59.3% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA L40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA L40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA L40 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell?
- LTX-Video (distilled): NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell leads by roughly 75% (2.61 vs 4.58 frames/s) in our testing.
NVIDIA L40 full review · NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings