NVIDIA L40S vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA L40S wins 7 of 11 benchmarks, averaging 46.6% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in FLUX.1 dev, where NVIDIA L40S leads by 171% (3.836 vs 1.414 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3-4B (5% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell runs 152 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 L40S | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3-4B tok/s | 212.05 | 221.92 | -4% |
| Llama-3.1-8B tok/s | 135.51 | 146.19 | -7% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder-14B tok/s | 74.6 | 80.09 | -7% |
| Qwen3-32B tok/s | 34.44 | 37.61 | -8% |
| Llama-3.3-70B tok/s | 16.49 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 17.02 | 13.1 | +30% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 8.325 | 6.45 | +29% |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 3.836 | 1.414 | +171% |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 1.693 | 0.879 | +93% |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 1.06 | 0 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 8.01 | 3.58 | +124% |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA L40S is faster on 6 of 7; NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA L40S | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-frame storyboard | 4.1 min | 6.2 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.53x faster |
| 60-second AI short film | 4.9 min | 10.6 min | NVIDIA L40S 2.15x faster |
| 6-panel comic page | 6.5 min | 11.6 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.78x faster |
| Character sheet, 12 poses | 8.4 min | 14.6 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.75x faster |
| Full codebase review | 13.5 min | 12.5 min | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 1.08x faster |
| 40-product photo shoot | 26.7 min | 50.1 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.88x faster |
| 100-photo restoration batch | 59.6 min | 1 h 54 min | NVIDIA L40S 1.91x faster |
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA L40S | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 48GB | 32GB |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Blackwell |
| Memory bandwidth | 864 GB/s | 896 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 2,520 MHz | 2,407 MHz |
| TDP | 350 W | 200 W |
| Launch MSRP | $7,500 | $2,600 |
| Release | 2023-08-08 | 2025-08-01 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA L40S or NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA L40S performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 7 of 11 benchmarks in our suite with an average 46.6% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- NVIDIA L40S has 48GB VRAM and a 350W TDP, while NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 32GB VRAM and a 200W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell fits 6 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA L40S. 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 L40S and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell?
- FLUX.1 dev: NVIDIA L40S leads by roughly 171% (3.836 vs 1.414 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA L40S full review · NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings