The GeForce RTX 5090 is undeniably among the best graphics playing cards cash should purchase. Banking on the truth that many already use it for AI, Nvidia has bolstered it with much more reminiscence and launched it as the brand new RTX 5500 Pro Blackwell Workstation Edition. It affords comparable specs to the GeForce RTX 5090 however distinguishes itself with 84GB of GDDR7 reminiscence, 2.6X greater than the Blackwell gaming flagship.
Go deeper with TH Premium: GPUs
The RTX Pro 5500 options the GB202 silicon, the powerhouse die that powers different high-end mainstream {and professional} Blackwell graphics playing cards, together with the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX Pro 6000, and RTX Pro 5000. In truth, the RTX Pro 5500 makes use of the identical die because the GeForce RTX 5090, which implies 170 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) are enabled out of a potential 192. As a consequence, the RTX Pro 5500 has 21,760 CUDA cores and affords efficiency corresponding to the GeForce RTX 5090. The differentiator is the reminiscence subsystem, the place the RTX Pro 5500 excels.
Nvidia outfitted the RTX Pro 5500 with 84GB of GDDR7 reminiscence. This is the second time Nvidia has launched a graphics card with 84GB of reminiscence, with the primary being the China-exclusive RTX Pro 6000D. The RTX Pro 5500’s memory capacity lets the Blackwell graphics card sit comfortably between the RTX Pro 5000 and the upgraded RTX Pro 6000, with 72GB and 96GB of GDDR7 memory, respectively.
Latest Videos FromTom’s Hardware
Nvidia RTX Pro 5500 Workstation Edition Specifications
|
Graphics Card | RTX Pro 6000 | RTX Pro 6000D | RTX Pro 5500 | RTX 5090 | RTX Pro 5000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | GB202 | GB202 | GB202 | GB202 | GB202 |
| Process Technology | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N |
| Transistors (Billion) | 92.2 | 92.2 | 92.2 | 92.2 | 92.2 |
| Die size (mm^2) | 750 | 750 | 750 | 750 | 750 |
| SMs | 188 | 156 | 170 | 170 | 110 |
| CUDA Cores | 24,064 | 19,968 | 21,760 | 21,760 | 14,080 |
| Tensor Cores | 752 | 624 | 680 | 680 | 440 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 188 | 156 | 176 | 176 | 110 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 2,617 | 2,430 | ? | 2,407 | 2,617 |
| VRAM Speed (Gbps) | 28 | 25 | 25 | 28 | 28 |
| VRAM (GB) | 96 | 84 | 84 | 32 | 48 / 72 |
| VRAM Bus Width | 512 | 448 | 448 | 512 | 384 |
| L2 Cache | 128 | 128 | 96 | 96 | 96 |
| Render Output Units | 192 | 192 | 192 | 176 | 176 |
| Texture Mapping Units | 752 | 624 | 680 | 680 | 440 |
| TFLOPS FP32 (Boost) | 126.0 | 97.04 | ? | 104.8 | 73.69 |
| Bandwidth (GB/s) | 1,792 | 1,400 | 1,398 | 1,790 | 1,344 |
| TBP (watts) | 600 | 600 | 600 | 575 | 300 |
Nvidia achieved the 84GB memory capacity by outfitting the RTX Pro 5500 with 28 GDDR7 memory chips in a clamshell configuration. Each side of the PCB houses 14 24Gb (3GB) GDDR7 memory modules. They run at 25 Gb/s across a 448-bit memory interface, delivering up to 1,400 GB/s of bandwidth, which aligns with Nvidia’s official specification of 1,398 GB/s. In other words, the RTX Pro 5500 shares the same memory subsystem as the RTX Pro 6000D.
Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix only produce standard 28 Gb/s memory packages. Therefore, Nvidia downclocks the RTX Pro 5500’s GDDR7 chips for its own reasons, whether to meet thermal and power targets or avoid cannibalizing higher-tier SKUs. From a memory-bandwidth perspective, the RTX Pro 5500 is not particularly impressive. Its bandwidth is only 4% ahead of the RTX Pro 5000, and it lags 22% behind both the flagship RTX Pro 6000 and the GeForce RTX 5090, which fully leverage 28 Gb/s GDDR7 memory chips.
To sum it all up, if RTX Pro 6000D and GeForce RTX 5090 had a child, it would be the RTX Pro 5500. Nvidia’s main motivation was to launch the RTX Pro 5500 to fill the large performance and pricing gap between the RTX Pro 6000 and RTX Pro 5000. Also, the chipmaker makes substantially more profit by putting recycled GB202 into an RTX Pro 5500 than into a GeForce RTX 5090. By giving the former more memory with similar core specifications as the latter, Nvidia seemingly hopes to win more customers over to the RTX Pro 5500.
We reached out to both Nvidia and PNY for official pricing on the RTX Pro 5500, but neither company has responded. For reference, the flagship RTX Pro 6000 retails for $15,599, whereas an RTX Pro 5000 72GB begins at $9,209. Given the RTX Pro 5500’s function as a bridge between the 2 fashions, it’s cheap to anticipate its launch value to fall someplace inside this vary.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our newest information, evaluation, & evaluations in your feeds.