AMD Radeon Pro W5500X vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The data presents a stark contrast between these two workstation cards, and the use-case split is immediate and decisive. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is a compute and modern graphics powerhouse, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X is a legacy Apple-centric solution with a single recorded benchmark metric.

For the NVIDIA card, the wins are spread across the entire modern DirectX and compute landscape. It records a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7025, placing it firmly in the field of current-generation gaming and DXR workloads. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 221768 further cements its position as a leader in cross-platform GPU compute. The PassMark suite shows consistent strength: a G3D score of 33360 and a GPU Compute score of 19255 indicate that this card is not just for rendering frames, but for heavy parallel processing tasks like simulation, AI inference, and scientific computing. Even legacy DirectX tests show solid results, with scores of 397 in DirectX 9 and 320 in DirectX 11, suggesting backward compatibility is not sacrificed.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X, by contrast, has only one benchmark entry in the database: a Geekbench Metal score of 27973. This is a critical detail. Metal is Apple's proprietary graphics API, and the W5500X is explicitly listed with an "Apple MPX" bus interface and a generation name of "Radeon Pro Mac (Navi Series)." This card is designed for a very specific ecosystem: Mac Pro users who need a GPU that slots directly into Apple's MPX module bay. Its wins, therefore, are not about raw performance breadth but about ecosystem compatibility. It does not appear in any DirectX or Vulkan benchmarks, indicating that its intended workload is macOS-native applications using Metal.

The NVIDIA card's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory versus the AMD's 8 GB of GDDR6 is another massive differentiator. For tasks like large dataset manipulation, high-resolution texture streaming, or complex 3D scene composition, the NVIDIA card offers four times the capacity, which directly translates to the ability to hold more working data on the GPU. The AMD card, with its smaller frame buffer, is suited for lighter workloads or those that fit within its 8 GB limit.

In essence, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the general-purpose professional workhorse, winning on every measurable benchmark in the database. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X is a niche product, winning only in the sense that it exists for a specific platform where the NVIDIA card cannot be used.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two is generational and fundamental. The NVIDIA card is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using the GB203 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. This is a modern, high-density design with 45,600 million transistors packed into a 378 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 120.6M per mm². The AMD card, in contrast, uses the older RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 14 chip, built on a 7 nm process. It contains only 6,400 million transistors on a much smaller 158 mm² die, with a density of 40.5M per mm². This is a difference of over seven times in transistor count, which immediately explains the massive performance disparity.

The clock speeds tell a similar story. The NVIDIA GPU has a base clock of 1635 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, while the AMD part runs at a base of 1187 MHz and a boost of 1757 MHz. The NVIDIA card's higher clocks, combined with its architectural advantages, allow it to reach 50.53 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The AMD card manages 5.398 TFLOPS in FP32, nearly an order of magnitude less. Interestingly, the AMD card offers 10.80 TFLOPS of FP16 via a 2:1 ratio, which is double its FP32 rate, while the NVIDIA card offers 50.53 TFLOPS of FP16 with a 1:1 ratio, maintaining its full throughput across both precisions.

Feature-wise, the NVIDIA card is equipped with 82 RT cores and 328 tensor cores, making it fully capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-driven workloads such as DLSS or neural rendering. The AMD card has no RT cores and no tensor cores listed, confirming that it is a rasterization-only GPU with no dedicated hardware for ray tracing or tensor operations. This is a significant architectural limitation for any modern professional workload that relies on these features.

Memory architecture also diverges sharply. The NVIDIA card uses GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus, achieving 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card has a 4x advantage in both capacity and bandwidth, which is crucial for memory-intensive tasks. The process node advantage (5 nm vs 7 nm) also contributes to the NVIDIA card's higher transistor density and efficiency, despite its higher 200 W TDP compared to the AMD's 125 W.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct head-to-head comparisons are limited because the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X has only one benchmark result: Geekbench Metal. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has no Metal benchmark recorded, so a direct comparison in that API is impossible. However, we can examine the average benchmark scores and percentile rankings to contextualize their overall standing.

The NVIDIA card has an average benchmark score of 31532, while the AMD card has an average of 27973. This places the NVIDIA card in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, whereas the AMD card sits in the 73rd percentile. While the percentile difference is small, the raw score difference is substantial, showing that the NVIDIA card is not just slightly better, but significantly more powerful in the tasks it is measured on.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card provides additional context. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's closest competitor is the NVIDIA TITAN RTX, with an average score of 31676, a delta of -0.5%. This means the RTX PRO 4500 is essentially on par with the TITAN RTX, a former flagship consumer card. It also slightly edges out the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q and NVIDIA Quadro M5000, both with a 1% delta in its favor. The Intel Arc Pro A30M is slightly ahead at 31894, a -1.1% delta against the RTX PRO 4500, but that is a different architecture entirely. These rivalries show that the RTX PRO 4500 is competing in the upper echelon of workstation performance.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, with an average score of 28020, a delta of -0.2%. This is a telling comparison: the W5500X is roughly equivalent to a GTX 980 Ti, a high-end gaming card from 2015. It is also comparable to the AMD Radeon RX 7800M (27883, 0.3% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 (27839, 0.5% delta). The AMD FirePro S7150 is slightly ahead at 28117, a -0.5% delta. This places the W5500X firmly in a performance tier that is multiple generations old, despite its 2019 release date.

The biggest wins for the NVIDIA card are in the modern benchmarks. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 7025 is a result the AMD card cannot even attempt, as it has no entry in that test. Its PassMark G3D score of 33360 is similarly unmatched in the AMD's data set. The compute gap is even more pronounced: the NVIDIA's 19255 PassMark GPU Compute score versus the AMD's absence from that test highlights a fundamental capability difference. The data shows that the RTX PRO 4500 is not just a little faster; it is in a completely different performance class.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the recorded data, the verdict is clear for most users. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the superior performer across every benchmark where both cards have data, and it is the only card with entries in modern DirectX, Vulkan, and compute tests. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, 50.53 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, and dedicated RT and tensor cores make it a versatile and future-proof choice for professional workstations. It is actively produced, released in 2025, and sits at the 76th percentile of all GPUs. Its performance is comparable to the NVIDIA TITAN RTX, a former flagship, which indicates it is a top-tier professional card.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X is a different proposition entirely. It is an end-of-life product, released in 2019, with a single benchmark result (Geekbench Metal) that places it at the 73rd percentile. Its performance is equivalent to a GTX 980 Ti, which is now several generations old. Its only advantages are its 125 W TDP (lower than the NVIDIA's 200 W) and its Apple MPX bus interface, which makes it the correct choice for a Mac Pro that requires a compatible GPU module. Its 8 GB of memory and lack of RT or tensor cores limit its utility to less demanding, macOS-focused tasks.

Therefore, the verdict is: choose the NVIDIA card if you need raw performance, modern API support, large memory capacity, or any ray tracing or AI compute capability. Choose the AMD card only if you are specifically building or upgrading a Mac Pro and require a native MPX form factor. For any general-purpose PC workstation, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the definitive winner. The data does not support any other conclusion.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s, which is four times higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X's 224.0 GB/s.

Q: Does the AMD card support ray tracing?

A: No. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X has no RT cores listed in its specifications, whereas the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 82 RT cores.

Q: Is the AMD card still in production?

A: No, its production status is listed as "End-of-life." The NVIDIA card is listed as "Active."

Q: Which card is better for DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD card only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). The NVIDIA card also has a recorded 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7025.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The NVIDIA GB203 chip contains 45,600 million transistors, while the AMD Navi 14 chip contains only 6,400 million transistors. This is a significant architectural gap.

Q: What is the AMD card's launch MSRP?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X had a launch MSRP of 599 USD. The NVIDIA card has no recorded launch MSRP in the database.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | AMD Radeon Pro W5500X |

|:--- |:--- |:--- |

| Chip | GB203 | Navi 14 |

| Architecture | Blackwell 2.0 | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 7 nm |

| Transistors | 45,600 million | 6,400 million |

| Die Size | 378 mm² | 158 mm² |

| Base Clock | 1635 MHz | 1187 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2407 MHz | 1757 MHz |

| Memory Size | 32 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR7 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 896.0 GB/s | 224.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 10496 | 1536 |

| TMUs | 328 | 96 |

| ROPs | 112 | 32 |

| RT Cores | 82 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 328 | None |

| FP32 Compute | 50.53 TFLOPS | 5.398 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Compute | 50.53 TFLOPS (1:1) | 10.80 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| Pixel Rate | 269.6 GPixel/s | 56.22 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 789.5 GTexel/s | 168.7 GTexel/s |

| TDP | 200 W | 125 W |

| Power Connectors | 1x 16-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | 300 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 5.0 x16 | Apple MPX |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 2.1b | 2x HDMI 2.0b |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Release Date | 2025-03-17 | 2019-12-10 |

| Production Status | Active | End-of-life |