AMD Radeon PRO W6400 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains a single directly comparable benchmark between these two workstation GPUs, and the result is emphatic. In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 221,768 points against 39,286 for the AMD Radeon PRO W6400. That is a delta of -82.3% from the AMD card's perspective, meaning the NVIDIA part is approximately 5.6 times faster in this API. The magnitude of this gap is not subtle; it separates a low-profile, entry-level workstation card from a modern flagship-class compute device.

The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 does have its own benchmark entries, with a Geekbench OpenCL score of 35,027 and that Vulkan result of 39,286. Its average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 37,157. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, by contrast, shows a wider spread of results: 7,025 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 221,768 in Geekbench Vulkan, and a Passmark suite that includes 204 for DirectX 10, 320 for DirectX 11, 119 for DirectX 12, 397 for DirectX 9, 1,336 for G2D, 33,360 for G3D, and 19,255 for GPU compute. Its average benchmark score is 31,532.

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database adds context. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400's average of 37,157 places it within 0.9% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507), 1.3% behind the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628) and GeForce RTX 4070 (37,648), and 1.7% ahead of the GeForce GTX TITAN X (36,530). These are tight margins, suggesting the W6400 sits in a performance band where small architectural differences matter more than raw compute throughput. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, with its average of 31,532, sits within 0.5% of the NVIDIA TITAN RTX (31,676), 1% ahead of the GRID M60-1Q (31,220) and Quadro M5000 (31,206), and 1.1% behind the Intel Arc Pro A30M (31,894). Its percentile ranking among all GPUs is 76, slightly below the W6400's 80th percentile, which reflects the very different benchmark distributions these cards produce.

Where Each One Wins

The data points to a clear split in use cases. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 wins in the narrow category of legacy or lightweight compute workloads where its modest 50 W power envelope and single-slot design are assets. Its 80th percentile ranking versus all GPUs, combined with an average benchmark score that edges out several older high-end cards, suggests it remains competent for basic professional tasks like 2D CAD, light photogrammetry, or multi-display office workloads. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 35,027 reinforces this: it is a real, if modest, compute capability.

The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the clear winner for any workload that stresses modern APIs or raw throughput. Its Vulkan score is not just higher, it is in a different class. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 7,025 and Passmark G3D score of 33,360 further confirm that this is a card built for contemporary rendering pipelines. The GPU compute score of 19,255, while lower than the G3D score, still represents substantial parallel processing power. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth are decisive for large datasets, neural network training, or high-resolution texture workloads. The W6400's 4 GB GDDR6 at 128.0 GB/s cannot hold the same working sets.

For real-time ray tracing, the RTX PRO 4500's 82 RT cores versus the W6400's 12 RT cores is a massive gap. The NVIDIA card also brings 328 tensor cores, which the AMD part lacks entirely, making it the only option here for AI-accelerated tasks like denoising, DLSS-style upscaling, or machine learning inference. The Passmark DirectX 9 score of 397 versus DirectX 12's 119 on the NVIDIA card is curious; it suggests the Blackwell architecture prioritizes newer APIs, which is consistent with its 2025 release date versus the W6400's 2022 launch.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 has an average benchmark score of 37,157, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell averages 31,532. However, this is misleading because the two cards were tested on different benchmark suites, and the single overlapping test (Geekbench Vulkan) heavily favors the NVIDIA card.

Q: How large is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: In Geekbench Vulkan, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 221,768 versus 39,286 for the AMD Radeon PRO W6400, a delta of -82.3% from the AMD card's perspective.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 128.0 GB/s.

Q: Does either card support ray tracing?

A: Both have dedicated RT cores: 82 on the NVIDIA card and 12 on the AMD card. The NVIDIA card additionally has 328 tensor cores, which the AMD card does not have.

Q: Which card is more power-efficient?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 has a TDP of 50 W and requires no external power connector, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has a TDP of 200 W and uses a single 16-pin connector. The AMD card also has a lower suggested PSU rating of 250 W versus 550 W for the NVIDIA card.

Q: What is the production status of each?

A: The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 is marked as end-of-life with a release date of January 2022. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is listed as active with a release date of March 2025.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge at nearly every specification point. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 uses 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, while the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 10,496 shading units, 328 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. This is a 13.7x difference in shader count. The pixel rate is 74.27 GPixel/s for AMD versus 269.6 GPixel/s for NVIDIA, and texture rate is 111.4 GTexel/s versus 789.5 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 3.565 TFLOPS versus 50.53 TFLOPS, a 14.2x difference. FP16 performance is 7.130 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) for AMD versus 50.53 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) for NVIDIA.

Clock speeds tell a nuanced story. The AMD card has a higher base clock at 2039 MHz versus 1635 MHz, but the NVIDIA card boosts higher at 2407 MHz versus 2321 MHz. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for AMD versus 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA; the GDDR7 standard allows far more data per clock.

The bus interface differs: PCIe 4.0 x4 for AMD versus PCIe 5.0 x16 for NVIDIA, a 16x difference in theoretical bandwidth. Display outputs are 2x DisplayPort 1.4a versus 4x DisplayPort 2.1b. The NVIDIA card is physically larger: 267 mm long, 111 mm high, 40 mm wide, dual-slot, versus the AMD card's single-slot design with no listed dimensions. Power requirements are 50 W versus 200 W, with the AMD card using no power connector and the NVIDIA card using a 16-pin connector.

Architecture Differences

The chips are from different eras and foundry processes. The AMD Radeon PRO W6400 uses the Navi 24 chip on a 6 nm TSMC process, packing 5,400 million transistors into a 107 mm² die for a density of 50.5 million transistors per mm². The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses the GB203 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, with 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, achieving 120.6 million transistors per mm². That is more than double the transistor density, reflecting the newer manufacturing node.

Architecturally, the AMD card is built on RDNA 2.0, while the NVIDIA card uses Blackwell 2.0. The AMD generation is listed as "Radeon Pro Navi (Navi II Series)," and the NVIDIA generation as "Blackwell PRO W (x000)." The NVIDIA predecessor is "Workstation Ada," while the AMD predecessor is "Radeon Pro Vega." Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical.

The most consequential architectural differences are the RT and tensor cores. The NVIDIA card has 82 RT cores and 328 tensor cores; the AMD card has 12 RT cores and no tensor cores. This means the NVIDIA part can accelerate ray tracing and AI workloads in hardware, while the AMD card must rely on its general-purpose shaders for those tasks. The memory subsystem also reflects different design philosophies: AMD uses a 64-bit bus with GDDR6, NVIDIA uses a 256-bit bus with GDDR7, giving the latter 7x the bandwidth (896.0 GB/s versus 128.0 GB/s).

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: for any modern, compute-heavy or graphics-intensive professional workload, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the superior choice. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 221,768 versus 39,286 is a decisive margin, and its 32 GB memory capacity, 896.0 GB/s bandwidth, 50.53 TFLOPS FP32, and hardware tensor cores make it suitable for AI, ray tracing, and large-scale visualization. The 82 RT cores and 328 tensor cores are features the AMD card simply does not have.

The AMD Radeon PRO W6400, however, retains a niche. Its 50 W TDP, single-slot form factor, and no power connector requirement make it ideal for compact workstations, embedded systems, or multi-GPU configurations where power and space are constrained. Its 80th percentile ranking and average score of 37,157, which beats the GeForce GTX TITAN X by 1.7%, show it can still handle lighter professional tasks. The 12 RT cores, while few, provide some ray tracing capability that older cards lacked entirely.

The production status is telling: the W6400 is end-of-life, while the RTX PRO 4500 is active. Anyone building a new system in 2025 should choose the NVIDIA card unless the workload is trivial or the physical constraints are absolute. The recorded data does not support any other conclusion. The 76th percentile ranking of the NVIDIA card versus 80th for AMD is an artifact of different benchmark suites, not a reflection of real-world capability; the single shared test demonstrates the actual hierarchy. Pick the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell for performance, the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 only for its minimal power and footprint requirements.