NVIDIA A2 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data presents a clear but narrow picture. Across the shared head-to-head test, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell claims the only direct victory. In the Geekbench Vulkan benchmark, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 221768 against the NVIDIA A2's 34023, a decisive 84.7% advantage. This is the sole head-to-head comparison available, so the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell holds a 1-0 win record in direct competition.

However, the broader database measurements show a more nuanced story. The NVIDIA A2 posts an average benchmark score of 34690, placing it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, despite its overwhelming Vulkan win, sits at a 76th percentile with an average score of 31532. This discrepancy suggests the A2's strengths lie in workloads not captured by the single Vulkan test, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's architecture excels specifically in modern graphics APIs.

The A2's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34561, 0.4% slower), the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (34541, 0.4% slower), the NVIDIA TITAN V (34355, 1% slower), and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (34207, 1.4% slower). These tight margins indicate the A2 is a balanced performer in general compute tasks. Meanwhile, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA TITAN RTX (31676, 0.5% faster), the Intel Arc Pro A30M (31894, 1.1% faster), and the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q (31220, 1% slower). The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's average score sits within a narrow band of these cards, but its Vulkan result towers over all of them.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent entirely different architectural generations. The NVIDIA A2 uses the GA107 chip on the Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell uses the GB203 chip on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. This process jump explains much of the performance gap: the A2 packs 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell integrates 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, achieving a density of 120.6 million per mm².

The A2 belongs to the Workstation Ampere generation (marketed as Ax000), released in November 2021, and is now end-of-life. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is part of the Blackwell PRO W generation (x000), released in March 2025, and remains active in production. Their predecessors and successors also differ: the A2 follows Quadro Turing and leads to Workstation Ada, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell follows Workstation Ada.

Feature sets show further divergence. The A2 has no display outputs, making it a compute-only accelerator. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell offers 4x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs, enabling direct display connectivity. Power delivery differs substantially: the A2 is a single-slot card with no power connectors and a 60 W TDP, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is a dual-slot card with a single 16-pin connector and a 200 W TDP. The suggested power supply requirement scales accordingly, with the A2 needing 250 W and the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell requiring 550 W.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The sole recorded head-to-head benchmark is Geekbench Vulkan, and the result is lopsided. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell scores 221768, which is 84.7% higher than the A2's 34023. This is not a marginal improvement; it represents a sixfold increase in raw Vulkan performance. The delta is so large that it suggests fundamental architectural advantages rather than simple clock speed differences.

Context from the average benchmark scores makes this result even more striking. The A2's average score across all its recorded benchmarks is 34690, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's average is 31532. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's Vulkan score of 221768 is roughly seven times its own average, indicating that Vulkan is an exceptional workload for this card. The A2's Vulkan score of 34023, by contrast, closely tracks its average of 34690, meaning Vulkan performance is representative of its overall capability.

In other database tests, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell shows varied results. It scores 7025 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 204 in Passmark DirectX 10, 320 in Passmark DirectX 11, 119 in Passmark DirectX 12, 397 in Passmark DirectX 9, 1336 in Passmark G2D, 33360 in Passmark G3D, and 19255 in Passmark GPU Compute. The A2 has no recorded results for these specific tests, so direct comparison is impossible. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's Passmark DirectX 12 score of 119 is notably low compared to its DirectX 11 score of 320, suggesting driver maturity or workload-specific optimization issues, though no A2 equivalent exists for comparison.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal a generational leap in almost every measurable category. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell doubles memory capacity from 16 GB to 32 GB and moves from GDDR6 to GDDR7. Memory bandwidth jumps from 200.1 GB/s on a 128-bit bus to 896.0 GB/s on a 256-bit bus, a 4.5x improvement. Memory clocks rise from 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective) to 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

Compute resources scale dramatically. Shading units increase from 1280 to 10496, texture mapping units from 40 to 328, and raster operation units from 32 to 112. Ray tracing cores grow from 10 to 82, and tensor cores from 40 to 328. The FP32 throughput rises from 4.531 TFLOPS to 50.53 TFLOPS, a factor of 11. FP16 performance matches FP32 on both cards at a 1:1 ratio. Pixel rate climbs from 56.64 GPixel/s to 269.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 70.80 GTexel/s to 789.5 GTexel/s.

Clock speeds also differ. The A2 runs at a 1440 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost, while the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell operates at 1635 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost. The bus interface advances from PCIe 4.0 x8 to PCIe 5.0 x16. Physical dimensions only exist for the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell: 267 mm length, 111 mm height, and 40 mm width. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell offers 896.0 GB/s over a 256-bit bus, compared to the A2's 200.1 GB/s over a 128-bit bus. This is a 4.5x advantage in bandwidth.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The A2 has a higher average benchmark score of 34690 (79th percentile) versus the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's 31532 (76th percentile). However, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell wins the only direct head-to-head Vulkan test by 84.7%.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The A2 has a 60 W TDP with no power connectors and a suggested 250 W power supply. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has a 200 W TDP, requires a single 16-pin connector, and suggests a 550 W power supply.

Q: Can either card output video?

A: The A2 has no display outputs, making it compute-only. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell includes 4x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs.

Q: Which card has more ray tracing cores?

A: The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell has 82 ray tracing cores, while the A2 has 10. The newer card also has 328 tensor cores versus the A2's 40.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, while the A2 has 8,700 million on a 200 mm² die. The newer chip also uses a smaller 5 nm process versus 8 nm.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward conclusion for most users. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the superior card for modern graphics workloads. Its Vulkan score is 84.7% higher than the A2's, and its specification sheet dominates in every compute category: 11x the FP32 throughput, 4.5x the memory bandwidth, 8.2x the ray tracing cores, and twice the memory capacity. If your work involves current-generation graphics APIs, heavy ray tracing, or large datasets that benefit from 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the obvious choice.

The A2, however, should not be dismissed. Its average benchmark score of 34690 exceeds the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell's 31532, and it sits in a higher percentile (79th versus 76th). For compute tasks that do not rely on Vulkan, the A2 appears to hold its own. Its 60 W TDP and lack of power connectors make it exceptionally easy to deploy in dense servers or systems with limited power delivery. The single-slot form factor and no display outputs suggest it was designed for headless compute environments.

The use case split is clear. Choose the A2 if you need a low-power, single-slot accelerator for general compute workloads where its higher average score matters and power efficiency is paramount. Choose the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell if you need maximum graphics performance, display outputs, ray tracing capability, or the massive memory bandwidth and capacity for modern workloads. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the more capable card on paper and in the one direct benchmark, but the A2's higher average score and lower power footprint keep it relevant for specific deployments. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell is the better investment for future-proofing, given its active production status and newer architecture, while the A2 is end-of-life.