NVIDIA B200 vs NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation Comparison

The NVIDIA B200 and NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation occupy opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data confirms a decisive performance gap. The B200 leads in raw compute by a massive margin, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation offers a compact, feature-rich workstation package. The data shows the B200 is for server-scale AI and HPC workloads, whereas the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is for professional graphics and desktop compute.

The Verdict

The NVIDIA B200 is the clear choice for anyone running large-scale artificial intelligence training, inference, or high-performance computing tasks where memory capacity and bandwidth are critical. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 345,482 places it at the 100th percentile of all GPUs in the database, and it outperforms the RTX 4000 Ada Generation by 135.7% in the same test. The B200 also leads its nearest rivals, sitting 3.2% ahead of the NVIDIA H200 NVL and 8.6% ahead of the AMD Instinct MI300X, with only the NVIDIA B300 SXM6 AC scoring higher, at 369,831.

The NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation is the better fit for workstation users who need a single-slot card with display outputs, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and a 130 W power envelope. Its average benchmark score of 135,218 places it at the 95th percentile, and it trades nearly evenly with its nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA A10M at 135,230 and the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 at 135,396. The B200, by contrast, has no display outputs and requires a 1400 W power supply, making it unsuitable for typical desktop workstations.

Architecture Differences

The B200 is built on the Blackwell architecture with the GB100 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 104,000 million transistors across a massive 90 GB HBM3e memory pool. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, also on a 5 nm process at TSMC, but with only 35,800 million transistors and a 294 mm² die size. The transistor density difference is notable: the RTX 4000 Ada Generation reaches 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter, while the B200 does not have a listed density figure.

The B200’s memory subsystem is its defining feature. It uses a 4096-bit bus with 4.10 TB/s of bandwidth, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses a 160-bit bus with 360.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The B200’s memory is 4.5 times larger and offers over 11 times the bandwidth. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation includes 48 dedicated ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, whereas the B200 lists 592 tensor cores but no dedicated RT core count. The B200 also has far more shading units: 18,944 versus 6,144.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head test in the database is Geekbench OpenCL, where the B200 scores 345,482 against the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 146,593. That is a 135.7% advantage for the B200, meaning it delivers more than double the compute throughput in this workload. The B200 also shows strength in other recorded benchmarks: its FP32 throughput is 74.45 TFLOPS versus 26.73 TFLOPS for the RTX 4000 Ada Generation, a 2.8-fold difference. In FP16, the gap widens dramatically, with the B200 delivering 1,191.2 TFLOPS (16:1) compared to the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 26.73 TFLOPS (1:1).

The B200’s texture rate is also higher, at 1,163.3 GTexel/s versus 417.6 GTexel/s. However, the RTX 4000 Ada Generation wins in pixel rate, with 139.2 GPixel/s versus the B200’s 47.16 GPixel/s. This suggests the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is more efficient at rasterization-style tasks, which aligns with its workstation positioning. The B200’s boost clock is higher at 1965 MHz versus 2175 MHz for the RTX 4000 Ada Generation, but the B200’s base clock is much lower at 700 MHz versus 1500 MHz.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The B200 uses HBM3e memory with 90 GB capacity, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses GDDR6 with 20 GB capacity. The bus widths are 4096-bit and 160-bit, respectively. The B200 has 18,944 shading units, 592 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation has 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The B200’s power draw is 1000 W, requiring a 1400 W power supply, whereas the RTX 4000 Ada Generation draws only 130 W and suggests a 300 W power supply.

The B200 is an SXM module with no display outputs, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is a single-slot card with four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The B200 uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation uses PCIe 4.0 x16. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the B200 has no listed API support. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation measures 245 mm by 112 mm, while the B200 has no listed dimensions. The RTX 4000 Ada Generation also has a release date of August 8, 2023, while the B200 has none recorded.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA B200 scores 345,482, which is 135.7% higher than the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 146,593.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The B200 has 90 GB of HBM3e memory, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: Which card supports display outputs?

A: Only the RTX 4000 Ada Generation, which has four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The B200 has no display outputs.

Q: How does the power consumption compare?

A: The B200 has a 1000 W TDP and suggests a 1400 W power supply, while the RTX 4000 Ada Generation has a 130 W TDP and suggests a 300 W power supply.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The B200 has 18,944 shading units, compared to 6,144 on the RTX 4000 Ada Generation.

Q: Which card offers higher pixel rate?

A: The RTX 4000 Ada Generation, with 139.2 GPixel/s versus the B200’s 47.16 GPixel/s.

Where Each One Wins

The B200 wins decisively in compute-heavy scenarios. Its 74.45 TFLOPS FP32 and 1,191.2 TFLOPS FP16 make it ideal for large-scale AI model training and inference, where the 90 GB memory pool and 4.10 TB/s bandwidth allow massive datasets to stay resident on the card. The B200’s 3.2% lead over the H200 NVL and 8.6% lead over the MI300X reinforce its position at the top of the server GPU hierarchy.

The RTX 4000 Ada Generation wins in workstation and visualization tasks. Its higher pixel rate, 139.2 GPixel/s versus 47.16 GPixel/s, combined with 48 RT cores, makes it better suited for real-time rendering and ray-traced workloads. The four DisplayPort outputs, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and single-slot form factor allow it to fit into professional desktop systems. Its 130 W power draw also means it can run in systems with a 300 W power supply, a stark contrast to the B200’s 1400 W requirement.

In short, the B200 is for scale, the RTX 4000 Ada Generation is for flexibility. The data shows no overlap in their intended roles. The B200’s 100th percentile standing and the RTX 4000 Ada Generation’s 95th percentile standing both confirm strong performance, but they serve completely different hardware ecosystems.