NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 vs NVIDIA Quadro GP100 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains one directly comparable compute metric for these two NVIDIA cards: Geekbench OpenCL. This single data point is decisive. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 records a score of 255,416, while the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 posts 87,445. The delta between them is 65.8 percent in favor of the RTX 4090, meaning the Ada Lovelace card delivers nearly triple the raw OpenCL throughput of the older Pascal workstation part. This is not a marginal generational step; it is a chasm.

The Quadro GP100’s score of 87,445 places it in the 93rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, which sounds strong until the context is applied. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 at 87,108 (a 0.4 percent gap), the NVIDIA CMP 40HX at 85,637 (2.1 percent ahead), and the NVIDIA RTX A4500 at 91,671, which beats the GP100 by 4.6 percent. The RTX 4090, by contrast, sits at the 88th percentile with an average benchmark score of 60,347, but that average is pulled down by a wide spread of other tests in its record. The Geekbench OpenCL result alone shows the RTX 4090 far outside the GP100’s competitive neighborhood.

Look at the RTX 4090’s other recorded scores to see its versatility. In Geekbench Vulkan it hits 271,631, which is even higher than its OpenCL number. In Passmark G3D it scores 38,194, and in Passmark GPU Compute it reaches 26,613. The Quadro GP100 has no corresponding entries in those tests, so a direct cross-test comparison is impossible, but the OpenCL gap alone establishes the hierarchy. The RTX 4090 also records Passmark DirectX 11 at 326 and DirectX 12 at 150, while the GP100’s DirectX 12 support is capped at feature level 12_1; the RTX 4090 supports 12 Ultimate with 12_2. The data shows the newer card is built for a broader and heavier workload envelope.

The wins tally is one to zero in favor of the RTX 4090. There is no benchmark in the database where the Quadro GP100 comes out ahead of the RTX 4090. The only question is how much the GP100 loses by, and the answer is 65.8 percent in the single shared test.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4090 wins every measurable category in the database. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus delivers 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, compared to the GP100’s 16 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus at 732.2 GB/s. Despite the GP100’s much wider memory bus, the RTX 4090’s faster memory clocks and newer technology produce higher total bandwidth. The RTX 4090 also has more shading units (16,384 versus 3,584), more texture mapping units (512 versus 224), and more render output units (176 versus 96). Its pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s against 138.5 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s against 323.2 GTexel/s.

Compute throughput tells the same story. The RTX 4090 delivers 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, exactly matching its FP16 throughput at a 1:1 ratio. The GP100 offers 10.34 TFLOPS of FP32 and 20.69 TFLOPS of FP16 at a 2:1 ratio. Even if a workload could exploit the GP100’s FP16 advantage, the RTX 4090’s raw FP16 figure is four times higher. The RTX 4090 also brings dedicated hardware the GP100 lacks entirely: 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores. The GP100 has none of either. Any application that uses ray tracing or tensor operations will not run on the GP100 at all, while the RTX 4090 is designed for both.

The use-case split is therefore stark. The RTX 4090 is the choice for modern rendering pipelines, ray-traced workloads, AI inference with tensor cores, and any compute task that scales with raw FP32 or FP16 throughput. The GP100’s only theoretical advantages are its much wider memory bus and HBM2 memory, which historically helped in certain bandwidth-bound professional compute tasks, but the recorded bandwidth figure shows the RTX 4090 already exceeds it. The GP100’s 16 GB capacity is also lower than the RTX 4090’s 24 GB, so large dataset residency favors the newer card.

Architecture Differences

These two GPUs come from different architectural eras and different process nodes. The Quadro GP100 uses the Pascal architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 16 nm process. The RTX 4090 uses Ada Lovelace, also TSMC, but on a 5 nm node. The transistor counts reflect the process jump: the GP100 packs 15,300 million transistors on a 610 mm² die, while the RTX 4090 fits 76,300 million transistors on a nearly identical 609 mm² die. Transistor density per square millimeter goes from 25.1 million on the GP100 to 125.3 million on the RTX 4090, a fivefold increase in packing density.

Clock speeds also diverge sharply. The GP100 has a base clock of 1304 MHz and a boost of 1443 MHz. The RTX 4090 starts at 2235 MHz base and boosts to 2520 MHz. Memory clocks differ as well: the GP100 runs at 715 MHz with 1430 Mbps effective, while the RTX 4090 runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective. The RTX 4090’s memory is GDDR6X, while the GP100 uses HBM2, which explains why the GP100 needed a 4096-bit bus to reach 732.2 GB/s, whereas the RTX 4090 only needs 384 bits to reach 1.01 TB/s.

The feature sets are generationally distinct. The GP100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RTX 4090 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4090 has 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores; the GP100 has none. The bus interface moves from PCIe 3.0 x16 on the GP100 to PCIe 4.0 x16 on the RTX 4090. Physical design also changes: the GP100 is dual-slot with a single 8-pin connector and a 235 W TDP, while the RTX 4090 is triple-slot with a single 16-pin connector and a 450 W TDP. The suggested power supply rises from 550 W to 850 W.

Display outputs differ too. The GP100 offers 1x DVI and 4x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX 4090 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The GP100 measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height. The RTX 4090 is 304 mm long, 137 mm high, and 61 mm wide. The RTX 4090 is physically larger in every dimension, consistent with its higher power envelope and triple-slot cooler.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 outperforms the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 in the only shared benchmark, and it does so by 65.8 percent. It also has more memory, more bandwidth, more shading units, more texture units, more ROPs, higher clocks, and dedicated ray tracing and tensor hardware. The GP100’s advantages are all historical: a wider memory bus, HBM2, and a lower power draw of 235 W against 450 W. None of those translate into a benchmark win.

Who should pick the Quadro GP100? Only a user constrained by power delivery, slot width, or a legacy PCIe 3.0 platform. The GP100’s dual-slot profile and 8-pin connector are simpler to accommodate, and its 235 W TDP is less demanding on the power supply. It also has a DVI output, which the RTX 4090 lacks. For any workload that fits within its 16 GB HBM2 capacity, the GP100 remains a functional compute card, but its performance class is closer to the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 and the NVIDIA RTX A4500 than to the RTX 4090.

Who should pick the RTX 4090? Anyone who needs maximum compute throughput, modern API support, ray tracing, tensor operations, or 24 GB of GDDR6X memory. The RTX 4090’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 is eight times the GP100’s figure. Its Vulkan score of 271,631 and OpenCL score of 255,416 place it in a different performance tier entirely. The RTX 4090 is end-of-life in the database, and its launch MSRP is 1,599 USD, but the recorded performance data justifies that positioning for high-end workloads. The GP100 is also end-of-life, released in 2016, while the RTX 4090 launched in 2022. The verdict from the database is simple: the RTX 4090 wins on every recorded metric, and the GP100 is only relevant as a legacy or low-power option.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 than the GP100 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 255,416 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the GP100 scores 87,445. The RTX 4090 is 65.8 percent faster in this test.

Q: Does the GP100 have any advantage in memory bandwidth?

A: No. The GP100 has a 4096-bit HBM2 bus delivering 732.2 GB/s, but the RTX 4090’s 384-bit GDDR6X bus delivers 1.01 TB/s, which is higher.

Q: Does the GP100 support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The GP100 has zero ray tracing cores and zero tensor cores. The RTX 4090 has 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores.

Q: What are the transistor counts for each GPU?

A: The GP100 has 15,300 million transistors on a 610 mm² die. The RTX 4090 has 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 4090 boosts to 2520 MHz, while the GP100 boosts to 1443 MHz.

Q: How does the GP100 compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GP100 scores 87,445, which is 0.4 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 at 87,108, 2.1 percent ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 40HX at 85,637, but 4 percent behind the NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile at 91,134 and 4.6 percent behind the NVIDIA RTX A4500 at 91,671.