NVIDIA L40 vs NVIDIA RTX A4500 Mobile Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data presents a decisive performance hierarchy between these two NVIDIA professional GPUs. The NVIDIA L40 wins both recorded head-to-head tests, with a 214.2% advantage in Geekbench OpenCL and a 208.3% advantage in Geekbench Vulkan. The average benchmark score of 284,111 for the L40 places it in the 99th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX A4500 Mobile averages 91,134 and sits in the 93rd percentile.

The L40 is the clear choice for compute-heavy server workloads where maximum throughput is non-negotiable. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation, scores only 1.1% lower on average, and the L40S is 3.9% ahead, meaning the L40 slots into a tightly contested high-end server tier. The AMD Instinct MI300X leads the L40 by 10.7%, so there is competition at the very top, but the L40 remains a strong server-side option.

The RTX A4500 Mobile serves an entirely different purpose. Its average score is 91,134, which is 68% below the L40's average, but it belongs to a mobile segment where the L40 cannot compete on physical footprint or power draw. The mobile part's nearest rival, the desktop RTX A4500, is nearly identical at 0.6% higher average score, indicating the mobile implementation loses very little performance to its desktop counterpart. The AMD Radeon PRO W7600 trails by 4.6%, and the Quadro GP100 is 4.2% behind.

For a user with a fixed server rack and unlimited power budget, the L40 is the obvious selection. For a workstation that must move, the A4500 Mobile is the only one of the two that fits the requirement, and the data confirms it performs respectably within its class.

Architecture Differences

The L40 uses the AD102 chip built on TSMC's 5 nm process, while the A4500 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on Samsung's 8 nm process. This node advantage is substantial. The L40 packs 76,300 million transistors into a 609 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 125.3 million per square millimeter. The A4500 Mobile contains 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die, for a density of 44.4 million per square millimeter. The L40 has approximately 4.4 times the transistor count on a die that is only about 1.6 times larger.

The L40 belongs to the Ada Lovelace generation (labeled "Server Ada (Lxx)" in the database), while the A4500 Mobile is from the Ampere generation (labeled "Ampere-MW (Ax000)"). The L40's predecessor is Server Ampere and its successor is Server Hopper. The A4500 Mobile's predecessor is Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW.

The L40 features 18,176 shading units, 568 texture mapping units, 192 render output units, 142 ray tracing cores, and 568 tensor cores. The A4500 Mobile has 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 46 ray tracing cores, and 184 tensor cores. The L40 has more than three times the shading units and ray tracing cores, and about three times the tensor cores.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical. Both use PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the L40 scoring 330,926 against 105,307 for the A4500 Mobile. This is a 214.2% delta, meaning the L40 delivers over three times the OpenCL compute performance. The L40's FP32 throughput is 90.52 TFLOPS compared to 17.66 TFLOPS for the A4500 Mobile, a 5.1 times raw compute advantage that explains much of the benchmark gap.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the L40 scores 237,295 versus 76,960 for the A4500 Mobile, a 208.3% delta. The Vulkan gap is slightly narrower than OpenCL but still represents more than three times the performance.

The L40 also dominates in memory bandwidth: 864.0 GB/s against 512.0 GB/s, a 68.8% advantage. Memory capacity is 48 GB versus 16 GB, three times more. The L40's pixel rate of 478.1 GPixel/s is over three times the A4500 Mobile's 144.0 GPixel/s. Texture rate shows the L40 at 1,414.3 GTexel/s versus 276.0 GTexel/s, a 5.1 times difference.

Looking at the L40's nearest rivals provides context for its absolute scores. The RTX 6000 Ada Generation averages 287,237, only 1.1% below the L40. The L40S averages 295,763, 3.9% above. The L20 averages 251,147, which is 13.1% below the L40. The AMD Instinct MI300X averages 317,994, 10.7% ahead.

For the A4500 Mobile, the desktop RTX A4500 averages 91,671, just 0.6% higher, which is remarkable for a mobile part. The AMD Radeon Instinct MI60 averages 92,466, 1.4% ahead. The Quadro GP100 trails at 87,445, 4.2% behind, and the AMD Radeon PRO W7600 is 4.6% behind at 87,108.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA L40 has an average benchmark score of 284,111, placing it in the 99th percentile of all GPUs. The RTX A4500 Mobile averages 91,134, placing it in the 93rd percentile.

Q: How much faster is the L40 in OpenCL compute?

A: The L40 scores 330,926 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 105,307 for the A4500 Mobile, a 214.2% advantage.

Q: Is the RTX A4500 Mobile significantly slower than its desktop counterpart?

A: No. The desktop RTX A4500 averages 91,671, which is only 0.6% higher than the mobile version's 91,134. The mobile implementation is nearly identical in performance.

Q: What memory configuration does each GPU use?

A: The L40 has 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 864.0 GB/s bandwidth. The A4500 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: When were these GPUs released?

A: The L40 was released on October 12, 2022. The RTX A4500 Mobile was released on March 21, 2022. Both are marked as end-of-life products in the database.

Q: Which GPU has more ray tracing cores?

A: The L40 has 142 ray tracing cores, while the A4500 Mobile has 46. The L40 also has 568 tensor cores versus 184.

Where Each One Wins

The L40 wins in every measured category. It has higher raw compute (90.52 TFLOPS FP32 versus 17.66 TFLOPS), more memory (48 GB versus 16 GB), higher bandwidth (864.0 GB/s versus 512.0 GB/s), and more shading units, TMUs, ROPs, ray tracing cores, and tensor cores. The L40's pixel rate of 478.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,414.3 GTexel/s dwarf the A4500 Mobile's 144.0 GPixel/s and 276.0 GTexel/s.

The A4500 Mobile's wins are not in performance but in form factor and power. It has a 140 W TDP versus 300 W for the L40. The L40 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height, requiring a 700 W suggested power supply and a 16-pin power connector. The A4500 Mobile has no power connectors listed, no slot width, and no dimensions, reflecting its integrated mobile nature. Its display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," while the L40 offers 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

For server deployments where the L40's 300 W TDP and dual-slot footprint are acceptable, the performance gap is overwhelming. The L40's 99th percentile standing among all GPUs means it competes at the top tier of the database, near the RTX 6000 Ada Generation and L40S. The A4500 Mobile's 93rd percentile is still strong, but the gap to the top is large.

The L40's 5 nm TSMC process versus the A4500 Mobile's 8 nm Samsung process explains part of the efficiency and density differences. The L40 achieves 125.3 million transistors per square millimeter versus 44.4 million for the A4500 Mobile. This density advantage, combined with the larger die, gives the L40 its massive compute lead.

For workloads like large language model inference, high-resolution rendering, or scientific simulation that fit within 48 GB of memory, the L40 provides the capacity and bandwidth needed. The 864.0 GB/s bandwidth is critical for memory-bound workloads. The A4500 Mobile's 512.0 GB/s is sufficient for mobile-class tasks but will bottleneck on larger datasets.

The A4500 Mobile wins for on-site visualization, field engineering, or any scenario requiring GPU acceleration in a laptop chassis. The data shows it loses only 0.6% to its desktop sibling, so mobile users sacrifice almost nothing by choosing the portable version. Its 16 GB memory is adequate for many professional workloads, and its 140 W TDP is manageable in a mobile thermal envelope.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification field in the database:

Process and die: The L40 uses a 5 nm TSMC process with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. The A4500 Mobile uses an 8 nm Samsung process with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die.

Clocks: The L40 has a base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 2490 MHz. The A4500 Mobile has a base clock of 930 MHz and a boost clock of 1500 MHz. The A4500 Mobile's base clock is higher, but the L40's boost clock is 66% faster. Memory clocks differ: the L40 runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective, the A4500 Mobile at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective.

Memory: The L40 has 48 GB GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 864.0 GB/s bandwidth. The A4500 Mobile has 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Compute units: The L40 has 18,176 shading units, 568 TMUs, 192 ROPs, 142 ray tracing cores, and 568 tensor cores. The A4500 Mobile has 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 46 ray tracing cores, and 184 tensor cores.

Performance rates: The L40 achieves 478.1 GPixel/s pixel rate, 1,414.3 GTexel/s texture rate, 90.52 TFLOPS FP32, and 90.52 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1). The A4500 Mobile achieves 144.0 GPixel/s, 276.0 GTexel/s, 17.66 TFLOPS FP32, and 17.66 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1).

Power and physical: The L40 has a 300 W TDP, is dual-slot, uses a 16-pin power connector, and requires a 700 W suggested power supply. It measures 267 mm by 111 mm. The A4500 Mobile has a 140 W TDP, no slot width, no power connectors, no suggested PSU, and no listed dimensions.

Outputs and interface: The L40 has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The A4500 Mobile's display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent." Both use PCIe 4.0 x16.

Release timing: The L40 released October 12, 2022. The A4500 Mobile released March 21, 2022. Both are end-of-life.