NVIDIA PG506-232 vs NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell Comparison

NVIDIA PG506-232 and NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell represent two distinct generations of NVIDIA’s professional GPU lineup, separated by roughly four years of architectural evolution. The data shows a single head-to-head benchmark result, but the broader specification sheets and rival comparisons reveal a clear performance hierarchy. The PG506-232, an Ampere-era server part, delivers a Geekbench OpenCL score of 225,124, while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell reaches 254,116 in the same test, a delta of 11.4% in favor of the newer card. This gap, while significant, is only one slice of the story; the two cards are built for different workloads, with the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell offering nearly double the memory capacity and a substantially higher compute throughput.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark in the data set is Geekbench OpenCL, and the result is unambiguous. The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell scores 254,116, defeating the NVIDIA PG506-232’s 225,124 by 11.4%. This is a decisive win for the Blackwell part, indicating a clear advantage in general-purpose compute workloads that leverage OpenCL. The PG506-232’s score is not trivial — it places in the 99th percentile of all GPUs — but the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s score, while its percentile is slightly lower at 98th, reflects a newer architecture with higher raw throughput.

Looking at the rival landscape, the PG506-232’s OpenCL score of 225,124 puts it 2.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7900D (219,827) and 8.7% ahead of the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80 GB (207,124). However, it trails the NVIDIA L20 (251,147) by 10.4% and the NVIDIA RTX 6000D (195,964) by 14.9% in the opposite direction, meaning the PG506-232 is actually 14.9% faster than the RTX 6000D. For the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, its Geekbench OpenCL score of 254,116 is not directly compared to its rivals in the provided data, but its average benchmark score of 182,109 tells a different story. That average is 0.9% below the NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80 GB (183,725) and 1.4% below the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation (184,664), while being 2.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D (178,050) and 2.7% below the NVIDIA A100 SXM4 40 GB (187,147). This suggests that while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell excels in the specific OpenCL test, its overall benchmark average is more modest, likely dragged down by other workload types where it does not dominate as clearly.

The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell also posts scores in two other benchmarks: 9,579.5 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 282,631 in Geekbench Vulkan, for which the PG506-232 has no corresponding results. These additional data points indicate that the Blackwell card is not only faster in OpenCL but also has a robust graphics and compute profile, with the Vulkan score exceeding its OpenCL score by over 28,000 points.

The Verdict

From the data, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is the outright winner in raw performance. It beats the PG506-232 by 11.4% in the sole shared benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, and offers a significantly more modern feature set. The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s 48 GB of GDDR7 memory is double the PG506-232’s 24 GB of HBM2, and its 66.94 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is more than six times the PG506-232’s 10.32 TFLOPS. The newer card also has a higher base clock (1,740 MHz vs 930 MHz) and boost clock (2,377 MHz vs 1,440 MHz), along with a much larger shading unit count (14,080 vs 3,584).

For users prioritizing pure compute per watt, the PG506-232 is not without merit. Its 165 W TDP is nearly half the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s 300 W, and it still achieves a 99th percentile ranking in all GPUs. However, the performance gap is too large to ignore. The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s average benchmark score of 182,109 is competitive with its nearest rivals, sitting within 2.7% of the A100 SXM4 40 GB and within 1.4% of the RTX 5000 Ada Generation, while the PG506-232’s average score of 225,124 is actually higher than its own rival set’s average, indicating it punches above its weight in specific tests.

The verdict is clear for most use cases: the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is the superior choice for anyone needing maximum compute power, larger memory capacity, and modern API support. The PG506-232, being end-of-life and with no display outputs, is a legacy server part that only makes sense for specialized, power-constrained deployments where its lower TDP and high percentile ranking are sufficient.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The NVIDIA PG506-232 uses the GA100 chip on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It packs 54,200 million transistors on a 826 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 65.6 million per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell uses the GB202 chip on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It houses 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, achieving a much higher density of 122.9 million per mm².

Memory configurations diverge sharply. The PG506-232 has 24 GB of HBM2 on a 3072-bit bus, delivering 933.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell features 48 GB of GDDR7 on a 384-bit bus, with 1.34 TB/s of bandwidth — a 43.6% increase in raw bandwidth. The Blackwell card also supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the PG506-232 is limited to PCIe 4.0 x16.

Compute resources are massively different. The PG506-232 has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and 224 tensor cores, with no dedicated RT cores. Its FP32 and FP16 performance are both 10.32 TFLOPS (1:1). The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 14,080 shading units, 440 TMUs, 160 ROPs, 110 RT cores, and 440 tensor cores, with FP32 and FP16 both at 66.94 TFLOPS (1:1). Pixel and texture rates scale accordingly: the PG506-232 hits 138.2 GPixel/s and 322.6 GTexel/s, while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell reaches 380.3 GPixel/s and 1,045.9 GTexel/s.

The PG506-232 is a server-focused part with no display outputs, a dual-slot design, and an 8-pin EPS power connector, requiring a 450 W PSU. The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is a workstation card with 4x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs, a dual-slot design, and a 1x 16-pin power connector, needing a 700 W PSU. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the PG506-232 has no listed API support.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 compute performance?

A: The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, with 66.94 TFLOPS, is 6.5 times higher than the NVIDIA PG506-232’s 10.32 TFLOPS.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 1.34 TB/s of bandwidth, which is 43.6% higher than the PG506-232’s 933.1 GB/s.

Q: What is the difference in transistor count and die size?

A: The PG506-232 has 54,200 million transistors on an 826 mm² die, while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 92,200 million transistors on a smaller 750 mm² die, leading to a higher density of 122.9M / mm² versus 65.6M / mm².

Q: Does the PG506-232 support ray tracing?

A: No, the PG506-232 has no dedicated RT cores, while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 110 RT cores.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The PG506-232 has a 165 W TDP, while the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has a 300 W TDP, nearly double.

Q: Which card has more display outputs?

A: The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell has 4x DisplayPort 2.1b outputs, whereas the PG506-232 has no display outputs.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell wins in every measurable performance category from the data. It is 11.4% faster in Geekbench OpenCL, has 6.5 times the FP32 throughput, 43.6% more memory bandwidth, and double the memory capacity (48 GB vs 24 GB). Its higher pixel rate (380.3 GPixel/s vs 138.2 GPixel/s) and texture rate (1,045.9 GTexel/s vs 322.6 GTexel/s) make it the clear choice for graphics-intensive workloads. The presence of RT cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 further cement its position for modern rendering and compute tasks.

The NVIDIA PG506-232’s wins are narrower and more niche. Its lower TDP of 165 W, compared to the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s 300 W, makes it more power-efficient per watt for certain compute tasks, though the sheer performance gap negates this advantage in most scenarios. Its 99th percentile ranking versus the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell’s 98th percentile suggests that, in the broader GPU landscape, the PG506-232 is exceptionally well-optimized for its specific workload profile, even if that profile is less versatile. For high-density, power-constrained server racks where the workload is known and the 24 GB memory is sufficient, the PG506-232 remains a viable option. However, for any new deployment requiring maximum compute, larger memory, or any display output, the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell is the definitive winner.