NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation vs NVIDIA Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB Comparison

The Verdict

The data separates these two NVIDIA cards into distinct roles. The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is the modern, balanced workstation card, winning the Vulkan benchmark by a decisive 30% margin. The Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB, an end-of-life Volta part, counters with a 4.7% lead in OpenCL. If your workload leans on Vulkan—think modern rendering or compute APIs—the RTX 4500 Ada is the clear pick from the numbers. If OpenCL performance is your priority, the older Tesla still holds a slight edge, but its lack of display outputs and end-of-life status make it a niche choice for headless compute only. The RTX 4500 Ada is the practical recommendation for most builders; the Tesla V100 is for legacy or specialized OpenCL environments where its 32 GB HBM2 capacity outweighs everything else.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two is enormous, reflecting five years of development. The RTX 4500 Ada uses the AD103 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die. The Tesla V100 uses the GV100 chip on a 12 nm process, with 21,100 million transistors spread across a much larger 815 mm² die. That's a transistor density of 121.1M per mm² for Ada versus just 25.9M per mm² for Volta—a 4.7x density advantage for the newer card.

The RTX 4500 Ada features 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, bringing hardware ray tracing and fourth-generation tensor capabilities. The Tesla V100 has no RT cores at all, but it does have 640 tensor cores—more than double the Ada count. The Ada card has 7,680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs; the Tesla has 5,120 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The Ada card's FP16 performance matches its FP32 at 39.63 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the Tesla's FP16 is exactly double its FP32—28.26 TFLOPS versus 14.13 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The Tesla's FP16 advantage is notable for AI inference, but the Ada card's raw FP32 throughput is 2.8x higher.

Memory architecture is another fundamental split. The RTX 4500 Ada uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s. The Tesla V100 uses 32 GB of HBM2 on a massive 4096-bit bus, achieving 897.0 GB/s—more than double the bandwidth. The Tesla's process node is 12 nm versus 5 nm, and it predates the Ada card by over five years, with a release date in March 2018 versus August 2023.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two benchmark results tell a story of specialization. In Geekbench OpenCL, the Tesla V100 scores 168,763 against the RTX 4500 Ada's 160,786—a 4.7% win for the older card. That's a meaningful margin in a compute-heavy API, likely driven by the Tesla's superior memory bandwidth and higher tensor core count. The RTX 4500 Ada is 4.7% behind here, which is counterintuitive given its newer architecture, but the numbers are what they are.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the tables turn dramatically. The RTX 4500 Ada scores 171,401 versus the Tesla's 131,847—a 30% advantage. This is a massive gap, showing the Ada architecture's strength in modern graphics APIs. The 30% delta is the single largest performance difference between the two cards in any measured test. The Tesla's Vulkan score is its weak point, lagging its own OpenCL result by 21.8% (from 168,763 down to 131,847), while the Ada card improves by 6.6% going from OpenCL to Vulkan (160,786 up to 171,401).

The average benchmark scores reflect this split: the RTX 4500 Ada averages 166,094 across both tests, while the Tesla averages 150,305—a 10.5% gap in favor of Ada. The RTX 4500 Ada also sits in the 97th percentile of all GPUs, versus the 96th percentile for the Tesla. In the nearest rivals comparison, the RTX 4500 Ada is 0.5% ahead of the RTX A5500, 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W7800, and 2.2% ahead of the NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40 GB, while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X by 1.5%. The Tesla V100, meanwhile, is 1.1% behind the NVIDIA A10G, 6.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6800X, and 7.5% behind the A100 PCIe 40 GB, while leading the AMD Instinct MI100 by 8.1%.

Specification Differences

| Specification | RTX 4500 Ada Generation | Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Volta |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 12 nm |

| Transistors | 45,900 million | 21,100 million |

| Die Size | 379 mm² | 815 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 121.1M / mm² | 25.9M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 2070 MHz | 1230 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 2580 MHz | 1380 MHz |

| Memory Size | 24 GB | 32 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | HBM2 |

| Memory Bus | 192 bit | 4096 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 432.0 GB/s | 897.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 7680 | 5120 |

| TMUs | 240 | 320 |

| ROPs | 80 | 128 |

| RT Cores | 60 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 240 | 640 |

| FP32 Performance | 39.63 TFLOPS | 14.13 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 39.63 TFLOPS (1:1) | 28.26 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 210 W | 250 W |

| Power Connectors | None | 2x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | 600 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 4x DisplayPort 1.4a | No outputs |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Production Status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release Date | 2023-08-08 | 2018-03-26 |

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in OpenCL?

A: The Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 168,763, beating the RTX 4500 Ada's 160,786 by 4.7%.

Q: Which card is faster in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation wins Geekbench Vulkan decisively with 171,401 against the Tesla's 131,847—a 30% advantage.

Q: Does the Tesla V100 have more memory bandwidth?

A: Yes. The Tesla V100 delivers 897.0 GB/s from its 4096-bit HBM2 bus, while the RTX 4500 Ada provides 432.0 GB/s from a 192-bit GDDR6 bus. The Tesla's bandwidth is more than double.

Q: Can the Tesla V100 output video to a display?

A: No. The Tesla V100 has no display outputs at all, making it a headless compute card. The RTX 4500 Ada has 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Q: Which card has better FP32 compute throughput?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada has 39.63 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is 2.8x higher than the Tesla V100's 14.13 TFLOPS.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The RTX 4500 Ada Generation is Active, while the Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB is End-of-life. The Tesla was released in March 2018, and the Ada card in August 2023.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4500 Ada Generation wins in Vulkan-based workloads by a 30% margin, making it the clear choice for any modern graphics API application. Its 39.63 TFLOPS FP32 performance is 2.8x that of the Tesla, and its 60 RT cores enable hardware ray tracing that the Tesla simply lacks. The Ada card's 5 nm process and 121.1M transistors per mm² density mean it achieves this performance at a lower 210 W TDP, with no external power connectors required and a 550 W suggested PSU. Its 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs make it a drop-in workstation card for visual workloads, and its Active production status means ongoing availability. The Ada card also holds a higher average benchmark score (166,094 versus 150,305) and a higher percentile ranking (97th versus 96th).

The Tesla V100 PCIe 32 GB wins in OpenCL by 4.7%, a result that likely stems from its 897.0 GB/s memory bandwidth—more than double the Ada card's—and its 640 tensor cores versus 240. Its 32 GB of HBM2 memory provides 8 GB more capacity than the Ada card, which matters for large datasets that exceed 24 GB. The Tesla's 2:1 FP16 ratio (28.26 TFLOPS) gives it a relative advantage in mixed-precision workloads compared to Ada's 1:1 ratio, though the Ada card's absolute FP16 is still higher at 39.63 TFLOPS. For legacy OpenCL compute pipelines or applications specifically tuned for Volta's architecture, the Tesla's slight edge could be the deciding factor. Its 8.1% lead over the AMD Instinct MI100 also shows it remains competitive in its niche, but the end-of-life status and lack of display outputs limit its appeal to purely headless compute servers. The 250 W TDP with 2x 8-pin connectors and 600 W PSU requirement also make it more demanding to install, and its PCIe 3.0 interface is two generations behind the Ada card's PCIe 4.0.

For a builder choosing today, the data points overwhelmingly to the RTX 4500 Ada unless the specific workload is OpenCL-bound and requires more than 24 GB of memory. The 30% Vulkan win is too large to ignore, and the Ada card's higher average score, active status, and display outputs make it the more versatile and future-proof option. The Tesla V100's OpenCL lead is real but narrow, and its advantages in bandwidth and capacity come with the caveat of an aging platform that NVIDIA has already discontinued.