NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation vs NVIDIA Tesla V100S PCIe 32 GB Comparison

NVIDIA’s RTX 6000 Ada Generation and Tesla V100S PCIe 32 GB represent two very different eras of the company’s professional GPU lineup. The RTX 6000 Ada is the newer, Ada Lovelace-based workstation card, while the V100S is a Volta-generation accelerator from 2019. The benchmark data shows a decisive overall victory for the RTX 6000 Ada, but that single score hides meaningful architectural and use-case differences worth unpacking. The RTX 6000 Ada scores 311,629 in Geekbench OpenCL, against 194,415 for the V100S, a 60.3% gap. However, the V100S retains strengths in specific workloads, particularly around memory bandwidth and FP16 throughput, that make it more than just an obsolete footnote. Below is a breakdown of where each card wins, how they differ internally, and what the specifications actually mean for real-world tasks.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 6000 Ada Generation is the clear winner in general compute and graphics-heavy tasks. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 311,629 puts it in the 99th percentile of all GPUs, while the V100S sits at the 98th percentile with 194,415. That 60.3% lead is massive and reflects the newer card’s advantages in raw FP32 performance, shading units, and modern feature support. For workloads like rendering, simulation, or any OpenCL-accelerated application that scales with raw compute, the RTX 6000 Ada is the obvious choice. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA L40S, scores 295,763, which is 2.9% higher than the RTX 6000 Ada, but the RTX 6000 Ada still leads the L40 by 1.1% (284,111) and the L20 by 14.4% (251,147). This places the RTX 6000 Ada near the top of NVIDIA’s own professional stack.

The Tesla V100S, by contrast, wins in scenarios that value memory bandwidth and specific mixed-precision math. Its HBM2 memory delivers 1.13 TB/s of bandwidth, compared to 960.0 GB/s on the RTX 6000 Ada’s GDDR6. That 17.7% advantage in raw bandwidth is significant for memory-bound workloads like large matrix operations or certain HPC simulations. Additionally, the V100S has a 2:1 FP16 ratio, delivering 32.71 TFLOPS in FP16 versus 91.06 TFLOPS on the RTX 6000 Ada (which is 1:1). While the RTX 6000 Ada has more absolute FP16 throughput, the V100S’s dedicated FP16 path is more efficient for mixed-precision training in older deep learning frameworks. The V100S also has 640 tensor cores, which is more than the RTX 6000 Ada’s 568, though the newer tensor cores in Ada are more capable per unit. For legacy Volta-optimized code, the V100S remains relevant.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two is generational. The RTX 6000 Ada uses the AD102 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, packing 76,300 million transistors into a 609 mm² die. That yields a transistor density of 125.3M per mm². The V100S uses the GV100 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process, with 21,100 million transistors on a larger 815 mm² die, giving a density of just 25.9M per mm². The RTX 6000 Ada is built on Ada Lovelace, while the V100S is Volta. This explains the massive difference in transistor count and efficiency: the RTX 6000 Ada has 3.6 times more transistors but a 25% smaller die.

The RTX 6000 Ada also introduces features the V100S lacks entirely. It has 142 ray tracing cores, which the V100S does not have at all, and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus the V100S’s DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, but the RTX 6000 Ada’s newer architecture means better utilization of those APIs. The V100S has no display outputs, while the RTX 6000 Ada includes 4x DisplayPort 1.4a, making it a viable workstation card for visual workloads, not just compute. The RTX 6000 Ada also runs on PCIe 4.0 x16, while the V100S is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16, halving the available bus bandwidth for data transfers.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is Geekbench OpenCL, and the RTX 6000 Ada wins decisively. It scores 311,629 against 194,415 for the V100S, a delta of 60.3%. That is not a small margin; it is a generational leap. To put it in context, the RTX 6000 Ada’s closest rival, the NVIDIA L40S, scores 295,763, which is 2.9% lower. The V100S’s closest rival, the NVIDIA RTX 6000D, scores 195,964, which is 0.8% higher. So the V100S is effectively trading blows with NVIDIA’s RTX 6000D and A100 SXM4 variants (187,147 for the 40 GB model, 183,725 for the 80 GB model), but it is 5.3% ahead of the RTX 5000 Ada Generation (184,664). The RTX 6000 Ada, however, sits in a different league, with only the AMD Instinct MI300X (317,994) clearly ahead of it by 9.7%.

The FP32 compute difference is stark: the RTX 6000 Ada delivers 91.06 TFLOPS, while the V100S manages 16.35 TFLOPS. That is a 5.6x advantage for the RTX 6000 Ada. Texture rate follows a similar pattern, with 1,422.8 GTexel/s versus 511.0 GTexel/s, and pixel rate comes in at 481.0 GPixel/s versus 204.4 GPixel/s. The RTX 6000 Ada also has far more shading units (18,176 vs. 5,120) and texture mapping units (568 vs. 320). In any compute workload that is not bottlenecked by memory bandwidth, the RTX 6000 Ada will crush the V100S.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal where these cards diverge most clearly. The RTX 6000 Ada has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, while the V100S has 32 GB of HBM2 on a 4096-bit bus. Bandwidth goes to the V100S at 1.13 TB/s, but capacity goes to the RTX 6000 Ada. The RTX 6000 Ada’s memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), while the V100S runs at 1107 MHz (2.2 Gbps effective). Clock speeds are inverted: the V100S has a higher base clock at 1245 MHz versus 915 MHz, but the RTX 6000 Ada boosts much higher at 2505 MHz versus 1597 MHz.

Power draws differ, with the RTX 6000 Ada rated at 300 W and the V100S at 250 W. The RTX 6000 Ada uses a single 16-pin power connector and suggests a 700 W PSU, while the V100S uses two 8-pin connectors and suggests a 600 W PSU. Both are dual-slot cards. The RTX 6000 Ada is 267 mm long (10.5 inches) and 112 mm tall (4.4 inches); the V100S has no listed dimensions. The RTX 6000 Ada has 568 tensor cores, while the V100S has 640, but the RTX 6000 Ada has 142 RT cores and the V100S has none. The RTX 6000 Ada is PCIe 4.0 x16, the V100S is PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX 6000 Ada has display outputs; the V100S has none. The RTX 6000 Ada launched on 2022-12-02 with an MSRP of 6,799 USD; the V100S launched on 2019-11-25 with no listed MSRP. Both are end-of-life.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation is 60.3% faster, scoring 311,629 versus 194,415 in Geekbench OpenCL.

Q: Does the Tesla V100S have any advantage over the RTX 6000 Ada?

A: Yes, the V100S has higher memory bandwidth at 1.13 TB/s compared to 960.0 GB/s, and it has more tensor cores (640 vs. 568). It also has a 2:1 FP16 ratio, though the RTX 6000 Ada still has higher absolute FP16 TFLOPS.

Q: Can the Tesla V100S output video to a display?

A: No, the V100S has no display outputs. The RTX 6000 Ada includes 4x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RTX 6000 Ada has a density of 125.3M transistors per mm² on a 5 nm process, while the V100S has 25.9M per mm² on a 12 nm process.

Q: Which card has more ray tracing capability?

A: The RTX 6000 Ada has 142 RT cores, while the V100S has none, so ray tracing is only supported on the RTX 6000 Ada.

Q: How does the RTX 6000 Ada compare to its nearest rival, the NVIDIA L40S?

A: The RTX 6000 Ada scores 311,629, which is 2.9% lower than the L40S’s 295,763. It is 1.1% higher than the L40’s 284,111 and 14.4% higher than the L20’s 251,147.