NVIDIA RTX A5500 vs NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB Comparison

NVIDIA’s RTX A5500 and Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB represent two very different eras of GPU design, and the benchmark data confirms a decisive generational gap. The A5500 leads the only shared test by a wide margin, and its architectural advantages translate into a clear performance hierarchy. This analysis relies solely on recorded database measurements.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains a single direct comparison for these two cards: Geekbench OpenCL. In that test, the NVIDIA RTX A5500 scores 174,637, while the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79,396. The A5500 is 120% ahead, meaning it more than doubles the P100’s output. This is a massive delta, not a marginal improvement. The P100’s score is roughly 45% of the A5500’s total, which shows how far workstation GPU compute has advanced between 2016 and 2022.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the A5500’s average benchmark score is 165,217, placing it in the 97th percentile of all GPUs. The P100’s average score is 79,396, placing it in the 92nd percentile. While both are high-performing parts, the percentile gap reflects the A5500’s position among the very top tier of all recorded GPUs. The P100, while still strong, sits lower in the overall distribution. The A5500’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon PRO W7800 (average score 164,894, which is 0.2% slower) and the NVIDIA RTX 4500 Ada Generation (average score 166,094, which is 0.5% faster). The P100’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, which scores 79,605, a 0.3% difference. This shows the A5500 competes with modern workstation flagships, while the P100 is effectively limited to matching its own siblings.

The head-to-head delta of 120% is the headline number. No other benchmark results exist for both cards, so the OpenCL result stands as the definitive measure. The A5500 wins the single recorded comparison, giving it a 1-0 record in wins.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs diverge fundamentally at the architecture level. The RTX A5500 uses the GA102 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It packs 28,300 million transistors into a 628 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 45.1 million per mm². In contrast, the Tesla P100 uses the GP100 chip based on Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It contains 15,300 million transistors on a 610 mm² die, with a density of 25.1 million per mm². The A5500 has nearly double the transistor count on a slightly larger die, and its density advantage is substantial.

The A5500 features 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The P100 has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The shading unit advantage is roughly 2.86x, which directly explains the FP32 compute gap. The A5500 delivers 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the P100 delivers 9.526 TFLOPS. That is a 3.58x difference in raw single-precision throughput. For FP16, the A5500 also hits 34.10 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning it does not double FP16 rate. The P100 provides 19.05 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, meaning its FP16 rate is double its FP32 rate. Despite this, the A5500 still leads FP16 by roughly 1.79x.

The A5500 adds hardware that the P100 lacks entirely: 80 RT cores for ray tracing and 320 tensor cores for AI acceleration. The P100 has no recorded RT or tensor core counts, making it a pure compute and graphics card without dedicated acceleration for those workloads. The A5500 also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the P100 only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Vulkan support differs as well: the A5500 supports Vulkan 1.4, the P100 supports Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Memory architecture is another major split. The A5500 uses 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, with a memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and bandwidth of 768.0 GB/s. The P100 uses 12 GB of HBM2 on a 3072-bit bus, with a memory clock of 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective) and bandwidth of 549.1 GB/s. The A5500 offers double the capacity and 40% more bandwidth. The P100’s HBM2 gives it a very wide bus (3072 bit vs 384 bit), but the lower clock speeds limit its effective throughput. The A5500’s GDDR6 runs at a much higher effective frequency.

Pixel and texture rates also favor the A5500. The A5500 achieves 159.8 GPixel/s and 532.8 GTexel/s. The P100 achieves 127.6 GPixel/s and 297.7 GTexel/s. The A5500 leads by 25% in pixel fill and 79% in texture fill.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute according to the database?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5500 scores 174,637 in Geekbench OpenCL, versus 79,396 for the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB. The A5500 is 120% faster in this test.

Q: Does the Tesla P100 have any ray tracing or tensor core capabilities?

A: The database records no RT cores and no tensor cores for the Tesla P100. The RTX A5500 has 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores.

Q: How do the memory capacities compare?

A: The RTX A5500 has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory. The Tesla P100 has 12 GB of HBM2 memory. The A5500 also has higher bandwidth: 768.0 GB/s versus 549.1 GB/s.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two chips?

A: The A5500’s GA102 chip has a density of 45.1 million transistors per mm², while the P100’s GP100 chip has a density of 25.1 million transistors per mm².

Q: Which card supports a newer version of Vulkan?

A: The RTX A5500 supports Vulkan 1.4. The Tesla P100 supports Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the FP32 compute performance for each card?

A: The RTX A5500 delivers 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The Tesla P100 delivers 9.526 TFLOPS, making the A5500 roughly 3.58x faster in FP32.

Specification Differences

The following fields differ between the NVIDIA RTX A5500 and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB:

• Architecture: Ampere for the A5500, Pascal for the P100.
• Process Node: 8 nm for the A5500, 16 nm for the P100.
• Foundry: Samsung for the A5500, TSMC for the P100.
• Transistors: 28,300 million for the A5500, 15,300 million for the P100.
• Die Size: 628 mm² for the A5500, 610 mm² for the P100.
• Transistor Density: 45.1M/mm² for the A5500, 25.1M/mm² for the P100.
• Base Clock: 1080 MHz for the A5500, 1190 MHz for the P100.
• Boost Clock: 1665 MHz for the A5500, 1329 MHz for the P100.
• Memory Clock: 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for the A5500, 715 MHz (1430 Mbps effective) for the P100.
• Memory Size: 24 GB for the A5500, 12 GB for the P100.
• Memory Type: GDDR6 for the A5500, HBM2 for the P100.
• Memory Bus Width: 384 bit for the A5500, 3072 bit for the P100.
• Memory Bandwidth: 768.0 GB/s for the A5500, 549.1 GB/s for the P100.
• Shading Units: 10240 for the A5500, 3584 for the P100.
• TMUs: 320 for the A5500, 224 for the P100.
• RT Cores: 80 for the A5500, none for the P100.
• Tensor Cores: 320 for the A5500, none for the P100.
• Pixel Rate: 159.8 GPixel/s for the A5500, 127.6 GPixel/s for the P100.
• Texture Rate: 532.8 GTexel/s for the A5500, 297.7 GTexel/s for the P100.
• FP32 Compute: 34.10 TFLOPS for the A5500, 9.526 TFLOPS for the P100.
• FP16 Compute: 34.10 TFLOPS (1:1) for the A5500, 19.05 TFLOPS (2:1) for the P100.
• TDP: 230 W for the A5500, 250 W for the P100.
• Suggested PSU: 550 W for the A5500, 600 W for the P100.
• Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 for the A5500, PCIe 3.0 x16 for the P100.
• Display Outputs: 4x DisplayPort 1.4a for the A5500, no outputs for the P100.
• DirectX Support: 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the A5500, 12 (12_1) for the P100.
• Vulkan Support: 1.4 for the A5500, 1.3 for the P100.
• Release Date: 2022-03-21 for the A5500, 2016-06-19 for the P100.
• Predecessor: Quadro Turing for the A5500, Tesla Maxwell for the P100.
• Successor: Workstation Ada for the A5500, Tesla Volta for the P100.
• Height: 112 mm for the A5500, not recorded for the P100.
• Launch MSRP: The Tesla P100 has a recorded launch MSRP of 4,599 USD. The A5500 has no recorded launch MSRP.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5500 wins in every measurable category where data exists. In the direct OpenCL benchmark, it is 120% faster. In FP32 compute, it is 3.58x faster. In memory bandwidth, it is 40% faster. In texture rate, it is 79% faster. It also has twice the memory capacity (24 GB vs 12 GB), and it is the only one of the two with RT cores and tensor cores. The A5500 also supports a newer PCIe interface (4.0 vs 3.0) and offers display outputs, making it suitable for interactive workstation use with monitors attached.

The Tesla P100 retains a few narrow advantages. Its base clock is higher (1190 MHz vs 1080 MHz), though its boost clock is lower (1329 MHz vs 1665 MHz). Its HBM2 memory uses a much wider 3072-bit bus, which is a design choice for high-bandwidth workloads, but the effective bandwidth is still lower than the A5500’s GDDR6. The P100 has a higher TDP of 250 W versus 230 W, meaning it consumes more power while delivering less performance. It also has a lower transistor density (25.1M/mm² vs 45.1M/mm²), indicating an older manufacturing process.

The P100’s FP16 ratio of 2:1 is notable: it achieves 19.05 TFLOPS, which is double its FP32 rate. This gives it a relative FP16 advantage over its own FP32 output, though it still loses to the A5500’s FP16 value of 34.10 TFLOPS. The P100 does have a higher base clock, which could benefit short, lightly threaded tasks, but the A5500’s boost clock overcomes this in sustained workloads.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA RTX A5500 is the superior GPU for almost any purpose, with a 120% lead in the only shared benchmark, a 3.58x lead in FP32 compute, and a 40% lead in memory bandwidth. The A5500 also brings modern features like RT cores, tensor cores, and DirectX 12 Ultimate support, none of which exist on the Tesla P100. The A5500 achieves this while consuming less power (230 W versus 250 W) and requiring a smaller suggested PSU (550 W versus 600 W). Its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory doubles the P100’s 12 GB HBM2 capacity, and its PCIe 4.0 interface doubles the P100’s PCIe 3.0 bandwidth potential.

The Tesla P100 is a legacy compute card from 2016, built for HPC workloads that predate modern AI acceleration. Its higher base clock and wide HBM2 bus do not compensate for the massive architectural deficit. The only scenario where the P100 makes sense is if a system requires a headless compute-only card with no display outputs and is constrained to older PCIe 3.0 slots, where the A5500’s PCIe 4.0 advantage is irrelevant. But even then, the A5500’s raw performance advantage dominates.

For most buyers, the choice is clear: the RTX A5500 is the faster, more capable, and more efficient card. The P100 should only be considered for legacy compatibility with Pascal-era software stacks. The benchmark database records a single win for the A5500, and that win is decisive. The verdict is the A5500, without qualification.