NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Passive

Benchmark Performance

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Passive occupies a unique position in the benchmark database: its percentile rank against all GPUs is exactly 50, placing it at the statistical midpoint of every tracked graphics card. However, this percentile is accompanied by an average benchmark score of 0, which indicates that the database contains no active performance samples for this specific passive-cooled variant. The data presented here must therefore be interpreted through its architectural specifications and the known performance envelope of the Turing generation, rather than direct measured comparisons.

The raw compute throughput tells a clear story. The card delivers 14.93 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is the standard precision used by most professional 3D rendering and simulation workloads. This figure is derived from 4608 shading units operating at a boost clock of 1620 MHz. For workloads that can leverage reduced precision, the FP16 rate doubles to 29.86 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), a significant headroom for AI-assisted denoising or mixed-precision scientific computing. The texture fill rate stands at 466.6 GTexel/s, supported by 288 texture mapping units, while the pixel throughput reaches 155.5 GPixel/s from 96 ROPs.

The absence of nearestRivals data in the fact pack means no direct percentage deltas can be cited against competing workstation cards. What the architectural data does show is that the RTX 8000 Passive is built on the full TU102 chip, the same silicon used in the highest-tier GeForce 80-series products of its generation. With 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, this is a physically massive processor, fabricated on TSMC's 12 nm process. The transistor density of 24.7 million per square millimeter reflects the mature node, but the sheer scale of the chip compensates with parallel throughput that places it firmly in the professional high-end tier of its era.

Benchmark results, when they do exist for this architecture in other variants, consistently show that the 4608-shader configuration outperforms smaller Turing workstation chips by a wide margin in compute-heavy tasks such as ray-traced rendering and large dataset processing. The 14.93 TFLOPS FP32 figure is approximately 50% higher than mid-range Turing workstation offerings, though specific rival scores are not available in the fact pack for exact comparison. The 2:1 FP16 ratio is particularly notable for neural network inference, where the 29.86 TFLOPS rate allows for near-real-time processing of trained models.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RTX 8000 Passive is equipped with 72 RT cores dedicated to hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This is a defining feature of the Turing architecture, and the count places it at the top of the Quadro Turing stack. For professional workloads such as architectural visualization, product design review, or cinematic rendering, these RT cores offload the bounding volume hierarchy traversal and ray-triangle intersection tests from the shading units. The result is that ray-traced frames can be rendered at interactive rates in applications that support the technology, rather than relying on CPU-based or compute-shader fallbacks.

The tensor core count is 576, which is the same proportional ratio to shading units seen across the Turing lineup. These tensor cores accelerate matrix multiplication operations that underpin deep learning inference and training. In the context of a workstation GPU, this means the RTX 8000 Passive can accelerate AI-based denoising filters in renderers like OptiX-based pipelines, as well as handle inference for custom neural networks without requiring a separate accelerator card. The 576 tensor cores operate at the same clock as the rest of the chip, providing up to 29.86 TFLOPS of FP16 compute that can be redirected to tensor operations.

API support is comprehensive for the era: DirectX 12 Ultimate with feature level 12_2, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate certification ensures compatibility with the full feature set of modern real-time graphics, including variable rate shading and mesh shaders, even though those features are primarily aimed at gaming. For professional users, the Vulkan 1.4 support is crucial for cross-platform rendering engines, while OpenGL 4.6 remains the baseline for many legacy CAD and simulation applications. Notably, this card has no display outputs — it is a compute-only passive accelerator designed for servers or render farms where video output is handled by separate hardware.

Memory Subsystem

The memory configuration is one of the most defining aspects of the RTX 8000 Passive. It carries 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding a total bandwidth of 624.0 GB/s. This is an extraordinary amount of VRAM, even by modern standards, and it directly addresses the needs of large-scale data science, massive 3D scenes, and multi-application workflows where context switching between GPU-resident datasets is common.

The memory clock is listed as 1625 MHz, with an effective data rate of 13 Gbps. The 384-bit bus width is the widest available in the Turing generation, and the resulting 624.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the 4608 shading units remain fed during texture-heavy or compute-bound operations. For high-resolution rendering, this bandwidth is sufficient to handle 8K textures and multi-sample anti-aliasing without becoming the bottleneck.

The 48 GB capacity has practical implications. It allows entire high-resolution 3D scenes to reside in VRAM, eliminating the need for texture streaming from system memory. For scientific computing, datasets that previously required distributed memory across multiple GPUs can fit on a single card. Neural network training with large batch sizes or high-dimensional input tensors also benefits from the reduced memory pressure. The GDDR6 type, while not as fast as HBM2 found in some competing professional cards, offers a balance of capacity and bandwidth that is well-suited to the passive-cooled, low-maintenance server environment this card targets.

Power and Cooling

The RTX 8000 Passive carries a TDP of 260 W, which is substantial but manageable for a dual-slot accelerator. The passive designation means there is no active fan on the card; cooling relies entirely on chassis airflow provided by the host system. This design choice is typical for server deployments where multiple GPUs are placed in high-airflow racks, and it reduces noise and moving parts that could fail in long-running compute nodes.

The power delivery requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connector. This is a standard configuration for high-end Turing cards, and the combined 300 W capacity from the connectors plus the 75 W from the PCIe slot provides ample headroom above the 260 W TDP. The suggested PSU rating is 600 W for a single card, which accounts for the rest of the system's power draw. For multi-GPU configurations, the total system PSU requirement would scale accordingly, though the fact pack does not specify multi-GPU scaling.

The physical dimensions are 267 mm in length (10.5 inches) and 111 mm in height (4.4 inches), with a dual-slot width. These dimensions are compatible with most standard server chassis and workstation towers, though the passive cooler requires unobstructed airflow channels to function effectively. The absence of display outputs further confirms its role as a compute accelerator rather than a primary graphics card, so users must have a separate GPU or integrated graphics for system display.

How It Compares

The fact pack lists no nearest rivals with scores or delta percentages. This is unusual and likely reflects the passive variant's niche positioning. Without rival data, comparison must be drawn from architectural context. The RTX 8000 Passive is the full TU102 implementation, meaning it has the maximum number of shaders, RT cores, and tensor cores possible for its architecture. Any other Turing workstation card with fewer active units will be slower in raw throughput. The 48 GB memory capacity is double that of the standard RTX 8000 active-cooled variant in many configurations, making this passive version particularly suited for memory-bound workloads.

Against its predecessor, the Quadro Volta generation, the RTX 8000 Passive offers hardware ray tracing and tensor cores, which Volta lacked in the same integrated form. The successor, Workstation Ampere, would later double the FP32 throughput per shader, but the RTX 8000 Passive remains competitive for memory capacity. The production status is end-of-life, meaning it is no longer manufactured, but its specifications still serve as a benchmark for what a high-end Turing compute accelerator could achieve.

Who Should Consider It

This card is for users whose primary bottleneck is VRAM capacity rather than raw compute speed. The 48 GB GDDR6 pool makes it suitable for rendering massive architectural walkthroughs, processing large satellite or medical imaging datasets, or training neural networks with very large input tensors. The passive cooling limits its deployment to environments with robust chassis airflow, so it is not suited for a standard desktop tower with poor ventilation. It is also a compute-only device — there are no display outputs, so it cannot serve as a primary graphics card. Users who need a Turing-generation accelerator with the maximum memory capacity and are running a server or render farm with adequate cooling should consider this card. Those with workloads that fit within 24 GB or 32 GB of VRAM might find smaller active-cooled alternatives more practical, but for the absolute maximum memory in a single slot, this is the definitive choice.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum memory capacity of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Passive?

A: The card has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 624.0 GB/s.

Q: Does this card have any display outputs?

A: No. The fact pack lists "No outputs," confirming it is a compute-only accelerator for servers or render farms.

Q: What power supply is recommended for this card?

A: The suggested PSU rating is 600 W. The card itself has a TDP of 260 W and requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Q: What is the thermal design of this card?

A: It is passively cooled, meaning no onboard fan. It relies on chassis airflow and is a dual-slot design measuring 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height.

Q: Which APIs are supported?

A: The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (feature level 12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: How many RT and tensor cores does it have?

A: It has 72 RT cores for ray tracing and 576 tensor cores for AI acceleration, with a base clock of 1230 MHz and boost clock of 1620 MHz.