NVIDIA RTX A500

Power and Cooling — TDP, PSU recommendation, connector requirements

The NVIDIA RTX A500 carries a 60 W TDP, which places it firmly in the low-power segment of workstation GPUs. This modest thermal envelope is a direct consequence of its 8 nm Samsung process node and the efficient Ampere architecture. The data shows that a 250 W suggested PSU is sufficient to support the card in a typical workstation, which reflects the minimal system-wide power draw. Because the TDP is so low, the A500 requires no auxiliary power connectors — the slot alone delivers all necessary power. The card is single-slot in design, which simplifies integration into dense workstation chassis or systems with multiple expansion cards.

The absence of power connectors is a notable operational advantage. In configurations where cable management is constrained or where the PSU lacks spare PCIe power leads, the A500 can be installed without additional wiring. The 60 W TDP also implies that cooling solutions do not need to be elaborate; a capable air cooler with a single fan is adequate for sustained workloads. The pixel rate of 56.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 113.3 GTexel/s are generated within this 60 W envelope, indicating that the card is optimized for efficiency over raw throughput. For system integrators, the low power draw reduces overall thermal load inside the case, which can benefit adjacent components such as CPUs and NVMe drives. The data does not specify cooler dimensions or noise levels, but the thermal design point strongly suggests quiet operation under typical loads. In summary, the power and cooling requirements are minimal: a standard 250 W PSU, no extra connectors, and single-slot mounting are the only constraints.

Who Should Consider It

The RTX A500 is an entry-level workstation GPU, and its benchmark percentile of 50 against all GPUs indicates it sits exactly at the median of the entire GPU landscape. This positioning makes it suitable for users who need professional-grade features — such as certified drivers and robust API support — but who do not require high-end rendering throughput. Based on the available scores, the A500 is best suited for 1080p workloads at medium to high settings in less demanding professional applications. The 4 GB GDDR6 memory and 112.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 2D CAD, basic 3D modeling, and light video encoding, but they will become limiting factors at 1440p or 4K with large textures or complex scenes.

For users working with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, or Vulkan 1.4 applications, the A500 provides modern API coverage without the cost of higher-tier workstation cards. The 7.250 TFLOPS FP32 performance is adequate for real-time previews but not for final-frame rendering or heavy simulation. The data shows no nearest rivals, which means the A500 operates in a relatively isolated performance tier; this suggests it targets a specific niche where power efficiency and low profile matter more than raw speed. Users upgrading from older Quadro Turing cards will find the A500 a modest step forward in architecture, but those needing substantial compute gains should look elsewhere. In gaming scenarios, the A500 is not the intended target, but its 50th-percentile standing means it can handle older or less demanding titles at 1080p. For professional environments where multiple monitors are needed, note that the card has no display outputs — this is a compute-only or render-farm part, so system integrators must pair it with a secondary GPU for display.

Memory Subsystem

The RTX A500 is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is the most significant limitation of this card. The memory operates at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective data rate, across a 64-bit bus. This narrow bus width yields a total bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s. For context, this bandwidth figure is roughly one-third of what mid-range consumer GPUs offer, and it directly impacts performance in memory-bound tasks. At 1080p, 4 GB is workable for many professional workloads, but high-resolution textures or multi-layer compositing in video editing will quickly exhaust the frame buffer. The 64-bit bus is the primary bottleneck: even though the memory clock is reasonably high, the narrow interface limits how much data can move per clock cycle.

For high-resolution workloads, the implications are clear. At 1440p, the effective bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor for shader-heavy scenes, as the GPU cannot fetch textures and geometry fast enough to keep the 2048 shading units fully occupied. The 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are present for ray tracing and AI acceleration, but they are constrained by the same memory subsystem. The 4 GB capacity also means that datasets larger than this must be streamed from system memory or storage, which introduces latency. The FP16 performance is identical to FP32 at 7.250 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), which is unusual and indicates that the A500 does not have dedicated FP16 acceleration paths — this is worth noting for users who rely on mixed-precision workloads. In practice, the memory subsystem is adequate for small to medium projects but will cause stuttering or reduced quality settings in larger scenes. The lack of display outputs further suggests that this card is intended for compute tasks where the output is written to memory or transferred over PCIe 4.0 x8, rather than displayed directly.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK lists no nearest rivals for the RTX A500, which is an unusual situation. This absence of comparative data means that the A500 occupies a performance tier with no direct competitors in the benchmark database at the time of analysis. The percentile of 50 against all GPUs provides a global reference point, indicating that half of all GPUs perform better and half perform worse. Within the workstation Ampere generation, the A500 sits at the bottom of the stack, with the data showing its predecessor as Quadro Turing and its successor as Workstation Ada. This generational positioning suggests that the A500 is an entry point into the Ampere workstation lineup, designed to offer modern architecture features at the lowest possible power and cost.

Without rival data, the comparison must rely on architectural context. The GA107 chip is the smallest Ampere die, with 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². This is a dense but small chip. The A500's 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs are modest numbers, but they are paired with 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores, which are essential for ray tracing and AI workloads. The card's exclusion of display outputs is a deliberate design choice that distinguishes it from consumer GPUs; it is a pure compute accelerator. When compared to the broader GPU market, the A500's 50th percentile means it is neither a low-end outlier nor a high-performance part — it is precisely average. This makes it a reasonable choice for organizations that need predictable, certified performance for specific software stacks without the variability of consumer gaming cards.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the RTX A500 is sparse: the average benchmark score is 0, and the percentile against all GPUs is 50. This combination is peculiar, as a zero score typically indicates no benchmark results were recorded, while the 50th percentile suggests a median position. Interpreting this requires caution. The 0 average score likely reflects that no standardized benchmarks were run on this specific card in the database, so the percentile may be an estimate based on the GPU's specifications rather than empirical results. The compute figures provide the only concrete performance indicators: 7.250 TFLOPS FP32, 7.250 TFLOPS FP16, 56.64 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 113.3 GTexel/s texture rate.

These numbers tell a consistent story. The FP32 throughput of 7.25 TFLOPS is competitive with entry-level consumer GPUs from the same era, but the memory bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s is the binding constraint. The pixel rate of 56.64 GPixel/s suggests that the card can handle fill-rate-bound tasks at 1080p, but the 64-bit memory bus will cap effective performance in real-world scenarios. The texture rate of 113.3 GTexel/s is adequate for basic texturing but will struggle with anisotropic filtering at high resolutions. The absence of rival deltas (deltaPct values) means we cannot quantify the A500's lead or deficit against specific competitors. However, the architectural data allows for qualitative comparisons: the A500 offers half the shading units of the next step up in Ampere's workstation lineup, but with the same RT core and tensor core ratios. The 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio is notable — many GPUs halve FP16 throughput, so the A500's uniform rate suggests a design focused on consistent compute rather than specialized mixed-precision acceleration. Overall, the benchmark performance is best described as "adequate for light professional use," with the memory subsystem being the primary limiter.

FAQ

Q: What is the TDP of the RTX A500 and what PSU is recommended?

A: The TDP is 60 W, and the suggested PSU is 250 W. The card requires no auxiliary power connectors, drawing all power from the PCIe slot.

Q: Does the RTX A500 have any display outputs?

A: No. The card has no display outputs, meaning it is intended for compute or render tasks and must be paired with a separate GPU for display purposes.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the RTX A500?

A: It has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, effective 14 Gbps.

Q: What is the FP32 performance of the RTX A500?

A: The FP32 throughput is 7.250 TFLOPS. The FP16 performance is identical at 7.250 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

Q: Which architecture and process node does the RTX A500 use?

A: It uses the Ampere architecture (GA107 chip) on an 8 nm Samsung process. The die size is 200 mm² with 8,700 million transistors.

Q: What API support does the RTX A500 offer?

A: It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The card also includes 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores for ray tracing and AI workloads.

Q: Is the RTX A500 still in production?

A: No, the production status is end-of-life. It was released on November 9, 2021, with its predecessor being Quadro Turing and successor being Workstation Ada.