NVIDIA has announced its latest and fastest Quadro graphics cards, the Quadro RTX A6000 and the Quadro RTX A40. Both graphics cards are based on the brand new Ampere architecture and pack a punch when it comes to data center oriented visual computing workloads such as rendering, AI/VR, and other content creation / scientific research applications.
NVIDIA Quadro RTX A6000 & Quadro RTX A40 Official, Based on Ampere GPUs With 48 GB Memory
NVIDIA states that the performance gains with the new Quadro RTX cards are just spectacular with up to 2x improvement in ray-traced scenes allowing for faster & much more immersive scenes and movie creations for filmmakers. Even visual tool makers such as Luxion have seen performance up to 3x faster in their KeyShot visualization tool which jumped from 34.7 FPS (Quadro RTX 6000) to an impressive 88.9 FPS with the Quadro RTX A6000.
The NVIDIA RTX A6000 and NVIDIA A40 deliver enhanced performance with groundbreaking technology, including:
- Second-Generation RT Cores: Delivers up to 2x the throughput of the previous generation, plus concurrent ray tracing, shading, and compute.
- Third-Generation Tensor Cores: Provides up to 5x the throughput of the previous generation, up to 10X with sparsity, with support for new TF32 and BF16 data formats.
- New CUDA Cores: Delivers up to 2x the FP32 throughput of the previous generation for significant increases in graphics and compute.
- 48GB of GPU Memory: The largest memory available in a single GPU, expandable to 96GB using NVLink to connect two GPUs.
- Virtualization: With the addition of NVIDIA virtual GPU software such as the NVIDIA Virtual Workstation we can support graphics workloads and powerful virtual workstation instances at scale for remote users, enabling larger workflows for high-end design, AI, and compute workloads.
- PCIe Gen 4: Provides twice the bandwidth of the previous generation, accelerating data transfers to the GPU for data-intensive workloads like data science, hybrid rendering, and video streaming in PCIe Gen 4-enabled servers and workstations such as the Lenovo ThinkStation P620.
Coming to the specifications, the Quadro RTX A6000 and A40 feature lots of similarities while the main differences lie in the clock speeds and the memory configuration. Both cards are powered by the full GA102 GPU core with 84 SMs or 10752 CUDA cores. We don't have the exact clock speeds since NVIDIA isn't sharing the TFLOPs or Tensor numbers for the cards yet but we do know that the Quadro RTX A6000 will offer higher clocks due to its blower-fan design which offers more cooling performance than the passive designed Quadro RTX A40.
In terms of memory, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX A6000 and A40 feature 48 GB of GDDR6 memory. The A6000 offers 768 GB/s speeds with its 16 Gbps memory dies while the A40 sticks to slightly more conservative clocks of 14.5 Gbps which deliver 696 GB/s bandwidth. Both cards support vGPU with various configurations starting at 1 GB up to the whole 48 GB VRAM buffer.
NVIDIA Workstation Graphics Card Lineup:
| Graphics Card | RTX 6000 | RTX A6000 | Quadro RTX 8000 | Quadro RTX 6000 | Quadro GV100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | Ada Lovelace GPU | Ampere GPU | Turing GPU | Turing GPU | Volta GPU |
| GPU Process | 5nm | 8nm | 12nm | 12nm | 12nm |
| Die Size | 608mm2 | 628mm² | 754mm² | 754mm² | 815mm² |
| GPU Cores | 18176 Cores | 10752 Cores | 4608 Cores | 4608 Cores | 5120 Cores |
| Tensor Cores | 568 Cores | 656 Cores | 576 Cores | 576 Cores | 640 Cores |
| Boost Clock | 2.50 GHz | 1.80 GHz | 1.77 GHz | 1.77 GHz | 1.62 GHz |
| Single Precision | 91.1 TFLOPs | 38.7 TFLOPs | 16.31 TFLOPs | 16.31 TFLOPs | 16.66 TFLOPs |
| Ray Tracing Spec | 210.6 TFLOPs | 75.4 TFLOPs | 10 GigaRays/Sec | 10 GigaRays/Sec | N/A |
| VRAM | 48 GB GDDR6X | 48 GB GDDR6 | 48 GB GDDR6 | 24 GB GDDR6 | 32 GB HBM2 |
| NVLINK VRAM | N/A | 96 GB With NVLINK | 96 GB With NVLINK | 48 GB With NVLINK | N/A |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 4096-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 960 GB/s | 768 GB/s | 672 GB/s | 672 GB/s | 870 GB/s |
| TDP | 300W | 300W | ~225W | ~200W | 250W |
| Launch Price | $6800 US | $4650 US | $10000 US | $6300 US | $9000 US |
| Launch Date | Q1 2023 | Q4 2020 | Q4 2018 | Q4 2018 | 2018 |
Despite the difference in cooling solutions, both cards feature a 300W TDP and come in a dual-slot design. Power is provided through the new EPS 12V 8-pin connector which is featured on the back of the cards and delivers up to 300W of power to the GPU. Interconnect comes in the form of the latest NVLINK which offers 112.5 GB/s (bi-directional) speeds while the native PCIe Gen 4 interface provides a 16 GB/s link. Display options include four DisplayPort 1.4 on the A6000 and 3x Display Port 1.4 ports on the A40.
- Predator Cycling, which specializes in custom carbon bicycles and builds them by hand in the U.S., is evaluating the NVIDIA RTX A6000 to accelerate every aspect of their process. Performance gains of 2-6x across a number of key applications give the team the power to simultaneously run analysis, modeling, and screen-sharing on a video call.
- HKS, Inc., a leading architectural design firm, has seen the potential of the RTX A6000 to receive near-instantaneous feedback on design changes while running simulations in real-time. This gives them the ability to bring real building simulation down from days and weeks, to minutes or hours.
- Framestore, an Academy Award-winning animation and visual effects company in the U.K., can do real-time ray tracing on massive datasets in a remote workstation environment, which is made possible by the new RTX A6000, HP ZCentral, and NVIDIA Omniverse.
NVIDIA hasn't confirmed pricing yet but they did announce that the cards will be available from its partners around mid of December. OEM and server vendors will also have the cards available for worldwide sales starting early next year.
