The Pro version of the Nvidia RTX 4090 Mobile may turn out to be a bit disappointing
RTX 5000 Ada Generation mobile GPU won’t be cheap and won’t perform better than the RTX 4090
As expected, Nvidia unveiled a pro version of the RTX 4090 mobile, the
fastest laptop GPU on the market at its GTC 2023 event earlier today. The RTX
5000 Ada Generation will equip mobile workstations from
the likes of Lenovo (ThinkPad), Dell (Precision) and HP (Zbook).
Like its consumer
alterego, it has 9728 CUDA cores, 76 Ray Tracing cores and 304 Tensor cores. It
has a maximum power consumption of 175W, not a surprise given that it uses the
chip as the RTX 4090 and is
likely clocked at the same speed. The only major differences are the use of ECC
GDDR6 memory (16GB) and the price.
A top of the range MSI CreatorPro Z16P with
an Nvidia RTX A5500, the highest performing available mobile workstation GPU of
the past generation, retails for around whopping $4,400. Note that the most
powerful graphics card remains
the RTX 6000 Ada
Generation for which there is no current mobile equivalent.
As expected, Nvidia unveiled a pro version of the RTX 4090 mobile, the fastest
laptop GPU on the market at its GTC 2023 event earlier today. The RTX 5000 Ada
Generation will equip mobile workstations from
the likes of Lenovo (ThinkPad), Dell (Precision) and HP (Zbook).
Like its consumer
alterego, it has 9728 CUDA cores, 76 Ray Tracing cores and 304 Tensor cores. It
has a maximum power consumption of 175W, not a surprise given that it uses the
chip as the RTX 4090 and is
likely clocked at the same speed. The only major differences are the use of ECC
GDDR6 memory (16GB) and the price.
What makes these pro cards
different is the fact that they are more stable and reliable both in terms of
hardware and drivers. They are also ISV certified, which means that they are
actually tested by a number of the biggest software vendors on the planet; from
Autodesk’s AutoCAD to Dassault Systemes’ Solidworks and everything in between.
RTX 4090
vs RTX 5000: A battle fit for creators.
Laptop manufacturers have been trying to look for new ways to convince
businesses to buy more of their products and, arguably, the most successful
strategy to date has been to bundle gamers and creators together, even
extending to business laptops.
A rivalry between siblings
will take place with RTX 4090 laptops competing with RTX 5000 mobile
workstations as budget cuts and cost of living forces businesses and creatives
to make tough decisions. You can get a 4090 laptop* with an
Intel Core i9 CPU and 32GB of RAM for under $3,000.
How much of a gap can we expect between the two? If the desktop counterparts of these two cards is anything to go by, the RTX 4090 is likely to perform just as well, if not better than the RTX 5000 except if you use professional Nvidia drivers that have been fine tuned for ultra niche software packages. Various benchmarks (Catia, Solidworks, Siemens NX, Creo, 3DS Max, Maya and Davinci, Premiere Pro, Blender, Topaz) show that consumer graphics cards (and that includes the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX) will put a real fight against Pro workstation-class cards.