NVIDIA has expanded its professional visualization product offerings with the release of the RTX PRO 5500 “Blackwell” workstation GPU. This new card is notable for incorporating a substantial 84 GB of GDDR7 memory, built upon a GB202 die that contains 21,760 CUDA cores.
Technical Specifications and Architecture
The RTX PRO 5500 is engineered with a robust memory configuration. The 84 GB of GDDR7 is connected to the GB202 die via a 416-bit memory bus, which provides approximately 1,398 GB/s of memory bandwidth. While the memory speed of about 26 Gbps per pin is a standard rate for GDDR7, the total capacity is achieved using 28 individual memory modules—14 positioned on the front side with the GPU die and 14 located on the back of the PCB, effectively sandwiching the printed circuit board.
NVIDIA today quietly added another card to its pro-viz product lineup with the RTX PRO 5500 “Blackwell” workstation GPU edition. Featuring 84 GB of GDDR7 memory, it is equipped with a GB202 die that includes 21,760 CUDA cores. This is the same CUDA core count as the consumer GeForce RTX 5090 SKU, but it is now certified for professional workloads and has a much higher memory capacity. The 84 GB of GDDR7 is connected to the GB202 with a 416-bit memory bus
Performance Comparison and Deployment
In the professional GPU market, the RTX PRO 5500 positions itself between two existing tiers. It is significantly more capable than the RTX PRO 5000 “Blackwell,” which features a lower core count of 14,080 and up to 72 GB of memory. Conversely, the RTX PRO 5500 is slightly less powerful than the flagship RTX PRO 6000 SKU, which boasts 24,064 CUDA cores and 96 GB of memory.
The card is designed for rack-mounted workstation environments, featuring a 600 W Thermal Design Power (TDP). It can be deployed using either air-cooled or liquid-cooled solutions, with the official company website displaying a design that utilizes high-RPM server fans attached to a large heatsink, typical of passive air-cooling systems.
A key functional feature is its support for Multi-Instance GPU (MIG) technology. This allows users to partition the GPU’s resources, enabling either a single instance with the full 84 GB of memory, or two separate instances, each receiving 42 GB of memory. Standard resource splitting protocols for the RTX PRO series remain applicable for these rack-mounted deployments.
While no specific pricing or availability details were provided at the time of the announcement, the card represents a significant professional-grade offering from NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture.
