NVIDIA Unveils RTX PRO 5500 Workstation GPU With 84 GB GDDR7 and 21,760 CUDA Cores

Q: Could this massive 84GB graphics card become the ultimate secret weapon for running complex local AI models?

Yes—if the goal is to run large local AI models on a single card, the RTX PRO 5500 Blackwell looks like one of the strongest new options short of NVIDIA’s flagship PRO 6000. The key reason is simple: 84 GB of ECC GDDR7 is enormous for a workstation GPU. For local inference, VRAM is often the hard limit, and this card’s memory pool should make 70B-class models much more practical at higher-quality quantizations, while also opening the door to some 100B-plus class models in heavier quantized formats. Its roughly 1.4 TB/s of memory bandwidth also matters, because inference speed is often constrained more by memory throughput than raw shader count. It is not just a big gaming card with extra memory. NVIDIA is aiming it at enterprise AI and workstation deployments, with certified drivers, ECC, PCIe 5.0, and MIG support that can split the GPU into two isolated 42 GB instances. That makes it attractive for shared inference, testing multiple models, or mixing AI work with visualization workloads. The caveat is price and practicality. With a 600W power limit and likely low-five-figure pricing, this is not a mainstream enthusiast part. It also sits in an awkward spot below the 96 GB RTX PRO 6000, which may remain the better choice for buyers who need every last gigabyte. So the RTX PRO 5500 could be a secret weapon for local AI—but mainly for labs, studios, and well-funded power users, not ordinary desktop buyers.

3 articles · Updated · techpowerup.com · Sep 14

NVIDIA quietly added the RTX PRO 5500 "Blackwell" to its pro-visualization lineup, positioning it as a new high-end workstation card certified for professional workloads.
84 GB of GDDR7 and 21,760 CUDA cores put the card on par with the GeForce RTX 5090 in core count, while giving it far more memory for workstation use.
A 416-bit memory bus delivers about 1,398 GB/s of bandwidth, with 28 GDDR7 modules split across both sides of the PCB to reach the 84 GB capacity.
Within NVIDIA's stack, the RTX PRO 5500 sits just below the RTX PRO 6000's 24,064 cores and 96 GB, but well above the RTX PRO 5000's 14,080 cores and 72 GB.