Nvidia has launched the compact, power-efficient RTX A2000 professional graphics card at SIGGRAPH 2021. In the main photo below you can get an idea of how compact the new design is, on a table next to the likes of the Nvidia RTX A6000, A5000, and A4000 (hmmm, there's a gap left for an A3000).
The Nvidia RTX A2000 is based upon an Ampere GA106 GPU with a few SMs disabled, and a relatively low clock speed helping this card come in at 70W, just under the PCIe power limit meaning you don't need a seperate power connector. Being a smaller GPU running at this pace also facilitates the dual-slot low profile form factor that has been used (measurements are 68.6mm tall and 167.6mm long, by 2 slots wide).
Versions of Nvidia's GA106 GPU are also used by the GeForce RTX 3060/Ti/LHR and Mobile models, and the RTX 3050Ti. In this professional example we see 3,328 CUs enabled, with 26 RT cores, and 104 Tensor cores. Nvidia claims it is capable of 8.0 TFLOPS of single-precision performance, 15.6 TFLOPS of RT Core performance, and offers 63.9 TFLOPS of Tensor performance. You can see how this stacks up against its Nvidia brethren here, but for quick reference the next model up, the A4000, is capable of 19.2 TFLOPS of single-precision performance – leaving quite a gap – which in turn is half as fast as the RTX A6000 by this metric (gap filled by A5000).
For memory, Nvidia has paired the GA106 with 6GB of GDDR6 (EEC) on a 192-bit interface, offering 288GB/s of memory bandwidth. I mentioned the board dimensions above (68.6mm tall and 167.6mm long, by 2 slots wide) but some other physical qualities you need to know are the ports (4x mini DP 1.4a), and you can see the shroud has a single active blower fan for cooling.
Remember, Nvidia RTX AXXXX solutions are certified with a broad range of professional applications, tested by leading independent software vendors (ISVs) and workstation manufacturers, and backed by global support specialists. This particular solution is built for everyday workflows, "so professionals can develop photorealistic renderings, build physically accurate simulations and use AI-accelerated tools".
Nvidia says that the A2000 pro graphics card will be available on its own for US$450, and in systems from the likes of Asus, Lenovo, HP and Dell, starting from October.
