Just a few months after hiring Ben Skeggs, a lead maintainer of the open-source NVIDIA GPU driver for Linux kernel, NVIDIA has announced a complete transition to open-source GPU kernel modules in its upcoming R560 driver release for Linux. This decision comes two years after the company's initial foray into open-source territory with the R515 driver in May 2022. The tech giant began focusing on data center compute GPUs, while GeForce and Workstation GPU support remained in the alpha stages. Now, after extensive development and optimization, NVIDIA reports that its open-source modules have achieved performance parity with, and in some cases surpassed, their closed-source counterparts. This transition brings a host of new capabilities, including heterogeneous memory management support, confidential computing features, and compatibility with NVIDIA's Grace platform's coherent memory architectures.

The move to open-source is expected to foster greater collaboration within the Linux ecosystem and potentially lead to faster bug fixes and feature improvements. However, not all GPUs will be compatible with the new open-source modules. While cutting-edge platforms like NVIDIA Grace Hopper and Blackwell will require open-source drivers, older GPUs from the Maxwell, Pascal, or Volta architectures must stick with proprietary drivers. NVIDIA has developed a detection helper script to guide driver selection for users who are unsure about compatibility. The shift also brings changes to NVIDIA's installation processes. The default driver version for most installation methods will now be the open-source variant. This affects package managers with the CUDA meta package, run file installations and even Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Generative AI is driving change across industries—and to take advantage of its benefits, businesses must select the right hardware to power their workflows. The new NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation GPU delivers the latest AI, graphics and compute technology to compact workstations, offering up to 1.5x the performance of the previous-generation RTX A2000 12 GB in professional workflows. From crafting stunning 3D environments to streamlining complex design reviews to refining industrial designs, the card's capabilities pave the way for an AI-accelerated future, empowering professionals to achieve more without compromising on performance or capabilities. Modern multi-application workflows, such as AI-powered tools, multi-display setups and high-resolution content, put significant demands on GPU memory. With 16 GB of memory in the RTX 2000 Ada, professionals can tap the latest technologies and tools to work faster and better with their data.

Powered by NVIDIA RTX technology, the new GPU delivers impressive realism in graphics with NVIDIA DLSS, delivering ultra-high-quality, photorealistic ray-traced images more than 3x faster than before. In addition, the RTX 2000 Ada enables an immersive experience for enterprise virtual-reality workflows, such as for product design and engineering design reviews. With its blend of performance, versatility and AI capabilities, the RTX 2000 Ada helps professionals across industries achieve efficiencies. Architects and urban planners can use it to accelerate visualization workflows and structural analysis, enhancing design precision. Product designers and engineers using industrial PCs can iterate rapidly on product designs with fast, photorealistic rendering and AI-powered generative design. Content creators can edit high-resolution videos and images seamlessly, and use AI for realistic visual effects and content creation assistance. And in vital embedded applications and edge computing, the RTX 2000 Ada can power real-time data processing for medical devices, optimize manufacturing processes with predictive maintenance and enable AI-driven intelligence in retail environments.

NVIDIA and PNY Technologies revealed their RTX 5000 Ada Generation professional model back in August, alongside a few other additions to the existing "Ada Lovelace architecture family of high-performance workstation graphics cards." VideoCardz noted that units started to hit the retail market last week—the Chinese Gigabyte flagship server store (a certified OEM) on JD.com is selling them for 35,999 RMB a pop (~$5015), including taxes/extra charges. Official MSRP for the RTX 5000 Ada is $4000, so some form of upcharge has been added, but it is nowhere near as expensive as the flagship RTX 6000 Ada card. Both models share NVIDIA's upper echelon AD102 GPU, but the RTX 5000 Ada's configuration is cutback in order to reduce its price (roughly half of the flagship's cost).

Tom's Hardware has observed that Western retail outlets have similarly tacked on cheeky extra charges: "The RTX 5000 Ada graphics card is now available from PC Connection, Ebay, ProVantage, ShopBLT, and ThinkMate, among other workstation-oriented retailers. Meanwhile, none of them currently sell this add-in-board at its MSRP of $4,000, with prices hovering 10-20 percent above this figure. ProVantage even goes so far as to suggest the list price for the card is $6,999 and that you're saving 37%. Nice try." NVIDIA and PNY have not implemented a major cooling solution redesign for this year's upper-mid model—the RTX 5000 Ada largely shares its predecessor's aesthetic and single blower fan system (RTX A5000), although it has been "upgraded" with a 12VHPWR PCIe connector.

PNY Technologies today announced it is now offering the latest NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation GPUs - the NVIDIA RTX 5000, NVIDIA RTX 4500 and NVIDIA RTX 4000 high-performance workstation graphics cards and the NVIDIA L40S GPU for data centers. These new GPUs are now available to order from PNY.

Joining the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation and NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, the NVIDIA RTX 5000, NVIDIA RTX 4500 and NVIDIA RTX 4000 high-performance GPUs are based on the powerful and ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture, making them ideal for real-time ray tracing, physically accurate simulation, neural graphics, and generative AI. These GPUs combine the latest-gen RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and CUDA cores with large GPU memory to offer unprecedented performance for creators and professionals, empowering them to unleash their imagination while maximizing productivity. Turnkey HW + Sync bundles are also available (NVIDIA RTX 5000 + HW Sync, NVIDIA RTX 4500 + HW Sync, NVIDIA RTX 4000 + HW Sync).

The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation graphics card was released to the public in late April, but very few reviews and benchmarks have emerged since then. Jisaku Hibi, a Japanese hardware site, has published an in-depth evaluation that focuses mostly on gaming performance. The RTX 4000 Ada SFF has been designed as a compact workstation graphics card, but its usage of an AD104 die makes it a sibling of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti gaming-oriented cards. Several PC hardware sites have posited that the 70 W RTX 4000 Ada SFF would "offer GeForce RTX 3070-like performance," but Jisaku Hibi's investigation points to the RTX 3060 Ti being the closest equivalent card (in terms of benchmark results).

According to the TPU GPU database: "NVIDIA has disabled some shading units on the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation to reach the product's target shader count. It features 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. Also included are 192 tensor cores which help improve the speed of machine learning applications. The card also has 48 ray tracing acceleration cores. NVIDIA has paired 20 GB GDDR6 memory with the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, which are connected using a 160-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 1290 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1565 MHz, memory is running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective)." The SKU's 70 W TGP and limited memory interface are seen as the card's main weak points, resulting in average clock speeds and a maximum memory bandwidth of only 280 GB/s.