Nvidia has introduced the RTX Pro 5500, a professional Blackwell graphics card built on the same GB202 silicon that powers the GeForce RTX 5090, the RTX Pro 6000, and the RTX Pro 5000. The new card enables 170 of the die's 192 Streaming Multiprocessors, yielding 21,760 CUDA cores and performance in the same range as the GeForce RTX 5090. Nvidia's differentiator for the RTX Pro 5500 is its memory subsystem rather than its compute configuration.
The RTX Pro 5500 carries 84GB of GDDR7 memory, making it the second Nvidia graphics card to reach that capacity, after the China-exclusive RTX Pro 6000D. That places it between the RTX Pro 5000, which offers 72GB, and the upgraded RTX Pro 6000, which offers 96GB. The card's memory capacity addresses the wide gap between those two professional models.
To reach 84GB, Nvidia used 28 GDDR7 chips in a clamshell arrangement, with 14 24Gb (3GB) modules on each side of the PCB. The modules run at 25 Gb/s over a 448-bit memory interface, producing up to 1,400 GB/s of bandwidth, matching Nvidia's official specification of 1,398 GB/s. The RTX Pro 5500 therefore shares its memory subsystem with the RTX Pro 6000D.
Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix produce only standard 28 Gb/s memory packages, so Nvidia runs the RTX Pro 5500's GDDR7 below its rated speed. The company may have done so to meet thermal and power targets or to avoid pulling sales from higher-tier SKUs. Measured by bandwidth, the card leads the RTX Pro 5000 by just 4% and trails both the flagship RTX Pro 6000 and the GeForce RTX 5090 by 22%, since those two use 28 Gb/s GDDR7 chips.
Analysts describe the RTX Pro 5500 as a combination of the RTX Pro 6000D and the GeForce RTX 5090. Nvidia's stated purpose for the launch is to fill the performance and pricing gap between the RTX Pro 6000 and the RTX Pro 5000. The company also earns more by directing recycled GB202 dies into an RTX Pro 5500 than into a GeForce RTX 5090, and by pairing near-identical core specifications with more memory, it appears to be courting additional professional customers.
Pricing has not been announced. Nvidia and PNY did not respond to requests for official RTX Pro 5500 pricing. For context, the flagship RTX Pro 6000 retails for $15,599, while an RTX Pro 5000 72GB starts at $9,209, a range that brackets where the bridging model would be expected to land.
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