NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 vs NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 215.5% faster.
Both cards were measured first-party on our bench, same suite, same test rig.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by 471% (2.94 vs 16.8 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (94% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 4, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 102.04 | 198.27 | -49% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 65.36 | 161.75 | -60% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 35.52 | 88.36 | -60% |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 43.77 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 22.89 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 2.94 | 16.8 | -83% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 9.3 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 3.964 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 1.843 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 1.54 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 8.51 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0.61 | n/a |
Whole-job comparison
How long each card takes to finish a complete pipeline, not just one model. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is faster on 0 of 1; NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe on 1.
| Workflow | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | Difference | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full codebase review | 28.2 min | 11.3 min | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe 2.49x faster | $0.016 vs $0.224 |
Renting by the hour, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 finishes 1 of 1 cheaper. The quicker card is not automatically the cheaper way to get the work done.
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | $0.034 |
| NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | $1.190 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is 35.00x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB | 80GB |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA106) | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 360 GB/s | 1935 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,777 MHz | 1,410 MHz |
| TDP | 170 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $329 | $15,000 |
| Release | 2021-02-25 | 2021-06-28 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 215.5% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has 12GB VRAM and a 170W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 8 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. A model that exceeds VRAM doesn't run slower, it doesn't run at all, so the card that fits the model wins that workload outright.
- Where is the biggest performance difference between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 471% (2.94 vs 16.8 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 full review · NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings