NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition vs NVIDIA A40, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA A40 wins 8 of 9 benchmarks, averaging 87% faster.
NVIDIA A40's numbers are anchored estimates calibrated against our measured cards, pending first-party measurement. Treat small gaps as ties.
What the numbers say
The gap is widest in Stable Diffusion XL, where NVIDIA A40 leads by 203% (3.04 vs 9.2 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (27% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A40 runs 8 of our 12 AI workloads while the other card runs 3, models that don't fit score zero.
Benchmark results head-to-head
| Benchmark | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | NVIDIA A40 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 126.36 | 160.79 | -21% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 80.95 | 106.18 | -24% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 57.85 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 26.89 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 0 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 3.04 | 9.2 | -67% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 3.225 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 1.95 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0.31 | n/a |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | $0.049 |
| NVIDIA A40 | $0.350 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition is 7.14x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition | NVIDIA A40 | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 8GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
| Memory bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 696 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,725 MHz | 1,740 MHz |
| TDP | 220 W | 300 W |
| Launch MSRP | $499 | $5,000 |
| Release | 2020-10-29 | 2020-10-05 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition or NVIDIA A40?
- NVIDIA A40 performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 8 of 9 benchmarks in our suite with an average 87% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition and NVIDIA A40?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition has 8GB VRAM and a 220W TDP, while NVIDIA A40 has 48GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition and NVIDIA A40?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA A40 fits 9 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition. 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 3070 Founders Edition and NVIDIA A40?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A40 leads by roughly 203% (3.04 vs 9.2 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition full review · NVIDIA A40 full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings