Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 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 96.4% advantage.

What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB VRAM and a 320W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.

Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 9 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. 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 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?

Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 253% (4.76 vs 16.8 images/min) in our testing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe, AI & Machine Learning Comparison

NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 96.4% 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 253% (4.76 vs 16.8 images/min); the closest fight is Qwen3 4B (8% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe runs 12 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 3080	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	Difference
Qwen3 4B tok/s	184.08	198.27	-7%
Llama 3.1 8B tok/s	125.85	161.75	-22%
Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s	0	88.36	n/a
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	4.76	16.8	-72%
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

Cost to rent

Card	Per hour
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080	$0.029
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe	$1.190

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 41.03x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.

Specifications compared

	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080	NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe
VRAM	10GB	80GB
Architecture	Ampere (GA102)	Ampere
Memory bandwidth	760 GB/s	1935 GB/s
Boost clock	1,710 MHz	1,410 MHz
TDP	320 W	300 W
Launch MSRP	$699	$15,000
Release	2020-09-17	2021-06-28

FAQ

Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 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 96.4% advantage.
What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB VRAM and a 320W TDP, while NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe has 80GB VRAM and a 300W TDP.
Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: For AI, yes, NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe fits 9 more of our 12 workloads than NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. 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 3080 and NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe?: Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe leads by roughly 253% (4.76 vs 16.8 images/min) in our testing.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 full review · NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings