NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA L40S, AI & Machine Learning Comparison
NVIDIA L40S wins 12 of 12 benchmarks, averaging 93.5% 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 L40S leads by 258% (4.76 vs 17.02 images/min); the closest fight is Llama 3.1 8B (8% apart); VRAM decides part of this one: NVIDIA L40S runs 152 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 L40S | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 4B tok/s | 184.08 | 212.05 | -13% |
| Llama 3.1 8B tok/s | 125.85 | 135.51 | -7% |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 14B tok/s | 0 | 74.6 | n/a |
| Qwen3 32B tok/s | 0 | 34.44 | n/a |
| Llama 3.3 70B tok/s | 0 | 16.49 | n/a |
| Stable Diffusion XL images/min | 4.76 | 17.02 | -72% |
| Z-Image Turbo images/min | 0 | 8.325 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 dev images/min | 0 | 3.836 | n/a |
| FLUX.1 Kontext dev images/min | 0 | 1.693 | n/a |
| Qwen-Image-Edit images/min | 0 | 1.06 | n/a |
| LTX-Video (distilled) frames/s | 0 | 8.01 | n/a |
| Wan 2.2 5B (720p) frames/s | 0 | 0.49 | n/a |
Cost to rent
| Card | Per hour |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | $0.029 |
| NVIDIA L40S | $0.790 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 27.24x cheaper per hour. Cheapest on-demand rate we see across RunPod and Vast.
Specifications compared
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA L40S | |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 10GB | 48GB |
| Architecture | Ampere (GA102) | Ada Lovelace |
| Memory bandwidth | 760 GB/s | 864 GB/s |
| Boost clock | 1,710 MHz | 2,520 MHz |
| TDP | 320 W | 350 W |
| Launch MSRP | $699 | $7,500 |
| Release | 2020-09-17 | 2023-08-08 |
FAQ
- Which is better for ai & machine learning: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or NVIDIA L40S?
- NVIDIA L40S performs better for ai & machine learning, winning 12 of 12 benchmarks in our suite with an average 93.5% advantage.
- What are the main hardware differences between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA L40S?
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB VRAM and a 320W TDP, while NVIDIA L40S has 48GB VRAM and a 350W TDP.
- Does VRAM matter more than speed between NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and NVIDIA L40S?
- For AI, yes, NVIDIA L40S fits 1 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 L40S?
- Stable Diffusion XL: NVIDIA L40S leads by roughly 258% (4.76 vs 17.02 images/min) in our testing.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 full review · NVIDIA L40S full review · All AI & Machine Learning rankings